• suffering a temporary loss of hearing
• taken hostage for a day with 3 other people whose language you don’t speak
• moments before your imminent execution

Perhaps you could help me think of more scenarios in which a game of cards sounds like a wonderful idea? Seriously, in our generation, which grew up with computer games, how could you possibly sell card games to a person? Yeah, I know what you’re saying, you spend half the day playing solitaire at work, but that’s because you have few [no?] options. I’m not talking about dead time you *have to* kill anyway, I’m talking about free time. Who the hell would play cards in their free time, my god how dull! Invariably, from time to time we are trapped in a situation where there’s nothing happening, let’s say a rainy night in a tent [/caravan/hotel room/whatever], and playing cards seems to be the only option. But why would you then ignore the sparkling imagination and intellect of the mind as a means to a fulfilling conversation in favor of switching to a mechanical, sleep inducing process? It’s like trying to convince people that hand sewn clothes are much better than factory made clothing, and we should thus all sew our own clothes. I’m sure you’ll find some romantics even in that area who’ll be happy to rain some of their gospel onto you, but would you really take to that approach? I think not.

To top it off, they recently introduced poker on tv as a means of entertainment. As if playing poker yourself wasn’t boring enough, now you can relax from all the stress and just sit and watch as someone is doing it for you. Clearly a sign that your bed time is overdue.

Ps. I will give an allowance for bridge. I don’t know anything about bridge, I’ve never played bridge and so it may just be an exception.