Defense … Choosing the card when returning partner’s suit

As we have discussed before, it is very important to return partner’s opening lead. However, the choice of which card to return is not always obvious. Let’s look at a hand.

Let’s say the opponents wind up in 3 No Trump. Your partner opens the 6♥. You, of course, play the Q and Declarer wins with the A. Using the Rule of 11 ( you, of course, remember that rule from a previous article) … Right? … declarer can see that a hold-up will do him no good. Declarer plays the J♠  and plays low in Dummy so you win with the Q. What do you do next? Of course, you return your partners suit. Now, the card you play is very important. If you lead the 8, Declarer will play the 9 and partner will win with the 10. So partner now knows that the Declarer has the Jack. If you had the J, you would have played it. The question now is does the declarer have the J alone or does he have 2. If the J is alone, he can play his K and run all his hearts to set the contract. But, if the J is accompanied by a lower heart, he had to get back to you so you can lead another heart through South.

The key here is let your partner know how many you have, so he can figure out how many the declarer has. How do we do that? Since you originally held 4 Hearts, the proper play is to return the 3, not the 8. Declarer will still play the 9 and partner will still win with the 10, but partner now knows that you started with 4, so he can lay down the K and the J will fall. Whoever said Bridge was an easy game?

But, interestingly enough, there’s more here. So partner knows you started with 4, but how many did partner start with? If he started with 4 also, it doesn’t matter which of you has the lead … but if he has 5 and you have 4, you must play so that he gets his last heart.

Partner has played his 6, and then his 10, and will now play his K. What will you play? You have played the Q and the 3, so you have to choose which of the 8 or 5 you will play next. If you play the 5, partner will win with the 7, but then your 8 will be the highest Heart and you will not be able to get back to partner. You must play the 8 first on the K, so that you can return the 5 to Partner’s 7. Then he will win and be able to cash his last Heart the deuce. In this example it was important to play the correct Heart in every instance to achieve the maximum result.

Another interesting point in this example is how did partner know that you started with exactly 4 Hearts when you played the 3? If declarer had the 5 or the 8, he would have played it instead of the 9. Also it’s possible that you only had 2 Hearts. But, if that were the case, the declarer would have to hold 5 and he would have opened a Heart.

There are many clues that allow partner to read your return correctly. But, you must play the right card and pay attention to what your partner plays. Also, the bidding auction will reveal clues, if you’re alert enough to remember them.

Pete Adkins is the greatest football coach you’ve never heard of. When I tried to tell that to the people who knew him best, boy, did I get in a lot of trouble. The time was 45 years ago. The place was a town in central Missouri not south of any border called Mexico. The population today is close to what is was (about 11,000) and it once proudly called itself “The Saddle Horse Capitol of the World.”

As sports editor of the Mexico Ledger, I wrote stories, headlines and captions, took photographs, edited my own stories and pasted the offset printing type on the sports page 6 mornings a week. It’s also where I invented my nom de plume: Mexico Moe.

Moe predicted NFL games every Friday and held a contest to see if Mexicoans (that’s what they called themselves) could outguess him. Moe’s post-weekend wrap-up would lament each of his losses squarely blaming a player, coach or referee for his imperfections. Each Mexico Moe story had a picture of me, shot from behind, sitting with my feet stretched high on the desktop, wearing a fedora to hide my head that was turned slightly to the side so my face wasn’t visible but the long stogie in my mouth was. My mother hated that picture.

Mexicoans loved Moe. What I didn’t know was how much they hated me.

Mexico High School was a medium-sized school that played in a conference with many bigger schools. They had talent, a small-town, farm-area attitude of not giving up and wonderful coaching, but couldn’t compete with perennial state champ Jefferson City, which was bigger, badder and coached by Adkins.

