And no, Dancing Bear is not here, yet.

First, I have to say that Wordsworth is one of my favorite poets, next to T.S. Elliott, Williams Carlos Williams, et al. I’m not even that upset about putting “Daffodils” to hip-hop music. After all, Nas has recently declared that hip-hop is dead. However, there is something fun in watching a giant red squirrel deliver what is 95% Wordsworth poem in syncopated recitative.

Another is that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr is dead at 84. I first encountered Welcome to the Monkey House as a play in high school. I played the role of Harrison Bergeron, mainly because I had the voice for it, though not the build. I did not make it through Slaughterhouse Five, but I did read his other works and a couple of essays. Here is someone that thought differently than others, and I appreciated that a great deal.

He said in 2005 that he wanted his epitaph to be “The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.”

Lastly, my cousin in going a book tour. His book, Inside the Danger Zone, is a look at an incident involving the attack on the USS Stark. The synopsis on his site is better, so you should read it there. Congrats on a great first book. I look forward to the second.

The only thing that I’ve written lately, is a reworking of the Wikipedia article of Durak. Durak is a Russian card game that looks like fun at parties. The original article confuses the rules with strategy tips. This is how most of us describe the rules of the game. In a conversation, this works quite well, but in a written medium, it is terribly confusing.

So, for your perusal, here are the rules of Durak, edited by me.

Durak

Players
2 to 5 players.

Required Materials
Traditionally, a deck of 36 cards ranked A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 are used. This can be achieved by removing numerical cards 2 through 5 inclusive prior to play.

Setup
The deck is shuffled, and each player receives six cards. If multiple games have been played, often the loser of the previous game shuffles. If any player has six cards of the same color, the game is reset.

The top card of the remaining deck is drawn and placed face up on the table. The remaining cards are then placed face down across the revealed card so that the rank and suit of the revealed card is visible. All of these cards, including the face up card, comprise the draw pile.

The revealed card at the bottom of the draw pile determines the trump suit.

The player with the lowest trump plays first.

Gameplay
The starting player is the first attacker. The player to the attacker’s left is always the defender. After each turn, players replenish their hands from the draw pile and play proceeds clockwise. The attacker opens the turn by playing one card face up on the table as an attacking card. The player to the attacker’s left is the defender.

The defender has three options:

• Pass on the attack: To pass-on an attack, the defender must play a card of the same rank on all the attacking card(s). Once played, the turn ends. The player becomes the new attacker and the person to the player’s left becomes the new defender.
• Repel the attack: To repel an attack, the defender must play a higher ranked card on each and every attacking card. Cards of the trump suit are considered higher than any card in a non-trump suit. Once a defender has begun to repel an attack, any player (except the defender) can add attack cards provided that the new attack cards have the same rank as a card already in play and there are not more attacking cards than the number of cards in the defender’s hand.

  For example, if Player A attacks Player B with a Jack and Player B repels with a Queen leaving three cards in his hand, any player (even Player A) can add another Jack or Queen as an additional attacking card. No more than three additional attacking cards can be played.

  When the defender has successfully repelled an attack, all cards in play are discarded and the turn ends. Once an attack is repelled, the player begins a new attack on the player to their left.

• Concede: If a defender is unable to successfully repel or pass-on an attack, he or she must concede defeat. Any player (except the defender) can add attack cards provided that the new attack cards have the same rank as a card already in play. Once any new attack cards are added, all cards in play are placed in the defender’s hand and the turns ends. The defender also forfeits his or her turn. The player to the left becomes the new attacker and play continues.

Defense

• The defender is responsible for determining the order in which other players added attack cards while repelling or conceding an attack.
• If the defender runs out of cards in his or her hand while successfully repelling an attack, the defense is successful and the turn ends immediately. This usually happens when an attack is passed on several times.
• It is possible for a defender to concede after he or she begins to repel the attack. This usually occurs when players add other attack cards which the defender cannot overcome. Changing from repelling an attack to conceding an attack does not change the order in which other players added attack cards.

End of turn
At end of a turn, whether or not defense was successful, the players replenish their hands from the draw pile. Each player in sequence replenishes his or her hand to six cards as long as cards remain in the draw pile. In order, the attacker replenishes his or her hand first. Next, other players contributing attack cards replenish their hand. These players proceed in the order determined by the defender. Finally, the defender replenishes the cards in his or her hand. Any player that does not have any cards after replenishing is out of the game. Play continues clockwise. No players may examine the discard pile at any point.

Culmination of the game
The last person left in the game with cards in his or her hand, is the loser (the durak). The durak will be the dealer for the next game, and the person to the left of the durak is the first attacker of the next game.

Durak with Epaulettes (Shoulder decorations)
If the very last card played by an attacker is the lowest rank (6 in the standard game) and the defender concedes, the defender is cheerfully pronounced “durak with epaulette” and the low card is slapped onto the shoulder of the loser. If the last two cards played by an attacker are both of the lowest rank, the attacker slaps a card on each shoulder.

These endings are considered by some to be a demonstration of skill, because the winning attacker makes himself or herself handicapped by keeping the lowest ranked card through the final part of the game.

Clarifications

• As soon as a defending card has been played, the defender no longer has the option to pass the attack to their left; they must defend or fail.
• It is possible for the defender to concede, by picking up all attacking cards before any defending cards are played.

Options / Variants

• There is also a “Pairs” variation of the game, which can be played with four players. In this version, teammates sit across each other, and the game goes normally. The difference is that a player cannot add to an attack on his or her partner. The team which has both their players lose all their cards is the winner.
• For six players, the rules are the same except that the deck has 40 cards. The 40 card deck of 40 cards is ranked A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. For eight players, the a standard 52 card deck is used with the same rules.
• For a two person game or four person game of two teams “epaulettes” are an actual score point. Once a player or team receives an epaulette with a 6, points are scored if a team or player can confer an epaulette of a 7 onto the durak. Play continues until an ace card is landed onto someone’s shoulder. The team or player conferring the epaulette of an ace is considered the winner.