Rebeheaded

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Brooke. I’m calling from Gainesville, Florida.

Hi, Brooke. Welcome to the program.

Hi, thank you. I have a question, not for me, but for my father.

Okay.

My father and his partner love to play Scrabble. And it’s a big thing. About two years ago, they got into a really heated Scrabble tournament with some friends. And the first word that was spelled out was behead, and then it was turned into beheaded.

Beheaded.

And then my father’s partner turned it into re-beheaded.

Nice.

Which, of course, no one accepted, and he didn’t get any points. But it’s been about two years, and my father and his partner still bicker about it today, whether it’s a real word or not. So I thought I’d try and help them out.

Okay, this is great. So let’s set the parameters here. This was a home game, right? Not a tournament game?

Yes, no, it was at home. It was a group of their friends playing. And did you have a dictionary on hand?

I actually bought them a Scrabble dictionary just for this purpose.

Oh, how nice are you. After the argument arose or before?

After the argument arose. I don’t believe they had a dictionary at the time.

Okay, so it was about consensus at the table, right? Like if you’re outvoted, three out of the four players say that’s not a word, then it’s not a word.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so you got the Scrabble Dictionary. And ReBeHead is not in there.

Right.

That’s right. And ReBeHead is also not in there, right?

No, it’s not. And so therein lies the dilemma. Are you willing to accept the official Scrabble Dictionary as the arbiter? Because ReBeHead does not count in a tournament Scrabble game.

Yeah, re-behead it. I mean, it sounds like, I don’t know, I’m having memories of Barbie dolls and G.I. Joes, you know? Like little things you would do with…

Popping the heads off of daisies?

Yeah, putting them back on.

Yeah, I do.

Right, right, right. My dad’s partner’s example was a Hydra that had the multiple heads. You could cut off one head and another would grow back and you could re-behead it.

He’s looking hard for examples.

Yeah, he was. He didn’t want to go with beheader? Something is more beheaded than the other thing? But you could do it with plants, right? If you have to behead a plant.

I will recommend that.

Yeah, I like that one. With plants, you might behead it once a year or so, right?

A seasonal beheading?

Deadhead.

No.

Oh, gosh. Thank you so much for clearing that up for me.

It was our pleasure. By the way, I play Word Feud on Android, which is a mobile phone operating system. And so if anybody wants to take me on, look me up. GrantBarritt at gmail.com.

Oh, her dad’s partner is going to be on there.

I’ll let him know.

I’ll let him know.

He’ll be good.

Thanks for calling.

Thank you.

All right, bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Wow, that’s pretty desperate. You know, when we get the calls where there’s a fight, I kind of don’t want to settle it. I kind of just want to let it go because clearly they’re having a lot of fun with this, right?

Oh, but we should be the arbiters. When the family gets together for the holidays, they need something to fight about, and this is very mild. This is not about, like, who wrecked the car, you know?

That’s right.

That’s right.

It’s who put the R and the E on the Scrabble board.

Yeah.

Oh, boy. Bring us your fights. We, with Martha-like wisdom, will decide them. We will be your mediators. 877-929-9673. Or email us, words@waywordradio.org.