Word: bunco
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Women tend to have to account for their time more than men do," says Elizabeth Long, a sociology professor at Rice University who has studied women's book groups. "It makes an exit more legitimate if you can say, 'I'm getting together to play bunco or bridge' rather than 'I'm going...
Cathleen Rodriguez, 33, of Sugar Land, Texas, plays in two bunco groups, is an alternate in a third and has become such a bunco enthusiast that she self-published Dice with Spice: A Bunco Cookbook, with recipes and menus for bunco parties. For her, playing bunco is "time away from being Mommy and wife, to laugh with the gals and have a good old time," she says. "I would take on another group, but my husband says I've used up my fun quotient for the month." Single women, weary of smoky bars and disappointing blind dates, enjoy the parties...
...Each bunco party is as different as the women playing it. Most parties rotate hosting duties and all include food, but the fare can run from a lavish meal complete with china and linen to a potluck buffet. Some adopt a theme for each month's meeting, like a haunted house with all the players wearing Halloween costumes...
Many groups play for prizes rather than cash, but a few have begun sharing the booty further afield. When Mary Green of Clarendon Hills, Ill., was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, her bunco mates decided to raise money for breast-cancer research. They started off by donating one month's cash pot to research, then passed the idea on to other bunco groups. Last year Bunco for Breast Cancer, as it is now called, raised $32,000 for the cause from 90 groups in surrounding DuPage County. This year the group has raised $70,000 from 400 groups...
...enough to restore bunco's good name. --With reporting by Daren Fonda/Colleyville, Adam Pitluk/Dallas, Deirdre van Dyk/New York and Leslie Whitaker/Chicago Bunco...