Yiddish Carries The Day

You know you've landed in Facebook hell when your favorite Scrabulous dies an early death due to a legal battle.

Then to make things worse, the beta substitute of Hasbro's Scrabble crashes and burns.

However, you know you've landed in Heebster heaven when Yiddish rules the National Scrabble Championship.

On NPR's program, "All Things Considered," the Wall Street Journal's Stefan Fatsis reported the tie-breaking bubbeleh.

But first, a recap. Says Fatsis, more than 660 players played for four days in 28 games in Orlando. Nigel Richards, a security engineer from New Zealand, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was holding steady in a tie-breaker at 370 points against Brian Cappalletto (look at all those double letters!), an options trader from Chicago and a former national and world Scrabble champion. There was nary a tile left in the bag.

Brian played words like scerrying and sarcine, Fatsis reports. Nigel played
innerve and penates.

Nigel's winning word?

Shuln. The Yiddish plural for shul.

That's right, folks. Shuln aka synagogues.

Could you be more Heebster?!