The official results
| MA Lightman AX Open 65.0 Tables / Based on 106 Tables |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPs | A | X | Names | Score | |
| 29.89 | 1 | Christopher Pisarra, Lafayette CA; Mike Bandler, Alamo CA | 61.88% | ||
| 22.42 | 2 | Faye Marino, Greenwich CT; Eileen Paley, Scarsdale NY | 61.13% | ||
| 16.81 | 3 | Andras Konyves – Borje Rudenstal, Lund Swaziland | 60.04% | ||
| 12.61 | 4 | David Gurvich, Brooklyn NY; Ron Haack, New York NY | 59.31% | ||
| 9.96 | 5 | Sedat Nassi, Hollywood FL; Norman Schwartz, San Marcos CA | 57.27% | ||
| 8.85 | 6 | David Siebert, Little Rock AR; Loretta Rivers, Monroe LA | 57.24% | ||
| 7.47 | 7 | Hjordis Eythorsdottir, Huntsville AL; Jean Orr, Middletown CT | 56.25% | ||
| 6.64 | 8 | Mark Aquino, Jamaica Plain MA; Robert McCaw, Sudbury MA | 56.13% | ||
| 5.98 | 9 | Jeff Hand – Cynthia Colin, New York NY | 56.04% | ||
| 7.96 | 10 | Jeff Johnson, Huntsville AL; Douglas Wagner, Birmingham AL | 56.00% | ||
| 7.96 | 11 | Ann Rickard, Simpsonville SC; Michael Oechsler, Charleston SC | 55.96% | ||
| 4.60 | 12 | Cindy Sealy – Owen Lynch, Huntsville AL | 55.58% | ||
| 4.27 | 13 | Steve Becker, Old Greenwich CT; Larry Bausher, West Haven CT | 55.53% | ||
| 13.24 | 14 | 1 | Jacek Jerzy Kalita, Warsaw Poland; Jessica Piafsky, New York NY | 55.10% | |
| 3.74 | 15 | Bob Gwirtzman, Brooklyn NY; Glenn Robbins, New York NY | 55.09% | ||
| 3.52 | 16 | Andy Kaufman, Fort Washington PA; Michael Cassel II, Roseville MN | 55.05% | ||
| 9.93 | 17 | 2 | Peter Manzon, Waltham MA; Robert Bertoni, Haverhill MA | 54.98% | |
| 3.15 | 18 | Jie Li, Beijing China People’s Republic of China; Fu Zhong, Beijing People’s Republic of China | 54.88% | ||
| 2.99 | 19 | Bob Friz, Leonard TX; Brady Allen, Dallas TX | 54.74% | ||
| 3.98 | 20 | Jody Williams – Richard Williams, San Carlos CA | 54.66% | ||
| 7.45 | 3 | Judy Fox – James Fox, Virginia Beach VA | 54.51% | ||
| 5.59 | 4 | Keith Pugsley – Katherine Pugsley, Oakville ON | 54.14% | ||
| 4.41 | 5 | Kevin Young – Peter Worby, Regina SK | 53.14% | ||
| 3.78 | 6 | Catherine Dwinnell – Walter Pease, Anchorage AK | 52.62% | ||
| 3.31 | 7 | Ben Wheeler, Birmingham AL; Benton Wheeler III, Memphis TN | 51.81% | ||
| 2.94 | 8 | Robert Levey, Bethesda MD; Robert Sweeney, Memphis TN | 51.09% | ||
| 2.65 | 9 | Charles Young – Rich Pestien, Peoria IL | 50.73% | ||
Success!!
We did it.
Mike and I won the A/X open pairs today. Two very steady games over 60%, just chugging along. There were 5 sections of 13 tables, and we beat ’em all.
Okay, so I’m a little excited.
Yes, there was luck involved–you can’t possibly win without it. The two boards we played against the top seed tonight were simple, ice-cold games where his skill didn’t matter–take your top tricks and score it up. The hard hands went to the weaker players tonight, which is the way you’d like it to be.
Here’s another great thing that happened today–dinner. We went to a place called Flight, and had a truly memorable and spectacular meal.
This restaurant has a gimmick–they serve everything in flights, no just the wines. You can get a flight of 3 different salads, or soups. They offer about 15 different entrees, and you can get two or three smaller portions of them in a flight, in any combination you want.
Mike ventured a flight of the red wine, but then had a salad and the veal parmigiano, or something similarly tame. It may not surprise you that I stepped out a little. First the soup–sweet potato with Thai chili spice. I think it’s the best soup I ever ate. So rich and sweet it could have been dessert as easily as the first course.
