Our mothers taught us to stay silent if we didn’t have something nice to say. Mae West suggested that if we didn’t have anything nice to say, we should sit next to her! And yet none of that is really the issue with mahjong.

American mahjong is an adaptation of the Chinese game. Contrary to what I believed when I first started playing, the original Chinese version is not ‘ancient’. It came to popularity with Chinese aristocracy sometime in the 1880s and to the United States by wealthy American travelers who were enamoured of the beautiful  tiles and the excitement of the game.

And this year's card is amazing- regardless of the two relatively minor typos. Remember, the words in the parentheses are the actual instructions, and there are no typos there. This year there are dozens of new hands, twenty-eight unique patterned hands, and even a zero in a non-year hand!

Once we outgrow the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus stage, there are precious few things that we look forward to with that kind of excitement.

There’s a difference between being a germaphobe and freaking out when you realize you’re in the presence of someone with a cold.

I’m not going to encourage anyone to put down their Mahjong tiles and tackle the dust bunnies under their beds, swap popcorn dinners for quinoa bowls, or clean up their sailor’s vocabulary when I have no intention of doing any of those things myself.

So many choices. If one is good, two is better.

… and thank goodness for mahjong!

Wait, there is "Mahjong Etiquette"?

There are a bazillion reasons to play, what’s yours?

In a word, nope. Not really.