Thursday, August 09, 2007

Attacking the innocent

Once I got through my chores yesterday, I sat down to play a little scrabble on-line. I joined a table and began, as I always do, wishing my opponent good luck. My opponent opened the board with a bingo (this is when you use all your letters and receive a 35 point bonus) for which I commended him by saying "very nice". My opponent thanked me for my kind words. A few turns later, I played a bingo - terries - for which my opponent remained silent. No biggie, it's not necessary to congratulate someone for this, just polite. Then a few turns later, I had the audacity to play "orzo". Apparently, this convinced my opponent that I was cheating, because the chat box came alive with his vitriol.

Normally, when this happens, I just resign, it's not worth it joining a pissing contest. Still, I couldn't believe this person went nuts over "orzo". For years, this was on the menu (with porcini mushrooms if I recall correctly, hmm, I wonder if he would have had the same reaction had I played porcini) so it doesn't seem like a strange word to me at all. I decided to play with the guy.
I particularly like how he skewers me for misspelling "possess" even as he uses "your" for "you're" and "shouldn't of" for "shouldn't have". Please note that I do not mention that.

I was actually giggling. Such incredible spewing from this guy and he is so convinced that he got my number.
It went on a spell, and I thanked him for providing me with blog fodder. He stretched out the end of the game for 10 minutes, tossing epithets my way, which gave me a chance to take photos of the chatscreen. (It's impossible to highlight the text and copy it.)

The sad thing is that this is what many people are like. Bitter and angry. It comes out easily when someone is cloaked by the anonymity of the net. I wonder how easily it comes out in day to day contact with people. I sure hope he doesn't have kids.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I love to play scrabble recreationally, but my friends are of the 'know all the 2 letter words' variety. But its great playing with them too.

Once 4 of us were playing on 2 teams (face to face, in a coffee shop) and the opposing team made 'zaire'. One of the others was more of a novice, just like me, and he asked his partner, "don't you think that proper nouns aren't alllowed". Cunningly, the partner said, "yeah, but lets see, ...ummm I'm not entirely sure." So then it was up to us to challenge it or not. I thought we should (because of the proper noun thing) but my partner said no, it might be a set up. Indeed it was, we challenged and lost because zaire is the currency of Zaire!

We won anyway though :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, Torn! You should be here with me on a daily basis in my cubicle and hear the rants, tirades, and expletives that emanate from my one co-worker. If I knew he played Scrabble on line at work, I'd suspect that he was your "celtic" nemesis.

FWIW, even I know what orzo is, Dutchman that I am.

Snooze said...

I'm not sure what I was eating last week. I'm sure it was orzo but apparently that doesn't exist...

I love the fact you took screenshots. What a freak that guy was.

Anonymous said...

This is anonymous@ 7.40.

Like the others said.
And I think that you are a saint for putting up with that guy.

CoffeeDog said...

What an asshat. For the future should you get into one of these sessions you can do a print screen then paste the contents into a photo program, that way we can see the asshat-edness better!

Anonymous said...

I've never played Scrabble, Don't hate me, but I know Orzo is a real type of pasta dish. Isn't there an official Scrabble Dictionary? I would make the rule before the game that the word must be in this dictionary or it can't be used.
That fucktard was obviously home schooled. Not knocking home schooling but it shouldn't be done if neither parent graduated the 8th grade.

My adventures said...

i personally like to see how angry i can make them... i'm guessing it's the rampant use of steroids in the literati arena!!! just a guess!!!

dpaste said...

I think I might have gone on radio silence as I whipped his ass in the game. Sheesh.

Kevin said...

Love it.

Have you read the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves?" I think you'd enjoy it.

Patricia said...

he just kept digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole, that's the insane part.

i had to sign up to make a dish to pass this weekend. i chose to make orzo salad. i wish i could take some to this guy but i'm afraid i'd want to throw it at him, instead.

Lacey said...

cheating pencil dick?

So, if you end each insulting entry with "lol" does that make it not insulting?

I'm sorry Torn, but I think it's time for you to go back to work.

Lucy Dee said...

I love it when blog fodder or fodder for standup comedy falls into my lap! It's just not fun when the person responsible for such comedy gold finds out a 200 member audience is laughing at his/her expense. Oh, well. C'est la vie!

Anonymous said...

This is the part of the internet that I really don't like. (Not the Scrabble part, the jerks coming out of their shell part.)

Jason said...

We can't all eat fish & chips like that loser.

BTW, I have a great recipe for orzo, lemon, feta, tomato salad.

GayProf said...

Pencil dick? Pencil cock? Is it me, or was he really interested in bringing your penis into the conversation? Perhaps a lot of this animosity comes from latency. But, then, that is how I explain most evil doers in the world.

Normlr said...

Why does he lmao
always have to lmao
end sentences with lol
annoying abbreviations lmao?

Maybe because he was 12 rotflmfao?

r said...

Oh gawsh.

I don't run into folks like that on Tangleword.

I guess the Scrabble crowd is the Hell's Angels of literary games?

The audacity of that guy... I mean really. I love your line about his possession of ALL knowledge. Like if he doesn't know the word, you MUST be using a scrabble program, since no one else could possibly know the word.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

dantallion said...

LOL@ normlr

This was great. Ever notice how the angriest among us provide the most glee to the rest of us? Yin and Yang at its purest, that.

dantallion said...

Hey, wait!! Yesterday you wished for blog fodder from the universe, and look what the universe provided! Can you make it rain as well?

Curtis said...

All this starts over pasta?!? Wow.

Chunks said...

That dude sure has a thing about pencils!

Loser poopyhead.

:)

David said...

Ilove Scrabble, and sadly, I play the crappy 2 to 4 letter words like "WEB".

But, Jebus, this guy sounds like a prick and half. And what's with the dumb "imao" all the time?

I find using that short-hand ironic on a Srabble game.

The Wisdom of Wislon said...

and I thought scrabble geeks were really nice people, how awrong can we be!

A Bear in the Woods said...

This is why I almost never play online, unless I meet someone there I know.

Anonymous said...

That guy is from the UK or Ireland for deffo!
"fook", "bollox", "arse" all in the daily vernacular here! :D

dawn said...

I play spades online and good lord do people lose their shit on a regular basis. IT'S ONLINE SPADES pencil dicks. Calm down. Sweet jesus.

Enemy of the Republic said...

So true.

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with the way you spelled "possess"?

Isn't that the way it's spelled?

Or maybe I'm just a pencil dick from a hillbilly town...