Then I chose a flight of entrees:
New Zealand Elk, Wild boar and Muscovy duck all at once. I think I'm in heaven.
One more of the odd things about me–I almost never would order beef; most of the time I have the fish or the pasta. But if there is something out of the ordinary, I can’t possibly pass it up. And here was elk on the menu!! And Wild Boar!!! And I like duck!!
So, OK, the sauce on the elk was pretty heavy, but I can live with that. I thought my meal was wonderful–there’s a good chance I’ll be going back once Gail gets here.
And that’s my great day. Win an event and have a great meal. The only thing missing is the girl, and she’s in Orlando and gets here Monday night. Life is good.
Memphis, late Friday night
After the game this evening, I was sitting with my friend Don Mamula. He asked me if Mike had left yet, and I sadly had to tell him that Mike left, emotionally and intellectually, after the hand in the middle of the 10th round where I returned a diamond and they made the contract. Had I led any other suit, or my Amex card, or room key, the contract fails. At that point our game was over. I know I wrote about never giving up just this morning, but there comes a time to recognize the inevitable. Our game just wasn’t working, and there were no miracles in store. We played politely and in tempo, but our hearts had gone out of it. When the last card was played Mike was out the door in a flash, and I don’t blame him a bit.
Mike, as is his wont, undoubtedly headed straight back to his hotel to eat an apple, call Linda and hit the sack. Not me.
The ACBL is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, which is why the NABC is in Memphis, and tonight there was a big party. I may not be a great player, but I know how to party, so that’s where I headed.
There was cake and champagne. Past ACBL president Roger Smith told me that if I didn’t have the wine I could have 2 pieces of cake, so I took him up on it.
One of the big reasons I love nationals is running into friends from around the country. Look who I met tonight:
They live in different parts of the country now, but still play in the big tournaments.
Caryn Villalon now lives near San Diego, and Ken McClenahan lives in Colorado these days. I always enjoy seeing them at the nationals.
The party wasn’t just food, there was music. Memphis has some really great bands, and ACBL Ask Me Girl Wendy Sullivan, who was in charge of planning the party, hired one of the best. They were just fabulous. Four musicians and a singer, and they wailed. Dancing broke out, of course, and I got to dance with Wendy.
Meeting planner, Ask Me Girl, patron member coordinator, all around factotum and general star Wendy Sullivan. Darned good dancer, too.
Tournaments used to have dances almost every night, but everyone got older and almost nobody dances anymore, especially the men. At one point I counted 10 women and 2 men on the dance floor.
I danced until I had just enough energy to make the 3 block walk back to the hotel. Wish I could do that more often. Now for some sleep and do it all again tomorrow. This is the life.
Memphis, day 2
Mike Lawrence teaches his students not to give up–a bad board at the start isn’t the end of the game.
On our first hand today, Mike thought I made a takeout double. I didn’t. He bid, and we went down in a silly contract. Being the studly types we are, we soldiered on without conflict about it.
Later, against the top seed at table three, the seed’s client made a silly bid and went down 1100. On the last hand, two generally good players doubled my 1NT contract, didn’t defend well, and I made 3, for plus 580. Since this is an IMP game, that’s a big difference.
I left before the final scores were up, but we’re doing at least alright–maybe not great, but we surely made back what was lost on the first board.
Churchill was right. Never, never, never give up.
And now for something a bit lighter:
A bit of frivolity amongst the seriousness
Micky is famous for being focused on the game and oblivious to the opponents, so I was surprised today when he not only noticed but commented on this woman’s pedicure. I guess we’ve finally found the way to get his attention away from the cards.
Memphis NABC, day 1
Nothing like a nice sunset with the city's name on a tower to start things off.
The first time the fire alarm went off tonight, a few people looked up from their cards and wondered what it was, but I didn’t see anyone actually get up and head for the door. My LHO noticed that there were a bunch of flashing lights in the hall, then wanted to review the last trick.
These people are intense.
I’m in Memphis, for the Spring nationals. Four days of serious bridge with Micky, two days of serious bridge with Gail. We play in the club as much for social reasons as the bridge, nationals we play for blood.
Getting here was easier than usual–Gail and I had a 9:30 flight from SFO, instead of the usual 6 am monster that makes us get up at 3:45. We flew to Dallas, then she split off to go to Orlando and 4 days of party with Susan while I came here. She’ll join me Monday night to play the national Mixed Pairs.
