Now that it's the middle of the summer, there's no better time to devote an entire column to the game of Scrabble (translation: writer's block). According to Scrabble.com, one out of every three American homes has a Scrabble board. It's quite possible that a lot of those homes have the tiles and the tile holders, too...

As a fan of word games, I am always eager to play Scrabble, whether it's a traditional game or a variation of it. First of all, it's a competition where you must root for the underdog to succeed. For example, in Scrabble, the letter 'P' is worth more than the letter 'T,' making it more valuable to possess. In life, however, which would you rather drink? My point exactly. The values in Scrabble and life are very opposite. And to make the point even more evident, let's throw an 'I' and a 'B' in there, too. I bet they both drown in the 'C.' But any way you look at it, Scrabble is a chance for uniqueness - as in the rare letters - to pay off. But if you paid "off," or spelled it, there would be no more of the letter 'F' in the game, making the word "fluffy" a virtual impossibility...

In addition to the letters X and Z being potential heroes - or villains, to some - Scrabble is a game where certain squares are desirable. In life, most people don't want to be called a square, as shown in the following remark:

"Boy, he is such a square! When I jump off of this roof, I want to land on the square!"

In Scrabble, people still want to land on squares, but it's for a more positive reason, such as doubling the score of a word or letter. Speaking of which, Scrabble could be the one entity keeping letters alive. While e-mail and the rising cost of stamps seems to make writing letters less prevalent, one couldn't play Scrabble without letters, or at least not effectively...

Amazingly, Scrabble is now a reflection of the sporting world, too. Just like with the Philadelphia 76ers' star Allen Iverson, the purpose is apparently not to make a sentence. Words stand alone, like "Allen" and "has" and "connections."

Finally, what look at Scrabble is complete without acknowledging luck? For plumbers, good luck means getting great tiles, perhaps so they can be added to a board. The same applies to Scrabble players...

Simply stated, Scrabble is life, while at the same time it is the complete opposite of it. It really makes you think, doesn't it?

But I digress.

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