[The posts for this month are reposts from the site www.honotogroabemo.org, on which a host of hirsute individuals including yours truly would grow beards to raise money for breast cancer research. The site is defunct, but I thought I’d resurrect the game-related posts. This was originally posted on 2011-11-07.]

(I think those dogs are laughing at me)

So yesterday I was complemented on my stubble, which I will quite unblushingly take at face value (see what I did there). Clearly the beard part is a success so far, but this doesn’t seem to be translating into the funds. I may have to resort to shaming people publicly if this doesn’t improve.

The vintage game for Day Six is Pit, Parker Brothers’ game of trading commodities. First published in 1904 and developed by noted psychic Edgar Cayce, Pit was probably (much like Monopoly, and many other games of the early 20th century) based on another game called Gavitt’s Stock Exchange which was published the year before. In both games you are trying to collect all cards of one type by trading — in real time, all at once — with the other players. There’s no guarantee you’ll get what you ask for, and occasionally you’ll get stuck with the Bull or the Bear — think of the black queen in Hearts. The bell (which is essential, in my mind) is to indicate that you’ve collected all your cards and thus ends the round.

The commodities in the original were all grains and grasses, hence the picture. The later editions added oranges and sugar and the like, but still no pork bellies. No respect for the bacon.