rider back poker cards are amazing
A fond childhood memory I have from when I didn't have a care in the world is Saturday nights at my grandfather's house. Dad would drive me over there, he and grampy (that's what we called him) would play cards at the kitchen table, and I went into the living room and played Intellivision video games.
Sometimes I would watch dad and grampy play, but not all that often. My favorite part was watching dad shuffle the cards, because he was a master at it. He had big hands, could shuffle lightning quick and bridge a deck like nobody's business. His skill at doing this was most likely acquired when he served in the Navy. A faded memory tells me that's what he said when I asked how he became so good at it. I'm pretty sure he also said he was usually if not always chosen as the dealer whenever a game got together in the days he served because of his skill at handling cards.
Funny enough is that I never played a hand with dad. Do I regret that? Somewhat, but not really because I am no good at cards whatsoever.
What I do have is the cards dad would have played with, Bicycle Rider Back playing cards; they are amazing.
The decks I have aren't the ones dad actually used in the early '80s. While I would cherish those if I possessed them, I know it's best that I don't. Dad and grampy would thoroughly use a deck until the cards became unplayable. First the cards would get frayed edges, then the edges would start tearing, then the corners began folding, then once creasing started and the cards couldn't be shuffled anymore, they were thrown out.
I remember handling a well-used deck just out of curiosity a few hands before it was trashed. The cards were discolored and had some printing worn off from being played so many times, and they would bend so easy that they almost felt like cloth. Any firmness the cards once had was totally gone, which is how they naturally would wear over time.
Not that I'll ever be able to go back in time and get one of these, but if I could, it would be great to have a deck dad and grampy used that was well played and with some wear, but not to the point of being one hand away from the trash.
The design
The Rider Back is officially design no. 63, but everybody knows these as the 808. On the Ace of Spades in every deck, BICYCLE 808 is printed right on the card and only that one.
The entire reason for the name Bicycle is because at the time - and we're talking in the 1800s here - bicycles were all the rage. Every Rider Back has two images of cupid on the back riding a bicycle. Between the two cupids is a bar, which I assume is supposed to represent bicycle pedals.
Rider Back cards come in red or blue and I have both. They also come in several other colors with special editions aplenty, but the classics that have been around forever are always red or blue. I prefer the red.
The box for a deck of Rider Back cards always shows the same two cupids art on the back, just like the cards.
Some versions of the Rider Back are made specifically for magic tricks, as in short deck (cut slightly shorter) or stripper deck (slight taper for easier handling).
I love the two cupids art. It's very distinctive, very much old world, and is the fundamental reason I prefer Rider Back decks over Standard.
There really isn't any difference between Rider Back and Standard as far as playability is concerned, except when it comes to the box. Rider Back boxes always have the two cupids art on the back while Standard does not.
Does the Standard have the two cupids art on the cards? Yes. Do they have the 808 printed on the Ace of Spades? Yes. Again, it's pretty much the box that is different.
To me, the Rider Back box matters. I love that the art alone instantly identifies what they are. If you saw a box of these cards face down on a table, you automatically know it's Bicycle Rider Back. If it was your first time seeing that art, you will remember that design the next time you see a box. That art, in such a beautiful way, says, "these are poker cards", and does so without saying a word.
Other colors... maybe?
I might pick up some other Bicycle playing card colors in the future just to have something different, but nothing crazy. I learned the hard way by getting the Cypher deck that crazy designs aren't really something I care for. Definitely different, but too different for my taste.
The Standard in black is cool. Tough to find in stores, but thankfully easy to find online. It's not the Rider Back box, but absolutely is the 808 card.
Purple and gold Rider Back. I like those, and they do have the proper box.
Nice surprise: Rider Back Prestige
A Prestige Rider Back deck was gifted to me recently. I was glad to receive this because it's something I never would have bought on my own. Technically not an 808 deck, and when you see Dura-Flex and "plastic playing cards", it might want to make you run away screaming.
