what I don't understand, is why Slate pays writers to pen such inconsequential drivel. Two full pages on why we play solitaire? And to think I had to spend 37 years slaving away in a stinking factory to earn my living. Sigh......I guess some folks just have it made.

agreed! i often wonder how much these people get paid to come up with this crap. and on top of that to be condescending and myopic about the things they write! i have never heard anyone "mock" solitaire. everyone i know recognizes it as a harmless time waster that doesn't say anything about your intelligence level. if people mock geoge w. because he has played it, it's not solitaire's fault, but the fact that people think so little of this presiden't intelligence that they LOOK for things to mock him for. Not that I have a problem with that!