by Christian Usera

SCRABBLE. THAT’S THE one cryptic (16 point) word I had to go off of when I started this journey. Not knowing what to expect, I enter the Arbor Brewing Company, where I’m greeted by a man with a shaved head with an “OM” symbol conspicuously tattooed on the back of his neck. He’s wearing a purple shirt and turquoise pants. (I’m unsure if I’ve just entered hipster heaven or hell.)

“Where’s the Scrabble….”

The man cuts me off and points to a table where a 60- something-year-old gentleman is sitting. I walk over and introduce myself.

I extend my hand. “Hi! I’m here to write a news story!”

He looks baffled: “So you coming to write or play?”

“Both,” I say.

We sit down at a corner table, and he pulls out the Scrabble board.

“My name’s Mike Betzold. I used to write for the Ann Arbor Observer, among other publications.” He inquires bluntly: “What are they paying you to write this?”

“You worked for newspapers. You tell me,” I answer.

Mike pulls no punches with his refreshing honesty. He tells me that Scrabble was invented in the 1930s. It has never changed and the inventor was an out-of-work architect. The man created the number of lettered tiles according to their frequency in the New York Times newspaper.

A while later, another gentleman joins Mike and I. Tom Boyer has driven over an hour from Brooklyn, Mich. in order to play.

I ask, unwisely, “Why don’t you guys just download, ‘Words with Friends?’ Seems like a lot of trouble to meet every week.”

Mike looks annoyed and snaps, “That is not Scrabble. It’s a cheap imitation! The creators changed just enough about it in order to not get sued!”

These guys are serious about their Scrabble. I suppose one would have to be in order to have a Scrabble club that just celebrated its tenth anniversary. Ten years of meeting up every week to play. Chuck Armstrong, one of the regulars, even has a record for the most Scrabble played in tournaments, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

According to Mike Betzold, 5-6 people normally show up at Arbor Brewing Company on a typical Wednesday between 5-8 p.m. On a particularly good night, 8-10 folks come out to the ABC Scrabble club.

The game usually starts with two people and ends when someone has lost the will to live. Just kidding. A Scrabble game  ends when all of the 100 letter tiles have been used.

Halfway through the game, players know when it’s mathematically impossible to win and thus to carry on can feel a bit demoralizing. My drubbing ended 204 to 422. The highest Scrabble score ever recorded was 830, scored by a carpenter who managed a triple triple, the Holy Grail of Scrabble plays (nine times the total letter points of the word played). The game took place on Oct. 12, 2009 in the basement of a Unitarian church in Lexington, Ma.

Mike Betzold explains that skilled players know a lot of “two letter words,” in order to win. You know, words such as ka, za, xi, qi, ki and jo.

For those who may be tempted to make up words out of bravado or sheer desperation, one can challenge if a word actually exists in the dictionary. If a player wins a challenge, the opponent loses the points and a turn. If a player loses a challenge, then one loses the turn. Apparently, according to Betzold, there’s a sort of “poker face” that goes with putting down non-words. In addition, some players say it’s a sin to use words the definitions of which one wouldn’t know.

However, Mike Betzold explains any valid word is fair game, because the rules state that it is not necessary to know the definition of a word.

The Scrabble club members and I chat for a couple hours about everything from politics to Detroit’s economic and social recovery. In the end, nonetheless, I still feel a bit out of my element.

I order some falafel sliders and a wheat “Bollywood” beer.  “Falafel” is an excellent Scrabble word, 13 points, but also a so-called Bingo word worth an additional 50 points thanks to the use of all seven of one’s tiles.

My brew goes down smooth. The falafel sliders are pretty good, but do have a distinctive “hippy” flavor to them.  I look at the wall and see large bottle caps and a poster with a devil character on it. I begin mentally composing my story. The intro. takes shape, words in my brain like scrambled letters. I try to assemble them into the perfect paragraph. With just a little more qi and a twist of ka,  I know this piece will be pretty close to a triple triple. Nu?