HOW TO SET-UP FOR A MAH-JONGG GAME AND OTHER LOST ARTS IN THANE

Dust jacket notes: "Twenty year B.C. (Before Consciousness-raising), there lived a special breed of women, pioneers at the breakfront of life. They needed only the basics to survive: food, furs, and furniture. Armed merely with a tiny metal plate, they braved the jungles of Best's and De Pinna's, foraging for skins (dark ranch) and collecting rocks (blue-white). They never rested until they found the perfect maid, the perfect flatware, the perfect husband for their daughters. Where did these women get their strength? The secret lay in a centuries-old form of relaxation derived from the ancient Chinese. It is called Mah-Jongg. Once a week they gathered for the ceremony, begun by the traditional lighting of the torch lamp, the mixing of the tiles, and the arranging on the snack tables of the Barricini Bridge Mix. For a time it was feared that this way of life had been lost forever. Fear no more. How to Set Up for a Mah-Jongg Game and Other Lost Arts is not only a charming and nostalgic tribute to those wonderful women who knew when to wear velvet, it is also a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek survival guide for their daughters who don't. Thanks to the exhaustive research of Joan Gelman and Carol Rinzler, the torch lamp of ladyhood is ready to be passed to a new generation."