Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

BIAD - awesome add on!


April 13, 1899: Alfred Mosher Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. He invented the board game Scrabble in 1938, a word game that combined elements of anagrams and crossword puzzles. Butts initially called the game Lexiko (Greek meaning "of or for words"), but later changed the name to Criss Cross Words after considering It, and began to seek a buyer. The game makers he originally contacted rejected the idea, but Butts was tenacious. Eventually, he sold the rights to entrepreneur and game lover James Brunot, who made a few minor adjustments to the design and renamed the game Scrabble.

In 1948, the game was trademarked, and Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown, Connecticut, into a Scrabble factory. Over 150 million sets have been sold worldwide. It still sells 2 million a year in the USA alone.



Scrabble Board History 1948 - 1999 (more than you ever want to know)

The location of the beloved word game's humble origin, in a church basement in Queens, is today commemorated with a creative street sign that includes the Scrabble value for each letter of 35th Avenue. The Jackson Heights Community Development Corp was responsible for the sign.

After experimenting with this early version of the game, he made updates to the rules and gameplay. Initially, the revised version of the game was called "Criss-Crosswords." When the game became commercially sold it was given the name "Scrabble," and to this day that's the game played by millions of people.

In front of that Queens community church, right on the corner, there is a street sign commemorating Scrabble's local origins, with letters designed to look like tiles of the game. The novel design choice has attracted many admirers to that corner, some of whom have tried to steal the sign, and at least one of whom succeeded.

Most mysterious was the response from the New York City Department of Transportation when asked if they planned on replacing the special sign. The city had no clue who had put it up in the first place. There was no record of the original historical marker. Perhaps a devoted Scrabble fan installed the sign on their own? Despite the original sign's unofficial status, the community's love for it convinced the city to provide a new one retaining the Scrabble numerical values, which remain there to this day.

In addition to the street corner sign, there is an oval plaque commemorating the birth of Scrabble about 12 feet up on the exterior wall of the classroom building that is on 35th Ave.

The Birthplace of Scrabble

More from the New York Daily News; UPDATED: January 13, 2019:

New ‘Scrabble’ street sign will go up in Queens to commemorate birthplace of board game

For years it’s been a mystery as to who installed the witty little street marker more than 15 years ago.

The Daily News learned yesterday that it was the brainchild of Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, the former head of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

She received permission from Hasbro, which manufacturers the game, and asked award-winning designer Massimo Vignelli to create the look of the sign, Diamonstein-Spielvogel said.

“I thought it would be clever and interesting and make passersby aware of what went on in that church,” she said.

The sign became a distinctive feature of Jackson Heights – much like the bronze penguin on 75th St. – until it disappeared.

Diamonstein-Spielvogel theorized that it may have blown away in a storm or was stolen to adorn a college dorm room or den.

Dromm had his own ideas.

“There are conspiracy theories that Scrabble enthusiasts might have stolen it, that the city took it down – which they deny – that it fell down on its own and someone grabbed it and ran,” he said. “Anyone with information should call my office.”

Originally Published: July 21, 2011

April 13, 1925: California enacts one of the harshest narcotic laws in the U.S., increasing the standard prison sentence for drug dealing from six months to six years on a first offense, and setting a term of 6 to 10 years for simple possession.




"If one of your local television stations have a horror personality..." Promotional ideas from the SECONDS (1966) pressbook




Every man just wants a beautiful trophy secretary that’ll help him get away with things.




TIME for April 12, 1993: A new world of video entertainment and interactive services is coming to your home-sooner than you think!

In other news: "The US Navy has recommended to Sec of Defense Les Aspin that women be allowed to serve in all combat positions-except in submarines, where quarters are close."

And take a trip into the future on the electronic superhighway!


TIME magazine, April 12, 1993 issue


April 13, 2000: Playboy chairman Hugh Hefner rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), along with his bunnies. The Dow-Jones loses 201 points (2.4%).




April 13, 2000: Britons, dressed as caribou and polar bears, protest against proposed BP oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean.




Quite amusing Bernie is speaking to a music festival where the average ticket price is $1500 and all the profits go to a right-wing evangelical billionaire, Philip Anschutz.




R.I.P. RIP Vaughn Drake who was the oldest known survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor until passing away on April 7 at the age of 106. Drake was helping build barracks at Kaneohe Naval Air Station while serving with the Army Corps of Engineers when the Japanese attacked in 1941.


He was employed by the General Telephone Company for thirty six years, retiring in 1981 as valuation engineering manager. He designed and supervised construction of all the underground telephone conduit placed in the cities of Lexington, Morehead, and Ashland in the 1940s and 1950s. He was author of the GTE Manual “Conduit Engineering for Telephone Engineers”. From his Obit