Minor things that bother you

[Big John]

There are two 2-person teams bidding for a "contract". The team with the highest bid with the opponents passing gets the contract which they then try to win in the gameplay. The contract-holding team consists of the declaier (who was the first of the partnership to mention the suit of the finalized contract) and the dummy, who places the cards face up after the opposing team places the opening card. The declarer plays both hands in that game.

[Rothman]

The new name of the Tappan Zee Bridge seemed to bother someone:

Now that his son is disgraced hopefully nobody cares enough to fix it.

May the sins of your other generations fall upon your head as well.

[Scott5114]

This has been bothering me for decades.  Many years ago, there were daily bridge columns (not the road kind) in the newspaper.  Even in today's diminished newspapers there's a weekly column with people writing in and asking for advice, a "Dear Abby" of card games.

It's been going on so long that it's just a part of the world and I mostly don't question it, but when I do question it, I'm confounded.  I watched a bridge television show back in the 90s.  It had a dummy, which I think was a player who set their cards face-up where everyone can see them and the partner played them.  I don't know if that's how you play or if it was just for educational purposes.

I don't remember anything about the gameplay.  I don't even remember why I watched it, although "it was the 90s" might be a good answer.  But I've never seen instructional television or newspaper columns about Uno or gin rummy.  Nothing else is treated that way.  Today's column has readers asking for advice on specific plays and general rules, and it reminds me of what you might ask about chess plays.  Is bridge so complex that you must study under a master for a lifetime in order to play it properly?  Why are there columns for bridge but not chess?  Was there a chess TV show that I missed?

I wrote up the rules to Contract Bridge a while back, which should help explain what the deal with the 'dummy' is: https://www.denexa.com/blog/contract-bridge/

The answer to your other question is that, for much of the first half of the 20th century, Bridge was a major way of socializing (it was invented by rich people to play on yachts so it had this air of glamour to it). Since it's a four-player partnership game, a husband and wife could play as a team. They could go visit another couple they were friends with and play a game against them. There were also Bridge clubs where many teams competed in tournaments and such. People thought they'd have better social standing if they were better at Bridge, so they'd read Bridge advice columns to try to get better at it. Think of it as basically sedentary golf and you get the right idea.

There aren't really chess columns because it's rare that being a good chess player increases your social standing, so there wasn't a big enough market for people wanting chess advice for it to take up space in the newspaper. (There were probably magazines for that though, the same way there were a bunch of poker-advice magazines during the big poker boom of the 2000s.)

Of course Bridge's heyday is long since past, so it's kind of baffling why the Bridge stuff still gets printed...until you realize the same people who adamantly subscribe to print newspapers in the 2020s were in their youth when Bridge was chic.

[kkt]

This has been bothering me for decades.  Many years ago, there were daily bridge columns (not the road kind) in the newspaper.  Even in today's diminished newspapers there's a weekly column with people writing in and asking for advice, a "Dear Abby" of card games.

It's been going on so long that it's just a part of the world and I mostly don't question it, but when I do question it, I'm confounded.  I watched a bridge television show back in the 90s.  It had a dummy, which I think was a player who set their cards face-up where everyone can see them and the partner played them.  I don't know if that's how you play or if it was just for educational purposes.

I don't remember anything about the gameplay.  I don't even remember why I watched it, although "it was the 90s" might be a good answer.  But I've never seen instructional television or newspaper columns about Uno or gin rummy.  Nothing else is treated that way.  Today's column has readers asking for advice on specific plays and general rules, and it reminds me of what you might ask about chess plays.  Is bridge so complex that you must study under a master for a lifetime in order to play it properly?  Why are there columns for bridge but not chess?  Was there a chess TV show that I missed?

I am not an expert by any means but I played a little bit of bridge, purely socially.  Yes, they usually use a dummy in real games.  There is a fair amount of depth to it and it's understandable that there's a column.  There are a lot of different ranks of players and if you're happy playing socially you can learn in a couple of hours, especially if remembering the bidding history and what cards have been played comes easily to you.
If you want to play competitively it would take more study.  A lot of the game is extrapolating from the cards you can see (yours and the dummy's) and what was bid to what cards are likely to be still out there and in whose hands, and then what to lead in order to take the most possible tricks.

