Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally uploaded by RumAli.

I had elected to stay in Milwaukee for this Memorial Day. The past three years, I had gone down to Skokie, IL for the annual Arden Cup, an extremely well-run Scrabble tourney. Word on the street was that the person who started the Arden Cup, indeed the person whom it is named after, may not live to see another one. Yet, I didn't go. I've been reading reports from the tourney - about how well it was run, about how the winner of Division 5 ran the table and won all 20 of her games, of how a fellow Filipino won Division 2, and, of course, how Division 1 was well fought between the hometown favorite and last year's winner. Above all, I've been reading about how emotional the tournament was, about "hulking men" with tears in their eyes.

I wish I had gone, lack of knowledge of new 8s be damned.