See Spot. See Spot play. See Spot win.

My first Player of the Week of this new year is Spot_60. You're not going to hear any "out out damned Spot" when this cookie is around, she is the Switzerland of Wordox & is welcome at any tourney. She rises above the battlefield silliness & maintains a neutral position on all those ridiculous matters that make others run to the Withdrawal buttons. This calm neutrality has allowed her to fly under the radar, so I'm going to shine a light on her & bust her a little bit. Spot is a great Wordox player. When you sit across the table from her you are in deep trouble. Just the other day I watched her slap Richard off his pedestal. I'm always on edge when playing her because she tends to come up with some very creative & different words, not the usual standards. One is always en garde with a player like Spot because you never know exactly where she'll attack.

That's the player Spot. Now let's talk about the woman. I feel a kinship with her on a few levels. She is a garage band mom. Check out her son's band Critical Point & listen to a wonderfully smokey little musical excursion called Tasty (live). GarageBand.com : song profile for TASTY (LIVE!) by Critical Point There's also a song called Harry's Potter, which sounds intriguing, but I wasn't able to download it. My children & I lived in many places that did not always have garages, but we always had a band because my son is a percussionist. I've been an attic/patio/basement/garage band mom. Garage band moms have to nurture that talent, monitor practices, park their cars on the street, & stroke any neighbors that grumble. And they usually have to feed the band, which is not easy. Young male musicians are bottomless pits. They're like piranhas with guitars.

Miz Spot's profile made me smile because she quotes lyrics from a great old Robert Plant tune, Down to the Sea. Robert Plant Lyrics: Fate of Nations "When I get older....settlin' down....will you come down to the sea?" You decide Splat is all about rock & roll until you read further in her profile, where she quotes Goethe: "Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths." There's something you don't see everyday in a Hoyle profile. Yes, Spot is a rockin', classy, funny addition to the leagues. She recently joined my Creatures of the Night where she spread a little warm moonlight on our shabby bunch.

Give the lady a nice Caribbean hip bump when you see her. Then sit down & resign yourself to the fact that she's probably going to beat you in the next game.