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12/20
12/19
12/18
21 Tuesday - December 1976
First day of winter - pilgrims landed 1620 - 356th day - 10 days to come

To Fabio (after going to S.P.I. and Felicia's - see later). Brought rules for 4 games in BEYOND COMPETITION, also the new layouts. Fabio had Fay get me a repro of rules, and several of the layouts.
He showed me David Parlett's idea for CARDS WITHOUT CARDS, a book of tearout sheet games. One he sent was called GANG-ABOO GANG-ABOOT. On a 7x8 layout, with the four corners missing, a complete deck of cards is represented in an irregular array. One player starts at the center (which is marked for each card) and dr of the [arrow pointing up]A and draws a line to a 2 of any other of the other 3 suits. Then the next player draws to a three of a different suit from the two. Etc., going from K. to A. A player who cannot play without crossing a line of his color (but may just touch an end) loses his turn but may be able to play later. Reaching each suit gives a different score but didn't get details.
There was an illustrative game and at one point we couldn't see why a player lost his turn when there seemed to be a card that he could reach. (later realized that it was probably the same suit.)
David said that he has several other games, including one with bidding.
He showed me another of David's ideas - COMPETITIVE CROSSWORDS. There is a blank crossword diagram - with less common letters than a regular puzzle. One word is printed in place as a starter. Players in turn fill in a word that crosses at least one word already down. The score is the length of the word times the number of crossings.
David said that this game was going to be published as a board game in England. I told Fabio it is probable [sic] better with p&p, since finding letter tiles can be a nuisance. He thought it would be played with a hand - but I doubt it.
Fabio thought that an idea of a competitive crossword puzzle was something new. I said that David's approach was new, but others have been done - none with any success.
In his letter David spoke of knowing me. I told Fabio about G&P and will bring copies for him when I go there next time. Fabio gave me a copy of BEYOND SOLITAIRE he had around. And I had Fay order another 10 copies for me.
While I was out, BB got a call from Art Bernstein. Has some questions on BACKGAMMON and would like me to call tomorrow morning


(cont. on 12/20)

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