Unofficial Holidays, Part 2 of 6

Today is…

This game came upon the market in 1948. It was invented by an out-of-work architect who studied games, our English language and the letter frequency in The New York Times to come up with the tile distribution we still use today. With the help of a game-loving entrepreneur – who helped him rename the game “Scrabble” which is a real word meaning “to grope frantically” – a “factory” was set up in Connecticut where twelve games could be made in an hour, stamping the lettered tiles one at a time.

The game was not an immediate success, and it was four years before – as legend has it – the president of Macy’s discovered it on a vacation and ordered some for his store. Within a year, everyone “had to have one” and the rest is history.

So get out those boards of tan, red and blue squares; your bag of wooden lettered tiles; and a pad of paper with a pencil and get started making words! My first draw is:

C G Y E A I T

Let’s see…

EAT
YEA
TEA
YET
GET
TAG
GATE
ATE
CAY
CAGE
CAGEY

I hope you have a better draw!