The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
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. . . .
Yes, I know the Third Edition of the Scrabble Dictionary excludes some offensive words. I’m not wild about that, but at least I can understand the “game the whole family should be able to play” theory, given that some families don’t want their kids using those words even in a lexicographic context. But this is just silly.
Thanks to Dan Gifford for the pointer.
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