And just like that, it’s Friday. Yee-haw!
There are things in life that I do not understand and therefore ignore. (This is not an existential, navel gazing sort of post, so bear with me here).
I don’t really understand football, for example, as discussed yesterday. And so, I don’t really pay much attention to it, though I admit the story about Damar Hamlin did grip me for a few days.
Another thing I don’t understand: Card games.
I am not speaking of your basic games, like Spit, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid and played very competitively with my step siblings while trapped in a small Vermont cabin during one particularly memorable rainy weekend.
Similarly, I enjoy Gin rummy a lot. It’s not terribly difficult, though you do have to know some basic math. I know just enough of that to be dangerous.
But when it comes to anything more complex – like, say, poker and its many variations – I’m lost. Ditto cribbage.
Cribbage is usually a two-person game, though it can be adapted for three or four players.
The goal, as far as I can tell, is to form a variety of counting combinations of cards.
Each player gets six cards (traditionally, though there are five, four, and three-card variants), and the score is kept by moving pegs on a narrow rectangular board, which is a unique looking item you probably haven’t sene before. The object of the game is to score 121 points, which seems entirely arbitrary to me.
If that makes sense to you, perhaps you are the sort of person who already plays cribbage.
I have now burned more time than I would like to admit watching “cribbage for beginners” videos (of which there are a surprisingly large number on YouTube) and speed reading online “how to” cribbage manuals. I have to confess that I still don’t get it. If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, click here or here or here.
I can’t tell you how to play this mind-bogglingly difficult to understand game, but I CAN give you a little history on how it came to be. Remember: words person, not numbers person.
Cribbage started out its life in the 1600s under a different name, “Noddy,” but was adapted to its current form by an English poet named John Suckling, who added a discard pile that he called the “crib.” Hence, cribbage.
Legend has it that Suckling wasn’t the most stand-up guy around, but was a gambler – and also maybe a swindler – who gave members of the English noble class decks of marked cards as a “gift”, which he would then travel around and invite them to play against him with for money. (Before you judge Suckling, know that his life ended unhappily – and at a rather young age).
At one time, cribbage was the only game – involving cards or anything else – that you were allowed to play in English pubs for money.
Cribbage was also reportedly a very popular pastime among sailors on whaling ships and then later in the US Navy during WW II, particularly among sailors on submarines that were trolling the depths for members of the enemy fleet. Here’s a little historical gem:
The U.S. Navy has a board that gets handed down to the oldest submarine in the Pacific fleet, a tradition that originated when an officer was dealt a perfect hand in a game played during World War II.
Today, Feb. 10, is Suckling’s birthday. (He was born in 1609, inherited his father’s fortune at the tender age of 18, and is believed to have committed suicide by taking poison while in Paris in 1641, perhaps out of a fear of being impoverished).
Today is also International Cribbage Day. If you’ve got a few hours to spare, perhaps consider taking up a new hobby. And if and when you master this new skill, do let me know. I could use a few pointers.
I am loving this “warm” (relatively speaking) weather. It’s going to be flirting with 50 degrees. Skies will be mostly cloudy. One drawback: We’re under a wind advisory from early this morning until about 10 p.m. tonight, with gusts of up to 50 MPH expected.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden said he’s simply not ready to decide whether to run for reelection, even as he dismissed polls showing a majority of Democrats want another candidate in 2024.
Biden continued his drumbeat against Republicans on Social Security and Medicare in Tampa, Fla., following his heated exchange with GOP lawmakers on the entitlement programs during his State of the Union address earlier this week.
Corporate leaders who backed Biden in the 2020 election conveyed deep skepticism that the so-called billionaire’s tax he proposed in his State of the Union address this week would ever become law.
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted at her apartment building in Washington yesterday morning, according to the congresswoman’s office.
Craig was assaulted in the elevator in her Washington apartment building around 7:10 a.m., police said, but the assailant fled when she defended herself.
The DC Metropolitan Police Department reported last night that 26-year-old Kendrick Hamlin was arrested on a charge of simple assault.
Gov. Kathy Hochul hosted a bipartisan meeting with the New York congressional delegation this week, with one lawmaker notably left off the invite list: Rep. George Santos.
A group of House Democrats filed a resolution seeking to expel Santos from Congress, as new details emerge about federal scrutiny into his work for a company accused of running a Ponzi scheme.
“This is not just a simple liar,” Rep. Daniel Goldman told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “This is a conman who does not belong in Congress, and he needs to go.”
Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania’s Amish Country in 2017 after a series of bad checks were written in his name to dog breeders, according to the court and a lawyer friend who helped him address the charge.
“I should have never got involved,” said the friend, Tiffany Bogosian. “He should have went to jail. And I wish nothing but bad things for him.”
Santos had claimed that someone had stolen his checkbook and written checks totaling thousands of dollars — including multiple that were made out for “puppies,” according to Bogosian, who provided screenshots of the checks and bank statements.
The Federal Election Commission is asking Santos to clarify by March 14 if he’s running again in 2024, according to a letter sent by the agency.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to cling to office after he lost his bid for re-election, a person familiar with the matter said.
The subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith requests documents and testimony related to the failed attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s Facebook and Instagram pages have been restored after being suspended for more than two years.
