Bunco

Well I was close to right. The name of the game I had mentioned in an earlier post is acutally Bonco or Bunco. Though my memory did fail me a bit. It is acutally a dice game not a card game. I decided to do some research upon the game becasue I was currious as to just where it came from and such.

Here is a basic overview of the game:

Strictly speaking, Bunco is a game of dice, played in rounds. Players take turns rolling the dice and trying to accumulate as many points as possible to win each round. The game is played at tables of four in competing teams of two.

Players score points by rolling three dice and trying to match the number they're supposed to roll for that round. They get a point for each die that rolls the number, and if all three roll the number they score 21 points. They also score 5 points for rolling three of a kind of any other number. They get to keep rolling as long as they score one or more points with each roll. Once they fail to score they pass the dice to their left and the opposing team gets a chance to score.

During each round the teams at the Head Table try to score 21 points. The first team to score 21 points wins the round and play stops. At all other tables play stops when the Head Table play stops and the team with the highest score at each lower table wins the round.

At the end of the round players change seats, the winners at each of the lower tables move up a table, and the losers at the head table move to the lowest table. Players also switch partners at the end of the round, so you never play with the same partner twice in a row.

During play, players track the number of rounds they win and lose as a team, and the number of Buncos scored individually, on their personal scorecard. At the end of the night wins/losses and Buncos are tallied and prizes awarded.

Here is a little history on the game:

Bunco dates back to the late 1800's and was played by groups of women, school children, and couples. The old fashioned game of the future is becoming ever more popular at parties, social events, and new groups are popping up across the country.

This progressive dice game, under it's original name of 8 - Dice Cloth was played in England during the 18th century. It was unknown in the United States until 1855, when it was introduced into San Francisco during the Gold Rush by a crooked gambler. This shady character, traveling from the East to West coast had made many stops in route to the California gold fields. He also made various changes to the gambling game he called Banco. After a few years the game and activity was re-christened Bunco or Bunko. During this same period, a Spanish card game, Banca, and it's Mexican derivative, Monte, were also introduced to the population of San Francisco. Bunco Dice and Bunco Cards were combined to form a more efficient method of separating the hard working citizens from their money at numerous gambling locations. These locations were known as Bunco parlors. Hence, the word Bunco came to be a general term that applied to all scams, swindling and confidence games. After the civil war and into the turn of the century, Bunco flourished as the population grew and the economy recovered. Between 1870 & 1880 in virtually every large city in the country, Bunco- Banco games were in operation. Some Bunco locations were furnished elaborately while others resembled professional offices.

During the 1880's and into the mid 1890's, Bunco was played in Texas & Oklahoma, through Kansas & Missouri, in towns and cities along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers , and from New York to the Great Lake states. Through the Victorian era and prior to WWI, Bunco had achieved permanent placement as a traditional family or parlor game, promoting social interaction. During this period Bunco groups consisting of 8-12 people and as many as 20 people enjoyed an evening of food, drink, conversation, and friendly competition. During prohibition and the roaring 20's, the infamous Bunco gambling parlors resurfaced in various regions of the US The most notorious speak-easies and Bunco dice parlors were located in and around Chicago, Illinois. The term "Bunco Squad" referred to the detectives who raided these establishments!

After prohibition Bunco group activity declined in the major cities of the country, but spread to the suburbs as housing development and the migratory population expanded nationally. Not much was heard about Bunco activity from 1940-1980. (WW II, Korea, Vietnam.) Since the early 1980's Bunco group activity has increased due to a combination of circumstances; a return to traditional family values , a sense of neighborhood & community and, the desire & need for social interaction. Traditionally most Bunco groups consist of 12 players (usually groups of women & occasionally couples.) Kids are even beginning to play at parties & other social events. Playing Bunco is great way to maintain relationships and make new friends.

This was just amusing, it is the dictionary difinition of the word Bunco:

A swindle in which an unsuspecting person is cheated; a confidence game.

4:06 PM - 5/15/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Red Sky

11:31 AM - 5/15/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Nostalgia

They were talking about video games on the radio, as that is always a popular issue, and than one person called in about how he and his wife and thier friends play WoW and such, and the guys on the radio, was talking about how really that is not so different than back in the day when people would through bridge parties and sit around to play bridge, and well that just got me thinking.

