One of Furst's demonstrations was a technique for mapping playing cards to the number-words. He recommended whist-order so that Clubs would be the 10s, Diamonds the 20s, Hearts the 30s, and Spades the 40s, and adding 50 for the face cards, so that CJ = 10 + 50 + 1 = 61 = 'chat', CQ = 62 = 'chain', CK = 63 = 'chime', and so on. I found the following modification easier to remember. Let Clubs be the 70s, since "Club" begins with the "K" sound for 7; Diamonds be the 10s, since "Diamond" begins with the sound for 1; Hearts be the 40s since "Heart" encodes the "R" sound for 4, and Spades be the 90s since "Spade" begins with the sound for 09, and we discard the 0 as usual. Furthermore, rather than changing the decade for face cards, just append the digits, so CJ = 711 = 'cadet', CQ = 712 = 'katana', CK = 713 = 'catamaran', DJ = 111 = 'teetotaler', DQ = 112 = 'Titan', DK = 113 = 'totem', HJ = 411 = 'rat-a-tat', HQ = 412 = 'rattan', HK = 413 = 'radioman', SJ = 911 = 'potato', SQ = 912 = 'python', and SK = 913 = 'podium'. I have found my mapping to be easier to remember long-term and to require less refreshing before attempting the parlor tricks that Furst outlines. |