As a preview to the Friday night game, I sought out Adkins, got an interview, put together a story and even got a picture of him from his mother, who lived a half- block away from the newspaper office. Yes, Pete Adkins was a born and bred Mexicoan. It was a nice article detailing his many accomplishments, his nice thoughts about Mexico and how we wanted to coach there earlier in his career. He said many complimentary things about the Mexico football team and coaching staff.

What could go wrong? By 8 AM the day of the game, less than 3 hours after Ledgers landed on driveways, I knew. The town hated Adkins with a passion. Many readers called the managing editor to complain and alleged Adkins smacked his players on the helmet when coaching nearby Centralia High School earlier in his career. He’d wanted Mexico, but Mexico proudly wanted no part of him.

In the supermarket later that morning and the football field when I arrived at the game, all my small-town friends turned cold. They pretended not to see me. The supermarket’s owner, whose son was the team’s best lineman, approached me and told me to buy my food quickly and get out of his store.

Jefferson City defeated Mexico that night, but not soundly. The Bulldogs fought proudly and gave the winners a challenge for the first time in 2 decades. As the teams left the field and I went to the Jeff City school bus to interview Adkins after the game, several Mexicoans let me know what they thought of me. At least, I thought I knew.

I found out the whole truth a year later. When I finally got a new job in Bucks County, Pa., the first person I called to tell the good news was a man who was like a father to me in town. His name was Bud Hotop. He was a kind, jovial man who sold insurance. His two sons, Doug and Chris, were among the better players on the team. Bud immediately asked me to come to his office.

I’d never been there before. I’d been the basement in his house on many, many Saturday nights while his children were out roaming the town square. We watched “Mary Tyler Moore” and drank Harvey Wallbangers. For introducing him to HWs, as we called them, Bud would drive me to all the away football and basketball games so that I could claim the driving expense money. Most of Mexico’s road trips were really long and this helped supplement my $105 (pre-tax)-a-week paycheck.

In the office, Bud got right to the point with me. “Remember the weekend of the Jeff City game last year?” he began, “well, you don’t know how close you came …” And his voice trailed off.

“You were going to be tarred and feathered. Really tarred and feathered. I’m not exaggerating. The night after the game there was a quickly called town meeting. It was like a lynch party. Many of them wanted to get you. They finally settled on tar and feathering you. That’s when I got up and spoke. Several of the other football fathers (including the supermarket owner) backed me up and everyone settled down and nothing happened.”

I was so in shock that I’m sure the magnitude of what almost happened never really settled in my mind as Bud was talking. Before it did, he continued. “I’ve lived my entire life in small towns,” Bud continued, “in fact, Mexico is by far the largest town I’ve lived in. And if I learned something about life in a small town it’s that once your name is mud, once you’ve made your way into the gutter, no one gets out. I mean no one. “Until you,” he said. “You are the first person who got a bad, bad reputation in a small town and within a year did so much that the people in this town love you. Many are going to be upset when they hear that you are leaving. I can’t wait to go to the coffee shop tomorrow morning and tell the people who wanted to tar and feather you and see the sad looks on their faces. You earned their trust by writing about their children with warmth and appreciation like we haven’t seen before and we’ll never see again. “You did something I never thought I’d see happen. You should be really proud.”

Bud hit me with a gut punch that almost floored me and followed with a blow to the head that woke me up. Looking back at it I wonder what kind of a reporter I was to not know that I was a) hated so much and b) admired so much. (Aside: I did call Adkins the week after the game and said the Centralia story was a lie that grew out of proportion because he went to Jefferson City instead of Mexico.)

What might have changed the tide was a couple of weeks after the Jeff City loss, Mexico went to Columbia Hickman High School and pulled a major upset. After the game, Hickman students threw eggs at the school bus as it pulled away. I included that in the game story and the headline was: “Mexico upsets Hickman; the yolks on them.”

