Here's my father's third extant bridge column.  It's one of my favorites, as he loved to quote the first paragraph over and over.  I'd forgotten about takeout doubles and overcalls, but it all begins to come back to me now...

Mathematical Genius, or, Points Are Points

By Jerome J. Schneyer, M.D.

Southfield News

June 1, 1967

A group of research ( Read more... )

On Advice from Mothers

By Jerome J. Schneyer, M.D.

Southfield News

(May 25, 1967)

Once upon a time, there was a poor but honest boy named Jack, who, having demonstrated his bridge supremacy in his home town of Flouridation, North Dakota, set out to make his mark in the big wide world of bridge players. Jack had a kindly (aren't they all?) ( Read more... )

Orange Sauce Duck

by Jerome J. Schneyer, M.D.

Southfield News

May 18, 1967

Most bridge players are plagued with maxims that do more toward adding to their confusion about the game than they ever help: "never lead away from a king," "second hand low," "when in doubt lead trump." One of the oldest chestnuts that trickles down to us from the early days ( Read more... )

I finished cataloguing all of my Dad's bridge columns, or at least all the ones I have in my possession.  I have 142 of them, although the internal evidence suggests that there must actually be closer to 325 in total.  The first one I know of is dated May 18, 1967 (my mother's 32nd birthday), and the last one August 8, 1973, and he clearly was ( Read more... )

My father was, among other things, a life master at Contract Bridge.  He told me once that, on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he was sitting in his medical office dealing Bridge hands to himself, because he'd only opened the practice two months before and he hadn't any patients yet.  The radio was on, and that's when he heard the news.  ( Read more... )