By David Cruz
Correspondent
Seventeen-year-old Paolo Federico-O’Murchu is one of those renaissance kids who’s always been good at everything. His mom Linda says Paolo was winning international poetry and art competitions before he was in his teens. He didn’t become the Scrabble Savant he is today until a little later as we learned when we bravely endeavored to challenge him at his home in Montclair today.
David: So, who got you into Scrabble?
Paolo: I would say my mom did. We played it living room style, like most other people.
David: Are we playing living room style right now?
Paolo: Haha. You’re not playing a living room opponent, but… haha. And then I started beating everyone by age, except for my mom, even then it was close and then I saw there was a tournament around and thought that would be fun to go to, and I went 0-7. That was really bad; I lost every game. I’m still upset by that. And then the next year I won and that’s how I really started getting into it.
Paolo is most definitely not a living room player. In fact, before too long, it’s clear that this is going to be the equivalent of a pickup hoops player trying to take on Michael Jordan.
David: You ended up going to Sri Lanka. You went to your mom and said, “Hey mom, there’s this great scrabble tournament in Sri Lanka. Why don’t we go to that?”
Paolo: Actually, it was my mom who went to my dad and said, “Hey we should send Paolo.”
David: You went by yourself?
Paolo: I went by myself. And I had a very good time. I’m very happy I managed to go there.
David: Mom, what were you thinking sending your child to Sri Lanka all by himself?
Linda Federico O’Murchu: At first I was like, forget it. And then we thought about how it could be really cool. But I was terrified to send him to Sri Lanka. Terrified. You should’ve seen the condition I was in until he got there.I can’t even tell you, I was sobbing in the airport.
I’m a decent living room player but it’s at this point in the game, with me leading by five points, that Paolo, who ranked 17th in the world coming out of that tournament, fourth in total wins he notes, is about to show me the power of the seven-letter word, or what’s called a bingo — the Scrabble equivalent of a home run.
David: Arenose? How much, 87?
Paolo: Do you wish to challenge?
David: Do you sometimes bluff?
Paolo: I do.
I’m sure most of you probably use arenose in your everyday conversation and know that it means sandy, or gritty. It is at this point in the game that the hammer starts to come down.
Paolo: If I’m down a bingo like you are, I’m dumping that Q immediately. Even trading tiles.
David: How much is a man expected to accomplish with this?
Paolo: 6, 9, 10, 12, uh, 62.
David: The word is Satonal, 64.
I have no idea what that word could have meant, but I was desperate, and the kid knew it.
With time running out, I had to try the Scrabble equivalent of a Hail Mary pass.
David: Facures. Like, if you’re playing basketball and people keep dunking on you. He’s suffering from a lot of facures.
Paolo: Sure, they say that on ESPN all the time. Do you know what the bad thing is? You have a bingo in that. Surface.
David: I hate this kid. My score there is zero.
Paolo: Yeah.
David: Jiminy Cricket.
Paolo says he may play one or two tournaments before he retires for good. Me? I’m walking away with the knowledge that facures is not, at least right now, an actual word.