“Some historians argue that the ace, or one, . . . made its counter-numerical switch from lowest to highest rank during the American and French revolutions, when it suddenly became possible for the merest commoner to become emperor, prime minister, or president. These days the ace represents whatever intangible force (such as God, Allah, aleph, I, the Arabic number one, or what physicists call a singularity) can overcome the most august human being.”

—James McManus, from Positively Fifth Street, 2003.