So smart but yet so suicidal...
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A non-blithering non-idiot
Just when one feels nigh onto despair at the vapidity and bovinelike stare of today's teens,along comes: http://snarkascending.livejournal.com/ Miss McEldowney, daughter of cartoonist/musician/deity Brooke McEldowney, fans the guttering flame that was my faith in her generation's ability to support me in my soon approaching dotage. Tremble in fear, oh bureaucrats of Aarkvard University.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Little Bunny Suicides ...again
Yep,nothing quite says fun like a smart bunny who's ready to end it all...
Monday, August 13, 2007
I need a fix,man!
I'm seriously jonesing for some new Honorverse reading. For the uninitiated, the honorverse refers to the universe created by author David Weber, where Honor Harrington, heroine extraordinaire, stalks the galaxy. At least,(finally) there are some new dates out for possible releases. over at the fandom site all HH-ers love http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/writingschedule.php
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Underbid Again
As promised a hand, This came up in an OK-Bridge Tourney, playing with a fine pard with whom I don't have a lot of agreements. I pick up (Imp Pairs format; Opps Vul,We're not)
S AKQ7652
H
D AJ4
C Q65
And the dealer, on my left opens 2H, passed around to me. Now I can make the practical bid of 4S, or I can try some esoteric strength showing parlay of double/cuebid/4S or I can trot out 3S, which over an opp's preempt is a strong jump overcall. Of course, due to not having had any discussions with partner, I don't know if partner is on the same wavelength as me on that, one assumes that a good player would but many a slam has been played in 3 when someone assumed their partner was interpreting correctly.
I immediately rule out any sequence that starts with double, since hearing pard pass for penalty at light speed isn't on my agenda for this hand, and eventually decide on the practical 4S bid. Which buys the contract, and when the opening lead of the Diamond 7 hits the table (squealing "I'm a stiff" loud enough to be heard 2 rooms away) dummy hits with :
S 43
H QJT4
D KQT983
C K (my hand repeated for convenience)
S AKQ7652
H
D AJ4
C Q65
Trumps behave and I claim 7 about 2 milliseconds after I've pulled their's. It takes a 4-0 trump break to hold it to less then 12 tricks and that wasn't happening today. The question is ; Is 6 biddable by any means other then someone shrugging and guessing? I think some pair's , armed with actual understandings should be able to. I suppose that over 3S setting S's in stone as trumps, a D bid by pard followed by the crucial club control bid might do it...something like
2H P P 3S
p 4D P 4H
X 5C P 6S or maybe 5H trying for 7 if pard's club control is the Ace?
This seems like an awful lot of cooperative bidding from pard on his actual hand. Meanwhile back in the real world my "practical bid" of 4S making 7 netted a practical score of -1.77 imps.
66 scores with 16 pairs reaching a slam,7 in D's and 9 in S's. And so it goes.
S AKQ7652
H
D AJ4
C Q65
And the dealer, on my left opens 2H, passed around to me. Now I can make the practical bid of 4S, or I can try some esoteric strength showing parlay of double/cuebid/4S or I can trot out 3S, which over an opp's preempt is a strong jump overcall. Of course, due to not having had any discussions with partner, I don't know if partner is on the same wavelength as me on that, one assumes that a good player would but many a slam has been played in 3 when someone assumed their partner was interpreting correctly.
I immediately rule out any sequence that starts with double, since hearing pard pass for penalty at light speed isn't on my agenda for this hand, and eventually decide on the practical 4S bid. Which buys the contract, and when the opening lead of the Diamond 7 hits the table (squealing "I'm a stiff" loud enough to be heard 2 rooms away) dummy hits with :
S 43
H QJT4
D KQT983
C K (my hand repeated for convenience)
S AKQ7652
H
D AJ4
C Q65
Trumps behave and I claim 7 about 2 milliseconds after I've pulled their's. It takes a 4-0 trump break to hold it to less then 12 tricks and that wasn't happening today. The question is ; Is 6 biddable by any means other then someone shrugging and guessing? I think some pair's , armed with actual understandings should be able to. I suppose that over 3S setting S's in stone as trumps, a D bid by pard followed by the crucial club control bid might do it...something like
2H P P 3S
p 4D P 4H
X 5C P 6S or maybe 5H trying for 7 if pard's club control is the Ace?
