Spite and Malice

Even though I no longer live in Colorado, I still listen to a Denver-based radio station every day at work. It's partly a familiarity thing (I grew up listening to these DJs) and partly because I like the time difference. I enjoy actually being coherent during the "Much too early for a question question" in the morning show. I like being able to leave around the time they play the three themed songs at three. And if I do have to work late, hearing the "Commuter comedy" around the time I'm leaving the office makes me feel a bit better about life in general.

But, since I do live 2000 miles away from the broadcast station of this studio, I have to stream it using iHeart radio, which isn't my favorite thing ever. They use the station's commercial breaks for different kinds of promotions. Some of these are Top 40 songs that I have very little interest in (but, hey, at least I've heard the songs on Glee before those kids sing them now). Lately, they've been replaying parts of old interviews in an effort to get me to download (and probably pay for) them.

This means that several times a day, I hear the same conversations between the DJ and Al Gore, Melissa Etheridge, and Alan Alda. To the point that I basically have these interviews memorized now.

During one interview, the DJ asks Alan Alda the secret to his long marriage (50 years!). He responds, "Spite and Malice", a card game that he and his wife play every day. Well I finally got curious enough to look up the rules to this game. If he attributes his long marriage to it, it's probably worth learning to play.

The instructions are here, if you're interested.

It didn't take me long to realize that I do know Spite and Malice. The difference is that I call it SkipBo. And I already play it with Kevin and our other friends pretty frequently.

In fact, we spent most of the morning leading up to Zach and Sarah's wedding playing this game (although our deck had no tens, thanks to Kevin's mischievousness). So if this is the secret to a long and happy marriage, I guess it bodes well for them. Make sure you play lots of SkipBo, guys!