How could you throw that tile??? Were you set???
I hope my devoted readers forgive me for not posting for awhile - I'M A GRANDMA!!!!! (kvell, kvell, kvell!!!) Simone Beth Barry came into the world 12/10/12 - a very auspicious date,I'm going to call her Big Hand Baby! So now I am in the grandma club and I ask you other grandmas - when should I teach her to play? I'm thinking it's too soon, but she looks so bright. I'm sure she can pick it up in no time. No? Not yet? Well, true, she doesn't fit into the onesie (see left) yet...
In other news: The NMJL newsletter has come. It's time to order your 2013 cards. This always creates a dilemma for me - how many cards to buy. I usually get around seven. I invariably lose one or two, loan one or two and use a few to teach with. It's January now and somehow I only have two left out of the seven I bought originally. Sometimes I find them two years later hidden away in a set I rarely use. Then I wonder, how many large print, how many small? Decisions, decisions.
There's a little controversy brewing about the tournament rule which requires you to place a called tile on your rack and not in your hand. There is no NMJL rule that says you must do this, but tournaments have been implementing this rule to eliminate cheating. Read about it on the Mahjongg Madness FB page and see what you think. The rule was implemented to prevent tile palming; i.e., taking a six bam when you called a six dot and quickly popping it into your hand which had both six bams and six dots in it. Who would ever do that? You may be surprised.....
2012 brought a growing trend in mahjongg - playing at restaurants and public places. My group has been giving it a try. It was a little bumpy last week when ten of us stormed in and overwhelmed the sole waitress. Sorry, Nicole! We'll try again this week and maybe plan a little better. Many people are using back rooms in diners, Chinese restaurants and Whole Foods cafes to eat a little lunch and play - easier than trying to accommodate everyone's dietary needs. (I'm back on Weight Watchers, and nothing throws me off track more than having nosh around for "all the other girls"...)
So play like a demon because there's not a lot of time left on this card. Have you made every hand yet? I think I have but I'm not sure, so next year I will follow the lead of my friend, Myra, and put a dot next to a hand I've made and see when and if I make all of them. Some groups make a contest out of it - whoever gets all the hands first wins....what? Lunch sounds good to me!
Oh, and here's another question - do any of you grandmas out there babysit and play at the same time? Someone really needs to write Grandma's Book of Mahjongg...
Happy new year, all!
In other news: The NMJL newsletter has come. It's time to order your 2013 cards. This always creates a dilemma for me - how many cards to buy. I usually get around seven. I invariably lose one or two, loan one or two and use a few to teach with. It's January now and somehow I only have two left out of the seven I bought originally. Sometimes I find them two years later hidden away in a set I rarely use. Then I wonder, how many large print, how many small? Decisions, decisions.
There's a little controversy brewing about the tournament rule which requires you to place a called tile on your rack and not in your hand. There is no NMJL rule that says you must do this, but tournaments have been implementing this rule to eliminate cheating. Read about it on the Mahjongg Madness FB page and see what you think. The rule was implemented to prevent tile palming; i.e., taking a six bam when you called a six dot and quickly popping it into your hand which had both six bams and six dots in it. Who would ever do that? You may be surprised.....
2012 brought a growing trend in mahjongg - playing at restaurants and public places. My group has been giving it a try. It was a little bumpy last week when ten of us stormed in and overwhelmed the sole waitress. Sorry, Nicole! We'll try again this week and maybe plan a little better. Many people are using back rooms in diners, Chinese restaurants and Whole Foods cafes to eat a little lunch and play - easier than trying to accommodate everyone's dietary needs. (I'm back on Weight Watchers, and nothing throws me off track more than having nosh around for "all the other girls"...)
So play like a demon because there's not a lot of time left on this card. Have you made every hand yet? I think I have but I'm not sure, so next year I will follow the lead of my friend, Myra, and put a dot next to a hand I've made and see when and if I make all of them. Some groups make a contest out of it - whoever gets all the hands first wins....what? Lunch sounds good to me!
Oh, and here's another question - do any of you grandmas out there babysit and play at the same time? Someone really needs to write Grandma's Book of Mahjongg...
Happy new year, all!
our group has been using this rule for a while, makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Grandma!!! Your granddaughter is beautiful and I know she will become a fine player within a few months. Babysitting while playing is an excellent idea, as long as you let the other players take turns holding little Simone.
ReplyDeleteAs to the rest of your excellent post: I wish the NMJL would explain their rule change instead of just handing it down. What is the reasoning behind it? Why is there seemingly so little give and take, so little interaction, between the league and the players? Why is their website so woefully out of date? I hope you're planning to go to the meeting again this year, and that you'll ask your readers for input/feedback for you to present to Mrs. Ungar.
Great to see you back, Linda!
Hi again, Amy.
DeleteThe rule isn't a League rule, and they have not endorsed this rule. It is being implemented strictly at tournaments, so the newsletter was the League's way of saying that it is not a rule change.
I do plan on going to the meeting and will bring up the concerns that people have expressed, but do not really expect there to be any changes - if there were to be, they would have stated so in the newsletter.
Thanks for being a loyal reader!
Congratulations on your beautiful baby granddaughter, and I'm glad to see you haven't given up on your blog - I was getting worried!
ReplyDeleteI read Gladys's rationale for the tournament rule a couple of weeks ago right after we got the newsletter from NMJL, and my reaction was, "How sad & disappointing that players would stoop so low!" -- but in a tournament setting,it makes sense to have a strict rule to avoid any possibility of cheating... Hopefully we can all still trust our friends to abide by standards of courtesy and honesty & this won't become an issue in home games!
Wow, adorable picture! Congratulations on a health beautiful baby. I see a full head of hair coming in too already.
ReplyDelete