Board Games

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It started as therapy.Two women from Carmel, Calif. -- who once shared the ups and downs of their marriages -- began talking to each other about the pain of their divorces.Divorce attorneys. Child custody laws. California's no-fault system. All that serious stuff that wore them down physically and emotionally. Eventually, after long afternoon talks around their kitchen tables, the two began to see the absurdity of the whole process."We started seeing the humor in everything," says Jean Moritz, "like the friend we have who found some clothes that belonged to her husband's new girlfriend in the trunk of her car. She got so upset that she drove around town passing out the clothes to homeless people."

Q: Is my old "Major League Indoor Base Ball" game in its original wooden box by the Philadelphia Mfg. Co. valuable?It has all of its pieces which are in very good condition. There are photographs of 16 players, including Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner on the box top, which has a few stains.A: Your rare circa 1912 board game could be a championship addition to any baseball memorabilia collection.Another copy in comparable condition hit a whopping $3,080 at Noel Barrett Antiques & Auctions Ltd.'s June 1992 auction of the Siegel Collection of Games and Toys.

E. W. Beck's can have a game room with darts, a pool table and video games in the Sykesville restaurant, Carroll County's liquor board decided yesterday.But board members said the pub's two owners -- Brian William Beck, 28, and Joseph Scott Beck, 24, both of Columbia -- are going to have to pay more attention to the county's liquor laws."I think it is important they show to this board a willingness to comply with our regulations," said board member Russell Mayer in voting to give the game room a six-month trial.

And you thought Norm drinking all that beer was a trivial pursuit.Now anyone who ever loved "Cheers" can toast his or her favorite TV saloon with a test of Boston taproom knowledge.Yes, it's time for "Cheers: The Board Game."Actually, the official title is "Cheers" Trivia Board Game (Classic, $24.99 suggested retail price). The game has been on sale for about a year and has been selling fairly well but, according to Joe Carey of The Game Keeper in Towson Town Center, sales are "picking up."

Did your resume get lost in the avalanche of all those others submitted by idealistic baby boomers who want to go to Washington to change the world and drive a BMW?Have you been sitting anxiously by the phone wondering how somebody as brilliant and savvy as you could have been overlooked by a guy from Arkansas?Has your last chance for moving out of your parents' house and getting a real life slipped through your fingers like grits off a razorback?Did you just bend your last saxophone reed?

Severn basketball coach Jim Doyle knew Brad Fowler could score. He just wasn't sure if his star player could rebound as well after averaging 2.0 per game last season.Some questions about the senior's weakness have been answered in 10 games this season."He had to change his whole outlook and philosophy about basketball," Doyle said of Fowler, who switched from shooting guard to power forward and is averaging 6.1 rebounds. "It's been frustrating for him when teams play zones. He's been playing with his back to the basket for the first time.

ATLANTA -- Once again, Robert E. Lee studies the thin blue line of soldiers huddled behind a field of boulders just outside Gettysburg.Dare he send 12,000 Confederates out across a vast field against this beleaguered center of the Union army? Or is it better to retreat -- even though victory appears a bayonet thrust away.We all know what Lee decided. Now it's your turn. Will you change history or blunder worse than Lee did 129 years ago.At last, the Civil War has come to the world of Macintosh.

It's not too soon to start mourning the passing of the traditional board game.Considering that versions of Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and Boggle are being cranked out for various Nintendo game systems, it can't be long until every board game from Trivial Pursuit to Chutes and Ladders will come complete with keyboard music and a strobing video screen.Standard Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, and hand-held Nintendo GameBoy versions of Monopoly have been on the market since last fall.Sega plans to release versions of Monopoly and Clue in the fall for its Genesis 16-bit system.

What with Nintendo and other electronic entertainments, the age of the board game is almost at an end. Sure, there are still some Monopoly zealots out there and some 5-year-olds moving their way around Candyland, but you won't find a board game based on "Beverly Hills, 90210" or "Roseanne."Not like the good old days.By the good old days I mean the '50s and '60s when, for one thing, there was a board game based on almost every successful television show.For instance, there was the "Leave It to Beaver" Money Maker Game (share Beaver's ingenious and often disastrous attempts at earning money)

On any given Tuesday or Saturday, Robert Watts may make a decision that will reshape the world -- whatever world he may be in that night.Watts, 32, is president of the Glen Burnie Gaming Association (GBGA), a small group of about a dozen gaming devotees who gather twice a week to play board games, manipulate historical military miniaturesor guide colorful characters through fantastic worlds set in the distant past or far-flung future."Chess was originally invented to teach princes how to commit war. I started playing chess in junior high school," explains Watts, whois a computer repairman.