This mildly sardonic account of backgammon's sudden resurgence provides some useful color on the phenomenon of backgammon "clubs" in department store. Here it's about Grosvenor Nicholas' (misspelled) residence at Saks 5th Avenue, as advertised in 'The New Yorker' in the same month.
One of the inadvertently intriguing passages suggests the rationale behind placing "little knobs" on the tips of points -- sure not because the sharp points "hurt the eyes" -- but perhaps because the dots or triangles do help define the points as opposed to the triangles formed by the negative space.
