In trying to find a lead-in to this month’s Euchre reminder, I came across an impressively succinct description of the gamein a 2015 article by Jason Boog in The Awl. Until its demise in 2018, the editors of The Awl believed that “curios and oddities were ignored in favor of the most obvious and easy stories… (and) there was an audience of intelligent readers who were poorly served by being delivered those same stories in numbing repetition.” Here’s Mr. Boog’s take on the essence of euchre…
“If poker, where every bet is an attempt to bankrupt the other players, promotes cut-throat enterprise, then euchre, where every calculation is made with your partner’s support in mind, embodies small-town communalism. Four players split into two teams, with the average game taking less than a half hour to play and requiring just twenty-four cards — a skinny deck of nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces. Before any cards are played, players must decide which suit should be trump, the most powerful in the game. Each time a card is played, players try to top it and win the ‘trick.’ The first team to collect three tricks wins the round and scores; the first team to score ten points wins.”
If the elegant simplicity of this explanation inspires you to try your hand at this time-honoured pastime, I suggest you join us this coming Friday, May 17 for Dunvegan Recreation’s euchre luncheon and tournament.Admission for the afternoon of food and fun is only $5 and includes sandwiches and homemade sweets — both before and after the winners are declared. Held in the DRA Hall at 19053 County Road 24, the event starts at 12:00 noon and wraps up around 3:30 PM. Everyone is welcome to join us. All we ask is that you enjoy good food and like to have a good time.
Children being children
At a recent meeting of the Dunvegan Recreation Association’s executive committee, the issue of “pedestrian protection” was raised. Director Louise Quenneville and others are rightly concerned that increased foot traffic crossing from the Dunvegan soccer fields to the DRA’s new park may be putting children at risk.
Louise reported to the group that vehicular traffic in and out of the hamlet on County Road 30 is travelling far too fast. In her opinion, the speed limit needs to be reduced from 60 kph to 40 kph as motorists pass the church, park and soccer field laneway. Other measures that were suggested at the meeting were seasonal speed bumps or temporary striped posts, like the ones near the St. Isidore arena, which could be removed for winter snowplowing.
I’m also researching a simple, but effective Pedestrian Crosswalk Alert system that Terry and I saw in Manotick this past Sunday. Push button activated, it appeared to be much more cost effective than the Cadillac solution that Alexandria installed at Mill Square. And yes, I would imagine that Manotick town officials ensured their crosswalk alert system was “up to code.”
Ode to an iron ring
While we’re on the topic of building codes, I wanted to say how grateful I am the Township officials insisted that an engineer rejig the DRA’s plans for the new entrance to the Dunvegan Hall. True, the new front steps are now so steep they give pause to anyone with a heart condition or balance concerns. And, at its bottom reaches, the cement staircase is guarded by a water-filled moat that appears magically with each hint of rainfall.
But just imagine what a mess we would have had if the professional builders the DRA had working on the project had been allowed to use their decades of experience, not to mention their common sense. No doubt the treads would have been vertical and the top landing might have been halfway up the front door.
Tommy drops by
Truth be told, if I were forced to choose between operating our bird feeders in the summer or the winter, I’d choose the former every time. This probably shows little empathy for our shivering feathered friends that lack the wherewithal to hop a WestJet and head for warmer climes. Some might even suggest my heartlessness would extend to plucking the wings off flies or deliberately misdirecting strangers. Be that as it may, I love the birds of summer. The riot of colour and the ebb and flow of frenetic activity outside our kitchen bay window can be mesmerizing. Then there’s the rush of spotting an unusual species… birds that can only be seen after the vernal equinox. I still remember the feeling of incredulity I experienced with my first indigo bunting sighting. These are not shades of blue one often sees in nature.
This stance was reinforced last week when, as I entered the garage, I caught a flash of orange out of the corner of my eye. It was only when I reached the kitchen that I realized we had another rare visitor: a Baltimore oriole. It started out on our ‘small seed’ feeder. Then it flew over to the humming bird feeder we have suction-cupped to the window. While not designed for orioles, the intensely orange bird used its hooked beak to lap up nectar until it was sated. Then it flew away. I was disappointed that Terry had missed seeing it. But lo and behold, upon my wife’s return, the oriole alighted on the hummer feeder, as if on cue, and started pecking at the window.
To encourage it to stick around, we threw together an oriole feeder. Terry found the design on-line. Dead simple, it consisted of two orange halves screwed to a board. Almost a week later, “Tommy” (after Tommy Douglas, leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971) is still with us. While orange is one of my least favourite colours, the vibrancy of this bird’s plumage is stunning.
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