The cunning cons of party pols
By Courtney Haden
Two games that put the fun into Fun City are speed chess and three-card monte. Though some say New York City’s official recreations are kvetching and kvelling, the board game and the card game capture, I think, the essence of that great metropolis.
Chess is a game of supreme strategizing, in which success is dependent on one’s ability to think several moves ahead. Take away the luxury to deliberate, as the masters of speed chess demonstrate daily in Washington Square, and instinct becomes a crucial component in vanquishing one’s adversary.
Three-card monte, on the other hand, is a game of skill only for the person holding the cards. As widespread as the legend of this street con is, there’s always one mark who steps up to the table thinking he can beat the dealer.
Manhattan’s unique diversions have become America’s lately. The presidential race, still a human gestation away as of Super Fat Tuesday, has picked up incredible velocity thanks to the various media accompanying the contest, so that the daily engagements between the Democratic senators on one side and between rival wings of the Republican Party on the other comprise hourly confrontations.
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