Scrabbled signals

...Hey baby, wanna play?

...Oh yeah. You go first.

...Oooh, that's a big one. You're soooo good at this.

You can see where this is headed, in your dirty little mind, right? Now take your naughty imagery, and plop a Scrabble board smack in the middle of it. Tiles flying about in ecstasy. There you have it: the human race's latest trend in foreplay.

Prior to this revelation (for perhaps Scrabble was always a bit of a turn-on? I wouldn't know), I thought Scrabble was reserved for foul-mouthed old grannies and geeky late 30-somethings on "bring-your-own-merlot" night. It seemed to be a game that created more animosity between players than sexual tension.

Then I joined Facebook, which has a nifty little application called, "Scrabulous." Once installed via your Facebook account, you can play a virtual game (complete with virtual board and virtual letters, and a handy little virtual dictionary that's not allowed in the board game). And what would a virtual anything be without a little live chat mixed in?

To find a playing partner(s), you can post personalized a want-ad.

"Regular game, no cheaters, English language only."

You can play in another languages, request fast games or slow games to be played over a couple of days among other options. That's how it started out. But now when I browse the Scrabulous want-ads, I see stuff like this:

"HOT NAUGHTY CHICKS ONLY"

"Must talk dirty during play"

"Looking for chatty gay males"

"Blonds with big boobs"

Me oh my. Basic human instict, transmogrified in the digital ether.

Of course, to be fair, Scrabble does have its romantic uses sans pornography. A friend of mine was just proposed to via a real Scrabble game. The first word being "Marry," and quite legitimately (in terms of the game's rules) "Me," came second.

The future of digital Scrabble and the windows it opens to poor, lonely souls to meet like-minded sexual partners is unclear at this point, however. Recently, the makers of the board game Scrabble have taken issue with Scrabulous, arguing the Facebook application does not have the rights to reproduce the game in such a fashion.

Some one is going to score soon...triple word score, baby.