Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game played on a board that almost everyone knows and has played. The game is made now in the USA by Hasbro and in the rest of the world by Mattle. Invented by Alfred Butts in 1938. When Mr. Butts invented the game he called it "Criss-Crosswords". He manufactured them himself but was terribly successful. In 1948 James Brunot an owner of one of the original games purchased the right to manufacture the game from Butts in exchange for a royalty for each game sold. Mr. Brunot made a few slight alterations to the rules and board and changed the name of the game to Scrabble. Scrabble is a real word. It means to grapple or struggle with as if with the claws or hands. Brunot and his family made the games themselves in a converted schoolhouse in Connecticut. The legend around Scrabble involves Jack Strauss the then president of Macy's. He apparently played the game while on vacation and when returning to work found out that Macy's didn't carry the game. He then immediately placed a huge order for Macy's. In 1952 the Brunot's realized that they just couldn't keep up with demand and sold the rights to Selchow & Righter. They owned the rights to the game until the 1980's when they sold it to a company called Coleco that went bankrupt selling Scrabble and Parcheesi to Hasbro.

In the 1980's there was a Scrabble game show on NBC hosted by Chuck Woolery. It was a fairly popular show running for six years. There are clubs and organizations worldwide dedicated to the game. Tournament play is very popular as well. The World Scrabble Championship is held during odd years. The last tournament was held in Warsaw, Poland.
There is money involved in the larger tournaments. This of course brings hardcore players and in just recently a cheater. At the National Scrabble Championship in Orlando, Florida a 13 year old was recently ejected from a final round of games for slipping in extra blank tiles, causing a scandal.
The highest score yet achieved was in the Ireland National Championship by Toh Weibin. It surely involved the use of a "Q" tile and a triple word square.