I've started to read "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players" by Stefan Fatsis, the book that had us going on the non-word 'abceghilnoprtuy' a while back. I'm only 60 pages in, but already this holds promise as a source for generating some interesting word discussions, or if nothing else, providing opportunities for crossthreads.

one of the first things that came up was Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics, founded by Dmitri Borgmann (author of "Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought")
which led me to this link:
http://www.wordways.com/articles.htm