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oooh, I love dominoes. have fun doing that. I say, do that mostly.

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Did you watch The Grifters yet?

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I didn't know you played some bones! We shall have to do that some time. Oh, yes, indeed.

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indeed...which version do you play? The one I am most familiar with is the Mexican Train...but, I am willing to do any. Yes, that is a great cold wintertime activity. And a summer one on a picnic table. Oh yeah.

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Yeah, I did---t'other night. Good! Did you like it? It wasn't as dated as I thought it would be---guess it held up better as styl-y noir without being too reflective of what seemed cool in 1990. (Blows my mind that 1990-anything stuff can be far-ish in the past, but there ya go.)

I'm a fan of Angelica, and I don't find John Cusack annoying, as some do. He's picked movies to be in that I often end up liking, too. I had no idea Annette Bening was ever in the movies as such a young tart type, though! That was a revelation. I don't think she got on my radar at all until American Beauty. {looking her up now....}

Well, I'd forgotten about The American President---that was pretty good, and she in it. But not really a tart there. I can't remember her in Postcards from the Edge.

What did you think of The Grifters? Have you read the book? I've not.

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I believe my game of choice is called Muggins, or something like that. It's when the ends adding up to multiples of 5 scores---the traditional Carribean/Af-Am game, I'm told. Mexican Train is big in Texas, yes? (Where bones themselves are big?) Do you play that with Double Twelves, or Double Nines, or something crazy? It has a stem thing in the middle, and you play out toward yourself?

I'm a Double Six gal, so no more than 4 can play my game, and it's really more fun with a boneyard, so 2 or 3 are ideal. But I'd love to learn Mexican Train sometime---and am I right that you can play it with more people? 6 or 8?

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peteralway.livejournal.com

Geez Louise! I haven't played dominoes in at least a quarter century. And I'm quite sure I played with them more as a building set than as the game was meant to be played. I think the family had two matched sets stored in one box, and each kid would build a tower on the table. Then we'd take turns sliding a domino at the other kid's fort, to see who knocked it down first. We had all sorts of strategies for fortifying the citadel with walls around the tower.

Later on, as older brothers moved away, I just built elabrate towers, domes, and other archetectural wonders.

You guys actually play that game where you use the dots? Bizzare! I think I've only played whatever version is generic in the US once or twice. It was much more gratifying setting them up in rows, going up stairs and stuff, and knocking them down. I think the high point was having the last one land on a mouse trap loaded with a ping-pong ball.

Definitely I grew up with dominoes as a craft, rather than as a mathematical, intellectual pursuit.

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I was a building domino person as a kid and exclusively for many years---love the knock 'em down thing. I wish I'd thought of the mousetrap-cum-ping-pong-ball, though! You showed signs of genius early on, hunh, Pete.

I love the combination of strategies that bones (scored in multiples of 5s) calls for. There's a "spinner"---the first double played---off of which play can happen in 4 directions, but the vertical ones only become "active" for scoring once a bone is added to one side or the other there. One wants not only to score often & as much as possible, but also to "go out" first---not having to draw bones from the boneyard & load up your hand---cuz that not only scores more points (potentially) but (moreover) give one dominion over what bone gets played first in the next hand.

I was taught by a guy who worked with me at Balto City Comm College. He was great. Holly would never let me use all of his pseudo-psychological tactics of bravado and such, but she too liked the game, as do many of my favorite folk. Want to play some time? I'm a gentle teacher (at first). (Once you learn, the kid gloves come off!)

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I liked The Grifters a lot up till the ending. It just didn't make any sense. But then R&I got the book out of the library. Same ending, but there's a pivotal point in the book that makes it make sense. Other than that one thing (that I can't remember right now to save me), the movie was very faithful. The book's not bad--a light crime read, very short.

I thought everything else about the movie was good, though. Created the mood quite well. I was still in the midst of my Cusack obsession, and Anjelica's always wonderful. Yeah, Annette Benning. Young tart describes her pretty well. It was interesting to see her in American Beauty having known her in The Grifters.

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Hunh---what was it about the ending? [SPOILER WARNING, anybody reading...] I shall have to get ahold of the book next. I'm thinking you're meaning either something about the mother-son relationship or something about the death.

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peteralway.livejournal.com

I can't take original credit for the mousetrap and ping-pong ball. I got that from my big brother, who in turn got the idea of a ping-pong bll/mousetrap chain reaction from Disney's "Our Friend the Atom."

But yeah, sure it sounds fun to try a game of dominoes sometime. Those games always have such wierd jargon--spinners and bones and boneyards (I do remember "boneyard," but I never heard the pieces called bones).

The only game I've actually played recently has been Scrabble.

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It was the death. R reminded me when I mentioned our conversation to him. In the movie it came across as an accident with no real point--out of left field, so to speak. In the book, though, there's a reason.

Like your new icon.

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After the one viewing of the movie, the death looked to me as if it was supposed to be an accident caused by the glass breaking when she tries to push him away to take the money, after the come-on--cum--"i'm not your mother" didn't work. No "purpose" but karmic come-uppance, and the literary purpose of her losing her soul.

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Yeah, I see what you mean, but it didn't work for me on that level. It just seemed sloppy. I'm curious what you'll think of the book in comparison.

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Off to the library website now!

Here's to Charlotte's nipple removal, btw: may it do the trick, whatever the necessary trick turns out to be.

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Good luck. Hey, get White Heat while you're browsing, if you haven't seen it. You'll be glad you did.

Thanks. The trick is to keep her as happy and healthy as we can without being too invasive about it. So far, she's doing all right. Very happy today, had tuna treats for lunch and now napping in a sun puddle.

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I had to interlibrary loan that novel! Too gritty for A squared? lol

That is indeed the challenge with an older/failing pet. I'm a little freaked out about being Chet's sole parent as he ages. Somehow it seems as if it'll be even harder---possibly considerably so---on my own.

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White Heat's only at the 'brar' on video, unfortunately. Is it campy? Looks that way from the description. Campy noir?

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Not by a long shot. Heavy duty 40s gangster noir. Sharply written, well acted, sucked me in and didn't let go till the climax. Cagney was a great surprise. One of the best movies I've seen in ages. Made The Matrix (the most recent film we'd seen otherwise) seem even more puny.

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Yeah, it's gonna be tough for you when Chet's time comes. You two have had each other for so long. I think it helps to have another critter. Not as a replacement (they're all different), but just so you still have the companionship. It's helped me when we've had kitties go, to have others to snuggle with.

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we play with double 15s, and you can play with many more people, I've played with as many as six. It's the most fun and least confusing with four. Though D. and I have had a weeklong dominoes game before with just the two of us. I learned Mexican Train from someone from Arizona, which made the Mexican thing and now the Texas thing make sense.
I have long wanted to learn the other version of which you speak. We should plan something...

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I didn't even know there WERE double 15s.

Yeah, I'd like to learn Mexican Train. Got a chock-full week and weekend coming, though. Maybe next week? or later?

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