One of Penny Tillson's mentally challenging activities is backgammon, a board game she has loved for more than 30 years and plays with other members of the Bellingham Backgammon Association. It's a dice game, but Tillson says mental acuity determines success in the long run, if not always in any given game.

Cruel game: Tillson knows how frustrating backgammon can be for even the most skilled, competitive player.

"It's called the cruelest game," she says, "because a newcomer to the game could walk in and win because of the element of the dice. But people who know the odds, and play the odds, will win most often. A person with lesser skills can beat a champion in any given game, but in the long run the superior player will win."

The right moves: Tillson says that because backgammon offers "pretty much an unlimited number of moves, you need a lot of knowledge to make the best possible moves in spite of the roll of the dice."

Frustrating, but fun: Tillson urges seniors (and people of any age) who haven't tried backgammon to give it a chance. "I very much recommend backgammon for someone who wants a mental challenge," she says. "It's fun - frustrating fun, but fun."

Familiar in Fairhaven: Tillson, an affable local historian, can't go anywhere in Fairhaven without running into longtime locals she knows. A Fairhaven resident for 35 years, she published "Fairhaven Gazette," a free quarterly magazine, for 15 years, through 1996, and grins when she recalls she has been called "The Queen of Fairhaven."

Reminders of her husband: Tillson's husband, Fairhaven historian Tyrone Tillson, died in 2002. Known for saying, "There's a story on every corner in Fairhaven," and for doing meticulous research into the community's history, he was responsible for the multitude of historical markers that dot Fairhaven, of which Penny is proud.

Many journalistic hats: "I was owner, publisher, editor, ad sales person and photographer for the 'Fairhaven Gazette,'" Tillson says. "My husband was the history department."

Loves scoops: "I cultivated sources and I loved to scoop other media on developments in Fairhaven," she says. "What I especially liked doing was chasing down the constant rumors about Fairhaven. I had two main sources and they would tell me everything they knew. Then I would track the rumors down."

Ruins and wrecks: When Tillson, a University of Washington graduate with a degree in journalism, moved from Seattle to Fairhaven 35 years ago, it was, she says, "the hippie capital of Bellingham." Tillson, though, was fascinated by the then-crumbling structures in the area. "I love old houses, ruins and wrecks," she says.

Walked the plank: Tillson is an endless source of Fairhaven anecdotes. Example: "I remember this old bar on the Waldron block, and to get to the ladies room you had to walk a plank way back in the bowels on the building. I always wondered if I'd find my way back. I was driving by a few years ago saw a $1.5 million condo advertised in the old Waldron building. I had to pull over and laugh!"

Almost Alaska: After graduating from the UW, the adventurous Tillson was set to accept a job with the Ketchikan Daily News. "But the editor had left a half-hour early that day, and I wound up taking a different offer in publicity. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I'd taken that job in Ketchikan."

Asian influence: When a young woman, Tillson "went to Japan for three months and stayed for 31/2 years" as a freelance tutor of English. Fascinated with Asian culture, the experience led her to publish a monthly feature paper about Asian culture in Seattle, "East is East," with a circulation of 10,000 copies, for more than 10 years.

She also took up tai chi, a form of martial arts, and says she maintains her physical and mental fitness with sword and saber lessons. "I'm just fascinated by the weapons," she says.

Uncle Scrooge: Tillson has had a lifelong fascination with Donald Duck's uncle, Scrooge McDuck, the self-proclaimed "world's richest duck" who was wildly popular in the Walt Disney comic books of the 1950s and 1960s, during her youth. Tillson says she was inspired by the grouchy old duck's love of adventure and his mental acuity.

She figures the only thing Uncle Scrooge missed out on was, of course, backgammon.