Badmonster

Tonight there is a great lesson in the iabc. One of the things that really contributes is that much of the audience is involved and speaking animatedly. But while this contributes positively to the energy of the room, it is easy for the teacher's comments to become lost. If it was possible to view a commentator or teacher's text in a different color from everyone else's I think it would make a great difference in large busy rooms, and alleviate the need to shush anyone.

This is the difference between bridge and ice skating. Far less pelvic gyration at the table. I'm ok with that actually. Maybe this is why ice skating is on tv and bridge is not.

This is distressing. I realize as one's bidding vocabulary expands there's more room for subtlety, but if we're playing serious 3nt I'd assume that once we find a fit 3n is always serious. If not I'm going to be called upon to make inferences.

If the bidding went: 1nt p 2♥ p 3♦ (super accept for spades) 3nt What would that 3nt mean for those who do not play serious? I didn't have this auction or see this auction, I was watching a table where the bidding went (opps passing throughout) : 1nt 2♥ 3♦ 4♣ and no one at the table could tell me what 3nt might have meant. But you'd think there'd be some use for it. Also, are you less likely to super accept when you're 4333?

It does. The idea that maybe I'd like to rebid my six card suit did eventually occurr to me. Shame not sooner.

[hv=s=s64haj107d7caqj952]133|100|[/hv] P opens a spade I bid 2c he says 2d and I bid 2h (4th suit forcing) he bids 2nt what do I do? If I bid hearts now how many do I promise? Is clubs better?

Many happy returns

While I love those bridgeguys, I want a more in depth discussion of Italian Cues. Can anyone point out some resources or share some thoughts on the treatment beyond the basic mechanics?

I would think lead directing.

Congrats Bob! Yay!

Look you... people. I grew up in Brookly, OK? Pizza is not about the topping. It's about the crust, the sauce and the cheese. The toppings are just toppings. And frankly, if you haven't had pizza in Brooklyn, you haven't actually had pizza.

I think it's sad that Justin is leaving and Fred is apologizing and Rain is defending herself. So, generally the whole thing is Not Good. But it happened and it can't unhappen and hopefully everyone is going to get past it and feel better. I used to moderate on a forum and one of our policies was that when you edited a post you emailed the person whose post you moderated with an explanation. (Did we OWE people explanations? No. Did we avoid these situations by opening a dialogue? I think we did.) Maybe if Rain had messaged Justin privately and said I removed your post here's why. I'm open to discussing this with you, Justin might have written back and said, you could just remove the link, and Rain could have said ok, and life could have gone on as usual. Maybe Rain did. Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. But maybe the situation would have been diffused. My experience is you can say almost anything to people as long as you phrase it correctly and they feel like they're being heard when they reply. So... um... long winded, but my suggestion (the short version) is maybe when editing or deleting posts moderators could shoot an explanation by way of a private message or email.

The silliness was referenced, but the blog is hardly dedicated to this nonsense.

Do you really think Justin is a miscreant? I do not.

Ken I agree with you to an extent. I had someone point out that whole business to me on rec.games. bridge, and thought it seemed like a sign of deevolution. Like apes our baser nature seems geared towards finding someone to throw out of the pack. But I don't think that issue is THE issue here. The issue seems to be that someone who is a huge contributer, and large part of these forums is hurt and leaving. Another issue is that the whole thing is probably very uncomfortable for Rain as well. Is it possible to restore a post? If it is can the post be restored without the link? And if it could would that be enough to make everyone if not happy, at least not unhappy?

Justin, I totally get the concept of voting with your feet. However, I want to point out that chances are that you'll miss talking with us (the bbf community) almost as much as we'll miss reading your posts. So, you'll make your point, but you'll leave a hole, and you may not be happier for it. I'll miss you. Come back.

Caren is seven today, though with time difference it might be yesterday. Either way, Happy Birthday Caren. I hope all your birthday wishes come true.

I like Chef Culluchio's (sp) blog on the top chef website.

Not to mention generally icky.

If the culpret is the neighbor not the dog why isn't the question whether it's ok to kill the neighbor?

Your friend doesn't mind killing people's pets to "protect" his kids, but putting up a fence is just too much trouble? The neighbors are jerks and inconsiderate, but your friend is an animal.

Sorry. I have to ask. How do you know?

This has been my experience as well. And again I apologize for a) misunderstanding and B) using an extreme phrasing to make a point. Because my experience has been like yours I find it difficult to believe that all muslims would subscribe to this sort of propaganda. My objection to your original post was the blanket inclusion I saw in the phrase the net impact of Islam. It's now clear to me that that was not what you intended.

I don't mean to pick on Helene, who I suspect is probably a lovely person, but this is what I mean about sensitivity. We have a lot of Muslim players on bbo. I imagine some of them probably read the forums. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of them are not hate-filled xenophobic, terrorists. And so, I worry that perhaps your post might hurt their feelings, the way my feelings would be hurt if someone posted that Jews are money-sucking misers who eat Christian babies at passover. Oh come on, Helene said nothing offensive or insensitive in this post! How can you compare this post with saying that jews eat babies? I think that's absurd. Helene makes two comments: (I hope I'm not misquoting you Helene) 1) That the Islam (as we talk about it) is what it is now, not what it was 1500 years ago. 2) That many imams in Europe say things that we [here: a majority of Western Europeans] see as absolutely intolerant (and worse). She also correctly stated that this it is not true that all imams say these things. How can you find something offensive in these words? Should we not say that we think that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men? Should we not mention that we think homosexuals should have the same rights and opportunities as heterosexuals? There surely are Muslim players on BBO who think very differently on these issues, and might take offense when reading this. Hopefully there are others who are interested in reading how we think about these things, even if they might not agree. (and maybe there are also Muslims players on BBO who agree, I don't know, but I'd be interested in hearing from them) I'm not planning to defend Helene, who I suspect is a horrible person, more often, but if you want to pick on her I suggest you find a better reason to do so, not just because she is saying what she thinks. It really wasn't my intention to pick on Helene. I think that saying that Muslims are intolerant and reactionary might be offensive. But it's very possible this is not what she said. In which case I have misunderstood. Perhaps the baby eating was a poor choice of words, I didn't mean to imply that Helene was hurling insults, but rather than stereotypes can be insulting. Are we fighting now?

No way. Last week or the week before they played the tapes of phone calls from people stuck in the towers. I kept waking up crying and had to carefully avoid the news like the plague. I don't think I can handle the movie.