Over two years ago Sue Parker, librarian at Himmel Park Branch Library decided to start up a Senior Games program (age 50 plus) for patrons interested in getting together and socially playing games such as chess, checkers, rummikub, scrabble, etc. I suggested we play Chinese Mahjong, which I play at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, but which I also learned back in Hawaii decades ago from Japanese-American friends on the Big Island. Sue had never played Mahjong before, but she was willing and enthusiastic to learn.

(This program is also an offshoot of the now defunct Sam Hughes Cares for Seniors program which I founded in 2005, in the Sam Hughes Neighborhood, where the library is located).

Two years later, we have taught numerous Seniors (and some younger friends), and now have 3 regular tables of four players each – patrons, neighbors, visiting “snowbirds”. Some of these Seniors learned American Mahjong style first (utilizing pre-printed cards), which is being played at the Tucson Jewish Community Center and Oro Valley Library, as well as taught at Oasis on River Road.

Know anyone interested in learning Hong Kong Simplified style or other games, please contact librarian Sue Parker at at 520-594-5305, or just show up on Mondays, 12 noon to 3 p.m. at Himmel Lbrary’s large meeting room, 1035 N. Treat Ave. (SW corner of E. 1st St.) No Senior Games when the library is closed for holidays. (Incidentally Himmel is the oldest branch library, built in 1961).

The lead teacher is now MJ Talbot, a Chinese-American immigrant from Hong Kong, assisted by myself, and Sarah Stephenson, who used to live in the People’s Republic of China. We are all members of the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Rd., phone 520-292-6900, which promotes Chinese culture and history.

More about Mahjong (sometimes spelled Mah jongg) read wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong. The version we play uses 144 tiles, but other versions (such as the Hawaiian style) uses 4 more, including animals – cat, rat, chicken, & worm. It is a game of luck and skill, similar to rummy, where you have to match sets of 4 grouping of three (or sometimes four) tiles, plus a pair of two tiles to attain “mahjong” & win. A Mahjong set (in a case) can cost about $50 or more (pictured below).

Just got my March 2012 issue of Prevention Magazine, and on pages 39 & 40 is an article entitled “7 Germiest Public Places” –enough to put the fear into anyone who dares to venture out into the public.

Here’s their list (and see if you agree with the results):

71% of gas pump handles

68% of sidewalk mailbox handles

43% of escalator rails

41% of ATM buttons

40% of parking meters

35% of crosswalk buttons

35% of vending machine buttons

The article says this research was done by Kimnberly-Clark Professional. Six major cites were studied in which testers checked for ATP (adenosine triphosphate, which exists in all bacteria.)

Noticed that the study did not include faucets of public bathrooms, which are reportedly quite dirty.

Now I know why we probably should be carrying those hand sanitizers, towelettes, or using gloves when we touch anything that other people touch. Public libraries in Pima County have those sanitizer stands to use after you touch the keys of the library computers, utilized by many patrons over the course of one 10 hour day.

Tucson doesn’t have a lot of sidewalk mailboxes left, nor a lot of escalators since we don’t have that many high-rises, but we do have elevators (whose buttons are probably just as germ covered).

Readers — do you agree with the results? Will this knowledge change your behavior in public places such as washing your hands more frequently? Yesterday I touched a pedestrian button to cross a street, and recoiled afterwards thinking of the germs on that button.

ACLU to Co-Sponsor Centennial Discussion on Civil Rights, Liberties in Arizona Over the Past 100 Years (press release)

TUCSON – Former judges, academic historians and elected officials from the City of Tucson will gather on February 12th to engage in an interactive discussion about the expansion of civil rights and liberties in Arizona over the past 100 years.

“When the ACLU was founded in Arizona in 1959, there were laws prohibiting people of different races from marrying and banning the distribution of birth control information,” said Tod Zelickson, president of the ACLU of Arizona’s Southern Chapter. “But the ACLU has led the fight to expand civil rights and liberties throughout much of Arizona’s history and since those early days, the principles of due process of law, equal protection and separation of church and state have permeated our society and become enshrined in our state Constitution and laws.”

The public forum, which is hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona’s Southern Chapter in cooperation with the Second Saturday and Centennial Committees in Tucson, will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 12th at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 160 S. Scott, Tucson, Arizona.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Paul Barby at 520-299-3778.

Panelists are:

University of Arizona Law School Dean Emeritus Charles E. Ares, who represented the ACLU of Arizona’s first client, Henry Oyama, a native Tucson resident of Japanese descent who, along with his Caucasian fiancée Mary Ann Jordan, was refused a marriage license by the Pima County Clerk. Ares was instrumental in challenging Arizona’s discriminatory miscegenation law and securing an injunction requiring the Pima County Clerk to issue the marriage license;

Retired Arizona Chief Justice Stanley Feldman, who volunteered to handle cases on behalf of the ACLU in Arizona;

Former Tucson Mayor George Miller, who previously served on the board of ACLU of Arizona’s Southern Chapter; and

ACLU of Arizona Founding Board Member Cornelius Steelink, who served as a volunteer during the 1960s and 1970s who lobbied the Arizona Legislature to repeal the miscegenation law, create public defender offices in Maricopa and Pima Counties and ratify the constitutional amendment abolishing the poll tax.

The mission of the ACLU of Arizona is to protect the civil liberties contained in the state and federal constitutions through litigation, legislative and public education. The ACLU is funded primarily through private donations and offers its services at no cost to the public. The ACLU does not accept any government funds. Nearly 3,000 ACLU members live in Southern Arizona. They’re represented by volunteers who serve on the board of the Southern Chapter of the ACLU of Arizona. The ACLU of Arizona is an affiliate of the national ACLU, which boasts a membership of 550,000 with approximately 7,000 members and supporters in Arizona. For more on ACLU’s accomplishments over the past five decades, visit: http://www.acluaz.org/about-us/accomplishments.

Contact:

Tucson: Paul Barby, ACLU of Arizona Southern Chapter, at 520 299-3778 or pmbarby@earthlink.net; or

Alessandra Soler Meetze, ACLU of Arizona, at 602-773-6006 (office) or 602-301-3705 (cell) or ameetze@acluaz.org

INFO: www.acluaz.org.

Justice Feldman and Dean Ares were interviewed on KUAT Channel 6 (click here) about the Arizona Constitution.