Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, December 9th, 2020


15 Comments

RonMDecember 23rd, 2020 at 10:16 am

Enjoyed the days when we had a column rather than a blank page!

Joe1December 23rd, 2020 at 11:31 am

Yasmina Reza’s Tony award winning comic play “Art” comes to mind. An exploration of modern art and friendship, when an art lover buys a large, all white, or blank canvas for an expensive price. Maybe something can said about an all white bridge column?

jim2December 23rd, 2020 at 12:03 pm

And don’t forget The Beatles!!!

Steve ConradDecember 23rd, 2020 at 1:12 pm

I hope we do NOT have a White Christmas column.

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 1:56 pm

Hi Joe1, Jim2, & Steve,

I am definitely not dreaming of a white Christmas, and not like the ones we used to love.

In the long time past, many years now, we had a chain of command in the relatively simple task, (maybe easy for me to say), of posting the one sent out to the newspapers, two weeks delayed, allowing our very hallowed group to discuss them.

Three key people were involved, not without a few glitches (lateness every now and then) but for some unknown reason to Judy and me, all three of them appear to be incommunicado at the same time.

IOW, all forms of communication have failed, while in the past, when a column was put up later than expected, one of the three came to our rescue, causing only minor and not daunting and/or irreconcilable harm to our process.

Sincere apologies from me is all I can offer with the assurance that both Judy and I are nothing short of horrified, worse than going set in a lay down contract while competing in an important event.

Could all three of our sources be out of town, during this holiday season, without any of them contacting each other?

Please forgive us for what has happened, but feel assured that both of us are well into doing everything we can to return to what at least I, for one, have come to regard my favorite and most enjoyable work within the process.

No doubt, at least to me, that the combination of fast, lovable and faithful friends, in combination together with lively discussion of our favorite game has become irresistible
and should never end.

Now Judy and I will be looking forward to two vaccines, not just one.

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 4:27 pm

Hi Everyone,

Just heard from Lisa Marie, our lady in charge of
setting the AOB daily table, and in spite of an
unavoidable circumstance, she is now in control and AOB will soon appear in no more than likely a few days.

Happy to announce that apparent personal suicide will be, at least put on hold, unless a suicide squeeze in a nearby column is successfully executed.

Besides, we will have more time to get and give more gifts this season.

Holiday love to all (or at least most),

Bobby

TedDecember 23rd, 2020 at 5:37 pm

Hi Bobby,

Christmas came early — three AOB columns under the tree. I probably should have saved a couple for later, but couldn’t wait. Thanks to you, Judy and all your helpers.

The week’s topic also turned out to be personally timely. I’d pulled out Clyde Love’s book last week to reread thinking I might understand more of it now than I did when I first read it 10+ years ago.

Best wishes to you, Judy and all the readers/contributors for a safe and happy holiday season.

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 5:39 pm

Hi again everyone,

Someone probably once said, “time sure goes by fast when one is having fun” since those few days till the column will reappear (post, immediately above) hurried by in a New York second.

And by an act of coincidence our hero in today’s hand was a great mentor to me with perhaps the quickest mind set and wit I have ever had the pleasure to know, the late and great Oswald Jacoby. He not only played that hand (it says here) but if so, it probably took him less time to do so (in spite of its difficulty) than it takes a mosquito to disappear in air from a flapper.

A deserved excellent posthumous tribute to his lightening like mind and all things mathematical, especially bridge smarts, to which he put to great use while serving in that type of capacity (hopefully and undoubtedly in that order) in his Navy MOS “breaking enemy codes”, during WWII.

ClarksburgDecember 23rd, 2020 at 5:40 pm

Bobby and Judy
At this great and friendly place there are no penalties for occasional unavoidable slow play!
Regards

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 5:54 pm

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your holiday spirit and no doubt you will love Clyde’s book, especially when now presented first hand a “real life” example.

Or should I instead be ready to say to a beginner “you will clyde Loves book” in order for him to have the humor necessary to understand that squeezes, which sometimes go from pleasure to romantics, to misery for early bridge students.

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 6:10 pm

Hi Clarksburg,

And never forget how much we learn when we tune in AOB.

In this case we learn how to use the word unavoidable, to first temper down, and then even possibly, eliminate all blame.

Also on your concern, playing very slowly is polite, giving those worthy opponents time to think along with you. “Aren’t we devils?”
Ralph Edwards, “Truth or Consequences” radio, early 1940s.

Iain ClimieDecember 23rd, 2020 at 6:31 pm

Welcome back! All the best to everyone especially as my bit of England (in the North of Hampshire) has just been put in full lockdown from Boxing Day – rude words!

Iain

Steve ConradDecember 23rd, 2020 at 7:39 pm

The only book I have by Oswald Jacoby is a non-bridge book. He wrote “Mathematics For Pleasure,” a problem book for the math lovers among us. Lest you think that the title of the book is an oxymoron, let me assure you that the book is a jewel. Did you know that Jacoby was an actuary? Well, it says so right in the preface. He also mentions that he is a fairly good card player. Maybe so, who knew 😉

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 11:28 pm

Hi Steve,

Yes, I knew that Ozzie was actually an actuary.
He was also an arithmetical genius squaring large numbers in his head as he walked along.

He, long ago, loved to gamble at illegal or sometimes legal gambling houses, but took out preliminary precautions by handing me his wallet before he walked in and insisting that, under no circumstances should I give it back to him, until we were safely gone.

I, of course, lasted about 6 or 7 minutes with it, before he demanded it back under all kinds of physical threats. I, with anger, then and, of course, got even with him by bowing to his request, but never knowing his end result.

However his later mood was sour enough to guess the predictable that the only advantage a mathematical genius really has (at a casino) is the ability to count his losses quicker and sometimes more accurate than do others.

Yes, he was a great bridge player, although perhaps a larger optimist than most.

bobbywolffDecember 23rd, 2020 at 11:35 pm

Hi Iain,

Perhaps the implication of your status for Boxing Day, being on full lockdown, is a considerable disadvantage.

However, didn’t those fellows have their own Revolution or was it only a rebellion?