The considerable efforts and accomplishments of both Michael MacIntosh and Ed Muderlak for the sport are not diminished by the occasional factual quibble or disagreements over style and presentation. In spite of the Fox book, I consider MM a popularizing journalist--a flack for the trade. His forte appears to me to be the short essay constrained by magazine length requirements and often containing the "hook" of eye-catching oversimplication. I would prefer to see him accept correction by the factoid "wonks" with better grace but this episode is not his undoing to my eyes.

EDM's booklength work on Parker Bros. is a durable accomplishment beside which the Abbott&Costello "Who's on First?" encomium in DGJ pales to insignificance. I would prefer that Muderlak had MM's facility with the shorter form or could accept that he doesn't, but again, his good work is not diminished by failure in what is perhaps a lesser endeavor.

This game is supposed to be writer to reader rather than expert over novice--something which MM's much-maligned hero G. T. Garwood never forgot, at least by the light of day in the public press.

jack