From "Scrabble with God," in John M. Ford (1997), From the End of the Twentieth Century (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press: 0915368730).
Posted by DeLong at September 11, 2002 04:24 PM | TrackbackI don't recommend playing with God. It isn't that he cheats, exactly. But the other night we were in the middle of a game, I was about thirty points up, and He emptied out his rack. ZWEEGHB. Double word score and the fifty-point bonus.
"Zweeghb?" I said.
"Is that a challenge?"
"Well..." If you challenge God and you're wrong, you lose the points and get turned into a pillar of salt.
"Look outside," He said. So I did. Sure enough, there was a zweeghb out there, eating the rosebushes, like Thurber's unicorn.
"I thought you rested from creating stuff."
"Eighth day, I did. Now I'm fresh as a daisy. You going to pass or play?"
I play and don't you beam me up there before my time. I don't feel like playing harp yet :)
To me the whole beauty of the human existence is the derisory claim to freedom and independent action onto the world.
And since you don't intervene too much when there are floods and draughts, I challenge to play by the rules, as we human beings have to....
Posted by: anonymous on September 11, 2002 05:00 PMI highly recommend subscribing to Pyramid (www.sjgames.com/pyramid). Reading the discussion boards for John M. Ford's .sig files alone is worth the $15 annual subscription.
Posted by: J. Michael Neal on September 12, 2002 05:23 AMShockwave Radio did an adaptation of Scrabble With God several years ago. I don't think I've digitized the recording as yet, but at minimum the cassette is available. Send me e-mail. (If I get enough requests, I'll digitize it and put the Real Audio file in www.romm.org/audio.)
Posted by: Dave Romm on September 12, 2002 08:56 AMMy wife has gotten at least two people, probably more, to buy that book by shoving it into their hands, open to "Scrabble With God," and saying "Read this." It's a great collection.
"Troy: The Movie" is also terrific.
Re:
>>Shockwave Radio did an adaptation of Scrabble With God several years ago<<
Digitize it!
Posted by: Brad DeLong on September 17, 2002 02:12 PM