Trump is approaching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a newly urgent hostility, rushing to turn the Republican base against his most formidable potential rival in 2024.
The United Nations humanitarian chief said early today that he was on his way to visit parts of Turkey and Syria stricken by a powerful earthquake earlier this week, hours after the death toll climbed past 20,000.
The official, Martin Griffiths, will visit Aleppo and Damascus in Syria, along with Gaziantep in Turkey, over the weekend, according to the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres.
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office will review all cases handled by the five Memphis police officers who are accused of beating and killing Tyre Nichols, which could lead to charges being dropped in droves.
The five officers were also added to an internal list of police officials across the county accused of being dishonest or facing criminal charges, a classification that could lead prosecutors to drop any cases involving their testimony.
Covid-19 shots are included in new schedules of routinely recommended vaccines released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The immunization schedules summarize current vaccine recommendations for children, adolescents and adults, but do not set vaccine requirements for schools or workplaces.
The Health and Human Services Department laid out what will change and will remain the same when the three-year-long Covid public health emergency ends in May.
About 15 million Americans who gained Medicaid health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic are at risk of losing coverage later this year as generous federal subsidies end.
Republicans in the New York state Senate are suing Senate Democrats to force a floor vote on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s embattled nominee to be the next chief judge of the state Court of Appeals after he was recently rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The complaint, filed by Anthony H. Palumbo, a Republican from Long Island, argues that Senate Democrats violated the State Constitution by allowing a committee to kill LaSalle’s nomination. It echoes arguments made by the (Democratic) governor.
“The…State Constitution is clear. Judicial nominations must be considered before the full State Senate,” Palumbo said. “Justice LaSalle is entitled to an up or down vote by the full State Senate, not as a courtesy, but because the Constitution requires it.”
A spokeswoman for Hochul declined to comment on the litigation or say whether the governor might join the lawsuit. Palumbo told said that he had not spoken with the governor about LaSalle’s nomination or the suit.
Judges who preside over criminal courts would be required to undergo yearly training for New York’s bail laws under a measure proposed by two state lawmakers.
Lawmakers and labor unions are working to amend a longtime bill that would establish a single-payer health care system in New York as budget talks get under way.
New York lawmakers are weighing how to combat addiction and a record rise in overdoses across the state in the last year with legislation that is meant to expand treatment programs and give more support to service providers.
The company that controls Madison Square Garden has filed a renewal application to continue operating the storied arena — setting in motion a lengthy process that Mayor Adams said earlier this week the city would be a “hard negotiator” on.
Adams blamed the rat problem at his Brooklyn home on a neighbor, arguing at a hearing that he shouldn’t be on the hook for $1,200 in fines for the infestation.
Adams went before a hearing officer yesterday — for the second time — to contest two tickets he got from his own health department for allegedly allowing broods of rodents to take residence at his Brooklyn townhouse.
Adams has recently struck up a friendship with conservative talk show host Sid Rosenberg, unnerving some of the mayor’s fellow Democrats who argue palling around with the right-wing radio personality sends a troubling message.
Adams trashed a New York Times report that equated his helping migrants get to Canada with bus tickets upstate as comparable to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sending them from the southern border to the Big Apple in response to Biden’s border crisis.
Adams went on the attack against far-left fellow Democrats for a second day, by blasting the City Council’s dominant “Progressive Caucus” over its latest strategy to defund the police.
One of the leaders of a Queens high school student protest had a powerful friend on speed dial when she needed support during a walkout Wednesday — the city’s mayor.
A year after the mayor proposed making the city’s outdoor restaurant shacks permanent, very little has been done to decide the fate of the structures, and restaurateurs are having a hard time making future plans without decisions from lawmakers.
A 22-year-old man was shot and killed near a Shake Shack in Midtown Manhattan during the evening rush hour yesterday, and police were searching for two gunmen hours later.
As illegal weed shops appear to pop up all over New York City, renowned pot mecca Amsterdam is banning marijuana from the streets of the city’s notorious red-light district.
City Comptroller Brad Lander has called for a state probe into the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) after the pension fund’s deputy director allegedly lied to get a hefty raise.
Two new specialized dyslexia programs will open at Brooklyn public schools as New York focuses more on children with the learning disability.
Alleva Dairy, a 130-year-old Little Italy cheese store known for its fresh ricotta and mozzarella, will close in March after a long battle with its landlord over back rent.
The artificially pink pigeon, nicknamed Flamingo, was thought to be a victim of a gender reveal stunt gone wrong. The New York City Police Department’s animal cruelty unit has opened an inquiry into its death.
Hundreds of family, friends and fellow cops crowded into a Brooklyn mosque to salute Adeed Fayaz, the police officer killed during a botched robbery — a victim of the violent crime he had sworn an oath to help prevent.
Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is lobbying Biden to succeed U.S. Labor Secretary Martin Walsh.
A third FDNY chief has surrendered his post as Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh sat down with the department’s leadership team in what was described as a “bizarre” attempt to smooth over the ongoing strife within the upper ranks.
The parents and sister of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins filed a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and the film’s production team.
Burt Bacharach, the debonair pop composer, arranger, conductor, record producer and occasional singer whose hit songs in the 1960s distilled that decade’s mood of romantic optimism, died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94.
