Playing cards for the holidays

Japan's character goods maker Sanrio employee Yukari Matsuda displays the pure gold playing cards with Hello Kitty characters at the company's headquarters in Tokyo 28 September 2007. The plastic laminated playing cards, produced by Japan's metal company Mitsubishi Material, contains 0.73g pure gold per a card. Sanrio will start to accept orders from 03 October with a price of 567,000 yen (4,930 USD). AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO

The fact that the first ever mention of playing cards in the entirety of human history is the prohibition of playing them should have been a sign ...

IT’S that time of year again, the Holiday Season, and I am puzzled by one simple query: why am I playing cards? Again?