Thomas Reinke Fulfills the Prophecy of the Ancients, A Prophecy Which Stated That There Would Come a Man Who Would Win Four Games of Scrabble in One Night

1st Thomas Reinke, AKA "The Anointed One, He Who Is Crowned By The Gods" proved himself to be a one-man demolition crew, going 4-0 +535.  In facing up with veteran tile pusher Richard Lauder, Thomas showed no restraint, walking away from the bout with a 485-332 win in hand.  Richard played OPTIMISE (later phonily extended to OPTIMISER), but Thomas had a pair of 100-point bingos: an opening MESTIZO and, later, a double-double FIDELITY.  The only game where Thomas felt the hot breath of an encroaching opponent happened to be against his brother, Charles.  That game ended with high scores for both sides, but Thomas prevailed in the end, 452-441.  Further confirming their twinness, both had three bingos: GENOISE, ACTRESS, and RAPIDITY for Thomas; OVERTOP, INHOLDER, and MINDSETS for Charles.

2nd Bryan Benwitz's late arrival prevented him from getting a full complement of four games, but he was perfect in the three games he did play, finishing 3-0 +300.  He started off with a close 398-393 victory over regular opponent Peter Schmiedicke, playing UNIFACES and SEDILIA to Peter's HONGIED (v. HONGI, to greet by pressing noses together).  Then, all hell broke loose as Bryan unleashed a whopping 560 points on a hapless Charles Reinke, resulting in Bryan's second-highest game ever.  Bryan played JETTIES, PLINKERS, EUCRITE, and a 158-point trip-trip FASTENED, played through an E that Charles had just opened with his bingo of URALITE.  After that strong showing, Bryan came back down to Earth, at least somewhat, when he defeated Andy Bohnsack 453-370.

3rd Gail "Gailstorm" Salm rounded out the top three with a 3-1 +275 showing.  Her best game came against Aki Miura, the final score being a lopsided 471-244.  Gail's three bingos of SLINKED, DOWNERS, and LIBELER provided a scoring assault that simply could not be countered.  Gail continued a trend of drubbings as she applied a beatdown on Barb Besadny, 431-306.  Barb got MAILERS to stem the tide, but she didn't stem it very much as Gail got COTTONS and HERRINGS.  Gail's spread was sitting at an impressive +509 after three games, but all of that changed when she was finally defeated by Thomas Reinke, 310-544.

Charles Reinke played the Word of the Week, MONOCOTS.  A MONOCOT is any of a group of flowering plants whose seedlings only have one cotyledon.  A DICOT, on the other hand, has two cotyledons.  This begs the question, what the heck is a cotyledon?

It should also be noted that a TRICOT is a type of fabric, not a plant with three of those cotyle-whatevers.

In other news, the club has hit the 14% mark in available bingos played.  At this rate, we might near 100% by the time the universe enters heat death.  High-probablity words that have yet to be played include URANITE, RATINES, TRENAIL, RETINAL, RELIANT, INSOLATE, and ELATIONS.