I love playing Scrabble! I like the real board game and I like the iphone app ‘Words with Friends’ too. It’s the perfect combination of skill and luck.

Today, though, I heard appalling news:

The international owners of Scrabble (**don’t worry, it won’t be sold in the U.S.) have decided to sell a spin-off game which allows the use of proper nouns. I don’t care if you are playing in English, Russian, Chinese, or French – that is just not right.

Can you believe it?!?

It reminds me of a commerical I saw once and was able to find again on youtube:

Last year, Shaq donated one of his jerseys to the winner of the National School Scrabble Competition. The winner also won $10,000. Even President Obama sent the tournament players (5th – 8th graders) a letter of support. This weekend, the 2010 competition will be held in Orlando, Florida.

Not a shabby gig for an elementary school kid! So I’m thinkin’ I’d better start young with my kids. Maybe they would even win and earn their own way to college. If not, at least they’d learn to love the letter ‘Q’