Life’s hard. There are few pleasures for us working stiffs, us desk jockeys who stare at a computer all day. I honestly don’t know what the working class did before they had the Internet on their desktops, and I don’t want to know. The point is that it’s 2008, and that means in between creating Excel documents and Power Point Presentations and getting the TPS reports to the boss’ desk we need some time to relax while stimulating our brains. If we can simultaneously prove that our word power is better than the word power of the boyfriend of someone we went to Sunday School with, then all the better.

And that is why Scrabulous on Facebook was awesome.

Just a little application on a social networking site that allowed you to play a scrabble-style game with all your long lost friends. You could play at any pace you wanted, sometimes thinking about your next move over the course of a long weekend, sometimes after visiting a site that no one would ever guess you knew about. And if your word wasn’t a real one, the computer just didn’t let you play it. The perfect way to relax and prove yourself better than your internet friends.

BUT! A little company called “Hasbro,” a company that has a monopoly on three-dimensional games, decided that “Scrabulous” too closely resembled “Scrabble,” despite the fact that “Scrabble” cannot be played between emails with some Australian girl who now lives in London. So mean old Hasbro sued the lovely gentlemen who gave us Scrabulous and coerced Facebook to remove the application.

This sad fact was discovered by a distraught blogosphere on the morning of Tuesday, July 29.

You can learn more about this debacle:

The Save Scrabulous Facebook Group

The History of Scrabble via Wikipedia

News of the demise of Scrabulous via a third party

A little more history on Scrabulous v. Hasbro

and finally,

The word I was about to put down against Lara for at least a 22 point score before this application was ripped from our computers.

So what can we do? I think Hasbro is being pig-headed in this. Instead of seeing an opportunity for selling even more games to a Scrabble-hungry population, they saw copyright infringement. But they give us no other option! If they were to develop their own competing facebook application, we’d all hop on board, I’m sure. They could do something. I don’t know what. But I do know that in the meantime, I’m refusing to buy any Hasbro products. I’ll be in hell before you see me with Mr. Potato Head or My Little Pony. And my next board game purchase will certainly not be Candy Land or Clue. Shame on you, Hasbro!

If you’re pissed, too, write them an email.

And while you’re at it, join the boycott by grabbing a badge, courtesy of the illustrious Dutchess of Kickball and her graphic skills.

We shall overcome! Maybe we should get Obama on our cause. I bet he’s all for the working stiff who just needs a little wordplay to get through the day.