A couple weeks ago, I was watching a PBS special on people’s memories of Chicago and one sweet-looking old lady recalled how you used to be able to walk into a store, grab some sheet music, hand it to the piano player and he’d play it from sight so you would know that it was the song you wanted and that you liked the arrangement.  Essentially you could try it before buying it and you don’t see that often anymore.   Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll have a neighborhood game store …

A friend of mine was over recently and asked if I could recommend a card game that’s “like UNO, but not UNO, but is easy for non-game people to get, like UNO — oh and it also has to be fun for two players.”  Huh.  So we headed up to my hallway of games and I started pulling products out for him to look at.  He really wanted something simple, fun and that takes 2 seconds to learn.  Something “familiar.”
The game that really resounded with him was Ratuki by USAOPOLY.  …