TRY THE DOMINO CABIN-FEVER CURE

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If those late-winter blues have got you down, take a tip from Susan Fries Ezell...

When the snow piles up to the attic window and every night seems six weeks long, any activity—work or play—that can be shared with someone else takes on a special importance.

And, as most MOTHER—type people know, television isn't the only way to fill a quiet evening (in fact, TV rates somewhere below the bottom in most any list of entertainment possibilities). Games, for instance, have provided men and women with amusement—and a means of communication— for centuries ... and dominoes is one of the oldest table games around.

Although nearly everybody discovered and discarded some type of domino game as a child, the speckled rectangles (called "bones" in domino lingo) can be used in some intricate and challenging contests. And a good domino game—no matter how complex—will never be so involved that it gets in the way of conversation. What more could you ask of a game?

CHOOSING A DOMINO SET

Most any toy shop (and many department-type stores) carries domino games. The prices of these can range from about $2.00—for a basic set of wooden bonesup to a king's ransom for the hand-tooled outfits made of ivory. Most of the latter are unnecessarily fancy, but don't automatically eliminate the slightly more expensive dominoes when you go out to buy. The texture and weight of the playthings—and the tiny "click" you hear as each piece is played—are intrinsic to the mood of the game.

Domino sets are available in three varieties: double-six, double-nine, and double-twelve. These names indicate the maximum number of dots on one bone. The double-six set, with 28 pieces, is standard ... but the larger games can make much of your playing more exciting. Start out with a cheap box of sixes, and then—once you're hooked-you'll be ready for the big ones.

MUGGINS, OR FIVE-POINT

Muggins is a good beginner's domino game (those who want to get adventurous should find a copy of The Domino Book by Fredrick Berndt, $5.95 in hard cover from Thomas Nelson, Inc.).

In fact, most people who've been exposed to the spotted blocks have encountered muggins in one of its many variations. However, few people today have tried the "formal" rules ... which make up muggins as our grandparents might have played it.

The difference between simple dominoes and all-out five-point shows up in the scoring. Though you do play by matching the number of dots (also called "pips") on a side of one of your bones to those on a domino already at an end of the "line of play" (the arrangement—on the playing table—of those pieces already set down), you can only make points when the sum of the pips on the outside ends of the series adds up to a multiple of five.

Thus in this line of play: