podkidnoy durak

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Emily Saunders and Philippe Frison and all,

> Why not just skip the issue and say that "the lightly wounded spent
> their time playing cards and flirting with the middle-aged nurses."
> You say that this does not come up again in the story, so the exact
> nature of the card game is not of great relevance.  That would be my
> suggestion at any rate.
Yes, I think you are right, Emily.  I was just hoping that there might
possibly be a precise equivalent I did not know of.

Thanks,

Robert


> Dear Mr. Chandler,
> 
> The term "pokidnoy durak" was new to me, but I have played a lot of
> just "durak," "perevodnoi durak," and have heard of the somewhat
> libelously named "chukchansky durak " -- the Russian Wikipedia site
> refers to this variant as "Francuski Durak."  Having read the website
> description of "pokidnoy durak" it looks as if it is just plain ol'
> "durak" as I played it with friends as a college student.
> 
> Unfortunately, I can think of no easy English equivalent to this game.
> I would be very curious to know if anyone else knows of perhaps an old
> and forgotten card game that Austen's folk may have played that
> resembles it, but my guess would be that a European card game (ie.
> non-Anglo) may be a closer cousin.
> 
> Things that I can say:  This is not a trick-taking game (so Bridge,
> Hearts, Spades, Whist, etc. are not good translations); neither is it a
> game like Rummy where you try to collect cards, and it is not Cribbage.
> It is not a betting game (well, I can't think how one might bet in
> "durak") so Poker won't help.  Old Maid (unless Old Maid once had
> different rules) is not close because that involves grabbing cards from
> your opponents' hands; and Go Fish is not anywhere close.  The closest
> game I can think of is -- and this is a VERY distant cousinship -- is
> Crazy Eights since the goal for both is to get rid of cards and to
> "cover" the last card played with a card of the same number or suit
> (durak allows up to six to cover and in Crazy 8's you draw from the
> deck if you can't play rather than picking up the stack of played
> cards, and there are a few other major differences).  Unfortunately, I
> imagine that Crazy 8's would probably would sound out of place in your
> context.
> 
> Why not just skip the issue and say that "the lightly wounded spent
> their time playing cards and flirting with the middle-aged nurses."
> You say that this does not come up again in the story, so the exact
> nature of the card game is not of great relevance.  That would be my
> suggestion at any rate.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Emily Saunders

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