This seems like an awful lot of cooperative bidding from pard on his actual hand. Meanwhile back in the real world my "practical bid" of 4S making 7 netted a practical score of -1.77 imps.
66 scores with 16 pairs reaching a slam,7 in D's and 9 in S's. And so it goes.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Another Day older...
Another scorcher of a day. 92F(that's 34C to the rest of the world) and about 70% humidity,which is still 8 degrees better then the 2 previous days. A fine day to sit inside,soaking up iced tea and reading. Which I've done quite a bit of, the last 3 days, both online and with some new dead trees (That's pretentious e-bookie slang for real books). As always I've visited my daily sites, I read the New York Times and the local Courier-Journal for my fix of U.S. news, The Guardian, The Independent,and The Scotsman from the UK, The Sidney Morning Herald from down under and at least one of the big Canadian dailies. Then it's off to Scott Adams'es superb blog as well as checking on the daily goody at woot.com. I follow that with the days humor, It takes 3 web sites to get all of my morning comics. Comics.com,Gocomics.com, and the Houston Chronicle's Chron.com.
It's a little thing that I and probably most of you now take for granted, zipping about to get what I want in a comics page. I suspect people have been complaining to their local paper since a week after the very first comic appeared, asking "Why don't you add so and so", or "drop so and so". Now...who cares what my local paper chooses to run or not run, I choose my comics and they are in a readable size.Silly? Probably, but any editor at any major paper will tell you, Nothing makes the irate letters hit the fan like a change in a dailies comics.
After that, It's off to The Big Lead, a sports blog with 2 smart guys running through their picks of the best and worst in sports,sports media, and bouncy bikini-ed babes. ESPN.com's Page 2 always rates a visit sometimes during the day as does a trip to SI.com to pick through their columnists. I try not to miss Frank Deford and Doctor Z.
Later I'll slide thru Baen.com to check out the publishing schedule and read the David Weber related postings at the Bar. And finally a swing through several bridge sites. Gotta keep the professional mind set,don't you know.
After that rigorous workout at the keyboard,I'll read something new, either an e-book or a real book, work on some boards for any upcoming lessons, and set my news reader to grab anything newly posted on Usenet. A downloaders task is never done. Back later with some specifics of what i've been reading and some bridge hands of interest.
It's a little thing that I and probably most of you now take for granted, zipping about to get what I want in a comics page. I suspect people have been complaining to their local paper since a week after the very first comic appeared, asking "Why don't you add so and so", or "drop so and so". Now...who cares what my local paper chooses to run or not run, I choose my comics and they are in a readable size.Silly? Probably, but any editor at any major paper will tell you, Nothing makes the irate letters hit the fan like a change in a dailies comics.
After that, It's off to The Big Lead, a sports blog with 2 smart guys running through their picks of the best and worst in sports,sports media, and bouncy bikini-ed babes. ESPN.com's Page 2 always rates a visit sometimes during the day as does a trip to SI.com to pick through their columnists. I try not to miss Frank Deford and Doctor Z.
Later I'll slide thru Baen.com to check out the publishing schedule and read the David Weber related postings at the Bar. And finally a swing through several bridge sites. Gotta keep the professional mind set,don't you know.
After that rigorous workout at the keyboard,I'll read something new, either an e-book or a real book, work on some boards for any upcoming lessons, and set my news reader to grab anything newly posted on Usenet. A downloaders task is never done. Back later with some specifics of what i've been reading and some bridge hands of interest.
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