Today’s quote: “Wisdom is knowing your ridin’ down the wrong trail…again.”

– A quote containing a grammatical error, written on the wall of a restaurant

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Amazons

Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and remove the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, K, A of each suit, leaving twenty-four cards. Deal four tableau cards, face up. 

The object of the game is to build four foundations by suit and in ascending rank (7-8-9-10-J-Q). The game is won when each of the four queens is successfully played onto its appropriate foundation pile.

The starting layout is as basic as it gets: four tableau cards dealt face up. If you turn up a 7, move it to the foundation directly above (unless this slot is already filled, in which case you may move the 7 to any other vacant foundation).

In Amazons, you may not move or play cards from one tableau pile to another, nor may you play a tableau card on any other foundation pile except the one directly above it. In the example on the following page, you may promote 7 of diamonds from the tableau to the foundation, but you may not play 8 of diamonds on the 7 of diamonds because the diamond foundation pile is not directly above the 8 of diamonds. Instead, you must exhaust your stockpile and hope that the 8 of diamonds is later turned up in the diamonds column.

	Move the 7 of diamonds here		Can’t move the 8 of diamonds to the 7 of diamonds
9 of hearts	7 of diamonds	3 of clubs	8 of diamonds

After completing your moves, deal four more cards from the stock to the tableau, and make as many moves as your cards allow. In the example below, the 7 of clubs is turned up in the second tableau pile; since its foundation slot is already occupied, move the 7 of clubs to any other vacant foundation slot. (This is the only time you are allowed to ignore the rule about playing tableau cards only to the foundation piles directly above them.) In this case the obvious move is above the 8 of clubs, which you may now move up to the foundation directly above it.

	7 of diamonds is already here	The 7 of clubs can go up and over to the clubs column	After the 7 of clubs is here, move the 8 of clubs up
10 of diamonds	7 of clubs	J of spades	8 of clubs

Note that you may only ever play the topmost tableau card. If a card you need becomes buried in a tableau pile, all you can do is wait and hope it will turn up.

Once you exhaust the stock, create a new pile by taking up the four tableau piles from left to right and turning them face down. Do not reshuffle. You may deal and redeal as many times as necessary until the game is either won or lost.

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Riddle:

12 hikers go up a mountain and rest under a pear tree. The pear tree has 6 pairs of pears. Each has a pear, and then there are 11 left. How is this possible?

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