Whatever X, Day XV
Posted on September 15, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 22 Comments
Let’s just say that my daughter’s personal style became apparent pretty early on, as this next repeat, from when she was four, shows.
APRIL 16, 2003: Scene From an Uno Game
SCENE OPENS on John and Athena, playing a game of UNO.
John (setting down a red four card): Four. Your turn, honey.
Athena (sets down card): Draw two, daddy.
John: Okay. (draws two)
Athena (sets down another card): Draw two again, daddy.
John: Um, okay. (draws two more)
Athena (sets down yet another card): Now you have to draw two more, daddy.
John: Wow. Three Draw Two cards in a row. That’s pretty evil, Athena.
Athena (reprovingly): That’s not a very nice thing to say, daddy.
John: You’re right, honey. I’m sorry.
Athena (sets down another card): Draw four, daddy.
Two-handed Uno is a pain – matching those Draw 2 cards, and the Skip cards and the Reverse cards (it was my turn, so now it’s my turn again). Just be thankful it wasn’t the Harry Potter Uno deck – it doesn’t have Draw 2 cards, it has Draw 3 cards.
That chilled my blood.
I have a photo like that of my young daughter, but my kid is also wearing chainmail.
There must be a special class that little kids go to that teaches cut throat Uno. Mine has a nefarious giggle that builds as she lays down her well organized stack of draws, skips and reverses. I know I didn’t teach her to play like that.
Ah, but it’s in the rules, Daddy… Just playin’ by the rules…
Dr. Phil
You should have feigned deafness. It makes my kid feel sorry for me and I always win.
Wow, she plays Uno like my extended family does. I like to call it, the Uno Deathmatch style.
So in your family’s version of 2-person Uno, is Reverse the same as Skip, or does it do nothing? My sister and I finally decided on “does nothing” after a long debate, but most people seem to go with “same as Skip”.
–SMQ
We added rules from an old game, insane eights. If your opponent plays a draw 2 on you, you can play a draw 2 on top of it instead of drawing. It reverses the direction of play, and adds two more to the number of cards to be drawn, so the second one makes it a draw 4. Of course, your opponent may still play another draw 2 on top of that, which will make it a draw 6 for you! etc, etc…. The highest we ever got was a run of six, making for 12 cards drawn.
We play the same rule with the draw 4s.
We usually play partners, and play that the 4s and 7s become pass to your partner. And we add the rule that 0s make the same player play again.
Insane Uno is a lot of fun.
CJ: We used to play something similar on all-night Uno games. We called it “Fast Uno” because if you could match a card, and could get it down before the person whose turn it was, then you could play it – even if you played the last card. If nobody could, then regular play resumed clockwise from the last person who was able to play. Draw cards were additive, just like your version. We would play this with as many as 8 people. Catching who was supposed to be saying “Uno” to signal they were close to going out and didn’t was a nightmare.
@10: I learned the same version of Uno, except we called it “Killer Uno”. Used to get very very loud.
Let the Wookie win.
If she asks you if you want to see the disappearing pencil trick, say “no.”
My sister cut her evil minion teeth on Uno. She kicks my ass at it every. single. time. Oh, and did you ever get that shuffler thing that SPITS cards out? It’s the devil.
Hmmm…. perhaps an Uno tourney at VP might be in the cards? (pun *totally* intended)
We used to play Uno to lose. Because whoever won was left out while everyone else kept going, sometimes for hours.
I never got Uno. I’ve been an Asshole man since high school, when we’d spend all lunch hour hurling obscenities and homoerotic insinuation at each other over five or six hands with players coming and going as they pleased.
Ah, the good old days.
@#16 The Fighter. Wow, in high school we played almost exclusively something we called Duroc which appears to be a variant on Asshole (or President)
I had never heard of anything similar to it until just now whilst Googling “Asshole.” Now I know what family of games it falls into.
What I like about that family of game is how it drastically changes strategy with all the different group sizes.
Lol
Nice work Athena.
I used to be an Uno FIEND. Right on, girlfriend.
God, I miss that game.
The Fighter @ 16 – Ah, Asshole! Fond memories, the ones I can remember anyhow…of beach trips and games that went on all night long. I’ve played many rounds, both sober and drinking variety…same for Uno!
And to whoever mentioned the Uno card spitting monster machine, it is evil.
Uno makes people evil. If Mother Theresa, George Fox and Ghandi played Uno long enough, someone would get shanked.
@13: ROFL!
You should be scared that your daughter was that smart at age four. I know my parents were. *wink*