Back in the early 90’s when I was learning how to spell, the Stoneham Public School system decided it would be a good idea to teach us impressionable youngsters “inventive spelling.” this seriously messed me and my dyslexic best friend up.

in 5th grade my teacher told me that I “was the reason god invented spell check”

i bring this up, because one of my new obsessions is the iPhone app Words with Friends. (download it here: ) This app is basically a free if the ads bug you too much) version of scrabble where you can play with friends, strangers or just pass the phone to the person next to you.

All this to say Words with Friends is a great application. The user interface is slick, it has push notification and it lets you know when you’ve made up a fake word or just plain spelled something wrong (which is often my case). I’m a pretty easy target, due to the inventive spelling and all, so come play with me! My username is 3liz4b3th, of course!

By the way I’m not sure when online scrabble became such a big thing. A few months ago my mom, who I affectionately refer to as Cindy, developed a severe addiction to the facebook scrabble application scrabulous (?). It got so bad that she would sit staring at the computer waiting for her cousin to make a move, neglecting her two beautiful, talented, smart adult children.