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6/1 5/31 5/30 5/29 TUESDAY 2 JUNE 1970 153rd day - 212 days to come

While waiting for Pierre in the lobby looked at a copy of Paris Match (May 23rd, 1970). They had what they called a "game" called PIXIE. It was supposed to be a rage in the U.S. with all the newspapers having contests. (I never saw it.) It consists of commic cartoons using letters and/or numbers instead of animate characters. (For example:- in the series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 is saying "I'm sure I was here before you.") Pierre picked us up at the hotel. Drove us to a book store where I bought RÉCRÉATIONS MATHÉMATIQUES (4 Vols.) par Éduoard Lucas. (Total cost 40f.) He took us to a book store run by a friend who published a book on GO and a set for playing it. He would have liked to meet me but he wasn't there. To Pierre's house. Looked at his books and at a pile of games sent to him for review by manufacturers. At end of evening took the following along with me to look at and return tomorrow:- LE TRIOKER, ÉCHEC AUX CHEVALIERS, MACADAM, ELDORADO, RAFOLE!, REPORTAGES. He had a complete set of reprints of SPHINX, a French magazine on Recreational math published in the 30's, bound in 3 volumes. I looked thru part of them. Saw LE JEU DU COLORIAGE. An area is divided into irregularly shaped smaller areas (as in a map). 2 to 4 play. Players in turn place a marker of their color in any unoccupied space, ex- cept next to one in which they already have a marker. Instead of placing a marker they may slide one to an adjacent space, under the same limitations. When no player can place a further marker the game is over and the most markers placed wins. Also saw LA BATAILLE DES NOMBRES. Players (2 I believe) in turn choose one of the numbers from 1 to 20, which wasn't used before. Track is kept of the cumulative total. A player scores that amount when he reaches a total that is a "power." He loses the amount of a "power" he must, or chooses to, pass over. (The rules do not seem to be complete.) Took the set of SPHINX with me to look at also. Pierre showed me some of his columns in SCIENCE ET VIE. Also the one in WORD WAYS. He also does a weekly puzzle for a right wing newspaper - using a nom de plume. He is also doing puzzles for an African magazine. One of his columns dealt with "Word Ladders," and I told him of Lewis Carroll's claimed invention of the pastime. He had the book DIVERSIONS & DIGRESSIONS and I pointed out DOUBLETS, SYZYGIES, and LANRICK which he hadn't seen. A friend of Pierre's who is the artist for his book and who also works with Pierre on games came in after supper. I showed them COMBINATION. Pierre showed me HILLS & VALLEYS. This is a solitaire played with a regular deck. Starting with the upper left hand corner a 7 x 7 square (the last 3 cards not being used) is formed by (cont. on 6/1)