The press is all over Jesse Jackson's unplugged comment. And I so appreciate the media working so hard to shelter me from the actual comment. They left some blank spaces when they printed the story. I was grateful. I have delicate ears.
From what I am able to gather, Jesse got really, really mad at Senator Obama about something. He got so mad that he paid no attention to the live microphone in front of him. And as I read in many press reports, it seems that Jesse Jackson wanted something bad to happen to Senator Obama. He wants something cut off from the Senator: N _ _ S.
I posed the question to my daughter Scout. She is quick. I think maybe the Reverend feels the Senator is getting too much sleep, she suggested. He wants to cut off Obama's NAPS, she exclaimed!
We then considered the possibility that the Senator's positions are being overly influenced by the media. Perhaps Jesse felt that if Obama stayed away from the daily paper, he'd be a stronger candidate. Maybe his remark was "I want to cut off his NEWS."
Scout makes a valid argument that possibly, because Jackson's anger was in reference to Obama's relationship with "faith," he could have been proclaiming his desire to "cut of his NUNS."
Or perhaps too much basketball for the Senator? Maybe it's time to cut off his NETS?
Running low on options, college aged Scout, who spent many hours this year at scrabulous.com, turned to her trusty source: www.wineverygame.com. I so appreciate her competitive streak.
At this site, you can plug in letters you have and it will offer you all the permutations and combinations of words you can make with those letters.
I was relieved to see that we had come up with the most obvious ones without technical support. And our only debate was whether Jackson had referred to "them" as NADS or NUTS.
So what did we learn? That Jesse Jackson has a potty mouth? That Jesse Jackson has a few issues? That the press has standards? That Scout is smart enough to seek out resources to improve her Scrabble game?
All of the above (maybe not the one about the press and standards). Plus, now knowing that there is a website called wineverygame.com, I hope Barack Obama spends a lot of time there.