Building a House of Cards!

photo by ana traina

A house of cards (also known as a card tower) is a structure created by stacking play cards on top of each other. House of cards is also an expression which dates back to 1645 meaning; a structure or argument built on a shaky foundation or one that will collapse if a necessary (but possibly overlooked or unappreciated) element is removed.

So, if you're bored and looking for an exciting diversion but it too frosty to go out, perhaps, a deck of playing cards can come in handy. You don't even need a playing partner or to know how to play solitaire. You can have plenty of merrymaking all by yourself just by building a house of cards. It’s not as easy or as jejune as you might thing!

A Mini How-to on Building a House of Card!
. 1  Clear a level, sturdy and clean surface to begin building your house.
. 2  Pick a new deck of cards to work with, the stiffer the better.
. 3  Choose just 2 cards from the deck.
. 4  Put them about 2 inches from each other. This pair will form the foundation of your house.
. 5  Lean the 2 cards towards each other making an upside down "V" or a tee-pee shape.
. 6  Position another upside down "V" next to the first one with about 1 centimeter of space between them. Continue building tee-pees or upside down "V"s on the ground level as wide as you want to make the foundation of your house.
. 7  Lay a card horizontally on top of the 2 points.
. 8  Build more upside down "V's" on top of the horizontal card.
. 9  Continue building around and up as high as your mind’s eye and your cards can go.

The first known record for card stacking was made by Miss Victoria Maitland, of England. A photograph of her work was published in The Strand Magazine on September 1901. It was a fifteen story structure. Following the publication of this record a second was submitted in April 1902, by Miss Rosie Farner, of England with a picture of a twenty storied tower. A third record was submitted by Miss F. M. Hollams, of England, with a tower of twenty-five stories, in February 1903.

Or... if there are fellow creature around, you might want to try your hand at a game of cards called, Beggar My Neighbor - This is a game played in Dickens's Great Expectations. The two players divide the cards between them and then turn over their top cards in sequence. When one of them turns up an ace, king, queen, or jack, the other must give up, respectively, four, three, two, or one of his own cards, except that if in doing so he turns up an ace, king, queen, or jack, the other must play to him.