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This weeks Editorial

   All right, this is the last word on the subject, I promise.  So many of you have weighed in on the subject of passing with a picking hand, (the subject of the last two editorials) that we feel compelled to give it this final treatment.   (And I do mean final.)

   I know how frustrating it can be to be forced to pass with an obvious winning hand; hell, nobody likes to do that.  But remember the object of the game, OK?  Picking on the ninth hand of the game when you are minus 44 is fruitless when you are attempting to win a game.  Right??  I guess we all agree on that, but some of you are insisting that mauering is tantamount to treason or bed wetting, so I guess it bears  repeating:  Why pick when you have no chance of winning??  I know, I know...playing a winning hand is a lot of fun, but, as most of our subscribers agree, if it affords you no opportunity to win the game, it's very much like Hari Kari.  Winning a hand and losing a game is foolish.

   So, to illustrate my point, let me tell you a little story that my grandfather told me.  Now, you must understand something about my grandfather.  He was a brilliant but frustrated man; he had a remarkable mind and loved to invent things, but he always seemed to come up just a tad short, know what I mean?  For instance, he invented WD39.......and Preparation G......and Six-Up.  His entire life, he had come up just a hair short of becoming a multi-multi, you see?  So naturally, he was bitter.  But an astute story teller.  Here's a story he told me about playing cards at a lumberjack camp when he was a young man.

   It seems he had been playing all night and not having much luck when he finally got an unbeatable hand.  Trying very hard not to give himself away, he astutely kept everyone in the hand and laid down his four-of-a-kind winning hand, only to have the guy across from him say:

"Ah, just a minute there, pal.  I've got a Whamdoodle", whereupon he laid down a 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 of every imaginable suite.

"What the hell is a Whamdoodle?" my grandfather inquired, growing weak in the knees.

   All of his fellow card players pointed at a sign on the wall behind him, and there, plainly, was a sign that said "WHAMDOODLES BEAT EVERYTHING"  And, of course, the picture on the sign showed the 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

   Well, dejectedly, grampa gave up the pot and hocked his horse to stay in the game.  Later in the evening, after building up his holdings again, grampa finally got dealt a Whamdoodle.  Trying very hard not to show his excitement, he cleverly built up the pot to an astonishingly large amount, and proudly laid down his hand.  Reaching for the pot, he was interrupted by all the other players:

"Hold on there, young fella," they said, pointing as one at another sign behind grampa.  There on the wall was another sign that said "WHAMDOODLES ONLY GOOD ONCE A NIGHT"

   Of course, the moral of the story is 'KNOW THE HOUSE RULES'!!!  And playing Sheepshead on the computer forces us to play by Yahoo's rules.  So please understand, this is not the game we all play on Saturday night around the kitchen table, OK?  This is Sheepshead according to Yahoo, and we must play accordingly.  Passing with a winning hand is part of the game if we wish to win the damned game, OK, so let's all just get used to it.

   Or.......you could always play leasters??

The Editor

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Letters to the Editor Department

This weeks letter is from Obie Wan Washfiniakovski of Slaythefatted, Calif and he poses an interesting question: Is there intelligent life in the Universe?