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Here's the dish. The Activities Coordinator over at Life on the Planet and I are old Scrabble buddies. The rivalry is intense. Suffice it to say that I win only on a rare occasion, but the board is always rife with words that would enhance any 12th graders vocabulary. Alas, my friend is in another state now, and our kitchen table games are few and far between. Undeterred by this, I set out to find a site to play Scrabble online. To borrow a Scrabble phrase: Bingo! I present to you my latest obsession, the Internet Scrabble Club.

Do not be fooled by the laim-o (not an official Scrabble word) graphics on the entrance page, my friend. On this site you can add buddies to play with while you chat online real time à la text messaging. The site has an international membership, and you are welcome to select your language of choice. You can even watch high-level players slug it out while you whisper comments to the other spectators. I have personally seen the U.S. National Champion play and I am embarrassed and humbled not only by his mastery of the Scrabble dictionary, but also by his strategies (double double word tiles?).

I prefer to play with the folks ranked around 500. It's still challenging, but at least I stand a chance of winning. Did I mention you get a ranking? And yeah, you know it's got to be free. Check it out.