Comeback Beef

I could have owned this cow.






In fact, for awhile I did own it. The cow signified that a person had composed the longest official word in our annual Speed Scrabble (“Take Two”) Tournament. My eight-letter “sunburns” held up until the final round, when my friend’s nine-letter “butchered” conquered it.


The man who axed my two-year longest word winning streak won the cow with the word “butchered”. Chalk up a victory for irony, as well.

There’s something in the air. On a night when my alma mater was on the losing end of the biggest college football comeback in Division 1-A history, I coughed up my longest word title, ending my winning streak at two years in a row.

And how about the World Series, which also commenced tonight, featuring two teams that came back after choking down the stretch? Kudos to the Cardinals, now the National League Champions, for sidestepping the ultimate choking scenario, thanks to a little help from the Houston Astros. Some sportswriters are less than enthusiastic, yea, whinging about this World Series and are likely to be none too pleased at the outcome of Game 1.

Enough of sports. I really wanted that cow. They didn’t have a cow when I won during the last two years. Maybe they’ll have a cow for me a year from now, when I make my own comeback with a fourteen-letter word.

In the meantime, the only cow-related thing I have with which to entertain you is a public service announcement.