Color me surprised when I handled these cards and it felt like a properly worn-in deck brand new. This is a tastefully done deck made of modernized material that feels right and can really take some punishment.
Unlike regular Rider Back cards, if you spill a drink on a card, it's not ruined and you can wipe it clean real easy. And far as I can tell, they should easily survive in places where regular cards wouldn't.
The traditional Rider Back is still my favorite by far, but Prestige Rider Back surprised me in a good way.
Go vintage?
I'll end on this because it's interesting info to know.
When you start diving down the rabbit hole of Rider Back cards, you learn about the whole Ohio vs. Kentucky thing.
Bicycle cards were made in Ohio, but then that factory closed and a switch was made to a new factory in Kentucky that opened up in 2009.
It is easy enough to hop on eBay and find pre-2009 sealed never-used Bicycle Rider Back decks. And I might go ahead and buy some that since what dad and grampy used were absolutely Ohio-made cards.
However, for that absolute vintage casino card style look and feel, that's not Bicycle. That's Bee playing cards. Bicycle had something similar with their no. 19 "Club" card that ran from 1917 to 1969, but why bother with that when you can get the Bee cards new now for cheap?
I'll put it another way. When actors in movies and television played cards where you could see the card backs with that crosshatch pattern, it was probably a Bee card.
My preference is the Bicycle Rider Back because that's what my dad and grampy used. But for anyone else that wants that old style casino card, get Bee instead.
people are freaking out about walmart digital price tags
Making the rounds in the news right now is Walmart planning to implement digital price tags in their stores before the end of 2026.
What people seem to gloss over however is Kroger beat them to it. I saw them in person myself.
Am I freaked out about these tags?
No, because it's better than the alternatives that I'll describe in a moment.
First thing to mention is the tags appear to use a similar screen technology to the Kindle Paperwhite. I have to admit that these tags are very easy to read, even from a distance.
I do like that these tags are not like staring into light bulbs, so the screen tech is good on the eyes.
What comes to mind immediately however is the question of how these tags will stand up to use over time. Okay, so it uses a screen technology that's very good on using the least amount of battery power, and dead pixels really aren't a concern. But these things are plastic and they're going to get banged and scratched up.
The Kroger store I was in was very new, so of course all the tags look pristine, free from any scratches whatsoever:
...but you know that's not going to last long. And while I understand the aesthetic decision to go with a white plastic, that's going to look like shit later when it starts yellowing and looking nasty.
Probably would have been a better idea to use "Kroger blue" for the case color, as I'm certain that would stand a better chance of not looking as bad once these things start getting banged up. It also would have been better if the bezel was diffused/textured instead of shiny, especially since scannable bar codes are present, but whatever.
Why no QR codes on the screens? That's probably for two reasons. Screen resolution limitations, and the fact many products in grocery stores still have no scannable QRs on the packaging. QRs won't happen on these tags until every single frickin' product in the store has a QR on it, which would include stickers for produce. I can see that happening at some point, but definitely not now.
Here are the alternatives we thankfully don't have to deal with
Before I state what the alternatives are, yes, it's true digital tags means prices can change at any time. How pricing is handled will completely depend on how many customers the store manager wants to piss off on any given day. More on that in a moment.
These are the two alternatives, both of which are infinitely worse than digital tags:
Nightmare alternative #1: Giant high-mounted screens every few feet.
Imagine there are no price tags on anything, and instead you go to a shelf, and there's a sign instructing you to look up at a screen to see a list of products for sale on that shelf. The screen would have to be there because there's nowhere else to put it.
Now imagine craning your head back, looking up, then having to do that many times just to see the price of anything.
How long would it take before you got sick of looking up? I'll tell you. About ten seconds.
Nightmare alternative #2: A screen mounted on every single shopping cart.
