Game remains wildly popular

SCRIPPS HOWARD
Scrabble, invented by out-of-work architect Alfred Mosher Butts in the late 1940s, is found in one in three American homes. Sales of Scrabble, a real word that means "to grope frantically," didn't take off until the early 1950s, when the president of Macy's discovered the game on vacation and ordered some for his store.
More than 100 million sets have been sold worldwide, and there are an estimated more than 40 million leisure players in the United States and Canada alone. The game is now marketed by Hasbro Inc.
The National Scrabble Association, based in Greenport, N.Y., is the governing body for tournament and club play in the United States and Canada. There are more than 300 clubs in both countries, and the School Scrabble Program involves more than 500,000 students in 23,000 schools.
The association sponsors the U.S. Scrabble Open, to be held this year Aug. 4-9 in Phoenix, which will be televised on ESPN. Last year's tournament drew more than 700 competitors between ages 13 to 95.
Find out more at www.scrabble-assoc.com.
The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary is available in stores for $24.95 hardcover, $7.50 paperback.