May 11, 2025 and ninety-five years ago
on this day in 1930, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s diary entry indicates that he has
just originated a new card game that he called '83' (or "Tarzana')."
He wrote a ten-page manuscript, "Tarzana Bridge," to describe the card game. ERB submitted the idea and
booklet to Metropolitan as a potential promotion but nothing came of it. The ten-page manuscript remains unpublished.
Burroughs loved playing bridge and he was playing bridge in Hawaii when the
D-Day invasion began. Since the manuscript remains unpublished, we can only
make guesses about the rules and scoring. We don’t know how Tarzan Bridge
differs from standard Bridge or Whist or even Hearts or Spades for that matter.
Some information about “Tarzan Bridge”
is to be found at: https://www.erbzine.com/bio/years30.html
The drabble for today, “To Bid or Not to
Bid,” was inspired by “Tarzana Bridge.” No details about the game are known and
the details contained in the drabble are pure conjecture and are presented for
the entertainment of the writer and the reader.
Hulbert Burroughs said, “Dad, I’ve questions about Tarzana Bridge."
.jpg)
“Ask away.”
“It says that before bidding, each
player passes three cards to their right.”
“Like in hearts. The suit order is
different. Hearts for love, then diamonds. Spades is the lowest suit, signifying
death.”
“Love’s good. Death seems morbid.”
“If you bid all thirteen tricks, that’s
a Grand Opar.”
“Named for the city of gold and jewels.”
“Another rule is that before playing
the card taking the thirteenth trick or the one defeating the Grand Opar, the player must do the Tarzan yell.”
“I bet that’ll wake up the neighbors.”
No comments:
Post a Comment