Cheating...

There are some things in Life that you can cheat on. Or come "damn close, but not quite". Driving through Burger King (our family calls it Burner Keem onaccounta the local one caught fire a while back when my kids were little and they named it that, thus, it stuck) and realizing after ordering that you do NOT, in fact have the right change, because your nine year old mistook nickles for quarters, well, that was a near miss, and we got our vittles and icy slosh even though we were short.

Running out of laundry soap by about a half a dose? Another near miss that will go undetected past the radar. No problem.

But today, I was at the library. Austensibly looking up more Steinbeck. (I am a rabid reader of late. Not finding what I wanted, I settled on May Sarton to take with me to the log cabin in Vermont where I will spend the next few days. On my way out of the fiction section I spied two ladies sitting at the round table, a Scrabble board between them. I immediately walked to them and started talking. I asked who was winning and they smiled and said they were sorta stuck. I noticed some sheets of paper with typed "words" on them, each holding one, and I asked what they were.

"Cheat Sheets", they told me. Two and three letter word lists.

Bah. Humbug. Damn and tarnation. What the hell????

I could see downloading one, looking the words up for the definition and memorizing them, but actually using them during the game to refer to???? Nah.

I think that cheating at Scrabble is a Sin.

Imagine my dismay when I turned the corner and spied yet another elderly couple playing scrabble with the same sheets in hand. One even had a folder to look at that had more stuff in it to spring on her opponent.

Sheesh.

I would rather lose.

And, well, I have. But I have used "Asp". And, in fact, score quite well when one is able to use profanity words. I learned that from my grandmother.