Elianna

What I want is hard to convert to cash. Extremely hard. I don't know if I'll get it, though.

Oh, I'm not objecting to necklaces. Just not THAT one. :)

I knew from the minute when they talked about the guy that got out, and zoomed in on the wife's necklace. JC Penny has been advertising that necklace since Halloween. Honestly, I'd rather Adam got me one of those "bad" presents than that necklace that JC Penny is hyping. At least I would then know that he's thinking outside the box rather than blindly following what TV tells him to do.

That was amusing, but a little disturbing that it was a jewelry store commercial.

Sometimes Flash has a problem with claims. I knkow that it's happened to Adam several times that when an opponent claims, it doesn't appear on his screen.

I teach high school. I can't imagine teaching from home. But I DEFINITELY prefer doing all the other work at home: grading, lesson plans, etc. Less distractions than at school.

One of the problems is that the parents (and in many cases the grandparents) of today's 7-year-old don't play bridge.

One of my fellow math teachers believes that after calculating expectation of what would be the result of a gamble, one must THEN compare it to what one could lose in order to decide whether to proceed. (This was brought up in discussing whether we should teach students to take a guess on the SAT after eliminating at least one answer as impossible.) Another teacher (who no longer works there) told students that gold was formed in volcanoes. (She was an English teacher and they were reading Call of the Wild.) I recently had students who told me that a Jr. High science teacher taught them that the reason that Albert Einstein was the smartest man ever is that he used 9% of his brain, while other people use 7%. Anyway, I teach science at an Orthodox Jewish girls' high school. We teach evolution. In their judaic studies classes, they learn that the Bible is literal truth. How do we reconcile these? Well, I usually leave that for the JS staff, but before I get to this section in Biology, I make the following two statements (out of a handbook about issues in science published by the Orthodox Union): 1) Religion is about believing certain truths, not proving them. Just science is about an ordered set of beliefs that must be proven. They do not relate to each other. One cannot prove religion scientifically, that is the essence of religion. One should not believe in science religiously, that is the essence of science. 2) An analogy: "If G-d creates a 30 year-old man, how old is he, and how long has he been alive?" Everything else I leave up to their Judaic Studies teachers. Like the question of why G-d would go to the trouble to create bones of creatures that never existed. I don't lead them to the question, but I definitely don't address it.

It may have helped to write "0, 3 keycards". I wonder if "0 or 3 kcs" might have done the trick. That way they don't think that it's a name, and see that it's a description of your bid. But I understand your frustration: You were attempting to follow the rules on alerting, and your opponent thought that you were doing something you weren't supposed to. This is common though. I have explained the auction (1D)-2D before as "showing five hearts and five spades", giving a description of the point range in the chat message, and some opponents are just not satisfied until I utter the magic words "Michaels". It's rather frustrating that some opponents do not seem to know when one is following the law and wish one to deviate from it, but it IS one's obligation to explain as clearly as possible to the opponents.

Or a remedial course on reading.

After transferring (to spades, let's say, for the sake of simplicity): Options with weak hand: pass = "can't invite to game" Options with invitational hand: 2NT= "I only have 5 spades. If you have a minimum and 2 spades, pass. If you have a minimum and 3+ spades, you may bid 3 spades. Otherwise, bid either 3NT or 4S depending on your hand" 3S = "I have 6 or more spades. Bid 4S if you like your hand (even if you have only 2 spades)" Options with a game force: 3NT = "I only have 5 spades. If you have 2, pass. Otherwise you may bid 4S" 4S = Different things if one plays certain other conventions (like Texas transfers or the like). If one doesn't, it probably means "let's play 4S". There are clearly many more bids available, and people play many more things that they could mean. I'm just trying to give a very simple structure that shows how to stay out of 5-2 fits at the 3 or 4 level, if that is one's wish.

are there bunnies? Killer Bunnies?

You could be more specific as to what you mean by "standard". I'm assuming you mean takeout, so you could have said that. Or to be more even more specific, you could say "short spades, takeout" I think that the thing is, it's not clear if standard means takeout (and therefore short spades), penalty (so you have spades) or support (says nothing about spades). And they were asking for clarification between the three. I hope you see how "standard" could still cover the penalty or takeout options.

