Bourbon Cowboy

The adventures of an urbane bar-hopping transplant to New York.

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Location: New York, New York, United States

I'm a storyteller in the New York area who is a regular on NPR's "This American Life" and at shows around the city. Moved to New York in 2006 and am working on selling a memoir of my years as a greeting card writer, and (as a personal, noncommercial obsession) a nonfiction book called "How to Love God Without Being a Jerk." My agent is Adam Chromy at Artists and Artisans. If you came here after hearing about my book on "This American Life" and Googling my name, the "How to Love God" book itself isn't in print yet, and may not even see print in its current form (I'm focusing on humorous memoir), but here's a sample I've posted in case you're curious anyway: Sample How To Love God Introduction, Pt. 1 of 3. Or just look through the archives for September 18, 2007.) The book you should be expecting is the greeting card book, about which more information is pending. Keep checking back!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Introducing Scrabulish!


I recently discovered that if you're on Facebook, and you're playing Scrabulous (their online version of Scrabble which is so far still legal), one of your options is to play a "Challenge" game, which means the computer won't stop you from playing non-dictionary words. So for the past few days I've been playing with my friend Tracy a variation where the game is to NEVER play an actual real word, and to make up plausible-seeming definitions for whatever you play. I call it "Scrabulish." The picture shows the board as it currently stands.

Here's the gameplay so far. I've played the odd moves; Tracy has the even ones:

1. OILET (n. A small oil.)
2. GURNIX (n. A female hospital orderly who physically or psychologically domintates her patients.)
3. Q-ING (n. The inability to draw a clean circle.)
4. BRAIP (v. To burp inwardly.)
5. MIFE (n. Rodents with missing teeth.)
6. TRIADERN (n. one who holds down three jobs.)
7. RANDLESS (adj. Broke, in South Africa.)
8. WOOST (v. To sleep with one eye open.)
9. GRATT/WA/OT/OT (GRATT. v. To drag a rake over a sidewalk; WA. n. A unit of metaphysics, equal to the volume of an average human soul; OT. n. Bird poop, while still in midair.)
10. ROTHKAT (n. a scarf made of thistles, worn diagonally across the breastbone. German.)
11. GREEPIAN (adj. Pertaining to, or in the style of, Edmund Whitcomb Greep (1876-1934), Am. architect and couturier, noted for his mixing of navy and black.)
12. GOGAD (n. a small, perpetually moving article whose common name is unknown or forgotten. See: DOODAD.)
13. COILET/CABIER (COILET. n. A makeshift outhouse constructed from rope; CABIER. n. The guy at the front of a taxi stand who ushers folks in one at a time. French.)
14. VELVO (n. One who dresses entirely in plush fabric.)
15. UNNUI (n. An intense hatred of palindromes.)

Currently I'm leading, 289 to 231. But it's quite literally anyone's game.

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10 Comments:

Blogger Trip said...

Don't leave me hanging -- what's the definition of SO?

3/17/2008 1:26 AM  
Blogger that atheist guy said...

Hey what about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_Dynasty

3/17/2008 1:31 AM  
Blogger Cowboy Dave Dickerson said...

Oh, shoot! I didn't notice SO. Clearly it would have to be something like "SO. n. Soteriology. (British slang.)" But Tracy didn't provide a definition, so we can only wonder.

As for the QING Dynasty. Surely it must be obvious that that's a proper noun! Playing a proper noun in Scrabble is illegal, and I'm just extremely lucky that Tracy was too distracted to challenge me on that other capitalized word, GREEPIAN.

3/17/2008 9:05 AM  
Blogger Tyler Hinman said...

Hey, you stole this idea from me and my friend Alyssa. Although I suppose your version doesn't mention anything about being inebriated.

3/17/2008 10:55 AM  
Blogger that atheist guy said...

D'oh! Of course.

3/17/2008 4:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love it!

3/18/2008 9:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it's only a matter of time before QWENDLER and WINGTIT become part of the lexicon.

5/12/2008 12:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I find it irksome that, even with made-up words, you routinely trounce me by 200 points.

5/12/2008 12:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hilarious, you guys!

5/14/2008 3:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

I Googled "Scrabulish," just as you said and voila! Here I am. I would love to play Scrabulish (or even Scrabble) with you soon.

I had a great time last night!

Brooke

3/08/2009 9:47 AM  

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