In “The Other Log of Phileas Fogg,” a science fiction interpretation of “Around the World in 80 Days” by Philip José Farmer, a game of patience is used to send coded messages to Passepartout. “Passepartout seldom got his orders by word of mouth. Almost always it was by code transmitted via playing cards. He would be seated in a restaurant catering to people of his class, and a man at a table by his would be playing patience. Passepartout would be observing the cards with the greatest of interest, of course. And so the cards would tell him in telegraphic language what he was to do next.”
Patience is another name for solitaire, which I’ve played most of my life. As a child I often played double solitaire with friends, but mostly I’ve played the solo form. I have long known that more than one kind of solitaire existed, but I always played just one version. But recently I decided to expand my brain and learn some other forms of solitaire, so I got out Hoyle.
First, I learned that I play Klondike, which involves moving cards from seven piles, called the tableau, to four foundation piles that build on aces by suit. The cards to be played are the stock, and the discard pile is the talon.
I found a form of solitaire called Calculation that appeals to my love of math and engages that part of my brain. You start by placing, from left, an ace, two, three and four, of any suit on the table. Those are your four foundations.
You build on the ace by ones to the king, using any suit: A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K.
On the two you build by twos to the king: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, Q, A, 3, 5, 7, 9, J, K.
On the three you build by threes to the king: 3, 6, 9, Q, 2, 5, 8, J, A, 4, 7, 10, K.
On the four you build by fours to the king: 4, 8, Q, 3, 7, J, 2, 6, 10, A, 5, 9, K.
You have four waste piles, and you place any card that you can’t play on any of the four. You play to the foundations from your stock or from the top card of any waste pile.
This game makes me think much more than does Klondike. For example, the card following an 8 on the second pile is a 10, and the card following a 7 on the third pile is also a 10. You must stay alert all the time. It’s just what I need.