"Another Blog on the Fire"
Michael Dashiell
Contact Mike at miked@sequimgazette.com
Michael Dashiell (that's me) is editor of the Sequim Gazette. He has a Bachelor's Degree from Western Washington University, has worked at the Sequim Gazette for about 10 years and enjoys writing — occasionally. He and his wife Patsene live in Sequim; their two daughters are in college. He will write about anything, but particularly enjoys sports, arts, breaking news and news-of-the-weird. He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.

 

The greatest sport on pegs.

OK, so it doesn’t have a great ring to it. In fact, cribbage isn’t a sport at all. But it should be.

Why? There’s drama, with the back-and-forth scoring.

There is sportsmanship, such as when a play is scoring and forgets points (you can play like my wife and I do and help the other person count up points, rather than play “cutthroat” and take the other person’s points, a brutal way to play).

There’s strategy, such as tucking away a pair of eights in the crib and hoping there are sevens abound.

There’s art. Just Google: cribbage board images.

And there are life lessons, such as when — and this happens to me waaaaaay too often — the cards go cold and despite being a world-class player, you simply lose.

And lose.

And your wife holds it over your head like an anvil.

And you play again and lose.

You check the cards. Nope, all 52 are there. Check he scoring. Nope, you were doing the scoring. Check for mirrors or holes in the cards. Nope, they’re sound.

I’m really trying to let go. But come on! Five straight hands of double runs while I get stuck with an average of 4.2 points per? Seriously!

So maybe it isn’t the best game for those of us uber-competitive types.

If you’ve never played, check it these links:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (general stuff)
www.cribbage.org/rules/rule1.asp (the rules)
www.cribbageforum.com/ (talk about cribbage)
users.crhc.illinois.edu/steve/humor/cribbage.html (funny cribbage things)

Or better yet, challenge me!