Yeah, you know these would break so fast it wouldn't even be funny. Massive cost to mount screens on all the carts, constant charging of batteries, screens failing left and right, screens getting beaten by the sun from being left outside... total nightmare.
I am absolutely certain some idiot pitched an idea for this, but thankfully it never went beyond that stage.
In the end, it's up to the store managers
The store managers are the ones who, at times, directly answer to the customers.
There is no store manager who wakes up each morning before work, and says, "Gee, I wonder whom I can piss off today?" Any manager knows that if you adjust a price on anything even by as little as 5 cents in the upwards direction, someone is going to give them an earful about it. It'll probably be a customer on fixed income who will promptly march to the customer service desk and demand to speak to the manager any time a price changes.
A store manager's decisions really will dictate if these digital tags work or not. Kroger obviously spent a bunch of money on these tags. The tech works, but what nobody knows yet is if it ends up being agreeable with both the managers and customers.
If the managers have been told out of the gate to play things cautiously, then the digital tags shouldn't ruffle too many feathers. But if the managers start wildly adjusting prices all crazy-like, then the tags won't last long and the money spent on them will have been wasted.
we are closer to 2036 than 2015
If the movie Back To The Future were made today, Marty McFly would be traveling back in time to the year 1996.
I'm getting older. Does that bother me?
No.
Did it at one point? Yes. My mid-to-late forties is when getting older bothered me. But then I got over it.
Quitting the barber was part of getting over it. Knowing it's a bad idea owning a giant bulky electronic machine just for nostalgia's sake is another part.
There's also the very Gen X thing, the Whatever Factor. I know this one well, as does every other Gen X. It's absolutely a '90s attitude.
Example: "If you want this discount on Product, you must sign up using our app to get it."
Gen X Whatever response: "Then the discount doesn't exist. I'll shop elsewhere. Whatever."
Another example: "There's a shortage of eggs! You should be concerned! Panic!"
Gen X Whatever response: "No. I'll just eat something else. Whatever."
There isn't any yelling, nor arguing, nor "I gotta DO something about this!" None of that. Just whatever...
The Whatever Factor has kicked in concerned my age. I realize that putting any needless stress on myself for you're-getting-old stuff that doesn't even matter is seriously stupid.
Whatever.
run.app spam is happening using google mail servers
I'm already at the point with my email where I block anything containing firebaseapp (Firebase is Google's mobile/web app dev platform), and now I've had to block another, which is anything in an email containing run.app, the official domain associated with Google Cloud Run.
Crap like this is received in email, and it's obviously spam:
Look at the headers, and you see this:
Examine the email, and the run.app crap is present:
I know how to find and block this garbage, but I seriously doubt others would even know how to spot it. And since emails like this come from Google's own mail servers, they're "trusted" and will bust right through spam filters.
Ridiculous.
absolutely useless sign
I was in this mall parking area recently, part of which was semi-open to the outside. The sides were completely open, hence why I call it a parking area and not technically a garage since it's literally impossible to seal it off.
Then I see a sign, "IDLE FREE ZONE. TURN OFF ENGINES". And, sure enough, someone was parked a short distance away, sitting in their car, engine running. Actually, that's not entirely correct. There was someone else a few parking lanes away doing the exact same thing.
Was there any mall security around?
Nope. Not a rent-a-cop in sight.
Was I upset about this? Nope, because that sign is completely useless. It's purposely mounted high up, meaning nobody driving around would actually see it, even as large as it is. It's also facing away from the parking area.
That sign, which probably cost the mall a hundred bucks (remember, somebody had to install it and they got paid by the hour), is the mall saying, "This sign isn't for you. Just go in and please buy stuff."
Who is that sign for? Not for anyone that parks there. The purpose of the sign is to get someone else to stop harassing mall management about whatever it was about an idling car that put sand up their ass.
Did you know...
...that you can outright buy a metal sign that completely looks "official" with whatever text you want on it?
Oh, the fun you could have!