Calling all players. A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store's Cafe. The group invites all players to join them Thursday at noon for lunch and 1:00pm (until about 3pm) to play American Mah Jongg in the Cafe. If you don't know how to play but would like to learn the game, the group recommends reading A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg by Elaine Sandberg.

As a part of The Art of Living Foundation’s campaign to create a stress-free and violence-free society, Dr. Shalabh Chandra and Dr. Nitya Sthalekar will present a free ‘Health, Energy & Happiness’ seminar that will offer an introduction to the Art of Living workshop (Held March 5-9 at the Hannah Community Center. Participants will learn: simple yet powerful breathing techniques to manage daily stress; the Power of Breath and its relation to our emotions; Sources of energy to maintain dynamism in life; Tendencies of the Mind; a guided meditation, and some relaxing “chair” Yoga.

The Art of Living Foundation is one of the largest volunteer-based United Nations non-profit/NGOs working in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN. It offers programs worldwide that eliminate stress, create a sense of belongingness and restore human values. It has presence in 140 countries and more than 25 million people have been benefitted with its programs.

Join us in the Chapbook Cafe on the third Thursday of each month for our Bananagrams night! Fans and novices alike are welcome to play the hot new word game that pits you in a timed race to see who can take their lettered tiles and most quickly create a crossword grid of connection and intersecting words. For more information, visit www.bananagrams-intl.com/index-us.asp.

Try it before you buy it! This month's Game Night features the game Pandemic.

You are specialists at the CDC/Atlanta where you watch several virulent diseases break out simultaneously all over the world. The team mission is to prevent a world-wide pandemic outbreak, treating hotspots while researching cures for each of the four plagues before they get out of hand.

Players must plan their strategy to mesh their specialist's strengths before the diseases overwhelm the world. For example, the Operations Specialist can build research stations, which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while developing cures. If disease spreads uncontrolled, the players all lose. If they can cure all four diseases, they win.

The board shows earth with some big population centres. On each turn a player can use four actions to travel, cure, discover and build. Cards are used for this but the deck also contains Epidemics...