My Alan Truscott story …

Alan and I were in the pressroom at a NABC in Buffalo. In the course of a conversation, Alan described something as plebeian. He pronounced it, pleh-BEE-an. I, of course, being brought up on the right side of the pond, errr, the left side of the ocean, knew the word was pronounced PLEEB-ee-an. After all, we call the rookie army cadets PLEEBS. I had him.

Since we had agreed to play an afternoon side game, the entry fees were put up as a bet. Thus proving how big a sucker I was. Alan always had a cabbage roll of ACBL scrip around to pay for entry fees and needed a free game naught at all. But the wager had to have some sort of pay-off and he was willing to take my money.

Of course, the only dictionary on hand proved to be a British one. Since the whole point of the exercise was, in fact, to prove American pronounciation, we went off to find another dictionary. Eventually we found a Webster’s and a New American. And naturally, in both, the offered the possibility of two spellings … and one pronounciation. Pleh-BEE-an.

I paid the fees. We had a pleasant game. I’m sure the twinkle in his eye was as much from putting me in my place as sitting in a bridge game.

All in all, it was far from a plebeian game.