Freecell Frenzy

I’ve been playing Freecell on my computer, and I find it distressingly addictive. “Distressing” because it takes me away from reality for much too long each time I get hooked. I love the symmetry of the cards. I love to sit and ponder eight or nine or more moves before I ever commit to a move. I find that all games are winnable if one just takes time before jumping off the deep end. I also remember when I was first introduced to the game. We had little to do in Korea when we were assigned to sit in a bunker and keep track of enemy movement—chow on K-rations, smoke (oh, lots and lots of smoking), read whatever books or magazines parents sent to us, play cards. One of my bunker mates showed me Freecell. With real cards the game is a little different than the computer version. Shuffle, then lay out nine columns of cards in descending order, from nine on the left, to eight, then seven, etc. until the last column of only one card. Cards are moved as in other standard solitaire game, red jack on black queen, etc. The player always hoped for an ace in that first or second column or something that could be moved to free up a space or two. The seven extra cards were freebies that could be used at any time. The trick was to get enough free spaces to be able to move multiple cards. And, like the computer version, nearly every layout could be solved if one were patient enough. The computer version, my present addiction, is a fun challenge, and whenever a game is won, the cards all fly up to the aces and then come crashing down to computer bottom, breaking up into colorful card pieces. And now that I’ve written this, I guess I’ll play another game . . . or two. If you've never tried it, you can do a search using "Freecell" and find a number of free downloads of the game. You, too, can become addicted.