I can finally admit it.

I think I'm in love with Sally Mutant. I've had a crush on her since I saw the Mutants play the Sleeping Lady Cafe in Fairfax in 1983 or so but I unexpectedly saw the Mutants play tonight and there she was: my teenage punk rock dream date. If anyone out there knows her, tell her she should e-mail. We've put this off too long already. Now that I'm nearly 40, our age difference shouldn't matter.

I'll probably incorporate this into a longer post tomorrow, but I just couldn't keep it to myself a minute longer.

Cribbage players

dairryiere and I are having our first fight. We are both card players but have a crucial difference of opinion on cribbage.

I was taught that you shuffle and then alternate the deal until you are out of cards (four hands) before you shuffle again. You have the exact number of cards needed (52) for this which I believe backs my theory. This allows more strategy because you can count cards and know whether to dump cards in your opponent's crib if you wanna guess they won't hurt you etc. I learned cribbage from a German immigrant hunting buddy of my dad's and from Brooklyn Jew jactitation.

Dairryiere plays that you shuffle after every deal and claims the entire Sonoma Senior Center and all of Norway are behind her. I believe regionality and ethnicity come into the way card playing is handed down but please, no slurs about the Norweigens dumbing down the game and taking most of the strategy out of it.

What do you think, cribbage players? And don't just Hoyle me on this one. How were you taught?

[Poll #667207]