Scrabble Cheaters: Use Your Powers for Good

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You may be good at Scrabble... but are you bad enough?

Here's an interesting little tidbit: a Scrabble fundraiser tournament. Sounds pretty pedestrian... at first. However, players are given the opportunity to cheat, provided they pay for each dastardly move. The tournament is played in two-person teams, each of which collects pledges to create a sort of war chest which can be used to purchase cheating moves within each game; the money then goes to 826NYC, an organization that helps teens beef up their writing skills. To sweeten the deal, players can compete against  John Hodgman, the "I'm-a-PC" guy from those Apple adverts.

The cheats range in price from twenty-five bucks to $500; from trading letters to inventing words. From the event's website: "If you can't stand the blatant deception, trash talking, and foul play, try Yahtzee".

I'm posting this because I'm fascinated by the idea of doing something bad in order to do something good: in this case, lying and cheating for charity. In this case, though, it's during the course of an actual game, and not in the hazy world of situational ethics. Kind of like car smashes: I took part in one of those during university, in which a junkyard-donated car was demolished by sledgehammer-wielding students as Rage Against the Machine cranked over the sound system, all in benefit of a homeless shelter. Being bad never felt so good. The trick is to begin the swing with your hips for maximum force.

This could be the start of a new trend: could you organize an event like this with your favorite board game? Which game would it be, and what would the cheats consist of?

Also, if you could play Scrabble against anybody, living or dead, who would it be? I'd want to take on Lynn Truss.