On Tuesdays They Played Mah Jongg Author:Milton Stern For two decades, Michael Bern, a gay television writer in Hollywood, has stared at an unfinished screenplay sitting on his desk. After attending a friend's funeral in his hometown of Newport News, Virginia, Michael returns to Hollywood and finds there is more than a screenplay that is unfinished in his life. — He finally confronts what the screen... more »play represents - memories and stories of the sometimes sad, often hilarious characters of his past, especially his mother and her four closest friends. Florence, Hannah, Rona, Arlene and Doreen - five more fascinating, menopausal, Jewish women one would never meet. They were friends for more than forty years and saw each other through life's triumphs, tragedies and multiple spouses.