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Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.

I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. Our stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. These are arrangements, which means instead of word-for-word readings, you get a performance meant to be heard. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.

For Season 6, we are ad-free again. I do this because I love mysteries, Jack does it because he loves me. Jack maybe a starving college student but it\\u2019s because\\u2026 We do ask you support the writers of our show. This week it\\u2019s Erica Obey. Check her out on her website and social, buy and read her stories, help other readers find her. Make writing for Mysteries to Die For the best decision she could have made. In your review, tell her Tina and Jack said \\u2018it\\u2019s safer to take the stairs\\u2019.

This is Season 6, Things that Go Jack in the Night. This season contains truly imaginative mysteries around one of the most common words in the English language. From the brandy distilled from hard cider known as applejack to that nefarious one-eyed jack, to the animals, vegetables, fruits, tools, weapons, and slang, the way the word \\u201cjack\\u201d is used in the English language is truly unique, inventive, and too numerous for me to count. And yes, it is also the name of my piano player and producer.

For Episode 5, the playing card the one-eyed jack is the featured jack. This is One-Eyed Jack and the Suicide King by Erica Obey.

ABOUT One-Eyed Jacks

Mr. Will Roya posted a history of playing cards back in 2018 on the website Playing Card Decks This was one of the most fascinating trips I\'ve taken down the internet rabbit hole. Here are a few of my favorite fun facts (paraphrased, of course):

\\u2022\\tFace cards have long been an element of a deck but who is on the face card varies with deck origin. A king, a knight, a knave. A king, a queen, a prince (later called jack). A king and two knaves. (FYI a knave is a tricky, deceitful fellow according to Merriam-Webster)

\\u2022\\t52 cards is a deck is far from standard. Some decks have 40 cards, others 48. It wasn\'t so much I didn\'t know this as I never stopped to think about it.

\\u2022\\tHundreds of years ago, innovative printers with modern techniques who could mass produce cards and bring costs down to an "every man" level became a standard, as they were widely circulated, and had a large influence on deck of card we know today. By sheer volume, they pushed aside older styles of cards that were much more expensive and fewer people owned.

\\u2022\\tTwo jacks have one-eye \\u2013 hearts and spades \\u2013 the others face forward, having two eyes. All the kings have weapons but only one appears to be using it on himself \\u2013 the king of hearts. It actuality, it likely behind his head, as if he\\u2019s going to strike. But that\\u2019s not as catchy.

https://playingcarddecks.com/blogs/all-in/history-playing-cards-modern-deck

ABOUT Erica Obey

www.ericaobey.com

Erica Obey is author of The Brooklyn North Murder, the first full-length Watson & Doyle mystery, as well as five other novels set in the Hudson Valley, including the award-winning The Curse of the Braddock Brides. Erica is the Past President of the MWA-NY chapter, and a frequent reviewer and judge. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and published academic work on female folklorists before she decided she\\u2019d rather be writing the stories herself. Come visit her at www.ericaobey.com where she...'