20 Mar 2026 – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Today we played 7 card cribbage and tackled challenging hand scores. It’s quiz time! First, we got to have some rules which are here.

For convenience, the rules are copied below from Masters Traditional Games web site:

“Seven card cribbage

Only experienced players play this game – it can get quite complicated. Play is to 181 points or three times around the board. Deal seven cards to each player and one to the crib. Then each player discards two into the crib so that each hand and the crib all consist of 5 cards.

Play is the same as for standard cribbage except that a flush can consist of 4, 5 or 6 cards for 1 point each card. However, you can only score a 4 or 5 card flush if all the cards in the flush are in the hand.

The highest score under seven card cribbage is 46 which can only be scored when the six cards, including the turned up card, are 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4. This is a total of 6 for 3 pairs, 16 for 8 fifteens and 24 for 8 runs.”

We didn’t have flushes. We scored them and did pretty well. I missed one of the fifteens on hand B. We checked our results, so we know the right answers.

Hand A: 44556K

Hand B: 333456

For this to work as a quiz, it’s more fun if you comment. I’ll post the answers this coming Monday.

We’re getting two new cribbage boards. They’re shipping from Michaud Toys in Canada. One of them is a new giant board similar to the one we got in 2020 but fancier. We’re also getting a Cribbage Rumble board which is basically the same as a Cribbage Wars board but shaped more like the narrower giant cribbage board rather than a big square. Otherwise, the hazards and bonus zones are the same but are sort of stretched to fit on the board.

According to a Des Moines Register story today “Which bills in the Iowa Legislature lived and died after 2nd funnel?” by Steven Gruber-Miller and Marissa Payne March 20, 2026:

“Other bills remain in play, including legislation restricting the governor’s emergency powers, allowing Iowans to buy ivermectin over the counter without a prescription and limiting tuition increases at Iowa’s public universities.”

Apparently, the ivermectin over-the-counter (OTC) bill is funnel proof and is still alive as part of HF 2676 (the Senate passed its version, SF 2367). I was not able to read the entire Des Moines Register story because I don’t have a subscription. However, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) also reported this morning (AI pops up whether I want it to or not and puts its 2 cents in) that the ivermectin bill is still alive. The 2026 legislative session is still active through April 21, 2026. My apologies. I must have misunderstood the Bleeding Heartland story I posted about on March 14, 2026.

I’m pretty sure I read the KCCI news story correctly about what bills survived the 2^nd funnel or not in a story published yesterday, which pointed out that the bill to “eliminate school vaccine requirements” did not survive the second funnel.

I couldn’t find out anything about the bill on vaccine exemptions for certain students in clinical rotations and modifying eligibility for Iowa tuition grants for postsecondary schools. A committee report approving this bill was filed on February 23, 2026, and it was subsequently renumbered as SF 2424. Unfortunately, all I can gather about it comes from an AI summary:

“Key Provisions:
- Requires postsecondary schools to identify, upon request, a rotation placement where students are exempt from vaccination requirements.
- Defines “postsecondary school” and “facility” for these purposes.
- Institutions failing to comply may lose eligibility for Iowa tuition grants and face a $5,000 civil penalty.
Status/Funnel Position: As of Feb 23, 2026, the bill was on the Senate calendar and passed by the Senate Education Committee. In the context of the second funnel deadline (March 20, 2026), which requires policy bills to have passed out of a committee in the opposite chamber, this bill (formerly SF 2095) is moving through the process, but as of the initial 2026 reports, its exact final position relative to the March 20 deadline is subject to final Legislative Service Agency tracking.
Context: The bill was introduced by the Senate Education Committee.”

This legislative process is confusing to me and I may need to correct this later today.

UPDATED:

Addendum per Iowa Capital Dispatch today:

What survived:

“Governor’s ‘MAHA’ bill: House File 2676 was proposed by Reynolds to codify restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligible food items, make ivermectin accessible over the counter and prohibit food dyes in school meals. The bill passed from the House with several amendments, including one to limit screen time in elementary schools, another asking to waive school lunch nutrition guidelines to instead include more regional foods like beef, pork and dairy and another that sets extracurricular requirements in schools. The bill was attached to Senate File 2367 and placed on unfinished business.”

What died:

Immunization requirements: K-12 immunization requirements for attending school would have been removed under House File 2171, which passed the House Education Committee but was not taken up for floor debate.

Vaccinations: Senate File 2424, amended and passed by the Iowa Senate Education Committee Feb. 18, would require private colleges and universities with clinical rotation programs to identify placements where students are exempt from any vaccination requirements put in place by the host of their rotation placement. The legislation failed to see Senate debate.

Hydroxychloroquine: The governor’s “MAHA” bill, which survived the funnel, included a provision allowing over-the-counter dispensing of ivermectin. But a separate measure, House File 2056, allowing dispensing of both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, a prescription medication typically used in treating malaria which is also promoted by non-verified sources as a means to manage or treat symptoms of COVID-19, died during the first funnel.”