This evening, thought for a moment it was April 1st because BBC R4 News (not my choice!) had an item on Scrabble being redesigned as a collaborative game because some Millennials (who can text, but can’t spell real words) found it intimidating when old people not only knew lots of words, but could spell them correctly
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Yes it seems bizarre - presumably Monopoly will be next to be redesigned to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth. 
The iOS version of Scrabble has been dumbed down as well - Hasbro dropped Electronic Arts and gave it to a new developer who have blinged it up like Candy Crush and enabled “in app purchases” which is one of my pet hates with games apps (not that I play many of them TBH).
I still have the old EA version on my iPad, which has continued to work OK thankfully, though it plaintively squeals about not being able to find the online servers to register high scores. At some point no doubt it will stop working when iOS gets updated beyond its ability to run, and also I won;t be able to install the EA version on any new devices.
Hardly a shock, OH teaches kids as old as 15 who are basically illiterate.
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Scrabble was greatly enjoyed during my childhood and beyond… how else would a kid learn that “Li is a Chinese mile” 
still got the boxed set somewhere… yes, along with Monopoly, dominoes, playing cards and 2 x three-handed cribbage boards (bought in Canada a lifetime ago)
The chess board sits on a side table, ready for action on a dull day… 
Strangely in view of the fact that I have always been a bit of a wordsmith and very keen on vocabulary and spelling, I have never been a fan of Scrabble. This was only accentuated when we were once invited to stay over night with petanque friends in Leicester after a late competition. The evening was congenial, nice food and good conversation and then it was suggested by our hosts that the Scrabble board should be taken out.
We soon retired from the fray to watch our friends, who were obviously extremely keen on the game, play on. Imagine our shock and surprise when, suddenly, there were raised voices, then loud shouts followed by the board and all the pieces flying in all directions. 
We have never been encouraged to play since. 
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Was that a common condition in Canada, or just in the community where you lived?
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It’s those cold winters, leading to inbreeding. 
But seriously, the children of our Canadian friends would often beat us at Scrabble. They would be in their 30s now - so just pre-millenials.
We were visiting family and found these folding 3-track cribbage boards quite by chance… snapped them up as back in UK we only had the “normal” 2-track board but quite often had 3 people who enjoyed the game (meaning someone always had to be “left out” )
I didn’t know you could play it with three.
In our house, it’s just me … on an appli!
My grandad taught me.
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I used to love Scrabble as a kid. It was the one game I could beat my elder sister at regularly 
I’ve not played it for years, but I was relatively recently introduced to a similar game called Bananagram. It’s the same concept as Scrabble except the words don’t have points so the winner is whoever uses up all their letters first. And, more importantly, you don’t have a board that’s shared amongst all players. Each player instead makes their own words independent of the other players’ words, and so you’re free to rearrange previously-placed words if you need to accommodate any tricky new letters.
So does my son here in France, he says many in the Segpa class he takes are better spellers than the mainstream pupils! Not only illiterate but ignorant in many cases and many did not even know the name of the sea on our doorstep or which country Australia was to be found in! No wonder the world is going downhill fast.
I love games like Scrabble, Triominoes and other brain workers but hard to play them by myself these days unless I keep moving round the table! 
??? I confess, I’m stumped at that one…
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I’m too old fashioned for apps… . you can play it with as many as you like, provided you have sufficient boards and matchsticks 
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Apparently, according to some celebs I saw recently it is sandwiched between Germany and Slovakia, I know that because I passed though all 3 on my way to Hungary, and I was famished when I got there, obviously.
My daughters are 22 to 31 and are Scrabble fiends, it is marvellous playing with them. Chambers dictionary is a much-loved and endless source of joy.
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You can also play rude scrabble or if a couple, strip scrabble.
Why just a couple?
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Because it’s a bit dull on your own.
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It’s next to New Zooland, where the penguins come from. Everybody knows that. 
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