After I left Mexico, I didn’t go back until a baseball stadiums trip I took with my son in 2006. On our way from St. Louis to Kansas City we spent an afternoon in Mexico. At the office, a football field from the former home of Pete Adkins mother, I stared in awe at the place that hadn’t changed and met the current sport editor who had replaced me 35 years earlier. He told me the stories about all the players and coaches I could remember and some that I didn’t. Bud had moved away about 8 years earlier to live with his older son, and died a couple of years later.

But Chris, who I got named to the All-State team, was managing the Sears store next to the Dairy Queen we’d already chosen for lunch. We stopped by and told Chris the whole story. He’d never heard it. He promised to tell it to his brother and sister and to let them know that for 3 decades I’d carried the goodness of their father within me.

My son and I went to the Dairy Queen, ordered and sat down in a booth opposite each other. A minute later we were both sobbing, just like I am now.

Pete Adkins facts: retired as winningest high school coach in U.S. history with a record of 405- 60-4. Currently he’s eighth all-time. Centralia 51-12-2; Jefferson 341-18-2 from 1958-93 with 14 perfect seasons, one losing season and eight state titles.

Mexico, Mo., facts: Founded as New Mexico in 1836 as a stop for settlers heading to Texas. My boss at The Ledger was Robert M. White, who was MacArthur’s press liaison during WWII, one-time editor of New York Herald Tribune and accompanied Nixon on ground-breaking trip to China. His father said this about the naming of the town: “The first settlers found a wooden sign along the trail. It pointed southwest and on it had been painted Mexico. To avoid unnecessary labor, the sign was left in place. “It was easier to call their town ‘Mexico’ than to take down the old sign.” Let’s talk sports! Contact me at [email protected].

Submitted By: Lew Roth (Sheffield)

1. What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it?

2. What do you throw out to use and take in when you’re done?

3. What can be written forward and backward and upside down and still be the same word?

4. There are 2 in a whole, 4 in a pair, 6 on a trio, and 8 in a quartet. But, what name is just one of me?

5. A boat full of people just went under a bridge and now not a single person is on it. How can this be?

6. Say my name and I disappear.

7. Why is the letter T like an island?

8. What gets wetter as it dries?

9. What is in seasons, seconds, centuries, and minutes, but not in decades, years, or days?

10. What always runs, but never walks … often murmurs or babbles, but never talks … has a bed, but never sleeps and has a mouth, but never eats?

11. What is special about the following series of numbers 8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, 6, 10, 3, 2, 0.

12. Forward I’m heavy … backwards I’m not.

13. How far will a blind man walk into the woods?

14. The more you have of it, the less you see.

I was married to Ed for 50 years, and never once was I asked to take out the garbage. After all, everyone knows it’s a man’s job. So it’s no wonder that it took me time to get into the routine of filling the heavy-duty black garbage bags, tying them up with those little thingamajigs, and then tossing them into the large garbage pails to leave out by the curb. And it was also a challenge to remember which days the garbage pails got picked up and which days the recyclables in their blue and yellow color-coded bins are collected.

One thing I do know for sure, however; that this is definitely not a job for a woman who has lovely manicured nails that she carefully polishes on a weekly basis. But in the scheme of my new life, taking the garbage to the curb is probably one of the easiest new responsibilities of my widowhood. (I said easiest, not nicest!)

It’s taken me time to get it right, but not without using every foul-mouthed curse word I’ve ever learned. I’m not proud to tell you that these words – which I would have washed my children’s mouths out with soap had they said them – have now become an intrinsic part of my vocabulary whenever I have to do something that I’ve never done before.

But I guess part of moving on is to learn how to deal with all the things that I never – in a million years-thought I should, could or would ever need to do.

PS. To help myself be more organized, I tacked a big sign on the garage wall to remind me that the days for garbage pick-up are Wednesdays and Saturdays; recyclables are only collected on Saturdays. I made the sign big enough so that I can read it without putting on my glasses. There is only one glitch in this smart plan of mine – I must remember to read the sign.

Bea Lewis is working on a book about widowhood. “Now That He’s Gone … A Widows Journey.”

