The basic familiar design of the cards—with hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, and court cards of Jacks, Queens, and Kings—came from France, and with the invention of woodcuts in the 14th century, mass-production became possible, making the French cards popular all across Europe. Cards became popular in America as well, and Americans began refining card design around 1800.
It was an American invention to create double-headed court cards, so that the kings, queens, and jacks never needed to be turned upright; to index the cards by placing the number and suit in the corner for easy reference; to varnish the surface of the cards for easier shuffling and durability; and to round the corners, which always seemed to get bent over anyway. It was in America, too, that the Joker was born, as a part of a card game called “Eucher,” or sometimes “Juker.” The Joker became an opportunity for satire—depicting popular political figures as jesters or clowns—and for advertising, which savvy marketers had already plastered on the back of the cards.
There are hundreds of games that can be played with cards. Here are two popular and fun games for four or two people: Hearts and Gin.
HEARTS
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Hearts is a trick-taking game for four players in which the object of the game is to avoid winning tricks (a set of cards) containing Hearts or the Queen of Spades. Hearts began its life in Spain around 1750 in a game called Reverse, the point of which was to lose tricks, not gain them. Eventually, about 100 years later, Reverse fully morphed into the game we know today as Hearts.
“Tricks” are rounds of play in which each player puts a card face up on the table, and the player with the highest card wins all the cards—also called “trick-taking.” But the real trick in this trick-taking game is that in Hearts, players want to avoid winning tricks, because the lowest score wins.
Hearts uses a standard 52-card deck. Aces are high, and there is no trump suit. To start, the dealer deals the cards clockwise so that all players have 13 cards each. Each player then chooses three cards to pass: on the first hand, the cards are passed to the left; on the next hand, the cards are passed right; on the third hand, cards are passed across; and on the fourth hand, no cards are passed. Cards are passed stacked face-down, and players must choose and pass their cards to the correct player before they can look at the cards passed to them.
The player who has the 2 of Clubs goes first and must “lead,” or put down, that card. The play goes clockwise, with all the other players following suit (putting down a card of the same suit), if possible. That means each player must put down a Clubs card—if a player doesn’t have any Clubs in this first hand, she can play any other card except for a Heart or the Queen of Spades. The player with the highest card takes the trick (stacking the cards face down next to her) and starts the next round. After the first trick, a Heart or the Queen of Spades can be used if a player doesn’t have a card in the suit being led. Hearts can only be led (that is, be the first card in a trick) after a Heart has been “broken”—played on a trick where a player couldn’t follow suit.
Play continues until all the cards have been played. Then you add up the points for each player. Each Heart card gets 1 penalty point, and the Queen of Spades gets 13 penalty points. The game is over when at least one person has 100 points or more, and the winner is the player with the lowest score.
But there is one last “trick” to be played in Hearts: a player can do something called “Shooting the Moon.” That is when one player takes all the point cards (all Hearts and the Queen). The player who does this has her points reduced to zero, and everyone else automatically gets 26 points added to their score.
GIN RUMMY
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This two-player card game is said to have been created by a man named Elwood T. Baker, who was inspired by an 18th-century game called Whiskey Poker. Gin rummy became popular in America in the 1930s, when Hollywood stars began playing the game in much the same way that celebrity poker is played today.
To play the game, you need a standard 52-card deck, and a pen and a pad of paper to keep score. You also need to know a bit of card talk to understand the game.
GIN VOCABULARY
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Combination
Two cards of the same rank, such as 2-2; or consecutive in the same suit, such as 2-3 of Clubs.
Count
The point value in a hand after deducting the total melded cards.
Deadwood
Cards that are not a part of any meld.
Gin
Ten melded cards.
Knock
To end the round.
Layoff
Getting rid of deadwood by incorporating it into the other player’s melds, so that it is not counted.
Meld
Either a sequence or a set.
Sequences
A group of three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order, such as 3-4-5 of Spades, or 8-9-10-J of Hearts.
Sets
A group of three or four cards of the same rank, such as 3-3-3 or J-J-J-J.
TO PLAY
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Decide who will be the dealer. The dealer then deals 10 cards to each of the two players and places the remaining cards in a stack between the players. Another card is placed face-up, next to the deck, to create a discard pile.
The goal of gin is to try to get your 10 cards grouped in melds—sequences of cards (three or more cards of the same suit in order) or sets of cards (three or four cards of the same value). Before you take a turn, check to see if you have any melds, or any groups of cards that could easily turn into melds.
Each turn involves taking a card and discarding a card. The player who goes first draws a card from the deck. Now she must discard, choosing a card from her hand that is least likely to become part of a meld. High-point cards, like face cards, are good to discard if you can, since getting rid of them decreases your deadwood (the cards that are not part of any meld). Aces are low in this game: face cards are worth 10 points each, Aces are 1 point, and the other cards are equal to their numerical values (a 2 card of any suit is worth 2 points, a 3 card is 3 points, etc.).
