About ME - Jesters, much like Jokers

About Me; My name is John (John Edelson). I collect jokers and have done so, off and on, since I was in high school in the early to mid 1970s. I live in South Florida. I have around 10,000 different jokers. I am a "general" collector of jokers who only started specializing in 2023 on old American jokers.

John Edelson, Joker Collector

My contribution to modern joker collection has been developing and popularizing a joker organization system, a taxonomy for collectors.  I first articulated my joker organizing system in March 2017.  

 Think about it, how to organize hundreds or thousands of jokers so that at a glance, I know where to check to see if I have a joker? Color organization doesn't work, neither does alphabetical order or by country or publisher since that requires enormous memorizing. So I developed a thematic visual organizational system for jokers.  It's a work in progress.

Here's some of my favorite jokers (a very hard selection to make!).

Some Favorite Jokers

 I think my main contribution to the joker community has been a focus on the creation of a taxonomy of jokers.  

I also collect vintage educational technology. More about me: I  exercise. I retired in 2023 from a career in consulting, tech, video games, and then 20 years plus in educational technology.   I vote not just my narrow self-interest but for the good of the country and world.  I don't buy cheap liquor. I mostly write in short declarative sentences.  I learned  these principles from my mom.

 collect playing card jokers but I limit it to cards and jokers and avoid all the related ephemera.  I stay away from clowns, scary or otherwise. I do have two non card related items related to my cards. One, there is this little plastic jester figurine that I bought in Paris.

Jester - Joker Model

And there is this harlequin or jester mask, bought in Italy. It is related to  the jokers with masks section of my collection.  

Jester Mask

Some people ask me if anyone reads this blog.  If you are reading this blog, you know the answer. I will admit that I am probably the primary reader of this blog. I like writing it, I like reading it, and I like revising it. And when I don't, I don't.  

I know, I know. What you really want to know is how many people read this blog. How elite is this group of readers like you.  The answer: pretty elite. Here is the blogger visits data from the blogger backoffice.

The picture below is a rare one in that it has me, the joker collector, pictured on the blog! Enjoy this rare glimpse of the mad genius! I was in Prague in 2016 when I met this jester. I was 58.

John (collector) with a Jester, Eastern Europe. Oct 2016

These inlaid wood boxes are from the south of Spain. The bottom one was bought in the late 1980s. I have new one, not yet pictured, bought in November 2016.

Joker Box - Inlaid Wood - Southern Spain

I met a jester who was behaving himself so I took his picture.  He was in Eastern Europe. Specifically, Prague in the Czech Republic.  October 2016.

A Jester in Prague, Czech Republic

Joker Inlaid Box from the South of Spain

Oops, there I am again. I was dared to get photographed with these two famous characters who have been recently made into fluffy stuffed toys. One is the HangMouse featured on VocabularySpellingCity.  The other is Pinkerton Sciefus, or Pinky or Sciefus for short, who is a featured character in Science4Us.

John with the HangMouse & Sciefus
Clowning Around - What a Joker!

The new HangMouse stuffed animal is to commemorate a number of improvements in the HangMan game including making it more educational by introducing hints related to the use of the word or its definition.  Sciefus is here to mark the increased acceptance that time spent in K-2nd on science more than pays for itself in terms of improved literacy and math skills.

And here I am again. First, in costume as Batman with Catwomn at Dillard Elementary Literacy Night. Same night, I'm also with Harley Quinn and then some kids before I transformed. Miao!