Picturesque Goa

Picturesque Goa
NOSTALGIA - Articles,Poems & Photos

TONFERNS CREATIONS

TONFERNS CREATIONS
TONFERNS CREATIONS - Tony's Art & Hobbies

Monday, January 31, 2022

The Global Goan E-Magazine































2022 is already a month old and here we bring to you the February issue of The Global Goan.

Editor: Salus Correia

From a humble 34 page first issue a year and a half ago, the magazine has blossomed into an edition that holds 114 pages, and is read by over 300,000 people each month!!!

Enjoy the read, and like you always do, do share the link to all your friends and relatives wherever they may be – in Goa or in far reaching corners of the globe.  This is your magazine more than anything else, and it is up to you to keep clicking and forwarding the link, making it viral.

Thanks for supporting The Global Goan month after month.


Friday, January 28, 2022

Tonferns Rhapsody (30) -- The Motown Sound

 








Motown has its own distinct and easily recognizable beat - in a style of its own defining the sound of soul music popularized since the 1960’s. Now it’s time to get into the Motown groove that has stood the test of time by listening or dancing to a special curated playlist by Tonferns Rhapsody.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-rv8k97NJAmjJN0glcvaRmyYZt9881b1


The Mystery Around the Deck of Cards

 


  • "The Deck of Cards" is a recitation song that was popularized in the fields of both country and popular music first during the late 1940s. This song, which relates the tale of a young American soldier arrested and charged with playing cards during a church service, first became a hit in the U.S. in 1948 by country musician T. Texas Tyler. Though Tyler wrote the spoken-word piece, the earliest known reference is to be found in an account/common-place book belonging to Mary Bacon, a British farmer's wife, dated 20 April 1762. The story of the soldier can be found in full in Mary Bacon's World. A farmer's wife in eighteenth-century Hampshire, published by Threshold Press (2010). The folk story was later recorded in a 19th-century British publication entitled The Soldier's Almanack, Bible And Prayer Book.

The most common theory is that the 52 cards represent 52 weeks in a year. The four colors represent the four seasons. The 13 cards in a suit represent the thirteen weeks in each season, Four suits times 13 cards in a suite equals 52. ... In many decks, the queen of clubs holds a flower.


And here are some things about your deck of cards you might not have noticed:

  • The jack of spades, the jack of hearts, and the king of diamonds are drawn in profile. You can see one eye
  • The rest of the picture cards are shown with their faces toward us and we see two eyes.
  • The king of hearts is typically shown with a sword behind his head, and the one eyed king of diamonds has an ax behind his head. They’re nicknamed the suicide kings.
  • The queen of spades usually holds a scepter and is known as the black lady. It is the only queen facing left.

History. The English pattern pack originated in Britain which was importing French playing cards from Rouen and Antwerp by 1480. The earliest cards of the English pattern date to around 1516. But Britain only started manufacturing its own cards towards the end of the 16th century, when card production began in London.

  • Origin and spread
  • Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the 1370s, probably in Italy or Spain and certainly as imports or possessions of merchants from the Islamic Mamlūk dynasty centred in Egypt. Like their originals, the first European cards were hand-painted, making them luxury goods for the rich. 

It is said that each of the suits on a deck of cards in a card game represents the four major pillars of the economy in the Middle Ages: Hearts represented the Church, Spades represented the military, Clubs represented agriculture, and Diamonds represented the merchant class.


History of the Playing Cards – Source: Wikipedia

Early History
Playing cards were invented in Ancient China. They were found in China as early as the 9th Century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The first reference to the card game in world history dates no later than the 9th Century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang (daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang) playing the “leaf game” in 868 with members of the Wei clan (the family of the princess’ husband). The Song Dynasty (960-1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that playing cards and card games existed at least since the mid-Tang Dynasty and associated their invention with the simultaneous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium. The first known book on cards called Yezi Gexi was allegedly written by a Tang-era woman, and was commented on by Chinese writers of subsequent dynasties.