When a player discards, the card must be placed face-up on the discard pile. The other player then has a turn, and she can draw from either the deck or the discard pile. Continue taking turns until a player “knocks,” or until only 2 cards remain in the deck (in which case the hand ends in a draw).
Knocking is when a player ends the round, and is signaled by a player literally making a knocking sound on the table. A player can only knock if she has 10 points of deadwood or less. If you have 0 points of deadwood, also known as “going gin,” you must knock. Otherwise, you don’t have to knock unless you want to—even if you have 10 points in deadwood or less, you can keep playing to try for gin or for a lower point count.
When you decide to knock, rap once on the table, lay down your cards face up, and add up your deadwood. The other player then lays down her hand and separates her deadwood from her melds. If she has any deadwood that can be incorporated into your melds, she can “layoff”—that is, give them to you for your meld so they cannot be counted as her deadwood. After that, add up her total remaining deadwood. Subtract your deadwood from the other player’s deadwood, and the answer you get is your score for this hand.
If you have 0 points of deadwood, you must knock and call “gin.” You get a 25-point bonus for gin, on top of the points for the other player’s deadwood (which she cannot layoff in this case).
If you knock and it turns out the other player has less deadwood than you, you get no points—but the other player scores not only the total of your deadwood minus hers, but 25 bonus points as well. That is called “undercutting.”
After the cards have been counted and points totaled, gather up the cards, shuffle, and deal the next hand.
Keep playing until one of the players reaches 100 points. Each player receives 25 points for each hand she won, and the player who reached 100 points first gets an extra 100-point bo
nus. The winner is the player with the most points after all the bonuses have been added.
South Sea Islands
THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS are rich with history, lore, and fantastical beauty, and are a tropical adventure paradise.
One famous visitor to these remote islands was Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim’s Daughter Longstocking, otherwise known as Pippi, the spunky fictional heroine of the Pippi Longstocking books. In one adventure, red-haired Pippi’s pirate father, the swashbuckling Efraim Longstocking, capsizes his boat, The Hoptoad, on a South Sea Isle (the fictional Kurrekurredutt). The locals pronounce him their leader, calling him Fat White Chief. And when Pippi comes to visit with her friends from Sweden, they call her Princess Pippilotta.
Well, that was the 1940s. It has gone out of fashion to barge onto native islands like that, expecting to become the princess and chief, in fiction or in reality. Today, were you to land on a South Sea Island (whether because your own pirate ship takes water in the Pacific, or because the tunnel you were digging from your backyard to China went slightly askew), here are some contemporary and historical details you’ll want to know.
FASCINATING FACTS
The South Sea Islands are part of the geographical area called Oceania. This includes more then 10,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. Some are mere specks of rock in the ocean. Others, like Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand, are large and well known. The islands are divided into four groups: Australasia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.
Many of the islands are coral reefs—with villages built on the delicate skeletons of live coral. Some formed from the once-hot lava of underwater volcanoes, which eventually rose to the water’s surface.
Additional islands are atolls—that’s a narrow circle of land surrounded by ocean, with a lagoon in the middle. Atolls are the result of coral that has grown on top of a volcanic island that over the years and, with changing water levels, has sunk back into the sea. Still others are archipelagos, long chains of islands scattered over an expanse of water.
A good number of the islands are actually territories of far-away nations like the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. A few, like Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Pelau, and Vanuatu, are independent.
CAPTAIN COOK’S VOYAGES TO THE SOUTH SEAS
The famous English explorer Captain James Cook made three voyages through the Pacific islands between 1768 and 1779. Cook was the first European to see Tahiti, to sail around New Zealand, and to set foot in Australia.
A Tahitian man named Omai guided Cook through the islands during his first voyage. Cook brought Omai back to England with him and, on his third and final voyage to the islands, he returned Omai to his home.
Cook left from Tahiti, heading north and then east to the Americas, where he mapped the west coast and tried, unsuccessfully, to find passage back to England through the Bering Strait. He died in Hawaii in 1779.
PAUL GAUGUIN AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Perhaps you have seen French artist Paul Gauguin’s vivid paintings of village scenes, huts, and the spiritual life of South Sea Island people, in his trademark oranges and lush greens. Gauguin (1848-1903) embraced these islands. On his last legs as a failed businessman, he left his Danish wife Mette and their five children (forcing them to live with Mette’s family to make ends meet) and boarded a ship for the South Pacific. There, he dreamt, he could escape the conventions of European life and the Impressionist school of art, which he found confining.
In Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, where Gauguin lived the rest of his days, he painted his now renowned images of island life. Gauguin found himself at odds with the European governments established on the islands; it turns out he couldn’t really escape Europe after all. The colonial government sentenced him to prison, but he died of illness at the young age of 54, before he could serve his time. Gauguin is buried on the Marquesas Islands, and his work earned fame and fortune only after his death.
