Here we go again, off to the Caribbean. We are taking a couple of weeks to enjoy Curacao one more time. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been there, and we’re eager to see the changes since the referendum.
The cab ride to Continue reading On the road again
It’s another nice sunny (but cool) day here and Bailey looked great in her Wallace tartan scarf. The sun caught her in just the right way and I think it’s a terrific look.
She’s pretty aware she looks terrific too! Lots of other people out strolling were smiling and telling her how pretty she looked. She gets a bigger jig in her step when people talk to her.
We are loving the area, loving the swimming pool, and loving the hot tub! Not sure if this manhole cover is typical for Vancouver or not, or whether this a River District thing, but look closely and you’ll see frogs in a kind of Native Indian style.
The river is quite a fascinating thing for us – we’ve seen amazing stuff, from HUGE containers coming up the river, to tiny little boats doing I have no idea what. The views of Mt Baker continue to impress us.
Every day something new and exciting is happening. The so-called king tides didn’t come up as high as I expected, but the low tides were really low.
Lots of lovely parks – including three off leash parks – within walking distance too. We used to gas up the car once a week, but now it’s more like once every three weeks.
On the the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, at eleven hundred hours, the guns will go silent….
November 11 is meant as a day to pay tribute to our soldiers who fought, and died to keep our country safe and free. I hope you will take two minutes to remember those who gave their lives, so that ours would be better.
I offer this video, as a reminder of how simple it is. On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a Shoppers Drug Mart store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the store’s PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.
Terry was impressed with the store’s leadership role in adopting the Legion’s “two minutes of silence” initiative. He felt that the store’s contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.
When eleven o’clock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the “two minutes of silence” to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.
Terry’s anger towards the father for trying to engage the store’s clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was later channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, “A Pittance of Time”. Terry later recorded “A Pittance of Time” and included it on his full-length music CD, “The Power of the Dream”.
In the last little while, the card game of bridge has been hit by cheating scandal after cheating scandal featuring top players illegally signalling to their partners via hand and card placement signals. All bridge organizations have as their strictest taboo the idea that partners would cheat to give count or strength signals.
Well, after the recent Spingold tournament, a tournament played at what is called the North American Bridge Championships (NABC) a high ranking player who lost, Boye Brogeland, claimed that the victors, the Jimmy Cayne team, had employed a cheating pair, and he was going to publish proof!
He admitted that he had only done so because he lost, and had he won, he probably would not have said anything. However, he lost and here we are.
This first video is a clear showing of how the cheating pair, who turned out to be the Israeli pair of Lotan Fischer (a player reprimanded by the Israeli NBO for cheating, previously) and Ron Schwartz, signal strength and lead preferences to their partner.
It is a breathtakingly simple scheme. The videos are from the recent Euro bridge championships to decide entry into the World Championships (the so-called Bermuda Bowl.) An intrepid Dutch scientist watched the final and discovered the the other pair in the finals was also exchanging signals!
Again, devastatingly simple. The shocking feature of the “other pair” is that it is not just some other pair. Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes are the number one pair in the world – and the number one pair in the world for quite some time! How long have these guys been at it!?
Suddenly, a top German pair, Alex Smirnov and Josef Piekarek announce that in the recently completed trials in which their team qualified for entry into the World Championships, they had committed “unethical behaviour” which meant that they would be forced to withdraw from the championships.
In the spirit of cleaning the game, and removing the stench of cheats, the national organizations of Germany, Israel, and Monaco withdrew their teams from the world championships.
Devastating. But not over.
During the lead into the World Championships, the WBF withdrew the sanctioning for a top pair from Poland. The WBF, operating in a Star Chamber-like dimension refused to say why the sanctioning had been withdrawn, but did not deny it could be for cheating.
With a win at all cost attitude, the Polish team refused to withdraw. They obviously did not see things the way Germany, Israel and Monaco did. To the shame of all bridge organizations world wide, and as an insult to every player who ever paid dues to a national bridge organization, the Poles were allowed to compete and to win this tourney.
Now, video evidence of the Polish pair shows without a doubt they used signals to get to the Bermuda Bowl, and the Poles should not have been allowed to play.
As an average player, someone who would never have the chance to represent their country at any level, suddenly the players we seek to emulate, are out and out cheaters. They aren’t playing fair. It’s the bridge world’s equivalent of the steroid scandal in the major sports. Everybody is doing it, right? If Fisher-Schwartz claimed they had to cheat because others are, well, they wouldn’t be wrong would they?
So where do we go from here? The WBF seems to be a parody of a world wide organization and the NBOs seem unable or unwilling to clean up their games. Even sponsors have to accept some of the blame since they hire these dirty pros.
I’m not even sure why I’m posting this….