Back in the day when I was younger, I remember every new years my aunt would have this part, win which we would play this really elaborate card game that lasted almost all night. I cannot remeber what it was called, but I keep wanting to call it Blanco, but I am pretty sure that is not right. I do not know where the game first came from, or where my aunt heard about it, and I think when he played there were prizes involved for the winner.

Now it has been a while, but this is the best of my memory of the game. There were all these different tables set up in my aunts house, and groups would gather around the tables, and it was some sort of card game you played, but than I think in addition, each player had this little like score card thing, and you would play this card game, and than after so long, a bell would ring, and at that point, whoever had the most points marked it on thier card and than everyone rotated to another table, and it would go on like that, you would move from table to table playing with different people all the time, and each time you won you marked it on your card, and than when someone had thier card filled out they would have to shout out the name of the game in order to offcially win.

8:33 AM - 5/15/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Average Joe

One of the things I do not like about the university I am going to is the fact that it seems to lack a certain individuality there. What I mean is, that everyone just appears to be so average or normal in the way in which they dress. Though often times, I can be just a jeans and t-shirt kind of person, I also have been known to be rather quirky and have my own sense of style. I will just wear whatever I want to wear, what I think looks cool. And i love wearing clothes I think touch back to the Middle Ages, or the Renssicance, also like a little vintage/victorian flare. I love tunics, and shalls and capes and cloaks and sashes, and so forth. Let us just say when I go to a Ren. Fiar, the sort of things I wear to "dress up" basicaly consist of my regular daily clothes.

Now it is true that becasue of my transportation issue was of the moment, (i.e. me not yet having my drivers liscense) I only attend an off site campus that is closer to my house, and I have only a few times been to the main University Campus when I needed to buy books at the campus book store for classess.

But when I was attending Community College, there was a lot more sense of style, and individuality there, more people that could apperciate my off-beat sense. I would get people that complimented me on my cape and other such things, and really dug my digs.

But at the university, everyone just looks like everyone else, I do not really feel a particular inclination towd anyone, though for the most part they all seem nice enough, but well just a bit bland for my general taste. I do not think I have yet had one class where I saw someone that just reall struck me. They all look the same, they are like from a different realm than me, and I do not feel as if I am really one of them, or that I fit in among thier kind.

Now granted I am the last person in the world to attend school of the sake of wanting to socialize, and I am perfectly content to just keep to my own but nonetheless I do not mind the passing aquintence, and back at DVC (The community college) there were a few people that did catch my eye, and well I would have people ask me to read Tarot for them as it got to be rather well known that I was a Pagan. And this might sound a bit contradictory, but though I do not like to socialize, I do enjoy good conversation now and than, perhaps that is one of the reasons I like the interenet.

3:14 PM - 5/14/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Desert Dreams

Desert Dreams

Dust hovers

masking the sky red

the wind howls

a low sound

whispers in the ears

dance upon the sands

in shadows that don't

exist.

The wasp floats

with a steady buzz

skirting around rain drops

so very rare.

Sun above

with a steady glare

clouds only in dreams

and songs sung

of no place called home.

Grit within the eye

blurry the vision

slowly breaking down

in the haze of air.

7:57 AM - 5/14/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Unintended Art

There are somethigns that just really strike me conceptially, that I do not understand why, but just speak to me artistically. I like calling it having the artist's eye. And this was one of those moments. I was just really drawn to it.

3:08 PM - 5/12/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

100 Greatest Books - Update

I came acros this list of what are considered to be the 100 greatest books of the 20th century, I decided that I would reach each of these books, here is the list of books I have read. The numbders in front of the title is the order they appear on the list. The * are a sort of 5 star rating system for how well I liked the book. I will also list if any the books I am in the progress of reading.

