From the Archives is a series of reposted articles from a previous iteration of The Lindeman Daily. There is more information about that iteration of the site in the About section, but the gist is that each post is a satirical news article sensationalizing the life of a college student/recent graduate. Most of these pieces are over 10 years old; some have aged like wine while others have aged like milk. And like aged wine and aged milk, they are probably more palatable when all mixed together. Enjoy!
Originally published April 16, 2011
After three days of intense braining and not-so-subtle wordplay, Tommy Lindeman finished ahead of Jack Lindeman in tough game of Words with Friends, Thursday morning at Princeton University.
Lindeman (1-1) started the game off with “hoised,” a word of dubious authenticity. Lindeman (1-1) quickly followed up with “eatings,” the long word gobbling up several bonus squares. Thus began, on April 11, at 12:21 PM, the second battle of their dramatic verbal war.
“I was pretty surprised with my efforts,” said T. Lindeman, Class of 2014, who is currently procrastinating. “I jumped out to an early lead, and just led from there. After [J. Lindeman’s] performance in the first game, I didn’t expect him to start out so slowly.”
The Lindeman-Lindeman rivalry can be traced all the way back to the first match, beginning Saturday, April 9 at 1:05 PM on a bus on their way back from a crew race in Philadelphia. A competition filled with high-point nouns, such as “vendetta,” “valor,” “rinks,” and “bench,” the final move was played by J. Lindeman, Class of 2011, the ten-point “beta” moving his score from 308 to 318. T. Lindeman’s score of 318 was pushed back to 317, the single “i” left in his hand subtracted from his score. J. Lindeman’s final word stung, and following the match, T. Lindeman had an identity crisis. He ultimately changed his username from “BigSavagePenis696969” to “tommylindeman.”
“That match was really close,” J. Lindeman said during an interview this morning. “I came into it not knowing what to expect from him. He’d been playing really hard for a week before I even downloaded, but he had only been playing scrubs. I had no idea how he would play against me.”
T. Lindeman would not comment on the first game.
The second match was not as much fun for J. Lindeman. In a message sent to T. Lindeman during the game, he said “BTW, I have only gotten the worst tiles every single time… it’s not even funny. I have letters you can’t even use with letters ever. I have four of the same letter. It’s the worst.”
Not only lacking in good characters, he sometimes lacked in good character. At one point during the first match, he sent an instant message to T. Lindeman, simply stating “You smell.” Despite this “badittude,” J. Lindeman was still a formidable opponent, and T. Lindeman felt nothing but respect for his rival. “I really felt like I was on my heels most of the [second] game. I may have been ahead for a lot of it, but he was still within striking distance. He could have caught up with one big word at any time.”
Again, the match came down to the last few words. Down by 25 points with 347-372 (close since a single word can often reach above 50 points), J. Lindeman made his last move, spelling out “coy”. Despite having the four point “c” on a triple-letter-score square, it was not enough, only pulling in 16 points. Since T. Lindeman again had a single tile left, his score was pulled down a point, setting the final at 363-371.
“It was tough, but I pulled through,” said T. Lindeman. When asked if he had any advice for the kids out there who wanted to “have it all” and “make it big” with Words with Friends, he responded “No.”
The intense rivalry continues with two matches occurring simultaneously. They are expected to finish within the next couple of days.
Tommy Lindeman is a freshman at Princeton University. This is his first article.