Teach and Jongg in Big Bambu

Well, Betsey demonstrated why she's Queen Kong of SANE with a brilliant evening of clicking tiles and largely missed opportunities for global -- wait, that's "table" -- domination. Thanks for the comprehensive run-through, and for complementing the rest of us on how brilliant and quick we all are. We couldn't have done it without Mme. B, or her intruguing sets of tiles, or her patience and ever-so-slight bemusement.

There, that was all relatively nice commentary without even a rough edge to it. I can, occasionally, be nice. Next time, I'll try to do so without pointing it out later, and then I may finally turn into a Real Boy.

Future Meeting info:

June Meeting: Tuesday 24 June 2008

We'll be "doing paste paper." Pasting do paper. Pasting paper doo. Paper do paste. Paper don't preach. Please rescue my brane, it's beginning to sound like Zippy in here.

Somebody who knows what this is should remind me, and I'll get the word out. If you all know about it and I don't, that's fine, I'll just eat.

LobsterGlobsterFester: Saturday 26 July 2008

Be there, or be sad. Lobsters will be boiled, clams will slip out of their dainty necks and down ours. Will we shuck corn, and will we care? The Missus' [sic] gone away! We will continue the search for elusive Rock Lobsters in the swimmin' hole/quarry. Merriment will ensue (for enlibel, no endoubt).

Mme. Betsey reports:

I was somewhat fearful that playing Mah Jong would generate a lot of chow kong pung chatter and jokes.  Yup, it has.  Oh, well.

Which reminds me - be sure to catch Mah and Pah Jongg Go Fishin', starring Erika Jongg, King Kong, and Andy Roonie (as young Chow Jongg) on Lifetime next Wednesday, at 13 o'clock. The touching story of a set of domino tiles that goes tragically wrong, but manages to cross the cultural gap and resurface, different, yet somehow better for the experience. And, since it's on the Lifetime channel, it eventually kills its overbearing husband. Yay!

Pinocchio

P.S. Monstro says "Hey!"

Mah? Izzat You? It's me, Little Jongg.

Who: SANE members
What: Next Meeting
When: Tuesday 20 May 2008, 7:00 pm EDT
Where: Pam A's Convention Center
Why: Asian Dominoes, Canton Canasta, Ceramic Rummy, Kong Pong Jongg Phooey, Throw in the Tile, That Game They Played in Joy Luck Club, Another Brick in the Wall - whatever you want to call it, just don't call it late for dinner.
What?: That's right, the inscrutable Bitsy San, TileMeister Extraordinaire, will wheedle and cajole us through a game or three of Mah Jongg. No scoring, just click and clack our way to SANE Satori.
But...: No butts, ifs or other conjunctions! Get your butts over to the meeting and get ready to take a direction (N,S, E or W), and then take some direction (about how to play).
N.B.: If there are only seven of us, Bitsy will have to take part as the fourth person in two four-person games. If we come up with 10 people, she'll have to play three games (which would be fairer than playing two positions in a single game). What will happen? Will the dominoes all fall down? The only way to find out is to be there! (or be a six-sided polygon).

On a separate note, this week Dy and I went to a fancy-schmancy MFA presentation thingus and saw a movie by animator Karen Aqua and her musician hubby Whatsis Shade O'Blue and at the end of the film there was a big thanks to... Mr. Flip! Yay to Flip! We stood up and interrupted the whole proceedings and yelled "We know him! He's in SANE!" until we were beaten up and thrown out of the building.*

On another note, also separated, I am informed that there were people at the last SANE meeting who did more beadwork than they were credited with in my largely dismissive summary. I won't mention any of them by name, but they all worked like little beady beavers and made more beadage apiece than I did, so there! I'd apologize for having been flip, because I'm not Flip, I'm...

Richard "No-Tiles" McBeadly

* Some of this story may have been slightly exaggerated, to enliven the narrative.

Mah Jongg est You Jongg

Mizz Betzey has advice for them what wants to learn how to Mah-Jongg (literally: "My finger got savagely pinched between those two tiles there"):

Here is a website that I think is relatively clear about the game which is confusing.  It might help if people read a bit about it if only to get familiar with the tiles. (There are only 3 suits--characters, bamboo and circles).  The start of the game, the East seat etc. can be ignored in beginner games.  The main thing to learn is the setting up of the "wall", picking up and discarding, and when to yell out kong pong or chow.  I still get confused after 4 years of playing.  If you look at the site and get too confused, I can really simplify it.  Let me know what you think.  Remember, this is Chinese Mahjong, not American mj.

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~clay/mahjongg/rules.html

Read carefully. "A player's own wind" means something entirely different from what I expected.
I had one question about the above, and I'm sure that when you read the article, that one thing will be something that you need clarification about, and Betzey confirmed my suspicions: her crack has numbers.
Just in case that explanation isn't clear, the "characters" suit is known conversationally as "crack," and it is important to know what the numbers are in order to make Chows (numerical runs, or sequences). The "crack" tiles on Betzey's Mah-Jongg set have Arabic numerals (in addition to the Chinese symbols for numbers), to make it easier for us Murcans.

Possible mnemonic devices:
Mah-Jongg: Pa Jongg couldn't stop staring at Ma Jongg's four sets and a pair.
Kong: That giant gorilla just swatted "four" airplanes outa the sky.
Pong: One of those kinda stinks, but "three" of them together really give off a rude pong.
Chow: I had some chow a while ago, and now I have the "runs."

Meeting scheduled for Tuesday 20 May. More info to come.