After dinner at one of Ada’s best restaurants, Polo’s Authentic Mexican, Abby, Tom, Chele and I played cards tonight, an old favorite similar to Uno I grew up calling “Screw Your Neighbor.” I originally learned how to play this game from Michael‘s family in the 1970s. It differs from Uno mostly in spirit, since conspiring against each other is so encouraged it’s almost required. An example from tonight went something like, “Tom, Chele’s short with two cards. If you’ve got the king of hearts, throw it, so Abby can burn Chele with her joker.”

At one point I made a rare ten-card slamdown, when I threw a joker on Tom (forcing him to draw five cards), in time to catch Abby before she declared “last card” (Uno), which forced her to draw five cards.

At another point I had so many cards in my hand that Abby burst into laughter I hadn’t heard from her in months.

Despite that and the fact that at one point I held both jokers and three twos, I still couldn’t close the deal, with Abby winning the hour-long game on a lowly three of clubs.