Like many, I've recently become quite a frequent player of Facebook's scrabble game, Scrabulous. However, I have discovered something rather odd with its dictionary. Specifically, it told me that:

English IS a valid word.
Welsh IS a valid word.
Scottish IS NOT a valid word.

Hmm.... okay. Perhaps it's to do with the fact that English and Welsh are also languages. Let's try some more.

French IS a valid word.
Belgian IS NOT a valid word.
German IS a valid word.
Italian IS NOT a valid word.

Okay, not the language thing.

What about words, which apart from being nationalities, are also part of a noun, like "French letter", "Welsh cake"? So what about "Spanish omelette", "Swiss cheese", "Danish bacon", "Irish stew"? I've no idea how many of these are actually in the dictionary (whichever dictionary).

Here's what Scrabulous says:

Spanish IS NOT a valid word.
Swiss IS a valid word.
Danish IS a valid word.
Irish IS NOT a valid word.

Here are some more:

Greek IS a valid word.
Egyptian IS a valid word.
Indian IS NOT a valid word.
Mexican IS NOT a valid word.
Australian IS NOT a valid word.
Afghan IS a valid word.
British IS NOT a valid word.

Hang on... "Afghan Hounds" but no "British Bulldog"?

I don't have a full copy of the Oxford English Dictionary to hand, but can anyone shed any light on this?

We went up to Darlington last weekend to visit friends - a brave thing considering all the ridiculous amount of snow that there was on that day. For some reason Birmingham doesn't cope well with snow and the whole city grinds to a halt. In the event, it took us three hours to get three miles! And then another three hours to get about 200 miles...

But, it was a great weekend, and I was introduced to a new game - Carcassonne - a German game modelled after the French town of the same name. I was hooked, and have bought my own copy already! Watch out people who know me... I'll be asking for a game if you come round. :-)