Posts Tagged “scrabble”

Ever since I topped off the scrabble set at Bloc 11 Cafe in Union square, I’ve been on the lookout for other public scrabble sets in need of repair. After all, what am I going to do with 96 extra letters? Earlier this week, I checked 1369 coffeehouse in Inman square, also looking for a good savory scone. Not only did they not have any useful scones, but their scrabble set was completely gone. The only way you’d know it had ever been there was by the lonely OSPD sitting on the game shelf. I’m not sure if complete scrabble set replacement is in my mandate.

Yesterday, I was helping L buy dirt at Economy hardware, (she bought it on her own, I helped carry it) and we dropped in at Caffe La Luna for some gelato. I hadn’t been back to La Luna Caffe since that time I decided to try the “Puffo” gelato. I should know by now that “blue” is not a flavor. In any case, I spied a scrabble set and resolved to come back and check it.

Today, I’m sitting here watching a jazz combo setting up and smelling some really good smells from the kitchen. I checked the set, and sure enough, it was 33% short on the letter G. Fixed that.

While I’m here, let me say that this is a wonderful cafe for many reasons, and there’s no sign of any more gelato puffo. There’s a big window open to the street where a new public space is almost finished, there’s live music, good coffee, real gelato, sandwiches and salads too. Free wifi and a decent number of electrical outlets. It’s got a wonderfully laid-back feeling, not the cramped and overcaffeinated vibe you often get at independent coffee places.

So now you know. The scrabble set is complete and the cafe is a cool place, so come on down.

As you may recall, earlier this month, I discovered that scrabble players at Bloc 11 Cafe were not playing with a full deck, and resolved to do something about it.  My ebay purchase arrived earlier this week, and today I went back to Bloc 11 and audited their scrabble set.

Oddly, I found the set contained 96 tiles, not the 94 I counted last time.  Perhaps there are other scrabble robin hoods at work.  In any case, I quickly replaced the missing blank, P, E and A, finished my espresso and put the set away.

I hope that alert limeduckers will let me know if this or any other public scrabble set in the area is in need of repair. The price of cafe scrabble is eternal vigilance.

I had a pleasant brunch with J today at the new Bloc 11 cafe in Union Square. Bloc 11 is run by the fine folks who own Diesel cafe in Davis Square, and is housed in a former bank building. You can even dine in the vault. Besides enjoying egg and cheese sandwiches, we had excellent soy drinks, a latte and a mocha chai, both with artistic foam illustrations. And we found a scrabble set in the game vault and set down to a match.

Amazingly, we both drew bingos on our first plays - DOILIES and WEBSITE - although I’m not sure if the latter is an accepted scrabble word, but we had no dictionary and played on. The game was close to the end, but I got shafted with the Q and ended up losing 289 to 327. But towards the end, when the bag was empty, we started to realize that we were not playing with a full deck, so to speak. When the game was done it was obvious that we were missing at least a P and a blank. We counted up and found only 94 tiles out of the regulation 100. Further examination revealed the exact contents of the deficit:

A E O P T [blank]

I guess that’s par for the course for a public scrabble set. We wrote a warning note on a coffee cup sleeve, put it in the box and returned the game to the vault.

I like scrabble. I like coffee shops. I like coffee shops that have their own complete scrabble sets. So I decided to do something about this. But where do you go to get just six tiles? Six particular tiles. Ebay, of course! Oddly there were no short sets for sale, only lots of 100 or even a couple of hundred tiles at a shot, many of them listed as “for crafting.” If bidding goes my way, in a few days, I will have a full set of tiles and will set about topping up all the damaged scrabble sets I can find.

And after that, I’ll make earrings and cuff links from the rest and sell those on ebay to recoup my investment.