Greetings and salutations from your mahj-loving Bubbe, here to tell you about the amazing event coming next week!
If you haven't been on the internet (specifically social media) lately, you may have missed the news that an intrepid foursome is planning to BREAK THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for playing mah jongg--their goal is to play together for 48 consecutive hours. Their quest is called "Mahj48," and the ladies will be playing at The Pickle Bar in Summervile, South Carolina, beginning at noon on Sunday, June 28th. What's exciting for all of US is that we have the opportunity to watch it--in real time--on YouTube!
The project was envisioned by Nancy de Zutter, who is actually the newest of the players, experience-wise. Nancy calls herself a "game person," loving all sorts of mental and competitive challenges, and when she began playing mahj a little less than three years ago, she fell in love with it—obviously! Once she mastered the game, she signed up to become an instructor, and created Cane Bay Mah Jongg in Summerville, where she teaches classes and runs tournaments.
Nancy was living her best retirement life when a local pickleball group succeeded in breaking the Guinness World Record for longest play. It inspired her to try for the same with the game she loved, and she very bravely contacted some recognized leaders in the mahj community, ones she did not know well but figured would be her "dream table". She was shocked when they all said "yes"! These other players' names will likely be much more familiar to many of you:
Jan Egri, the administrator of "Mah Jongg, That's It!"—the Facebook group that recently surpassed 250,000 members, as well as the director of "Mother of All Dragons," a tournament group based in Florida
Michele Frizzell, the premiere online Mah Jongg instructor and creator of "Mahj Life," an Instructors' Guild that trains new teachers
and Jennifer Clayton, the "youngster" of the group, co-director of Mah Jongg Fever, one of the largest National tournament organizations
The process of attempting Guinness Record status is quite elaborate, and one of the key elements is submitting documents for verification. Nancy and the group must provide a video record (including time stamps) substantiating the entire 48 hour effort. There will be videographers as well as official witnesses monitoring the legitimacy of play and all of the timed breaks. They are allowed a five-minute break after 60 consecutive minutes of play, and are allowed to accumulate, or “chunk,” their breaks if they so wish.
Fortunately, both Nancy and Michele are well-suited to this project; between them, they have a good handle on getting sponsors, as well as all the logistics and technology savvy required to make this a success. Michele has been working with live-stream and recorded videos for years, now, and Nancy’s previous career was at QVC, although not in the technology/video department. Together, they have been able to satisfy all of the preliminaries to undertake this project.
The project is more than just a “stunt”. It will also spotlight two very important charities: the Lowcountry Food Bank and the Alzheimer's Association. There are also sponsors and dozens of volunteers, serving as witnesses, “correspondents,” and general support. Information, including history of the players and features on their sponsors, is available on the Facebook page “MAHJ 48 MARATHON COMMUNITY HUB.”
MOST IMPORTANTLY, for all you insomniacs: the Live Stream will be available to all of us, on YouTube. The link will be posted on the above Facebook page. YES, 48 straight hours of mah jongg, for your viewing pleasure, even at 3 in the morning! It’s a dream come true!
Of course, since Bubbe is all about the stats, I am hoping the ladies will provide me with the data from the 48 hours. I’ll be very curious to see which hands win most often; how often play ended in wall games; what time of day turned out to be the hardest…all sorts of information that can be collected from an event like this!
I hope you will join in the fun from home, and hopefully contribute to the above charities as well! Bubbe wishes the best of luck to the ladies on their Guinness quest. By the way, they tell me that while, theoretically, this is the ULTIMATE coffee game, they don't plan to use caffeine!
Feel free to contact me with questions or comments at Bubbefischer@gmail.com I love hearing from you!
Talk to you soon—
Bubbe
