Happy Birthday, Mrs. Director!

Daiva a.k.a. Mrs. Director

Mr. Director hands out prizes.

The January meeting was a relatively worldly one. Andrew Batey, a Champaign physician with Nigerian roots, returned to the club after a five-year hiatus; Charlotte and Richard England, a couple of newbies with Canadian backgrounds, impressed regulars; and longtime club member, Ranji Adukia, originally from Mumbai, was on the scene.

Andrew noted he intends to resume playing regularly at the club. Ranji has been able to travel more locally and make more club meetings now that her daughter and grandson have moved to Illinois. And club members hope the Englands enjoyed themselves enough to return.

Mary scores!

Wendy brought delicious cake.

Mrs. Director’s January birthday was also celebrated.

Unfortunately, she was ill and too tired to participate as much as she’d have liked. However, she did play a couple of games and, of course, did not miss the part of the celebration involving chocolate cake! Daiva was too logy to remember which “Daiva descriptive” words she chose as being winners, but I seem to recall COVETED (by Mary Maddox), DEARER (by Ranji), and FIERY (by Lisa Lovelace) as being prize-worthy!

Nine of the thirteen attendees played a bingo at the January meeting, but Cheryl Hawker showed once again how adept she is at scoring without the fifty point bonus that a bingo produces; Cheryl scored 382 in a game devoid of a bingo! Similarly, Andrew averaged 396 in his two games despite playing only one bingo and Daiva averaged 394 in two games with the help of a solitary bingo.

Here’s Richard enjoying the cake.

Unusual bingos included TINGLER (which has an anagram, RINGLET) by Ranji. Angela Vietto played LINSEED (which has ENISLED and ENSILED as anagrams) and STRIVEN (which has an anagram, INVERTS). Mr. Director, Marty Gabriel, played EUPNEAS, LENTANDO, and OUTWEARY (anagram of ROUTEWAY). Eupnea is normal breathing. Lentando is a musical term that means “becoming slower”; it’s an adverb and does not take an S hook. Outweary is just one of many outlandish OUT- patterned words. OUTBARK, OUTBLEAT, OUTCAVIL, OUTCRAWL, OUTGNAW, OUTJINX, OUTPLOD, and OUTPRAY are just a smattering of them!