This is the first time I'm posting in this thread, mainly because I couldn't care less about Forcing Pass/multi/etc. What I care about is that I believe that the existing rules are unclear, and are thus inconsistently enforced. I would not advocate changing what is/isn't allowed, but I DO think that the convention charts need to be clearer, and directors who are charged with enforcing those charts be given better guidelines about them. For example, if they had a set of systems/conventions that were both close to being legal (yet were illegal), and close to being illegal (yet are legal), then it might be easier for the director to decide on the legality of a random system/convention. What I abhor is certain results of the current system: (all have happened, I just am not bandying names) 1) A pair plays a certain system that we believe is illegal, but they have been told by a random director is legal. We have to raise a big stink, get a director to call in to national HQ, and he finds out it is illegal, and they have to change their system. A few tournaments later, they are playing the same (old) system, because the director at the new tournament thinks that it is legal. 2) A pair is playing what is clearly a non-gameforcing relay system (not allowed). We call the director. We point out that this is a non-gameforcing relay system according to the definition. The director agrees. The opponents then tell the director that they're not relays (ie, they don't CALL them relays). The director rules the system legal. And no, the same directors were not involved in 1) or 2), but one can see how a situation like in 2) could lead to 1). My point (and I admit it took a while) is that I don't care what's legal or illegal, but that the charts need to be made MUCH clearer, and directors need to be better educated. (P.S. Even though I'm friends with MatMat, I don't have the same anti-director hatred. I don't blame them for this situation, I blame the rules that led them to this situation.)

Hey Josh! Stop flirting with him! Also, his birthday is NOT overshadowed by Christmas. It's overshadowed by Hannukah!

I think its worse than that, its what a man uses to suggest sex with a minor (I could be wrong) I've never heard of that. I bet that you didn't expect to find someone more sheltered than you! ;)

Apparently you aren't living on mine. You know what they say : "Cool water, fish live. Hot water, fish escape." Please try to contact me on BBO to clarify how fun and innocent "boom boom" is misinterpreted "is not a good name especially in Asia". It might be something that you do not find suitable to post on forums. Good, it's politeness. Thanks :) I would bet that he's referring to terrorists bombing places.

Adam and I MIGHT be able to play (sometimes I have to direct at last minute's notice). I quoted these times because I believe that the US pacific time is wrong: it should be three hours behind NY, so 12:30pm. All the others are consistent with that conclusion. I mention this because I want to make sure that it is the Pacific that is incorrect, and the others are correct (and not the other way around). In other words: Do you mean choice 1: NY 15:30, US pacific 12:30 or choice 2: US pacific 14:30, NY 17:30 (and thus 5:30pm)?

'Mnemonic' refers to something with a structure that's easy to remember. Check wiki for a better definition :( No, a mnemonic device IS the structure that helps one memorize something. Example: "My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nachos" is the mnemonic that helps us memorize the order of planets in order of distance from the sun. Reference: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mnemonic (specifically http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mnemonic#dict_header)

Disagree. True, the auction 1NT-3NT-6NT exists theoretically but there is no bridge hand consistent with both the 1NT and 6NT calls. Clearly it was this what Richard was asking about and in my opinion, there is no hand that first passes, then passes over 4D and then jumps to 4S. 1NT=8-10 or 16-18. 3NT=balanced, to play over 8-10. 6NT=16-18. Not that I've heard of anyone playing this recently. But I know people who have played these split ranges.

Helene, I guess we are only allowed to comment on topics that are about sewing, knitting, and cooking (preferably barefoot and pregnant).

Somehow I managed to place my message below in the wrong thread. I have no idea how I managed to do it, but here it is. Looks great on my (older) iphone! I didn't even have to enlarge it to read, just held the phone sideways. I too love my iPhone.

Then why don't you marry it? :D This wound up in the wrong place, I don't know why. Thank you for being so kind to point it out in a nice, polite way. I really appreciate the civility of people on the forums, they're such nice people. Makes me really want to meet them in person.

Me too. Although I like the idea of a sing off.

I just realized that you may be in a different STaC, anyway. I thought that you were in the midwest, and therefore the Western Conference STaC, but I now see that there are several others going on, so sorry that I said something before checking.