  • During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), characters from popular novels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards. By the 11th century playing cards could be found throughout the Asian continent.


The numbers and values in a deck of cards are very similar to the weeks and months of a modern calendar. Is this just a coincidence, or was this relationship intended? A complete deck of playing cards contains four suits, two primary colors, and thirteen values ranging from the Ace to the King. Usually, it contains two Jokers.

Lurking within these colors, suits, and values is an astonishing, but entirely coincidental, relationship to our modern calendar. Some of the proposed “alignments” between cards and the calendar are:

  • Two colors representing night and day
  • Four suits representing the four seasons
  • Twelve court cards representing the 12 months
  • Thirteen values representing the 13 lunar cycles in a year
  • 52 cards representing 52 weeks in a year

Perhaps the most interesting coincidence is that if you add up all of the values in a deck, using the Aces as one, and the Jacks, Queens and Kings as eleven, twelve and thirteen respectively, you arrive at a total of 364. Adding the first Joker as another one gets you to 365 – the same number as there are days in a year – and adding the second Joker gets you to 366, so we even have leap years covered!

The modern deck of cards wasn’t designed with these relationships in mind. They’re merely a coincidence due to the numbers involved. It all adds up to a lot of fun.


In a standard deck, there are 220 (4×(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)) spots on the pip cards and if it is assumed that the face cards have 11, 12 and 13 spots respectively, the total is 364. A single joker counting as one spot, however, would make 365.


There have been atheists, sceptics, doubters and critics along the way. Some say that the joker was a king’s court jester who was conveniently added later to make the number up to 365, and still later another joker was added to solve or represent the leap year. Others believe that only the Queen holds a flower in her hand (I.e. 2 flowers opposite each other on a single card) only in the Clubs (or Flowers as they are also known) in some decks of cards that were produced in later years, hence making the total of 366.


Some believe that the Vietnam and Gulf Wars had spurned its own decks of cards with various other configurations or representations of numbers and picture cards in a standard card pack.


The endings in at least three narrations are different. One has it that he knows the story is true because he knew that soldier. Another one says that he knows the story us true because he himself was the soldier, while another narrator does not attribute it to anyone.

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Deck of Cards Story

Deck of Cards    -     Tex Ritter

During the North African campaign,
A group of soldier boys had been on a long hike
They came to a town called Casino.
The next day, being, Sunday, some of the boys went to church,
And after the Chaplain had read the prayer,
The text was taken up next.
Those of the boys who had a prayer books took them out,
But, this one boy only had a deck of cards,
And so he spread them out.
The Sargeant saw the cards and said
"Soldier, put away those cards."
After the services were over, the boy was taken prisoner,
And brought before the Provost Marshall .
The Marshall said "Sargeant, why have you brought this man here?"
"For playing cards in church Sir."
"And what have you to say for yourself son?"
"Much sir", replied the soldier.
The Marshall said, "I hope so, because if not,
I shall punish you more than any man was ever punished."
The soldier boy said "Sir I have been on a long March for six days
I have neither Bible nor prayer book,
But I hope to satisfy you, Sir, " with the purity of my intentions."
And with that the boy begin his story.
"You see Sir,
When I look at the ace in my deck of
Cards, it reminds me that there is but one God,
And the deuce,
Tells me that Bible is divided into
Two parts, the old and the new testament.
When l see the Trey, I think of father, the son and the holy ghost.
And when I look at the four,
I think of four evangelists who preached the gospel.
There were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And when I see the five,
It reminds me of the five wise virgins, who trimmed their lamp,
There were ten of them,
Five were wise and were saved, five were foolish and were shut out.
When I look at the six, I know that in six days,
God made this great heaven and earth.
And the seven, tells me that on the seventh day,
He rested from his great work,
And called it holy.
And when I see the eight, I think of the eight righteous person,
God saved when he destroyed this earth.
There were none Noah, his wife their three sons and their wives.
And when I see the nine, I think of the lepers our Savior cleansed,
And nine of the ten, didn't even thank him.
And of course when I see the ten,
I always remembered the ten commandments,
The ten commandments that God handed
Down to Moses on a tablets of stone.
When I see the King Sir, I know there is but one King of heaven.
God the Almighty.
And when I see the Queen, I think of the blessed virgin Mary,
The Queen of heaven,
And the jack of knaves is the devil.
When I count the spots in a deck of cards,
I find 365, the number of days in a year.
There are 52 cards, the number of weeks in a year .
There are thirteen tricks, the number of weeks in a quarter.
There a four suits, the number of weeks in a month.
And twelve picture cards, the number of months in a year.
So you see Sir,
My deck of cards serves me not only as a
Bible or almanac, but also a prayer book .

