{"id":161,"date":"2007-07-13T21:05:33","date_gmt":"2007-07-14T01:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thequicksliver.wordpress.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2007-07-13T21:05:33","modified_gmt":"2007-07-14T01:05:33","slug":"7-13-07-check-the-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/7-13-07-check-the-deck\/","title":{"rendered":"7.13.07 Check the Deck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charlemagne did not intentionally stab himself in the head.<\/p>\n<p>Consider your average deck of cards. \u00a0No matter where you get \u2018em or what brand you buy, they\u2019ll be the same uniform set. \u00a0How\u2019d that come about?\u00a0 Glad you asked.\u00a0 It was the Italians who brought playing card into Europe in the 1300\u2019s.\u00a0 The Frogs standardized the first modern set at Rouen in 1565.\u00a0 King James patented and standardized them in 1611 (the same year he updated and standardized his King James Bible, thus forever linking sinful gaming and salvation).\u00a0 After the Civil War, the Americans created the version that is still current today.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s likely that the deck was supposed to represent the 52 weeks of the year, broken into four seasons (suits), ruled over by various Jewish, Greek, Roman and Medieval nobles, who may also represent the 12 signs of the Zodiac. \u00a0The Kings are largely believed to be David (Spades), Charlemagne (Hearts), Caesar (Diamonds) and Alexander (Clubs). \u00a0The Queens are the Greek Minerva, Judith of France, and Rachel. The fourth is Argine, an anagram of \u201cRegina\u201d meaning \u201cQueen.\u201d\u00a0 The Jacks are Ogier, who was a knight of Charlemagne, La Hire, who was a buddy of Jean D\u2019Arc, Hector of Troy and Judas Maccabee.<\/p>\n<p>But beyond that, the deck is a result of happenstance and error:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jacks were originally called Knaves, but it was confusing to have both \u201cK\u201ds and \u201cKn\u201ds in the corners, so a term was stolen from the game All Fours, where the Knave of the trump suit is called the Jack.<\/li>\n<li>Originally a \u201cone\u201d, the term \u201cAce\u201d comes from the smallest Roman coin, the \u201cas\u201d. \u00a0Aces became more powerful than Face Cards after the French Revolution, to symbolize the power of the common man over the King.<\/li>\n<li>The Ace of Spades is the only card that\u2019s certain, since it represents Death and Taxes.\u00a0 It was the card historically stamped by the crown to verify a tax had been paid, so all makers today use that card for their copyright. \u00a0It has also come to mean death in many societies.\u00a0 For example, during the Vietnam War, the American military scattered them throughout the jungle in an attempt to scare the VC.<\/li>\n<li>The Joker is an American invention, naturally.\u00a0 It was brought in as the highest card in Euchre, also pronounced \u201cJuker,\u201d and evolved from there.<\/li>\n<li>The \u201corb\u201d held by the King of Clubs originally represented Caesar\u2019s control of the earth; Caesar and Alexander later flipped suits.<\/li>\n<li>The nine of diamonds is \u201cThe Curse of Scotland\u201d but nobody can really remember why.<\/li>\n<li>The four of clubs is \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Bedpost\u201d; it does look like a four-poster but the sinister origins are unknown.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As for Charlemagne, that was a mistake.\u00a0 The \u201csuicide King of Hearts\u201d originally wielded an axe like the King of Diamonds, but a bad print job resulted in later designs that ran a blade through his head.\u00a0 Thus, art directors are the source of all error, or the source of all power, depending on how you look at it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlemagne did not intentionally stab himself in the head. Consider your average deck of cards. \u00a0No matter where you get \u2018em or what brand you buy, they\u2019ll be the same uniform set. \u00a0How\u2019d that come about?\u00a0 Glad you asked.\u00a0 It was the Italians who brought playing card into Europe in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[212,264,330,346,558,574,1149,1181],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","tag-cards","tag-clubs","tag-deck-of-cards","tag-diamonds","tag-hearts","tag-history","tag-spades","tag-suits"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}