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7/4 THURSDAY 10 JULY 1969 191st day - 174 days to come

Finished and sent the letter to Lech.

Arthur & Wald over for supper. Showed them THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS and they were moderately interested. They showed me another HIGH DECK PUZZLE. One card is out to determine 12 cards that finally will be used. The house of the cut card determines the house that all the cards of which will be used. The rank of the cut card is used for determining 4 corner cards of a different colored house ([flower shape] & [right arrow], [circle] & [trapezoid shape]). The rank of the cut card is used, then the next lower of the same hier- archy, then the next lowest of the other hierarchy, and finally the next lower of that hierarchy. (For example, if P[flower shape] is cut all the [flower shape]s are used and also these four [right arrow]s P, F, M, V.) After the card is seen the deck is reshuffled adn dealt face up into an 8 x 4 layout. All except the 12 chosen cards are removed. The four cards of the second house are moved to the nearest corners and if these are occuppied the corner card is exchanged with the card moving to the corner. Play then is made by combining cards of the same or adjacents ranks or corresponding majors & minors. Cards next to each other orthogonally (without other cards between) or at corners of an otherwise empty rectangle can be combined. Cards can be placed on the corner cards but the corners cannot be moved until the end when the game is finished (if the player is successful) by taking one corner and moving it around, either clockwise or counter-clockwise to pick up the other three corners. They showed me another version of ALCHEMY. (Their names, of course, are used over and over again.)

[diagram of 8 x 8 grid, some spaces marked with letters/circles and some with letters/trapezoids]

The cards as shown are layed out in the spaces of an imag- inary 8 x 8 layout. The shaded rectangles represent facedown cards. Players in turn make a move until a player has no remaining move, in which case he loses. Each player for his first move only may, if he wishes, move one of him minor cards one space orthogonally to an empty space. Moves otherwise are either:- Combining moves which are made according to the rules (see above game) of position and rank. Players can move their card onto (cont. on 7/4)