Monday, January 24, 2022

Deck of Cards

Deck of Cards

I had first heard the narration of the 'Deck of Cards' on the Evening Request Program of Radio Ceylon on our neighbour's radio in circa 1957 when I was about 10 years of age in Guirim, Goa. In the following years I also often heard it as I walked home from school or returned home from the playground at twilight time. I believe it was a version by T. Texas Tyler. Every time I heard the narration, it sent a chill down my spine, with the chorus in the background while at the same time being in full admiration of whoever its narrator, composer or writer was. Nevertheless it was a very clever idea, a brilliant and fascinating concept in presenting the Deck of Cards not only as a Bible, but also as an almanac and prayer book. 

Fast forward to the 1980's in Dubai, U.A.E. While I was browsing through CDs in a music shop one weekend, I came upon a version of the 'Deck of Cards' by Max Bygraves, who was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. 

I purchased the CD right away without batting an eyelid and rushed home to listen. It certainly brought back memories of childhood. Here below is a link to the narration of that great story of the 'Deck of Cards' by Max Bygraves. I still treasure the CD and other fabulous songs on it.

I believe it was also a UK No. 13 hit in October 1973 for Max Bygraves the entertainer. The song had reached number 2 for Phil Harris in January 1949. T. Texas Tyler's rendition went to number 2 on the US country chart in 1948. A version by Tex Ritter later in the year reached number 10 on the same chart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YeywG-2lZ8&t=37s



Saturday, January 22, 2022

Tonferns Rhapsody (29) - Latin Ballroom









We had our fair share of snow days here in Canada during the last week. If you have no plans for the outdoors, wouldn’t it be nice then to listen to and keep in touch with a Latin Ballroom playlist? You can enjoy and share my curation of Salsa, Bachata, Cha Cha Cha, Samba, Mambo and Merengue. Wishing you all a safe weekend ahead. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-rv8k97NJAk7Hbl3pvhO6KzWsfctvIuA

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Wolf Moon



































After being snowbound for the most of yesterday, the evening sky just after sunset put on a grand display on the western horizon with a massive blend of blue, orange and red hues, as though nothing had happened during the entire day. 

Now here’s the best part - a favourite recent phrase used by my 5-year old grand-daughter Aysha. A short time later, looking over the eastern skies over Mississauga, the Moon, which did not want to be left out, appeared on the scene, shining bright after playing the usual game of hide and seek. I wonder whether the Moon had any clue what had transpired during the day. Obviously not, because She was on the far side of the earth.

Incidentally, it was the first Full Moon of 2022 which was still bright in the west until this morning. This full moon is named the Wolf Moon because wolves are known to howl at the moon at this time of year; and they surely had a clearly visible moon to howl at, all night through, if they wanted to.

Overall, a grand presentation by the Creator, albeit for a brief duration.

Photos by Tony Fernandes, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Saturday, January 01, 2022













As we bid farewell to 2021, let us hope and pray for healthy days ahead free from pandemics, fires and floods, for peaceful days free from turmoil, war and natural disasters. At the same time, in true fashion of “Old Long Ago’ we take time to re-kindle cherished memories of those who are no longer with us in singing “Auld Lang Syne”.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and never brought to mind.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,

and days of old lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022.