On to the Scrabble scene: There were some 48 players, the average age of which was 70 yrs. old. Four divisions of play, in descending order of skill: champion, challenge, competitive, and casual. Zach, by far the youngest, was placed in the challenge division. They played 12 games over the 3 days, often lingering afterwards to deconstruct the games, and re-think strategies, end-games, and verify the legality of words played. Sara Schacter, the oldest player at 94 yrs. old, slipped and fell the first evening, breaking a rib or two and getting a black eye. Having only had a chance to play 3 games, however, she was having none of this going to the hospital stuff. "What? So they can tell me I have a few broken ribs and do nothing about it?" She apparently had some kind of pain medication with her, so she remained at the hotel and played the rest of the tournament. Sara received a special lifetime Scrabble achievement award from the Israeli Scrabble organization. Also at the tournament was a spark plug of a woman in her 80s, named Roz. She is not only a mean Scrabble player (she plays in the top division), she is a total hoot to be around. She makes up songs (and sings them) and poems (one of her odes to Scrabble is included in Stefan Fatsis's book on Scrabble, Wordfreak.), and is an endless fount of off-color jokes. In sum, Zach had a fantastic time. He took 4 out of his first 6 games, won some more (I'm not exactly sure how it went), putting himself in first place heading into the last 2 games. If he won the first, he'd have been in good position to easily win all the marbles. But he wasn't going to take the easy way; he lost that game forcing him to win the last one, which he did (but not by much...). He received a lovely 1st place trophy souvenir to bring back to the States. Our dear friend Ricky Aron, who introduced Zach to the Jerusalem Scrabble club 4 years ago, and who was also playing in the challenge division, and whom Zach beat on the way to his victory, gave him his award. Awards were also given for best word, highest scoring word, lowest scoring win, best phony word played (and not challenged off), and service to Scrabble (fewest wins).