Scrabble Amateurs Post Record Score, Americans Obsess About Just About Everything

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Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak, reports in Slate about the latest in chapter in the country’s Scrabble obsession. Earlier this month, in the basement of a Unitarian church in Lexington, Mass., a carpenter scored 830 points in a single game. His opponent, scored 490. The two men set three records for sanctioned Scrabble in North America: the most points in a game by one player (830), the most total points in a game (1,320), and the most points on a single turn: 365, for QUIXOTRY.

Read Fatsis’ play-by-play of how the two amateurs, in a growing world of money-making pros, produced the Scrabble Shot Heard Round the World.

And speaking of amateurs using big words, check out the latest issue Mother Jones, on newstands now, which includes an inside look at the obsessive world of high school debate, “Revenge of the Nerds”, where folks like Brad Pitt and Karl Rove got their start.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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