Memphis is an interesting place. We were here 4 years ago at the start of a riverboat cruise down the Mississippi, and won’t ever forget the National Civil Rights Museum, built within the shell of the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was murdered. It’s worth a trip here all by itself. Then there is the music on Beale Street, the barbecue everywhere, the barges moving up the river. I think I’m going to have a good time here.
The tournament is held at the convention center, which is 3 blocks from my hotel, but I can use the walks. It’s one of those “suite” hotels, so I have two complete rooms, a refrigerator and a microwave, two large flat screen TV’s and free internet. If it wasn’t hospital green it would be perfect.
Lots and lots of players in the room, some of them famous. The well-dressed guy here is Zia Mahmood. He was third in his section tonight, but I don't know who his partner was. Any day Mike and I do better than Zia is a good day.
Mike and I played in the Education Fund pairs tonight, and had a good game. It would have been a great game if I hadn’t made 2 silly errors. Still, we had a 60% game and were second in section after 12 rounds.
The game was HUGE. The directors expected 4 sections of 13 or 14 tables, and were stunned when 7 sections worth of players showed up. They didn’t have enough pre-made boards, so some sections had to shuffle and deal, just like in the old days. The computer systems couldn’t keep up, either. 20 minutes after the game was over the scores weren’t out, the computer was frozen and the directors were speaking unkindly to each other. I decided not to stay to see the final results.
Having nothing more to say, I shall say no more. National IMP pairs tomorrow, I’ll try to play better.
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Ruth gotta draw
Ruth Hussey has been in this blog before, when we went to Stockton so she could get an award for one of her pastels.
We were in Pleasanton tonight for an opening at the Harrington Gallery of a pastel show consisting of just 5 artists, Ruth among them.
The Harrington Gallery in the Firehouse arts complex, Pleasanton
The Harrington is a public gallery housed in the Firehouse Arts complex, a renovated firehouse which now contains both the gallery and a theater. I don’t know how big their mailing list is, but the turnout for the show was exceptional, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t all there for the free broccoli and dip–the art was excellent.
Remember, just because the medium is called ‘pastel’ doesn’t mean it’s all weak, milky colors.
Olivina Sunset, by Debbie Wardrope
Pastel is a type of crayon, you can do anything you want with it.
So colorful it's pushing up towards surrealism. Blue and Gold, by Pat Suggs.
Ruth isn’t usually quite so vibrant, but she has her moments:
I looked at the name of this 3 times, and it just wouldn't stay in my head.
A quieter piece, showing tremendous versatility and technique in the details and the shading.
Ruth draws the art, her husband Bob is in charge of framing. They’re quite a team, entering shows and contests all over the country. They’ve been married over 60 years, and Bob remains in awe of Ruth’s talent, and tells of going to work when they were first married and coming home to find Ruth still in her nightdress, sitting up in bed and drawing. She was so completely focused on her art the entire day had passed and she hadn’t noticed. A lifetime later and she is still as involved, still as driven, still as talented.
She’s also still the best looking woman of her age in the country. That Bob is a lucky guy.
Good food, cheap wine
Out to dinner in Pleasanton tonight, and looking to find a good restaurant. Pleasanton isn’t exactly a hot spot of modern cuisine; foodies aren’t flocking there for the latest Michelin 3-star culinary wonder. Still, people gotta eat, so there must be something.
Looking at the places listed on Opentable, I found Forno Vecchio, a local Italian establishment with lots of good reviews. We thought we’d give it a try, and were very pleased with the outcome.
Forno Vecchio sits right smack dab on Main Street as just another storefront, next to the place offering free rosaries with $5 purchase. It’s pretty casual, as you would expect in the ‘burbs, but there are still white tablecloths and real napkins and fabulous service.
That’s right, fabulous.
Laura, waitress extraordinaire.
We had the inestimable pleasure of being served by the beautiful Laura, who is efficient, friendly, capable, knowledgeable and all around wonderful. Maybe she was kidding about heading off to MIT, maybe not. The boring old Boston school would be better if she was there, that’s for sure.
The menu isn’t particularly inventive or extensive, but what they offer is good. Better to do one thing well than 20 things only so-so (I wanted to use the word mediocre, but I can’t make an adverb out of it. Mediocrely? I don’t think so. English can be so limiting.)
Ruth ordered the mini-wedge salad, and Laura offered to add chicken or shrimp. It was fun to watch Ruth change her mind mid-stream, and opt for the crustaceans. The plate came and looked fantastic:
Little tiny wedge salad,topped with carmelized onion and pancetta and flanked by tasty garlic prawns.
