RAW DEAL

What’s so funny about this? This is at least the second time I’ve used this well-known picture of dogs playing poker. It’s always been a favorite of mine. It hung in the basement of the house in which I grew up. We had a half/finished basement. The finished side had a tile floor, wood paneling, a bar with all kinds of liquor bottles and best of all, a green felt poker table, just like the one in the painting. My parents used this kind of rec (recreation) room, maybe three to four times a year, usually for one big party and then for the occasional card party, where the men would play poker or pinochle in the basement and the wives would play canasta or rummy upstairs on the dining room table. I’d make the rounds from game to game trying to glom spare change. Later, when I was in high school, I’d have friends over to play poker on the same table. In the picture, we see the dogs playing poker. One dog asks what seems to be a reasonable question about the order of winning hands. “When does