So Mattel is rumoured (Canadian spelling) to be changing the rules of Scrabble. No problem, I live in North America, where Hasbro holds the rights. Not that I care what Hasbro has to say either.

My rules for Scrabble have always been my own: no proper nouns, except the names of poets. For dictionaries, I defer to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English; and for poets, Donald Allen’s The New American Poetry (1960).

A story in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Mattel is engaging in brand extension, warming up consumers for a new variant, to be called Trickster. Brand extension is an old game (trick?), not unlike what the Coca Cola Company did in 1985, when they announced their new formula, a gimmick that gave us two Cokes: New Coke and, after some protest, the original, relabelled (Canadian spelling) Classic.

Not sure the last time I had a Coke, or a Pepsi for that matter. I like to make my own soft drinks, using ginger, lemon, stevia and soda water. The last time I played Scrabble (according to the scribbler we keep in our games drawer) was in September 1999, when I lost to Scott Watson by 11 points, on account of a 12-point subtraction.