The menu did not offer spaghetti and meatballs, which is what Bob wanted. Since they had fettuccine bolognese as an appetizer and polpete (meatballs) as an appetizer, I suggested that they would be able to work it out and indeed they did:
Sort of like mother used to make.
I often think that people forget that a menu isn’t the revealed word of God and therefore inviolable. It’s a restaurant; they have a commercial kitchen and they are in the business of making food. Ask for what you want and they can and often will fulfill your comestible fantasies.
Here’s a fantasy: a thoroughly drinkable red wine for $13/bottle. I don’t drink the stuff, but my friends do, and they are fairly picky about it, too. Bob has been making his own wine for ages, and has a wall full of blue ribbons to show for it. You can’t just give him any old plonk, but he thought that the wine tonight was just fine.
The pride of Lodi, goes well with spaghetti and meatballs.
I went for the almond crusted halibut. I wanted the salmon, but it was farmed and Gail won’t let me order farmed salmon. With all the dietary sins of my life, it hardly seems likely to me that where my salmon comes from is going to be the big decider on my life span, but there you have it.
In any case, the halibut was excellent, and the broccolini it came with was the best I’ve ever had. I don’t usually like this modern variant, but tonight I thought it was perfectly al dente and scarfed it down.
The dessert menu brought another surprise–a dessert wine for $3.50 a glass. Where can you get a glass of wine for less than a grande latte at Starbucks? And dessert wine is often quite expensive–sauternes can be prohibitive. It was called Sweet Sunset Red Chocolate. I’m not much of a drinker, but who can resist wine with chocolate in the name?
Incredibly good, incredibly cheap. Just incredible.
The wine smells like a chocolate soda, and tastes better. It was so good I bought a bottle to bring home (what the heck, it was only $18, which is damn near free for a good after-dinner wine). We had a budino, a small chocolate cake with whipped cream on the side, for dessert and the wine complemented it precisely.
Color us all happy. Dinner was good, the wine was both good and cheap, the service was first rate. We don’t spend much time in Pleasanton, but at least now we know were to eat.
Broadway by the Iron Horse trail
There is a very nice little theater in Danville, with an excellent little art gallery in front. Why doesn’t somebody tell me these things.
Tonight we went with friends to see Reel Blondes, a musical comedy/revue in the Village Theater, right there on Front Street. This show started out 15 years ago in a hair salon owned by Victoria Brooks, the writer/producer/innovator/beautician who just needed to sing and dance to fill her life. The beauty shop is outgrown, and now they perform in the town theater, a fairly professional atmosphere.
First, though, the art.
A well lit room with both two and three dimensional art.
The theme of the current show is "Branches"
A second, smaller room still has a variety of works.
Although small, this gallery has excellent depth to its exhibition
The art exhibit was excellent, well selected and well displayed.
Through the art exhibit was the theater–a very modern establishment seating Here’s how the city describes it on their website:
Built in 1873 for use as a farmer’s lodge, the Village Theatre has been used as a Grange Hall, movie theatre, and church. Recognized as a historic site by the Heritage Resource Commission, the Village Theatre now serves as a performing arts theatre with a fine arts gallery located in the lobby area.
I think this is about 300 seats, good lights and a decent sound system. What more could a city theater want?
The show, you ask. What about the show?
It’s a riot. An hour and forty five minutes of non-stop skits. Excellent singing, more excellent dancing. The choreographer, Paula Wujek, did an incredible job, as the 8 players perform as Madonna, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, a box of Maxi Pads, Sarah Palin, a jar of grape juice, Rapunzel, Sully Sullenberger, Rasputin and a horde of others.
The performers, all of whom act, sing and dance, may not be full time professional Equity members, but they are all seriously talented people who have clearly devoted much of their life to their art.
Donald Trump makes a visit.
The writing is, shall we say, spirited. The plot is thin, to say the least. The dialogue is not up to the standard of Doc Simon or Athol Fulgard, but this is a local production done for love, not money. The jokes are as old as the theater building and who cares? The show is full of life and joy. The audience is encouraged to sing along, (but not dance, darn it).
There is another performance Saturday night, and then they will be back in May. You can go see more serious theater, but you can’t really have more fun in a theater than at Reel Blondes in Danville.
Creekside Inn at Rossmoor
Monthly dinner with the girls last night, and a celebration because it was the first time Margaret had been out since she came down with a nasty case of pericarditis (inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart).