[wptab name=’Questions’]

1. Whose autobiographical masterpiece was entitled “Long Day’s Journey into Night”?

2. What Shakespearean play features the line: “A plague on both your houses”?

3. What was the biggest selling American novel before “Gone with the Wind”?

4. Who chases Ichabod Crane in the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”?

5. What playwright’s works include “The Glass Menagerie” and “The Rose Tattoo”?

6. What British author created “Gunga Din”?

7. What detective debuted in “A Study in Scarlet”?

8. What country is home to Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

9. Charlotte Bronte wrote “Jane Eyre” and Anne Bronte wrote “Agnes Grey.” What is the name of the 3rd Bronte sister who wrote the classic novel “Wuthering Heights”?

10. What did Mark Twain put last on a 27-item list of things to be rescued in the event of a boarding house fire?

[/wptab]

[wptab name=’Answers’]

1. Eugene O’Neill

2. Romeo and Juliet

3. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

4. The Headless Horseman

5. Tennessee Williams

6. Rudyard Kipling

7. Sherlock Holmes

8. Denmark

9. Emily

10. Mothers-in-law

[/wptab]

[end_wptabset]

Many times thru the past 16 years people have stopped me to ask how these very special Lynn concerts at Aberdeen actually came to be. So – the explanation.

Upon moving to Aberdeen 21 years ago, Herb and I became active attendees of the Harid Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton. At that time there were 31 exceptional music students and a handful of professors in residence, all sponsored, along with a ballet school, by a single sponsor. The sponsor subsequently withdrew his support of the music division concentrating his sponsorship on only the ballet school.

Luckily, Lynn U. which abuts Harid, needed a music department and gladly took all 31 students and their teachers. Thus, the Conservatory of Music at Lynn U. was born. The need for scholarship money to help Lynn support the students was obvious. Herb and I looked for ways to assist.

Seventeen years ago, a number of Aberdeen residents desired more culture here at the Club. At that time Herb was an executive on the Board of the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club and at my request he asked the Board to allow us to bring a concert by Lynn musicians to the Club. It was approved as long as there would be no expense to the Club. Leslie and Lew Roth, Una and Sol Elman, Herb and myself sponsored the first concert paying all costs and charging $18 per ticket. We begged our friends, their friends and their friends – friends to buy tickets and attend. Then as now, all checks for tickets were made out to The Conservatory of Music to be used for their Scholarship Fund helping the school continue to educate these fine young people and allowing them, if they so desired, to make music their life’s work. There were about 90 attendees the first year.

This year we have a sold out house and 10 sponsors supporting the concert.

Due to the success at Aberdeen we have brought this concert to other Country Clubs and Communities and presently raise over $70 thousand dollars a year.

The most wonderful part of this adventure is working with the young, super-talented musicians. The most difficult part for Herb and myself is watching our students graduate and leave the fold. Though we are very much in touch with many of the students we mentored over the past 16 years we feel the loss. I’m sure you can understand.

This has been “give back” time for Herb and myself and it gives us great satisfaction to have watched the Conservatory of Music at Lynn U. grow to 113 young artists and 26 world class performers on their teaching staff. Truly a labor of love!

By: Vince Marini (Moorings)

Rodney Dangerfield born, Jacob Rodney Cohen on Nov. 22, 1921 in Deer Park, Long Island was the son of Jewish parents, the vaudevillian performer Phil Roy Cohen and Dotty Titelman. Rodney, who left us on Oct. 5, 2004, for the big stage in the sky, was an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his catch phrase, “I don’t get no respect” and his monologue on that theme. His 1980 comedy album, “No Respect,” won a Grammy Award.

If Rodney lived in Aberdeen, there are times he might consider changing his catch phrase to “They don’t show no respect”. The “they” he would be referring to, are the “talking heads.”

