Word play at work

Friday, February 26, 2010

People play Scrabble on a recent Monday night at the Hollis Social Library. The library has been hosting weekly Scrabble nights on Mondays for a year and a half.

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Larry Patten and Becky Gray-Casey play Scrabble a recent Monday night at the Hollis Social Library. The library has been hosting weekly Scrabble nights on Mondays for a year and a half. Photo by Robert Michaelson

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People play Scrabble on a recent Monday night at the Hollis Social Library. The library has been hosting weekly Scrabble nights on Mondays for a year and a half.

Enlarge

People play Scrabble on a recent Monday night at the Hollis Social Library. The library has been hosting weekly Scrabble nights on Mondays for a year and a half.

Enlarge

People play Scrabble on a recent Monday night at the Hollis Social Library. The library has been hosting weekly Scrabble nights on Mondays for a year and a half.

Enlarge

Scrabble fans and word-lovers, or just people looking to get out of the house, have been gathering each week at Hollis Social Library to test out their word play skills.

Every Monday night the library hosts a Scrabble night, started by Library Director Gaye Kulvete, where just about anybody can come and enjoy the classic board game.

“For a lot of people it is a social gathering just to get to see people that they know. You know, get out of the house especially in the winter,” said Kulvete,

The weekly Scrabble get-together has been running for about a year and a half and Kulvete is looking forward to bringing in new players. They are guaranteed to learn something new – like words that begin with “q” but don’t need a “u,” or that “za” is an acceptable word in Scrabble.

They play a relaxed and non-competitive game with no timer and a loose application of the rules. The players help each other find new and interesting words and encourage using the dictionary as a tool for learning.

“We don’t play cutthroat,” said Becky Gray-Casey, who comes almost every week to see the regulars and meet new people. “I started coming because my husband had a contract in Rhode Island and I was home all the time on Monday night and I decided to do something fun and useful.”

Paul Kurmas is a skilled Scrabble player and brings some interesting strategies to the game. He looks for common prefixes, suffixes, and anagrams to get the maximum amount of points. He also suggests constantly moving the letters you are given in order to find new word possibilities.

“I don’t memorize all the two and three letter words like the real masters do. One of the things I learned a while back was you get the most points by playing words parallel to each other,” said Kurmas.

Some participants are first-timers to the game and are able to jump right in and have fun with the more experienced players.

“We want everyone to come and feel welcome,” said Kulvete, who sees the event as a great way to get new people involved with the library.

Hellen Wing, a Nashua resident, attended for the first time recently because she is looking to keep her mind active in her later years.

“You know, you get to a certain age and you kind of need something to jog your memory a little bit,” said Wing.

There is a smaller group of usually 6-10 people during the winter, but Kulvete said more people come out in warmer weather.

Those looking to join in the fun can attend every Monday at 6:30 in the Library Meeting Room. Players are encouraged to bring friends and their own Scrabble board if they have one.

For more upcoming library events, visit the Hollis Social Library’s Web site, www.hollis.nh.us/library/, or become a fan on Facebook.