What is the meaning of the phase “BLACK LIKE THE ACE OF SPADES”?
I’m not sure, but it may be because spades are the highest-ranking suit and the ace is therefore the highest card of all. As a child, however, I was always puzzled to hear anyone say “black as the ace of spades,” because in every deck I’d seen, the ace of spades wasn’t solid black but had a lacy kind of design. On the other hand, the single spot on the ace of spades is usually bigger than the one on any of the other three aces. BTW, both the saying and the association of that card with death go back well before the VietNam war. The ace of spades was the “death card” as early as the opera Carmen (1875).
