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Profile
 Sweet 15 this year:D Music + Man Utd fan!^.^ Affiliates
PCS'07 6A
2DL'09:D3DL'10 :) T & F Aileen Abigail> Angelyn> Beatrice> Cai Shan> Carin> Celine Poh> Celine Foo> Cheryl Choo> Cherylmine> Clara> Crystal> Dana> Dawn> Eli> Francis> HuiPing> HuiZhen> Janice> Jia Jie> Jia Yan> Jing Yu> Julina> Hanyi Jocelyn> Lynn> Pei Xuan> Randy> Rochelle> Rosamund> Sherrie> Siew Yi> Sudarno> Sze Ning> Theresa> Tian Lerk> Tze Fung> Xin Yi> Xing Hwee> Xin Hui> Yun Ling> Yuet Tung> Zoe> Zhen Pang> Layout credits
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1 interesting fact extracted from Reader's Digest:D
Sunday, August 9, 2009
2:19 PM
HAPPY 44th BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!!!:D>>Why do playing cards have royals? Playing cards were reported in China in the 12th century and they may have reached the Middle East via the Silk Road. The Mamelukes, rulers of Egypt from 1250 to 1517, had a game called Nayb, Naibbe or Naips. It used a 52-card deck with four suits: swords, batons(curved clubs), coins and cups. Each suit had "spot" cards numbered 1-10 and three"court cards", called the king, the viceroy(deputy) and the second viceroy. The use of high-ranking figures for the highest value cards seems to have been a kind of visual shorthand. Court cards have inscriptions to indicate their value. The European cards in the 1400s developed along similar lines, except that the court cards bore illustrations of kings, knights or queens, and knaves(servants). In Italy the three court cards usually comprised the king, the cavallo(horse, with rider) or donna(lady), and the fante(infantry soldier). In France, by about 1480, the four suits had become hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs. The court cards began as the king, chevalier(knight) and valet(knave), but the queen replaced the knight to form the now-familiar king, quuen and knave. During the early 16th century, players in Northern France, devised representations of these characters that became the basics of the standard Anglo-American deck:the King of Hearts holds a sword over his head; the Queen of Spades a sceptre; the "one-eyed" Jack of Spades, Jack of Hearts and King of Diamonds are pictured in profile. The ace is another French device named after the Latin word. From earliest times, the lowest card was sometimes played as the highest card. The Joker is the only survivor of this tradition in the Anglo-American deck, recalling the Fool of the tarot. |