Tahitian Women on the Beach by Paul Gauguin
WAR BATTLE ON THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
During World War II, the key battle of Guadalcanal took place in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese were using several of the Solomon Islands as bases, hoping to intercept ships between the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies (the United States and its partners) wanted these islands for their own bases, and to stop Japan’s growing control in the South Pacific.
From August 1942 to February 1943, United States marines and allied forces fought Japanese troops in and near the Solomon Islands. The Allies’ victory at Guadalcanal was a major turning point in the war against Japan.
EASTER ISLAND AND THE MOAI STATUES
Deep in the Pacific Ocean sits Rapa Nui, two thousand miles from its nearest neighbors, Tahiti and Chile. Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is famed for its haunting—and huge—human-like stone carvings, the Moai, who stood guard around the whole circle of the island’s coast for a thousand years.
The first European to discover Easter Island was the Dutch explorer Admiral Roggeveen, who landed with his caravan of three ships, the Eagle, the Thienhoven, and the African Galley on Easter Day in 1722 (hence the island’s English name). They were neither the first nor the last explorers to reach this outpost, as the Polynesians had been there since 400 AD and other Europeans such as Captain Cook were on their way.
Cook visited Rapa Nui/Easter Island in 1774, on the second of his three voyages to the South Sea. He brought along the artist William Hodges, who was transfixed by the Moai statues and made oil paintings of them. A century later, several hundred villagers helped roll two of the Moai statues onto the British ship HMS Topaze. The statues were brought back to England and presented to Queen Victoria. The queen made a place for them in the British Museum, where, in Room 24, you can see them today.
In 1888, Chile claimed Easter Island, and transformed it into a giant sheep ranch. The Chilean colonists crowded the native islanders into the small village of Hanga Roa and confined them with a stone wall, even taking some islanders as slaves. Life went from bad to worse. Some natives tried to escape the island in raft-like fishing boats, facing near-certain death on the high seas.
And the remaining statues? In the 1950s Norwegian archaeologists docked at Easter Island, fascinated by reports and pictures of the mysterious Moai. (Once again the history of the South Sea Islands intersects with far-off Scandinavia!) They found the Maoi in sad disrepair. Invaders had taken some, and the rest had been pushed to the ground when missionaries converted the island to Christianity in the 1890s.
Over time, the archaeologists restored nearly 250 of the Maoi statues—some weighing several tons and standing thirty feet tall—hoisting them back onto their ancient stone platforms, each one-half mile from the next, where they circle the mysterious, stark, now treeless island once again, and look out to sea.
EXOTIC NAMES FOR ADVENTUROUS PLACES
The South Sea Islands have amazing native names that paint mental pictures of this faraway world of ethereal beauty: Giao, Hatuti, Rapa Nui, Bora Bora, Makatea, and Tongal; Fanafutti, Olosega, Fatu Hiva, Mangareva, and many more.
Putting Your Hair Up With a Pencil
PERFECT for when you’re on the run, in the midst of a project, or otherwise adventuring and too busy to fuss with your hair. This skill is best practiced on hair that is at least shoulder-length long; otherwise, a quick ponytail with a rubber band is your best bet.
We’re using a pencil, but you can really use anything that’s handy and stick-shaped—a toothbrush, a fork, a chopstick. Just make sure to have the sharp side of the implement pointing up, and you’ll be good to go. (We’re also assuming a righty here, so if you’re a lefty, reverse the rights and lefts in the directions.)
First, find a pencil.
Gather your hair into a tight, high ponytail with your hands—you don’t need to use a rubber band.
Hold your hair with your left hand, and with the right, grab your pencil, sharp side pointing down.
Tur
n the pencil sideways, then slide it, end-side first, through your hair just next to your left hand that’s creating the base of your pony tail.
Change your grip with your right hand so that you are grabbing both the pencil and your hair, and with your left hand, pull the ponytail down, loop it behind the pencil, and pull the end of the ponytail straight up.
Shift the pencil, turning it clockwise so that the sharp end is down and the eraser end is up. Push the end-side of the pencil down a bit so that just a small part of it sticks out.
Flip the pencil over by lifting the sharp side up and pushing the end side down. Keep pushing until the end part pokes through the underside of your hair.
Cartwheels and Back Walk-Overs
Doing a Cartwheel
PULLING OFF a cartwheel is easy enough. But looking good while doing one is the real trick. To really nail the master cartwheel you need to practice your form and presentation. First imagine a line on the floor in front of you—if you’re outside, and a piece of chalk is handy, you can draw one; if you’re inside with access to masking tape, you can tape one. This line is the track you’ll follow as you cartwheel. Also, bendy, collapsing elbows are the bane of a good cartwheel, so try to imagine when you raise your arms overhead that they are straight, strong rods, with no pesky bending places.
Everyone who cartwheels has a favorite side, or favorite leg. For these instructions, we’ll assume you’re cartwheeling on the left, with your left leg in front, and with your arms up by your ears. (If you’re cartwheeling on the right side, with your right leg in front, just switch the lefts and rights in the following directions.)
The Daring Book for Girls Page 7
