August 20, 2005

Scrabble started as a game called Lexico invented during the depression by an unemployed architect. But the game we know today was born in 1948 when the original rules were refined, and the name was changed to Scrabble. Now, half a century later, the game is not confined to board and tiles, but can also be played on computers, Palm Pilots, and over the Internet. My kids are third-generation Scrabble players and I’m quite proud of how frequently they beat me.

Eric Harshbarger’s Scrabble Challenges
Eric Harshbarger is a programmer, Web designer, Lego maniac and Scrabble competitor. He’s a curious and creative fellow who like solving puzzles, many of his own invention. One day while thinking about Scrabble tiles, he started dreaming up challenges to solve. “Using the Scrabble letter tiles and their associated point values, which integers (0, 1, 2…), when spelled out, equal the value of their tiles? Do not use the blank tiles, and assume no bonus scoring (no Double Letter Scores, etc)?”

[Continue reading Scrabble]

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