Dear Prudence,
During a game of Scrabble with my 14-year-old niece, my father-in-law played the word coitus. After the game I told him that I thought it was an inappropriate word to use with an adolescent, and he responded that he thought I was being overprotective and prudish. He also pointed out that she paid no attention to the word except to use it to play an X on a triple-letter square and win (she's a killer at this game). I still think he should have used the same letters to play scout. What do you think?
Dear Forfeit,
I hope the word your niece played was buxom, foxy, sexy, or vixen. You were vexed that your father-in-law used what you see as an X-rated word with your niece, but the crux of the matter is she beat him, which must have made her exult. If one opponent is sixtysomething, and the other a teenager who excels at the game, I don’t think the older player is required to box himself in and purposely not maximize his word choice. Since she’s so skillful at mixing it up on the Scrabble board, I doubt she’d even want someone to nix a good play simply to save her sensibilities from being taxed. I say relax. Nothing toxic took place, and there was no reason for this coitus to be interrupted.