You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
Hi! I'm grateful to everyone who's been using Twitter as a way to stay friendly and connected. This morning @briankoppelman and @thinkingpoker encouraged me to share my morning coffee. I mentioned I was reading Jonathan Swift. [1/N]
I didn't mention that I was specifically reading Swift's "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.," which I delighted in not only because it's funny and wise but because there's card-playing in it. So I'll try to channel @hardboiledpoker and share it with you. [2/N]
It's good pandemic reading: Swift imagines the reactions to his own death (as he contemplates ego, rivalry, and legacy more generally). About halfway through, he imagines what some card-playing members of high society might say. Don't try to tell me it's not funny: [3/N]pic.twitter.com/rWBf4R6nCD
...and I'll Google so you don't have to. I'll assume you know what "trumps" are, generally, but if you don't, go read Wikipedia about bridge or whist or any trick-taking game. [4/N]
Re: "venture for the vole," I'm reading some slightly conflicting things about this, but it seems to involve taking all the tricks. At least one source suggests that in some games it was roughly analogous to "shooting the moon" in hearts. [5/N]
Re: "knew what king to call," this and the "vole" thing suggest that the game at hand is Ecarte,* where "before playing the first card, if either player holds the king of trumps, they can mark an extra point for themselves by announcing it." * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cart%C3%A9 … [6/N]
...and while the most generally famous thing named "quadrille" is a dance, those of us who have spent a *lot* of our lives reading Jane Austen will happily note that it is also a high-society card game. [7/N]
Indeed, more Googling suggests that *all* the card-playing language here is consistent with the vocabulary and mechanics of quadrille: https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/quadrill.html … [8/N]
And I'll just add that one of the many thrills of _Pride and Prejudice_, for me, is that in a setting so different from my daily life, everyone pauses every so often to go play cards. [9/N]
I'm sure there's a lot of research that has been done and could be done here. But now you know enough to laugh a little harder here. Again, good pandemic reading. So that's what I was doing over my royale this morning, @briankoppelman. Thanks for making it friendlier. [10/10]
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
