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23 SUNDAY - DECEMBER 1973
FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT - 357TH DAY - 8 DAYS TO COME


Telephone call from Jerry D'Arcey. All his things bounced with P. He spoke [with] Andrea Donahue recently and she said that they can't do any fancy plastic games due to the oil shortage. Jerry thinks this might help to cut down Marvin Glass' edge.
Jerry has a simple - but timely - card game he calls FILL 'ER UP. He is thinking of putting it out himself with the hope that P. will take it over.
Frank Thibault didn't place anything this year.

Doing some thinking on FOREIGN INTRIGUE. Decided to cut the number of "identity" cards from 36 to 28, which is half of the total possible combinations. At first thought that I could set it up so that each combination of two numbers appeared in the same number of "identity" numbers. Discovered that it couldn't be done but got as close as I could - all appear in 3 "identities" except for 2 that appear in 2 "identities" and another 2 that appear in 4 "identities."
Decided on the following division of 108 cards:
28 Identity; 56 Assignment; 18 Spy Names; 6 Spy Lists. The "Identity" cards will be dealt out - 7 to a player. The rest are placed face down. A player giving an assignment chooses three cards and places them face up in front of the chosen player. This player picks them up and chooses one which he passes to the original player - face down, so that the remainder of the players don't know which one he takes. The two not chosen are placed face down at the bottom of the deck. The returned card is kept by the player and he draws two more from the deck.

Rcd. [received] THE GENERAL (Nov. - Dec. '73 [November - December 1973] - Vol. 10 # 4). Contains a new scenario for AFRIKA KORPS called OPERATION CRUSADER; article on D-DAY; a version of PANZERBLITZ with hidden movement; article on STALINGRAD; a variation of RICHTHOFEN'S WAR called ARCHIE; article on LUFTWAFFE,; mention of BUSINESS STRATEGY; a number of ads for, among other games, CHANCELLORSVILLE - including an offer of $25 for one in good condition.

Sent X'Mas card to Warren Buell. Mentioned FITTING & PROPER, THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS, PATTON, and HOLIDAY.

TIMES had an article in financial section - "The Toy Industry's Game Plan". Had pictures of FRANCE 1940, EXECUTIVE DECISION, DIET, & IMAGE, but no mention of them in the text. The text mentions BOWL BOUND and PAYDIRT (both football games attributed to Sports Illustrated), DEAR ABBY, MONOPOLY, BACKGAMMON, LANDSLIDE, THE WATERGATE GAME, THE GODFATHER GAME, JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL, BOBBY ORR HOCKEY, MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. (Filed in '73 Misc. [1973 miscellaneous]) Sent X'Mas [Christmas] card to Roger Verhulst. Mentioned HUEMANIA TIC-TAC-TOE, ACQUIRE, PATTON, HOLIDAY, and THE INTERNATIONAL GAME SHOW.