Annapolis MD: The governing board of the American Pinochle Association (APA) has proposed updating this old French card game to encompass the 21st Century concept of same sex marriage.
A Pinochle deck of 48 cards consists of two copies for each of the 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace cards of all four suits. A "Marriage" is traditionally a king and queen of the same suit. The APA proposal would redefine a "Marriage" to include two kings of the same suit, two queens of the same suit, and the traditional king and queen of the same suit. Since there are two cards in each suit the deck size remains the same, but point counting must be adjusted.
The APA board considered an additional proposal to include Transsexuals and Bisexuals by allowing the new definition of a "Marriage" to be any combination of suits. This motion was rejected based on the existing "Pinochle" that consists of a jack of diamonds and a queen of spades, which already is an odd couple.
The APA plans to provide ballots to the membership, via email and snail-mail, to determine whether to incorporate the new definition of a "Marriage" into the Pinochle rules!