A fine new trend
David and Sabrina, enthusiastic new recruits to the bridge table, started what is sure to be an illustrious bridge career very well tonight -- with a gift to yours truly, of Goren's Sports Illustrated Book Of Bridge.
I don't think they even knew this is my birthday week. I can't wait to delve into such juiciness as "The greatest crime in bridge," "How much should you trust your partner," and awed references to Univac. Thank you, guys! I encourage all bridge players to, um, follow suit.
Labels: history
posted by Paul @ 11:54 PM
3 comments:
I didn't know it was your birthday week either. Happy birthday? How old? (You don't have to answer that.)
That illo is gorgeous. The book or (I really hope) a card deck?
That's the slipcase the book comes in: hardcover, quarto, 518 pages, original errata letter enclosed, full of color illustrations, gorgeous.
Stay tuned for a thoughtful post, someday, about the Great Fall of Bridge, from an era in which Sports Illustrated could produce such a lovely, smart, and best-selling tome, to today, when the game is kept alive by elite tournament societies on the one hand, and a gaggle of freakish amateurs in a bar on the other. Goren was also on the cover of Time in 1958, and hosted a popular bridge TV show that ran for five years.
I was going to say the usual stuff about the Great Fall--bridge peaked during the Depression, when it was a cheap and easy way for four people (two couples, frequently) to amuse and entertain themselves at home rather than go out and spend money they didn't have--but 1958 gives me pause. Maybe chess overtook it in the public imagination thanks to Bobby Fischer? At least, I'd guess there's something of a colorful-sportsman aspect that bridge has often lacked. Plus people tend to like simpler games than one with 874 different bidding systems.
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