I think he’d be talking about the few folks who cannot control the opening and closing of their mouths when someone else is speaking from the Bully Pulpit; whether it be the President of the Board of Directors, a member of the Board, the president of the POA, a member of the POA, the president or Chairperson of a Club or the Leader of a band, or anyone, who at that time, should have the complete attention of the audience, he or she is addressing.

We are referring to being “QUIET” for 10 or 15 minutes, when information being communicated is significant, important or interesting. We suggest “talking heads” show RESPECT for the person talking to them, and the folks who are trying to listen.

1. Police raided and shut down a weekly, $4-a-round mah jongg game in Tampa played by Lee Eelnick, Bernice Diamond, Helen Greenspan and Zelda King, all between the ages of 87 and 95, because the police said they were gambling.

2. A new study by a Pittsburgh bank revealed that all the gifts listed in the iconic “Twelve Days of Christmas” song would cost a would-be buyer $34,131 this year.

3. Sushi Zanmai, a Japanese restaurant chain, just paid $117,000 for a 441-pound blue-fin tuna. That’s $265 per pound.

4. The Playboy Mansion, a 5-acre property featuring 29 rooms, a game house, home theatre, wine cellar and a swimming pool with a cave-like grotto is up for sale for $200 million dollars. As a condition of the sale, magazine founder Hugh Hefner would continue to live there.

5. The 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro and will include rugby, last featured in the 1924 games and golf, last played in the St. Louis Games in 1904.

6. Taiwan elected Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the pro-independence party, as its first female president.

7. For the first time in 7 decades, a new annotated copy of Mein Kampf, banned by the book’s copyright holder, will be back in German bookstores. Under German law, a copyright expires 70 years after an author’s death. Scholars at Munich’s Institute for Contemporary History have spent 6 years correcting the outright lies, half truths and distortions in the 1925 edition.

8. Whoops! Steve Harvey mistakenly crowned Ariadna Gutierrez of Columbia as Miss Universe. Moments after the announcement Harvey returned to the stage to say that Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of the Phillippines was the winner and Miss Columbia was 1st runner-up.

9. 4 new elements have been added to the periodic table, completing its 7th row. The new elements, which have been temporarily named ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium and ununoctium have the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118.

10. A new study found that the midlife crisis is not a true psychological phenomenon and that most people are happier in their 40’s than they were at 18.

“Aberdeen’s volunteers advocating for Florida’s long-term care residents answer your questions regarding the health, safety, welfare, and rights of residents in long-term care facilities.”

By: Aberdeen’s Certified Long-Term Care Ombudsman: Sam Golden, Pauline Ogus, Ronnie Ostrow and Martin Weissman

Q: My father is in an adult family care home. An old friend of his who lives near the facility visits him regularly. The owner of the facility says that every time the visit is over, my father gets agitated and angry. Can I write a letter to the owner telling him not to let this family member visit with my father?

A: Your father has the right to visit with whomever he chooses, even if the visitor makes him agitated or upset. No one can place limitations on who can or cannot visit your father other than your father himself. If he were not capable of expressing whether or not he desires a particular visitor, the decision would then fall to his Power of Attorney or guardian.

Florida Statute states that visitations for residents of adult family care homes can take place between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. at a minimum. However, special accommodations can be made if necessary.

Q: When my brother went into an assisted living facility, the administrator said that the facility had to be the one who took care of his money. He was an accountant for over 30 years. Are they allowed to do that?

A: According to the Residents’ Bill of Rights, residents have the right to “manage his/her own financial affairs unless the resident (or the resident’s legal representative) authorizes the administrator of the facility to provide safekeeping for funds.”

If your father has the ability and desire to manage his own money, he should be allowed to do so.

Ms. Stania Rodriquez is the District Ombudsman Manager for Palm Beach County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.

To ask for an ombudsman’s assistance, learn more about the program, or to become a volunteer ombudsman, call Stania at the Palm Beach County District Office at 561.837.5038 or toll-free at 1-888- 831-0404.