We went to the Creekside Inn, a restaurant in the heart of Rossmoor. It’s fairly new, and very happy to have finally won out over a disgruntled stick-in-the-mud who opposed their liquor license for months.
The facility is brand new, purpose built as a restaurant by Rossmoor and leased to the operator. One large, high-ceilinged room of wood and stone with large picture windows and huge fireplace, it reminds me greatly of more modern version of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite.
Huge fireplace, stone wall, peaked wooden ceiling. The look is very Sierra Madre.
Lots of window space brings the outside in.
I just like this picture.
To get into Rossmoor, you have to pass through the security gate, and you have to have a good reason to be there. Usually, we just drive up and shout “We’re taking Margaret to dinner”, and since everyone knows her they let us right through. Last night we hit a brand new security guard, and he insisted on calling Margaret to see if we were expected.
Which, it turns out, we were not. She had omitted to read her email that day and forgot that we all had a date. It was 7:00 pm, and she had eaten her dinner, had a cocktail, gotten in her jammies and was settled for the night.
Never one to miss a party, she sprang up, slithered into something sexy and met me at the door dressed and ready to hit the hot spots–or at least as hot as Rossmoor gets on a Tuesday night.
Margaret looks great even if you only give her 3 minutes notice.
On to the dinner. Tuesday is Prime Rib night, which we all thought was great and then didn’t order.
Margaret had already eaten, so she stuck to her one (1) martini. We urged her to have another, but she stayed proper, as you would expect.
The menu was interesting–two different preparations of the same dish. Gail had the grilled salmon, Barbara had it poached.
Poached salmon
Grilled salmon. I think it looks better, but there isn't a lot of difference in the taste.
Okay, I’m spoiled, but I still wasn’t all that fond of the heavy institutional plates–it was like being back in the college dorms again. A room so inviting shouldn’t be brought back to the mundane by an uninspired choice of tableware and crockery.
My dinner was the braised lamb fettucine, and it was both very good and a very large portion. Recognizing that their clientele are older, the Creekside Inn offers almost all of their dishes in two sizes. Gail and Barbara had the smaller portions, I had the larger. We were all very satisfied.
For dessert, we shared the chocolate lava souffle. Margaret, who wasn’t really hungry, still helped us out and we finished every bit.
I thought our waiter was friendly, efficient and helpful; the service was quite good.
We enjoyed our meal at the Creekside Inn, and the price was very reasonable. You don’t have to live there to eat there, if you can finagle you way in. Since there is an open bridge game on Thursday night, you could probably easily get in to play the game and have a nice dinner first. Give it a try.
All the government we pay for
We’re having a business dispute with a supplier, and I had to go down and file a small claims suit this afternoon.
Some parts of it were easy–the forms are online, and you can fill them out on your computer and print them at home. There are plenty of good instructions, so the process isn’t bad at all.
Then you have to go to the courthouse to file them. Things start to go downhill quickly. It took me quite a while online to figure out where to do the filing–the website is very confusing and you could easily end up in the wrong building. Eventually I worked it out and headed to the René C. Davidson courthouse.
Of course you have to go through security, gotta keep those deputy sheriffs busy. My suspenders set off the alarm, as everyone knows that all terrorists wear suspenders.
Safely inside,I found the right room and got in line. A very long line. A line from the front of the room to the back of the room, around the back wall and nearly to the door.
Here’s part of the reason why:
While you're waiting in an interminable line, you can read why it exists.
There are 8 windows for clerks to be helping. Three of them were open.
They have the facilities, they just don't have the staff.
After over an hour standing in line, I finally made it up to the window, and things got much better.
I was helped by a very nice woman who knew the ins and outs of filing like the back of her hand. She shuffled through my papers, used a dozen different stamps in all the right places, asked the questions that helped make sure everything was right, collected my $40 and I was on my way 20 well-spent minutes later.
The problem isn’t with the staff, it’s the lack of staff. We know budgets have been cut everywhere, but I always wonder how many managers have been let go, or if there is a big crew of senior management all closely watching a tiny cadre of actual worker bees.
It was 2:30 as I left, the official closing time. I asked the clerk who helped me what really happens, and she assured me that they just close the doors at 2:30, but everyone who is already there and in line would get served. Seems like a reasonable solution; I would hate to have stood in line an hour and be told to come back the next day.
This won’t get better for a long time, if ever. If you have to file some papers in Alameda County, go early, bring a book.
Totally Unauthorized 