Happy Birthday, Scrabble ! No, make that Joyous Birthday, ___1___,
although 'happy' is one of those deceptively high-scoring words,
with H and Y being worth 4, and P 3, making 15 in all, 'joyous'
has that initial J, worth 8, which lifts it to 16, one point ___2___.
Scrabble is still on top of the list of the world's favorite
board ___3___.
The game's ___4___,
Alfred Butts, who had time on his hands ___5___the
great depression, set about inventing a new board game. He
analyzed those that were already popular. His first attempt was
a failure. Then in 1938, he had a ___6___
idea - to make words from the letters on the tiles in the style
of a crossword.
Before deciding what numerical value to give to each letter,
Butts spent hours poring over the front pages of each day's New
York Times. His analysis was ___7___
good that his points system and tile distribution have not been
altered in seven decades. The rack that holds seven tiles at a
time also dates back to 1938. |