Spit it one of the most fabulous, time consuming card games in existence.

You will need

A deck of cards

A table

Two players

To set up

Split the pack into two similar sized halfs and take one each.

Deal each half as if for solitaire but with only five piles.

Place remaining cards infront and to the left of where you have dealt the cards.

If there are two cards of same numerical value place them on top of each other, and turn over vacant card.

Play

When both players are ready count from three to one and then take a card from the pile to the left and deposit it in the centre.

If you have a card above or below either card that has been played you may play it.

If this means a pile is empty you may move other cards into it.

Repeat this until one player has finished all cards in front of him, at which point he must place his hand on the pile in the middle which looks smallest and shout 'Spit'

The spit was one of the most common cooking implements to be found in kitchens prior to the twentieth century and is still used today primarily for the roasting of meat, usually disguised in the US by using the french derived "rotisserie".

The spit is a simple cooking device consisting of two vertical metal bars wich support a long pike onto which meat is skewered. It is arranged in such a manner that the pike can be turned (under human or mechanical power) to ensure even cooking. Many spits also have a mechanism which allows the distance beween meat and flame to be raised or lowered as a crude form of temperature control, and also to accomodate the roasting of larger game.

The spinning horizontal crossbar comes in many shapes and sizes. Long slender spits for small birds, thick spits with stabilizing prongs for whole lamb or pigs, spits with racks on them for holding fish and vegetables.

Here are the rules of Spit explained to the best of my ability. What is important to emphasis is the sheer pace involved in this card game. It is utterly frantic, when played by two relatively experienced players, it is also enormous fun. Players should be seated at opposite sides of a (preferably low) table, with a full deck of normal playing cards (minus the jokers) divided equally between them.

The object of the game to get rid of all your cards.

If you know how to deal a game of Solitaire then skip this paragraph, deal identically to Solitaire but with only five rows. Taking their unexamined cards players deal a row of five cards in front of them. The first should be face up and the other four face down (I usually start from the left, but I don’t suppose it really matters). Then each player deals four cards on top of the face down cards, again the first new card should be face up. So what should be dealt is: one pile with one face up card; one pile with a face up card on top of a face down card; three piles of two face down cards. Continue dealing in this manner, i.e. deal one face up and two face down onto the three remaining ‘blank’ piles, then one face up and one face down onto the two remaining ‘blank’ piles and finally on face up card onto the last pile.

This is what should be dealt: ‘0’ denotes face up ‘X’ denotes face down.
The cards are placed one on top of another, the below diagram is for descriptive purposes.

0 X X X X 1st time
  0 X X X 2nd time
    0 X X 3rd time
      0 X 4th time
	0 last time


Once finished each player places remaining cards above dealt cards and to the right so that the table looks like this:


[] [] [] [] [] <-- opponents dealt cards

[]          [] <-- extra card pile

[] [] [] [] [] <-- your dealt cards

The cards should be dealt as fast as possible to build up momentum for later in the round. Once dealt there is one other operation players are allowed to perform before the round starts proper. If two of the cards dealt are the same value it is allowed that they be moved on top of one another and the card below the moved card can be turned over. This may be done as many times as there are similar cards in different piles. If the moved card is the last in a pile, it is permissible to take a face down card from another pile (by lifting the face up card(s) first). Sometimes there will be much opportunity for movement here, other times none (this depends on how well shuffled the cards are and how long the game has been in progress for). The quickest player must at this stage wait for the other before continuing to the next stage (it is usual to taunt the slow-coach while waiting, in order that they go a quick as possible).

Now on the count of three both players turn over the first card on their reserve stack. This is where the fun begins. The trick is to be quick. Players can play on either card, not just their own. A valid play is a card one up or down from the card shown, e.g. if the card played from the reserve is ‘4’ (of any suite) then either player can place a 3 or a 5 (of any suite) from their on top. The counting is cyclical i.e. an Ace is one above a King. At this stage it should become apparent as to why similar cards are placed together. If for instance in the above example you had several ‘5’s and ‘6’s then if the other player cannot play on the 4 (or you are fast enough) you could play most or all of those cards. However once you play a ‘6’ your opponent may be able to play a ‘7’ and thus ruin your run. It is easy to develop technique once the rules have been mastered so I won’t digress much further.

