POTD: Colors

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Fitting for President’s Day! This photo is by Fons Marcelis, and was sent in by Cheryl Kagan. Of it, she says: “Our wonderful neighbor, Fons Marcelis, took this pic of our flag. Despite the snow, ‘The Flag Was Still There. . . .’”

POTD: Marilyn

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Here’s another one from back when we had snow on the ground. It is from Cheryl Kagan. Of it, she says, “Love our sculpture ‘Marilyn’ caught up in the snow.” I think it’s pretty cool, too!

Reader's Note By Cheryl C. Kagan: VisArts Hosts National Scrabble Tournament

>For the second time this year, Rockville’s VisArts was the host venue for a national Scrabble tournament (North American SCRABBLE® Players Association) this past weekend. Like so many other activities taking place in the City (including the Twilight Run, Hometown Holidays, etc.), this is not just about fun and games. It’s about bringing people to Rockville to support our local stores, restaurants, hotels, and nonprofit organizations!

Players came from around the region to compete in one of four divisions based on their ratings from past tournaments. I met competitors from NY, CT, PA (Philly as well as Pittsburgh), in addition to DC, VA and all around Maryland.

A number of players returned again to Rockville who had played in the tournament we hosted in March. Denise Mahnken drove down from Long Island (NY) for the second time. She thought it was worth the drive because “the venue is beautiful, and the windows don’t make you feel like you’re inside on a lovely day.” Additionally, she enthused that, “The town [Town Square] is quaint and lovely to walk around, and the hospitality is wonderful!”

Roberta Borenstein brought a friend with her from Connecticut to stay for the weekend. She built a sight-seeing trip around the tournament.

Nancy Konipol and her husband came down from New York City. They called VisArts a “gorgeous venue” and indicated that they would definitely come back. As a photographer herself, she loved seeing the exhibits between matches. They also stayed in a hotel they liked very much and sampled a few different Rockville restaurants.

Dave Engelhardt didn’t mind coming down from Baltimore and thought that the “free parking is really nice.”

Linda Wancel came from Queens and appreciated both seeing the artists at work… and the chance to buy art if something appealed to her. She also likes the great choices for places to eat. She said that “Rockville should host once a month. We’ll keep coming back!”

That’s a quick report from this second Rockville-based tournament. No matter how you scramble the Scrabble tiles, it sounds to me like ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT… and definitely FUN too!

For more information about the weekly Scrabble matches in Chevy Chase, visit http://dcsclub.org and join us!

Cheryl Kagan, a Rockville resident and political activist, is also a Scrabble fiend!

Editor’s note: Kagan, a former state delegate in District 17, is a candidate for state senate in 2010.

To submit your own reader’s note for consideration, just drop us a note!

POTD: Bird's Eye

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This cool shot is by Cheryl Kagan, who took it while on a helicopter ride-along with the police. It’s our very own Rockville Town Square, with Beall Ave. right there in the middle (see?).

Reader's Note By Cheryl C. Kagan: Fourteen Games Of Scrabble In Two Days At VisArts

>This reader’s note is by Rockville Central friend and former District 17 delegate Cheryl C. Kagan.

Did you know that QI and ZA are real words? Scrabble nuts like me do, and we had lots of opportunities to play these and many other odd-sounding words this weekend.

At my urging, the DC-area club of the National Scrabble Association (NSA) hosted a two-day tournament here in Rockville. Thanks to the generosity of VisArts, we were able to bring about 80 visitors from around the region and around the country to our great City. Players came from New York, Boston, Texas . . . and even Hawaii (!) to play in this NSA-sanctioned competition.

Fourteen games is a LOT to play in just two days! It’s fairly easy to memorize the 101 two-letter words. It’s quite a challenge, however, to learn the 1,015 three-letter words well enough to retrieve them in a hard-fought game. Oh, and did I mention that the games are timed? Each player gets a maximum of 25 minutes for the entire game, which means that one must be conscious of the time remaining when hunting for the perfect place for your “Bingo” (a word using all seven letters, which adds a coveted 50 point bonus to one’s score).

In addition to the (generally) friendly sparring, Rockville was a big winner. All weekend, I was delighted to receive compliments on VisArts as a venue and on all the attributes of Town Center.