#physogs

Physogs, the Novel Card Game

Physogs, a British game from the 1940s, is a popularized version of physiognomy, the art of judging human character from facial features. Based on sociologist Jacques Penry’s How to Judge Character from the Face (1939), the game consists of fifty-six printed cards and a key book describing thirteen distinct “facial-character types”: acquisitive-shrewd, dissipated, bad-tempered, determined, suave-obsequious, artistic-imaginative, credulous-impractical, magnetic, excitable-impetuous, self-conscious, crafty-self-centered, pleasant-cheerful, and narrow-minded-stubborn. There are four sets of playing cards: eye cards, nose cards, mouth cards, and type cards.

eucanthos

as good as it gets

Anton Raphael Mengs. Unfinished portrait of Mariana de Silva y Sarmiento, ca. 1775 - source nevver

Frame Card from the 1939 game "Physogs" - source pinkblanc

Physogs sample portrait "Pleasant" and "Cheerful" mix [invented by Jacques Penry] - Hoyle's of Oxford games

Card description: F –PLEASANT –CHEERFUL– EYES –Upper and lower lids cover part of the iris at the top and at the bottom. Eyes are bright, wide apart. Very thin, delicate eyebrows. NOSE–Finely skinned. Short, showing holes of nostrils. MOUTH–Full, smiling lips, showing the teeth. Dimple at corner of the mouth.

Memory Lane, The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember

The ability to recollect experiences and information is a fundamental function of the brain. All human cognitive “distortions” and “illusions” are features, not bugs. We ought to celebrate what they enable us to do, not lament what they do not.

“Memory Lane," 2025, Princeton University Press, Ciara Greene & Gillian Murphy