TBA = To Be Announced

2.The Great Gastby * * * *

10. The Grapes of Wrath * * *

41. Lord of the Flies * * * *

45. The Sun Alos Rises * * * *

48. The Rainbow * * * *

64. The Catcher in the Rye * * * * *

78. Kim * * *

88.The Call of the Wild * * * * *

93. The Maugs * * * * *

21. Henderson the Rain King * * * *

69. The House of Mirth* * * * *

13. 1984 * * *

20. Native Son * * *

9. Sons and Lovers * * * *

31. Animal Farm * * *

3. A Portrait of the Artist As A Yong Man * *

58. The Age of Innocence * * *

15. To The Lighthouse * * *

25. A Passage To India * * * *

Books in Progress:

A Handful of Dust

A Clockwork Orange

2:10 PM - 5/12/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Play It Out

Bill O' Riley is an idiot, I know many people are thinking well Duh! But believe it or not it is actually not his political views that I am here to make fun of now. But it is because of my feelings regarding his views that I take pleasure in mocking him now. 

They played this clip of him on the radio show that I listen to, in which, apparently, at the end of his show, they were suppose to have Sting play from this new album that he has out, and I am sure many of you are familiar, if you have ever seen a show with a musical guest to play at the end, while they credits are rolling, it is fairly normal for the host to say something like here is "so and so" to play us out. 

Well that is what Bill O' Riley was suppose to do. At the end of the show he was suppose to say here is Sting to play us out, but when he say "play us out" on the teleprompter, he was totally confused, and did not understand what it meant, or what he was supposed to do or say, and so at first the technical guy try to explain to him, but than twice, when he tried to say, he just could not do it.  And so he literally threw a tantrum in the studio because he could not understand or figure out how to say "Sting will play us out" so he ended up having to write out his own lines to say.

8:17 AM - 5/12/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Side Notes

I like to do most of my book shopping in little mom and pop type bookstores that deal in the trading, buying, selling, of used and old books. For one thing I prefer giving my business to such places over big commercial stores, and they are good places to get classics, as well a lot of the books I read, are not like brand new books, but older books that have been around awhile, and plus, they are cheaper. It costs me the same to get like 3 or 4 books at one of these stores as it cost me to get one single book at a big chain bookstore. 

So this quarter for school I am taking 2 different English classess so all the reading for the classes are novels,  so I thought to myself instead of paying 20 bucks a pop each for a book and just giving my money to the campus book store, I could hunt down the books I needed at my usual book stores. So of course the reason why their books are so cheap is because they are bought used, so particularly with the classics, sometimes they will already have like notes in them and things highlighted and such, which can sometimes be interesting to read. 

And a few of the books I got this time were already scribbled in, they must be popular choices of books for school. But one of the books I am reading now, the person who had it before me, must either not have been the brightest star in the world, or was reading the book for high school, because well some of their notes, and the things they pointed out were just quite obvious, and not very in depth as well there were a few words, that I thought were fairly common words, and not all that difficult but they had underlined them and than wrote in the margins definitions for the words and I am just like really? You had to look that up? Than when I was reading today, there was this one line they had underlined and just wrote about if "What the hell?" like that did not understand what it meant, but I did not find it all that difficult to understand and thought it was really a fairly straight forward line.

5:39 PM - 5/11/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

A Passage To India

In A Passage To India there was this rather lovely description of a Hindu festival, and this particular passage had struck my interest and I quite liked it: 
 
They removed their turbans, and one put a lump of butter on his forehead, and waited for it to slide down his nose into his mouth. Before it could arrive, another stole up behind him, snatched the melting morsel, and swallowed it himself. All laughed exultantly at discovering that the divine sense of humour coincided with their own. "God si love!" There is fun in heaven. God can play practical jokes upon Himself, draw chairs away from beneath His own posteriors, set His own turbans on fire, and steal His own petticoats when He bathes. By sacrificing good taste, this worship achieved what Christianity has shirked: the inclusion of merriment. All spirit as well as all matter must participate in salvation, and if practical jokes are banned, the circle is incomplete.  

1:13 PM - 5/11/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Aziz's Poem

Aziz’s Poem

Baroom! Baroom!

the echo sounds

always the same

the sound of

Baroom Baroom

it is love

in the caves

but the echo

does not remain

it follows you around

Baroom Baroom

love in the caves

Baroom

the voice of the gods

Baroom

when the echo begins to fade

all of the sudden in the cool shade

or heat of the sun

Baroom

it is India, the echo

and you try to get away

Baroom Baroom

always stays

love in India

Baroom

love is India

Baroom

it began in the caves

always the same

Baroom! Baroom!