Once both players have exhausted all their moves i.e. played all possible cards, turned over any revealed face down cards and ensured they have five rows (creating a new one if necessary as above), then there is a pause. Each player makes sure the other is ready to draw a new card, by asking or looking and raising an eyebrow enquiringly. Then after a count of “One... Two..Three...” another card is drawn from each reserve stack and the ordeal continues.

Once you have only five (sometimes this is played as four, agree before beginning) cards remaining in front of you, you can take them in your hand. If you have played all the cards in your rows then (but for one small detail) you have effectively won the round. The detail is this: you must shout “SPIT!” and place your hand on one of the piles.

[] [] [] [] []   <-- opponents cards

[] ||    || []   <-- reserve card piles at extremes, playing piles inside 
    
                 <-- all your cards are gone

It would be advantageous to pay attention to the size of each pile, and perhaps even deliberately play more frequently into one. Pick the smaller pile, because once you do so the round ends, and the pile you pick is added to the remains of your reserve stack. Sometimes it is played so that once your opponent sees that you are about to finish, they can shout spit and grab a pile, regardless of their state of completion. This is a valid rule but some people consider it unfair. However the case will probably arise with equally good players where they will finish simultaneously and this is where speed is of the essence (be prepared for some finger collisions).

Once the second round has begun, play continues as above. Depending on how the previous round went the situation may arise where one player completes his reserve stack before playing all his cards. If this is the case then he must wait for his opponent to draw from her reserve stack and he must play on the other person’s pile until he finishes all his cards (he then would be wise to ‘spit’ on his own pile, as it has been played on less).

When one player has less than 15 cards at the end of a round then he should deal in the proper manner for as long as he can and then turn over the top card on any unfinished piles. Play as normal (with only one playing pile obviously) and when someone finishes they should ‘spit’ on the empty space where there should be another pile. Sometimes there is a rule that there must be a card on the table instead of his paying pile, to prevent the two players ‘spitting’ on two different parts of the empty table and claiming to have won. This isn’t absolutely necessary if both acknowledge a specific part of the table as the designated area. If the winner of the round has no cards left then he is the winner of the game.

[] [] [] [] []   <-- opponents cards

[] ||    X       <-- ‘spit’ on the X 
    
                 <-- all your cards are gone

This is a very long-winded explanation, which gives the impression of a very long a tedious game. It isn’t. A game including several rounds, may last anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes approx. The trick is to play as quickly as possible. This includes dealing at the beginning, it shouldn’t take longer than about 30 or 40 seconds to deal and sort your cards.

I hope I have described this adequately. If I have and you choose to try it out you will no doubt discover what an addictive game it is, perfect to waste 20 minutes or so on a rainy day.


I only remembered that this game is sometimes called speed after I had written this. There is a good writeup there and at speed card game too. There is some overlap, but some differences too. Silly me.

Spam over Internet telephony. The (as-of-yet) hypothetical problem of unwanted telemarketing messages broadcast to thousands or millions of voice over IP users' voicemail boxes.

Also known as vam (voice or VoIP spam).

Unsolicited messages have plagued every mass communications medium, from the postal service to telephones to fax machines. Email and instant messaging are not immune to this problem. With the growth in the use of the Internet as a voice network, security experts are predicting the rise of junk voicemails, although the user base is small enough at the moment that spammers do not yet have an incentive to use it. One significant advantage of using a VoIP network to send marketing messages instead of land lines, is the greater ease and lower cost of sending one message to multiple IP addresses, instead of repeatedly sending one message to multiple phone numbers (which must be dialed separately).

