Judy,

Back in the day before plastic was ubiquitous, as you know, most boards were metal. Dealer and vulnerability surely were quite legible when they were brand new. But they didn’t remain legible forever. Along about TWENTY years after I started playing duplicate, I was hunched over, inspecting the now current board to determine vulnerability when a partner asked me what I was doing. “Looking for the vulnerabilty,” said I, ignoring the facility of my scorecard (or the ability to remember which pairs were vulnerable on which number).

“Well, you know the slots are red for the sides that are vulnerable. Right?”

Ummmm, no.

So, I never had to hunch over again and reveal my ignorance.

And to think, the ACBL once employed me!

GM

Hi Gary:

Yes, I remember the days of metal boards too — but the paint often wore off — just as the facing on the plastic boards grow faint from use. Much has changed –some for the better and some for the worse. Bobby and I will continue to fight uphill battles to prevent the bad guys from playing by their own rules and to encourage that directors be better trained and qualified to mediate. Speaking of that — I just heard a good one. Ready?

1N X 2H P

P 3C 3S

The double was alerted (for the minors). No alert for 2H as a transfer and after Righty passed, the doubler bid 3C. Now — the “transferer” (who had been passed by partner who forgot it was a transfer) hopped right in there with 3S which partner passed. Wouldn’t you assume that without an alert that 2H was “natural?” When there is Convention Disruption (as Bobby so adeptly refers to it) — why should the partnership who got mixed up be advantaged by the balancing with 3C and giving them another shot. I’m not a director (thank G-d), but I sure would have rolled it back to 2H and punished them for not knowing what they were playing rather than allowing them to play belatedly in their 6/3 spade fit (vs. 3/3 in 2H). The sinners were allowed to play 3S. Disgusting!

To me the rules are a bunch of double talk and whoever has the most eloquent person representing them, wins the case. Players who do not know their conventions should have them removed from their card until they can get it right. And — certainly, the injured party should not get the worst of it score-wise. What is the bridge world coming to? It scares me sometimes!

Hi Judy and Gary,

Gary, in spite of being color blind to the vulnerability, you still were a great PR person, whose love for bridge was evident wherever you went.

Judy, well said and very necessary to keep pounding away until conventioneers realize in spades how selfish they are, especially to the field, but also to partner to not either learn their conventions (without which bridge ceases to be played in 100% of the cases it occurs) or refuse to play them until both partners are sure they will be remembered.

What I will never understand is the thinking, including the ACBL’s, but also to other bridge administrations, that in order to stop the HORRIBLE disease of Convention Disruption (CD) we must have rules in place to show just how desperate we feel that it MUST STOP. To do otherwise would be equivalent to not only encourage and pay all of Typhoid Mary’s complete travel expenses, but to also treat her like the Queen which she definitely is not! THERE IS NO ONE SO BLIND AS ONE WHO REFUSES TO SEE!

How do I get to read the entire comments from Judy and from Gary. They are cut off on the right and can’t read the entire comment. Please advise.

Susi – What operating system and browser are you using? I’ve tested IE versions 6, 7, 8, Firefox 3, 3.6, Chrome version 4 and I haven’t been able to re-create the problem. I asked my husband Colin to check it and he said it looks fine to him as well, so I am very confused.

What I see when I make my browser window smaller than the width of the screen is the navigation and ads on the right hand side are being cut off by the edge of the browser window, but there is a scroll bar at the bottom where I can scroll over to see the rest of the page. I cannot re-create a problem where items in the comments section are being cut off by anything in the right-hand ads.

Your assistance in helping me to diagnose this issue would be appreciated. You can email me at support@bridgeblogging.com.

Luise:

This may help others having the same problem as Susi and Yours Truly. This is what I do on my Dell Laptop.

1) First I enlarge my screen to its biggest potential by clicking on the right top portion of my screen (a little block with a double screen symbol).

2) It enlarges the BLOG so it can be read in its entirety, but now the COMMENTS are cut off on the right side (as was the original blog) when you hit Comments.

3) To correct the situation, I go to the Refresh button (orange semi-circle with an arrow on top) and click it. It says: Refresh: Refresh current page — F5 (in orange print).

That seems to solve all my problems. So, it is a double process — at least for me — but it does work.

However, everyone’s computer has different techniques but it did bring back all the missing words. By the way, with the old blogsite, I never encountered this problem. It is only of late with miscellaneous other obstructions on the side (calendar, etc.) I imagine with ensuing comments as you go down farther (where there is no printing on the right) it is not affected at all because it does not conflict with anything on the right side. Just my own observations.

Thanks, Luise. I really appreciate your diligence in getting this straightened out. You are the best.

Judy

Ah! I see the problem, finally.

I can re-create this issue, but it only happens if I change the font size AFTER I have loaded the page… I guess my suggestion would be — don’t change the font size after you have loaded the page?? Or, if you do, refresh the page?

If I am on the home page and I change my font size to the largest (or smallest font), and THEN click on the blogs, I don’t see this error. How frequently do you change the font size on your browser?

I have an idea of something I could try that might be a good work around for this bug with internet explorer. I’ll investigate the issue later.

Luise:

It has nothing to do with font. The size of the letters are unchanged. It is the movement of the entire blog and accompanying comments. It now extends about two inches to the right (removing the extraneous stuff — five or so issues including calendar, older archives, etc.) and that only affects the first two blogs as that is where the extra information stops on the right side. The allowance of the all the information (both blog and comment) appear in their entirety — only because it pushes the other stuff off the page (only showing half of the information). After adjustments, it does to the printed stuff what the new site format now does to the blogs and comments before you make the adjustment.

What happens if you print it?

Luise:

It prints out fine — but why should someone not merely be able to read a comment without wasting ink and paper as they peruse someone’s site — especially if they are not gung ho on the subject and just curious to see where the sentence ends? I would hardly expect my readers to do that. After all, it is not for a scrapbook — just pleasurable reading (hopefully).

Judy

Whatever you did to eliminate the obstruction of the ads or put an outline on all the comments is good now. I am able to read all the infos and comments. It had nothing to do with my browser. I have a 26″ monitor. Certainly big enough to see plenty. Thanks for fixing whatever.

Susi

Judy — my question about what happens if you print it was in reference to the email you sent me, because I suspected that printing the comment wouldn’t have been an issue.

Is the issue resolved for you now? I think that I fixed it, whatever it was. I can’t get the problem to happen for me anymore since my recent change, so I hope that it’s fixed.

Luise:

PERFECTO! Now everything shows as it should. I knew if anyone could fix it — you could and again, I was right on target.

Thanks so much for your perseverance through all the emails!

Cheers,

Judy