As in lezbot?
Posted on 08/06/2004 3:14:44 AM PDT by leadpencil1
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - It wasn't a four-letter word, but it was close enough to cause a stir at the National Scrabble Championship Thursday.
In the final round, eventual champion Trey Wright played the word "lez," which was on a list of offensive words not allowed during the tournament.
Normally, no word is off-limits, but because the games were being taped for broadcast on ESPN, certain terms had been deemed inappropriate, including the three-letter slang for lesbian.
"There are words you just can't show on television," Scrabble Association Executive Director John Williams said.
Wright, a 30-year-old concert pianist from Los Angeles, played the word and then drew two replacement tiles so quickly that the referee didn't notice at first. When he did, he said the slang term had to go.
ESPN officials told Williams the word could stay, but the issue was that Wright had already selected new tiles.
"He violated the rules. But there were also people who were upset that the word was played," Williams said.
Eric Chaiken, a tournament participant and director of "Word Wars," a documentary about the Scrabble championship, said the definition of "offensive" was open to interpretation.
"The ultimate absurdity is that you can't play the word 'redskins' on ESPN," he said.
Williams spoke with Wright and his opponent, David Gibson, then called an emergency meeting of the Scrabble Advisory Board. The board unanimously agreed to remove the word. Wright then returned the two tiles he had selected and played a different word, Williams said.
"We kind of took two steps back," he said.
Wright, using more innocent words like feijoa (an evergreen shrub) and zebu (a domesticated ox), won the best-of-five final round in three games and pocketed a $25,000 prize.
"Meaning has no consideration when I play," Wright said.
Scrabble on ESPN.
Now I've heard everything.
That makes sense. Sure it does.
As in lezbot?
Scrabble is a sport?
Must be like a spelling bee kind of thing.
However, the ultimate irony would be if they banned the word "censorship".
Btw, I did not know that "lez" was an insensitive slang word for lesbians.
I will have to put it to good use at DU, now.
Must be. I know ESPN does the gambling thing too. Really, I just wanted to get a comment in before this thread catches on fire.
You mean ESPN is going to air this?!?! What was the Game Show Network busy?? Man alive!
The first word in their name is Entertainment. But still...I guess they ran out of episodes of World's Strongest Man.
2004 National SCRABBLE® Championship Live Coverage
The 2004 National SCRABBLE® Championship is taking place from July 31st to August 5th at the Marriot Hotel in New Orleans, LA. Over 800 players play eight games Sunday, seven games Monday, eight games Tuesday and seven games Wednesday. After those thirty games, the top two contenders in Division 1 will play a best-of-five final match on Thursday, which will be shown to a public audience at the hotel on closed circuit TV and telecast in the fall on ESPN.
http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/tourneys/2004/nsc/build/
Scrabble on ESPN? Next thing you know, they'll be televising tic-tac-toe!
Oh wait, I forgot about the venerable, best-forgotten shows, Tic-Tac-Doe and Hollywood Squares.
I was trying to remember what the letters, ESPN, stood for.
Say, btw, hope you're not planning to get on the beltway near the 270 split this morning.
"Lez" is a very valid, 3-letter Scrabble word in the TWL98 North American tournament dictionary. Now, "lezes" and "lezzes" have been expunged in the past few years, but ESPN using an ultra PC list is ridiculous. btw, "squaw" is on this no-no list as well.
Yes, I ran into that mess. I took the Connecticut Ave. exit and wormed my way to Wisconsin.
And all this time, I thought it was "liz" or "Lizbo". Redskins? Peanuts?
Scrabble: The new XGame.
Wow. This *is* pathetic. Are they feeling heat from FoxSports and OLN (Outdoor Life Network). That NASCAR channel? SPIKE? I see ENTERTAINMENT is the first part of ESpN. Does anyone *really* find watching Scrabble to be entertaining? Goodness!
Another three-letter word soon to be universally banned: God
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