Spit is not covered by the United States' National Do Not Call Registry for telemarketers, and because the messages have to originate as voice, it's not regulated as data under current anti-Spam legislation.

Engineers at Qovia, a VoIP network company, were investigating the feasibility of delivering broadcast messages (i.e., thousands of users) via a VoIP network. Qovia's CTO Choon Shim assigned a team to work on this challenge: it only took them two hours to build a program that could send spit-- enough messages to overwhelm and shut down a 100,000 phone volume call manager. Qovia moved to patent both the technology to do such broadcasting, and the technology to block such broadcasts.

Coinage of the acronym "spit" has been attributed to AT&T Security Scientist Kevin Kealy, although a Lexis-Nexis search has the phrase first appearing only in June 2004 in association with Qovia's press releases.

Sources:
SearchSecurity.com "SPIT." 9 February 2005. <http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid14_gci1024458,00.html> 28 February 2005.
"SPITting mad: Qovia stopping voice mail Spam in its tracks."Telecommunications, June 2004, Vol. 38, No. 6; Pg. 10; ISSN: 0278-4831, 4242836, Celeste Biever. "Move over spam, make way for 'spit.'" New Scientist. 17:18. 24 September 2004. <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6445> 28 February 2005.
Susan Kuchinskas. "Spam, DoS Headed VoIP's Way." Internetnews.com. 23 August 2004. <http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/print.php/3398331> 28 February 2005.
Eric Lai. "IP telephone hackers can put spam in your ear." San Francisco Business Journal. Vol. 19, No. 28. February 11-17, 2005.
John Leyden. "Spam gets vocal with VoIP." The Register. 17 February 2005. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/17/spam_gets_vocal_with_voip/> 28 February 2005.
Deirdre McArdle, "Viruses and SPIT: coming to a phone near you." Electricnews.net 25 February 2005. <http://www.enn.ie/ffocus.html?code=9590536> 28 February 2005.

Spit (?), n. [OE. spite, AS. spitu; akin to D. spit, G. spiess, OHG. spiz, Dan. spid. Sw. spett, and to G. spitz pointed. &root;170.]

1.

A long, slender, pointed rod, usually of iron, for holding meat while roasting.

2.

A small point of land running into the sea, or a long, narrow shoal extending from the shore into the sea; as, a spit of sand.

Cook.

3.

The depth to which a spade goes in digging; a spade; a spadeful.

[Prov. Eng.]

Halliwell.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spit, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spitted; p. pr. & vb. n. Spitting.] [From Spit, n.; cf. Speet.]

1.

To thrust a spit through; to fix upon a spit; hence, to thrust through or impale; as, to spit a loin of veal.

"Infants spitted upon pikes."

Shak.

2.

To spade; to dig.

[Prov. Eng.]

 

© Webster 1913.


Spit, v. i.

To attend to a spit; to use a spit.

[Obs.]

She's spitting in the kitchen. Old Play.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spit, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spit (Spat, archaic); p. pr. & vb. n. Spitting.] [AS. spittan; akin to G. sputzen, Dan. spytte, Sw. spotta,Icel. spta, and prob. E. spew. The past tense spat is due to AS. sptte, from sptan to spit. Cf. Spat, n., Spew, Spawl, Spot, n.]

1.

To eject from the mouth; to throw out, as saliva or other matter, from the mouth.

"Thus spit I out my venom." <-- spat is a common pp and not archaic -->

Chaucer.

2.

To eject; to throw out; to belch.

Spitted was sometimes used as the preterit and the past participle. "He . . . shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on."

Luke xviii. 32.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spit, n.

The secretion formed by the glands of the mouth; spitle; saliva; sputum.

 

© Webster 1913.


Spit, v. i.

1.

To throw out saliva from the mouth.

2.

To rain or snow slightly, or with sprinkles.

It had been spitting with rain. Dickens.

To spit onupon, to insult grossly; to treat with contempt. "Spitting upon all antiquity."

South.

 

© Webster 1913.

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