Oliver Laughland on the people and stories in the media spotlight in the last seven days
The story
Scrabble goes street
Now being up on your illegal drugs lingo doesn't just make you hip, it wins you points on the Scrabble board, too. As the latest Collins Official Scrabble Words reference guide is published this week, knowing the street for cocaine (gak, in case you need prompting) will garner you a legitimate eight points, while conjuring up tik (crystal meth, apparently) will earn a healthy 21 on a triple word square. Perhaps keen to distance themselves from claims that these new inclusions to the Scrabble lexicon are merely a stunt aimed at flogging a few more copies of the book, creators said they hoped this new edition would help end family disputes over just what is and isn't acceptable wordsmithery on the playing board.
The stat
£23.5m for a ...
Warhol self-portrait. Sold! To the anonymous European bidder on the phone. Following a 16-minute bidding war, this series of four photo-booth pictures fetched a record Warhol price tag. Clapping erupted as bidding ended and the work was rightly returned to a private collection, away from prying public eyes.
The quote
David Cameron
"It was a very even match, I can't remember the exact score … and I think actually, technically, probably he's a better player than me, I was just a bit more wily." Talking on Channel 4's Dispatches, the PM was quite candid about how he outfoxed his deputy over a chummy game of tennis. Bizarrely, Mr Clegg was less lucid with the details.
The tweet
@**********
This anonymous tweeter took it upon themselves to test the elastic limits of privacy and libel law by speculatively naming those who've allegedly joined the super-injunction club. The move, said the Mail, "made a mockery of the celebrity trend for using privacy injunctions to hide their identity", while the tweeter has supposedly remained dormant since.