lackjack Bob

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

When the Baron would attend class reunions with his fiancée, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, the name of Blackjack Bob would come up. Lady Angela was not familiar with the name and his name never came up on invitation lists or Christmas card lists. She never paid much attention to it but one day she asked the Baron, “Who is Blackjack Bob?”

To her surprise, Blackjack Bob was a nickname that the Baron’s card playing friends called him while they were at the university. “But,” said Lady Angela, “you don’t play cards at all.”

The Baron said that sometimes the students in the dormitory would play blackjack just to pass the time. It was a very simple game that whenever a player got a total of 21 points or less, he won. If the player goes over 21, then that was an automatic loss. “Did you play for fun or money?” Lady Angela asked. The Baron said for fun at first, then later it was for money. Not a lot of money, but enough money was in the pot to make it significant. Sometimes the students’ allowance for several weeks.”

The Baron was a good player and won most of the time. But the Baron hated to see the sadness of the other players’ faces when they lost their allowance money, so if he won he gave the money back to the players. After many months of playing blackjack, the Baron decided to give up cards forever. And he did so because he hated to look into the sad faces of the losers and felt very sorry for them.

Lady Angela said the explanation was understood but where did the “Bob” in “Blackjack Bob” come from? The Baron couldn’t say for sure but guessed that since the dog in the college dormitory had the name Bob, somehow he was given that name. Often time nicknames have been given to people and the name is never quite understood.

Maybe this is why gambling of all sorts is frowned upon in Lilliland, even to this day.