6:08 PM - 5/10/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Deaths Song

Deaths Song

A rose drop

reflected in glass

where visions dance

with the soft touch

of moth wings

powered and faultering

firefly light

a first spark

each eye blinking

alternatively

Breathe softly

lips upon gentle petals

a flavor on the tongue

sweetest of nectar

Snow blossoms

unfurl in a show

of crimson

heat against the cold

wind serenading

through the trees

Flush of virgin's breast

a blush like the fire-red

neck of the singing thrush

but can it be called a song

a lone enchantment

beneath the willow

she grieves with beauty

Sorrow and death

never before so vibrant

a silent grave

offers so much more

life tangled within

Avalon's passing mist

Where souls dwell

sipping from the chalice

fed by a vernal spring

Memories mean so little

in long distant halls

a little thing twisting

in a spider's web

awaiting to be

devoured.

7:42 AM - 5/9/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Quote of the Week

7:25 AM - 5/9/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

The Dangers of Late Night Blog Reading

11:53 AM - 5/8/2008 - comments {1} - post comment

Decent

Decent

A chalice dipped

in the waters of Lethe

offered in wisdom or foolishness

to take the fatal sip

or an offer of life

Crimson red drops

a Philosophers's stone

transmuting the soul

into heaven or hell

The Lux of the spirit

fallen or mistakenly so

we all must make the choice

between the offering;

the red pill or the blue

It is not meant to know

the consequence until

after the stroke is made.

9:46 PM - 5/6/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Execution of Your Choice

I do not know how they first got on the topic of it, because I missed the beginning of the show, but on the radio that I always listen to in the morning, they started talking about executions and like the different executions different states have, or the different options for execution they have, and this gave me an idea. Albeit a rather morbid idea, but than such is to be expected from me. 

In the way that when someone is about to be executed they are offered their last meal, in which they may choose to have anything and everything they want to have, I think that one ought to be able to choose their own method of being executed, and if any bleeding hearts try and claim something about cruel and usual punishment, just produce a signed contract stating that the prisoner of their own free will choose this manner to be put to death. Granted doing this would probably be expensive in the long wrong, 

But, though I do not plan on ever finding myself in such a position of being executed, hypothetically speaking, if I were to be, I want to be guillotined. The guillotine is by far my favorite method of execution.

10:13 AM - 5/6/2008 - comments {4} - post comment

Surreal Nature

Some expriments of mine

10:27 PM - 5/5/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Sad News From the Track

The Kentucky Derby was just this past weakend, and being a horse affinado I do love the races, it is one of my few faveorite sports. But there was some tragic news from the track, and so I wanted to honor a nobel and worthy horse. Fillies are typically unusualy to be ran in races, espcially big races, because it is true, they often do not place as high as stallions do. But as it happend there was a filly named Eight Belles running in the durby and she had had some previous wins prior to the durby and in the durby itself she came in a strong second, but shortly after the race was over, she collasped upon the track. It was discovered later, though no one really understands just how it happend, she had a compound fracture in both her front ankles, though she did not trip during the race, and no other horses were near her, and prior to the race she did not have any previous injurires, it was a freak accident. Becasue of the terribile pain caused by the injury, the owner and vetranaiarn found it best to euthinize her on the spot.

Here is Eight Belles:

(Eight Belles on the left)

8:37 AM - 5/5/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Blazoomy

Blazoomy: this is my new faveorite word, though I cannot take personal cridit for this one. It came from the Clockwork Orange, and is used to mean mad, as in "crazy" mad, not "angry" mad. But I just think it is fun to say.

8:17 AM - 5/2/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Quote of the Week

Both of these I found quite amusing:

On one issue at least men and women agree; they both distrust women.--Henry Louis Mencken

Runners up:

A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes--Doug Larson

8:15 AM - 5/2/2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Quote of the Week: Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life's greatest tests alone--Agnes Campbell MacPhail

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