Artist/actor/broadcaster Marilyn Lightstone is the host of Nocturne on Classical 96.3 in Toronto (and online). She offers afternoon/evening group studio tours. For information e-mail mlightstone@sympatico.ca.
Are you a Scrabble player?
Once a year. Perhaps twice with my sister-in-law and my brother. I enjoy it because it is a family occupation. We play for fun. I really don't care if I make a lot of points. My sister-in-law is terribly competitive. I know I know more words than she does, but she is strategic. She is a fantastic Scrabble player. She is one of those people who have memorized the Scrabble dictionary.
What makes for a fantastic Scrabble player?
Strategy is important - where to place your letters, not just to gloat over a wonderful word on its own. Strategy is more important than knowing a lot of words.
Is the ultimate test who wins as opposed to who has the best vocabulary?
Who wins. Definitely. Knowing all the words that are permitted, all the tiny two- and three-letter words that are totally obscure. From the Scrabble player's point of view, if it is in the Scrabble dictionary, it counts; it doesn't matter if you don't know what it means.
What of real-world parlance? Shouldn't these words be used, even infrequently, in real conversation?
I would think so, but according to the Scrabble dictionary, no.
Recently the Collins Official Scrabble Words book added 3,000 new words, including street slang ( thang, innit) tech terms ( wiki, webzine) and foreign language that has crept into Western culture ( aloo, gobi). Do you approve?
No! Because I don't know the words. I wouldn't play Scrabble with an 18-year-old because I don't know all those words. Time will tell. If they stick, they will become words. If they don't, they will just become slang.
Profanity would seem to be much more common coin. If "thang" can get in, why not a smorgasbord of good, well-used, four-letter words?
True enough. I think so. If we use it, it should be legit. If you let in one, you let them all in.
In a spell-check age, is spelling going to hell?
Yes.
Your own?
Mine no, because I'm of an age where I was taught that spelling was important, that punctuation was important, that penmanship was important. I truly believe all these things. I believe they contribute to the magnificence of the language.
I believe in the beauty of the English language and I believe it is being shot all to hell. Some people would say it is being enriched by all these things being included, but I don't think so. It is becoming a different language and I don't think it is a superior one.
Should Scrabble be a bastion against inferior use of language?
It's a game. I don't think we can take it too seriously. If it is a game, maybe anything should go - as long as you know what the word means.
Could you be called a language snob?
Yes.
Are there enough of those or too many?
I don't think there are enough, but it is a generational thing. Language changes. I can't expect someone who is 20 to feel as I do about language. They weren't educated the same way and the same things aren't important. I mean, they know stuff I don't know anything about. In the same way I don't want them to put me down for not knowing their stuff, I'm not going to put then down for not wanting to know my stuff. To me, it is important, and I do regret the debasement of the language, I really do.
You play in Toronto's annual Scrabble With The Stars charity tournament fundraiser. Who is the best Scrabble-playing celeb?
Gordon Pinsent is supposed to be a very good scrabbler. I have heard that, but he has never been at my table.
Scrabbler? Is that a noun? A proper word? Could you put it down on a Scrabble board?
Scrabbler. Scrabble player. You'd probably have to fight to justify it and it may not be in the Scrabble dictionary.
Makes more sense to me than "thang."
That's what I'm saying. Why not scrabbler, someone who plays Scrabble, versus some two-letter word no one has ever heard.
You are known for your dulcet, mellifluous late-night radio voice, whereas Scrabble words are short, blunt and silent. Irony?
Which is why I'm no good at Scrabble!