The Hallmark Joker Holding a King of Hearts and Purposefully Losing Other Raiments of Cardism

Tending my fruit, tending my fruit

Ah you've got to have a hobby

A man must have a shed to keep him sane

Thus begins a song by XTC that is applicable here. Seeing as I have turned out to be a one dwarf pumpkin farmer and I'm too off-put by people to keep up the cartomancy charade I've turned to the cards themselves. Writing and explicating upon them. I'd much prefer hanging out with my 15-year-old or the woman I love but the former would rather not and the latter would but... thus are the foibles of man.

So here am I ruminating on playing cards.

Some people say

That I am out of my tree

Or just a strawberry fool

Someday they'll see

'Til then I'll blow you a raspberry

'Cause apples and pears are me

Or in this case cherries and pears emblazoned on a Hallmark pack are me with a Joker to literally die for and because of. I'm not certain why the Joker holding a King of Hearts does it for me but I am completely mystified by this card. More so probably because it is separated from me in this mortal plane by cellophane, not once but twice. Haha. My reluctance to opening vintage packs is a real hindrance in this case because I'd also like to see the Ace of Spades and find out what's going on with it as well.

I also really didn't notice until now that the Joker is dropping other cards from the deck as well. I will likely to do a blog post on the potential symbolism of such a seemingly haphazard dropping of cards. That is, if I can clearly read them. While the commons are easily figured out the Face Card seems a bit more indistinguishable especially since I don't know what the rest of the pack looks like.

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

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