I think this week it’s a toss-up between Thurman and Friend. Friend’s piece is full of great quotes and is very funny. I e-mailed it to a couple marketing friends of mine, and to our middle son, who really enjoyed Friend’s “cable guy” article a couple of years ago. But … when all is said and done and the tiles are toted up, POTI this week has to go to Thurman’s “Spreading The Word,” does it not? I mean, if the test of a great piece is whether it catches your attention and holds it, in spite of the subject matter, well, as Pauline Kael would say, that’s not nothing! I cannot abide Scrabble. Nevertheless, I loved Thurman’s piece for the writing, which combines words, quotes, and ideas in heretofore unheard of and beautiful combos, e.g., “At lexulous.com, you can choose a practice game against the computer, although, compared with Maven or Quackle, the Agarwallas’ digital mastermind is a nitwit who leaves the triple-word scores undefended, offers lame hints, misses bingos, and squanders the blanks, and whom I beat at least half the time.” The surreal reality of a sentence like that trumps whole essays by Jill Lepore!