Tag Archives: Standard Oil

ANOTHER TOBY SALK CONTRIBUTION…

Here’s another photo found by the wonderful Toby Salk and this one is quite historic. From The Great Mahjong Book: History, Lore, and Play by Jelte Rep we learn that our beloved game was brought to our shores in 1920 by Joseph P. Babcock, an expat working for Standard Oil while living in Shanghai. Babcock and his wife were great lovers of the mystical Chinese tile game. Here is a bio of Babcock by Jelte Rep:

And here is the historic photo that Toby found…It is Joseph P. Babcock and his wife enjoying an evening of Mah-Jongg with their friends…we might be living almost 100 years later since the game came to America but we recreate this scene daily (maybe without the formal evening clothes!).

COULD MAH JONGG BE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH? (SAY IT ISN’T SO!)

From an article written in 2007:

Cover art

All Shook Up About Mah-jongg

By Lenore Skenazy

Mah-jongg maybe can cause a little heartburn, if you hit the Sara Lee between games, or, God forbid, some palpitations if the game is taking so long you’re worried you’ll be late for the podiatrist. But seizures? Continue reading →

MAH JONGG HISTORY…OR MYTHOLOGY?

Next up in our series of Yahoo Contributor Network articles is one written in 2007 on the history of the game of Mah Jongg. Although I have heard many people say that this game dates back to the time of Confucius (551–479 BC), there is much evidence showing that the game only dates back to a little over 100 years. No matter how old this game may be, I think you will find the following article to be of interest. In fact, anything about our beloved game always seems to be of interest to me!

The Game of Mah Jongg – History, Mythology, Fact and Fiction

kimadagem

kimadagem, Yahoo Contributor Network
Feb 14, 2007
In recent years the game of Mah Jongg has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity on the Internet
and personal computers around the world. But the people happily clicking away on all those
pretty tiles probably don’t realize that the game they’re playing is at least a hundred years old. It
may, in fact, be significantly older than that.

Continue reading →