psmv6: Scrabble

A crescent moon rising over Stamford Green Pond, late yesterday afternoon. The water ponds were on the pond, rather than grazing on the grass, as they were on the last occasion, perhaps because a dozen or so youngsters were playing football there. Cricketers up and running, but I passed on this occasion, Directors' bitter notwithstanding.

A bit more than crescent according to reference 2, first quarter, 40%. I shall have to take another look this evening.

Home to our first Scrabble of the year, in which BH got off to a roaring start, building up a lead of getting on for a hundred points. It helped that she managed to snag - and unload - all the big letters, that is to say Z, Q, X and J.

I thought the situation pretty hopeless, but I hung in there, pulling steadily back, going out with YON for 6 points, to lose by one point after taking the bonus for going out.

BH pointed out that she lost the last game before the break by just one point so it was only fair. The last recorded game, at reference 1, must have been a day or so before that, recorded for breaking the 600 point barrier. Came close on this occasion with 587.

One word of interest was 'tong', allowed by Longman's as a brotherhood of Chinese criminals, not half a pair of coal tongs or sugar tongs, which was what I was thinking of.

In OED, 'tong' gets just a few column inches, and would be allowed in Scrabble on account of the bell sound usage. No brotherhoods to be seen. 'Tongs' does rather better with a column and a half, mainly various grasping implements as in sugar tongs or coal tongs, but also some figurative meanings, as in 'I wouldn't touch it with a pair of tongs'. The singular 'tong' did exist but is marked as obsolete. Which makes me think of a variation of Scrabble whereby you can only use a word if you declare the meaning. The word just happening to be in the dictionary with some other meaning would not count.

Related to 'tang', which is an old word which gets nearly three columns in OED. The meanings I knew, the tang of something like a chisel, the part that is rammed into the wooden handle, and the tang of something in the mouth are both present, although the second of these is rather lost in the depths.

PS 1: a waking thought this morning, thinking back to the new defence strategy, noticed yesterday at reference 3. We are reverting to the Middle Ages, when being a king meant putting on a show. A time of triumphal entries, pageants, pomp and ceremony. The king had to be seen, with this being almost as important as what he got up to, with most people having little or no interest in this last, provided he did not disturb things. And it did help if he scattered a bit of gold on his travels: suitable presents for the upper classes, scattering coin in the streets for the lower classes.

PS 2: during our holiday we acquired a tub of something called 'Utterly Butterly', a butter enhanced margarine that I associate with the naval aunt and the 1950s. From the days when margarine was a cheap alternative to butter, then very scarce and expensive, rather than the health food it has since become.

I learn this morning that the brand is owned by Saputo, a large Canadian dairy processor invented by an immigrant from Italy who arrived in Canada in the early 1950s.

While Gemini tells me that I have got it all wrong, that Utterly Butterly was a retro thing invented in the 1980s. I have not been able to confirm this, but such stuff as I have turned up is consistent with the later launch. The aerial campaign snapped above was in the 1990s.