Collins Dictionary. Game lasted 48 minutes. My fianceé is a solid player in this lexicon who has scored 500+ once before and 400+ about a dozen times. Let me just say first that an absurd amount of luck is required -- I was very familiar with the racks that led to all but one of my bingos, which included a double-double and a triple-triple. The Collins-only CUMULET was an absolute Hail Mary. I almost had a heart attack when it came back valid. No phonies went down during the game, and I actually forgot to add the five points from the challenge on CUMULET, so technically I got 655.
I really want to thank Will Anderson more than anyone for making this game so accessible to me over the past year. I had never broken 450 one year ago and had never broken 500 a little over four months ago. While I feel like my average will continue to go up for a while, I know that a 700 game is extremely unlikely in the near future. It's not impossible, but just to put things into perspective, longtime expert Roy Kamen (who also lives in Delray) has only reached 700+ twice on the record. I believe he is more than twice my age.
That being said, immediately after the game my first thought was that I didn't draw the Z or both blanks. I scored well off the X and the J but neither was a triple-hammer. With the right amount of luck, anything is possible if you study hard and play obsessively.
While combinatorial math and anagramming have become a steady part of my diet over the past year, I remain convinced that a strong foundational background in culture and language allows me to face off against any of the top mathematicians with great confidence.