[wxfree]

Thank you for that information.  It could advance social standing, I find that fascinating.  Sedentary golf is a helpful comparison.

[wanderer2575]

I remember looking at Omar Sharif and Charles Goren's bridge columns in the newspaper as a teenager, and being completely bewildered by them.  I was having enough trouble getting through math classes at school.

[kkt]

The new name of the Tappan Zee Bridge seemed to bother someone:

Now that his son is disgraced hopefully nobody cares enough to fix it.

Maybe if he's disgraced enough they'll officially change the name back to Tappan Zee, so spraypaint won't be needed?

[DTComposer]

Why are there columns for bridge but not chess?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_columns_in_newspapers

I remember reading the column in the Chronicle in middle and high school. Didn't help me get any better, though.

[Rothman]

Why are there columns for bridge but not chess?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_columns_in_newspapers

I remember reading the column in the Chronicle in middle and high school. Didn't help me get any better, though.

I was about to say that chess puzzles were pretty common in newspapers where I grew up.

[webny99]

When you're approaching an all way stop sign and a car that's already sitting there waits until you come to a complete stop before they'll go, as if to question your intent to stop and police you into doing so.

[vdeane]

The fact that sporting events broadcast on TV always run over the allotted time (especially if the game actually finished on time but the coverage runs over due to interviews or something).  Since the allotted time is clearly not enough, why don't stations allot more time to the game?  It would allow for proper post-game coverage unless the game really runs over and it would result in more predictable schedules for those of us who don't appreciate programming after the game getting preempted every single time.

As for why I'm posting this now?  The college football game on ABC was a real nail-biter.  Not because I care about college football (though I am curious why college games run longer than NFL games; shouldn't it be the reverse?), in fact I spent the hour and a half of it I was home watching the local news on NBC thanks to this, but because I was worried that my World News Tonight experience would be ruined.  As it happens, they actually altered the broadcast of World News Tonight to account for the missing three minutes (and I'm finally just now getting my daily dose of News10 local news) rather than cutting in with it "already in progress" like they usually do, which is good because watching the ending "behind the scenes" bit with their special rendition of Auld Lang Syne is a New Year's tradition, so I couldn't just stick with NBC for the national news like I would if this happened on literally any other day of the year.

They really should have done that bit last night.  What would they have done if the game went more than three minutes over?  Normally whenever I encounter a college football game in the programming schedule (which thankfully isn't often, but still), the game runs over by 30-60 minutes!  To circle back to the original subject of this post, most sporting events I encounter could do with an additional 30 minutes allotted; 60 minutes for playoffs or golf.

[SEWIGuy]

College games run longer because of timing rules that stop the clock more often, though these have recently changed to reduce that difference, and because the college halftime is 20 minutes while the NFL is 12.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

When you're approaching an all way stop sign and a car that's already sitting there waits until you come to a complete stop before they'll go, as if to question your intent to stop and police you into doing so.

I don't think they're policing anyone. Too many idiots who don't stop/roll the stop, or come blasting up to the sign at full speed before a hard brake that makes it look like they may not stop or at least not stop in time.

[webny99]

When you're approaching an all way stop sign and a car that's already sitting there waits until you come to a complete stop before they'll go, as if to question your intent to stop and police you into doing so.

I don't think they're policing anyone. Too many idiots who don't stop/roll the stop, or come blasting up to the sign at full speed before a hard brake that makes it look like they may not stop or at least not stop in time.

Yes, but what is waiting doing to help anything?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

When you're approaching an all way stop sign and a car that's already sitting there waits until you come to a complete stop before they'll go, as if to question your intent to stop and police you into doing so.

I don't think they're policing anyone. Too many idiots who don't stop/roll the stop, or come blasting up to the sign at full speed before a hard brake that makes it look like they may not stop or at least not stop in time.

Yes, but what is waiting doing to help anything?

I think I need clarification here. Is the vehicle in question that you are referring to:

A. waiting to make a movement that would cross into your path (which was the basis for my comment before)

or

B. driving the same direction as you and takes its time at the stop sign when it doesn't have to, leaving you waiting behind it

[thenetwork]

The fact that sporting events broadcast on TV always run over the allotted time (especially if the game actually finished on time but the coverage runs over due to interviews or something).  Since the allotted time is clearly not enough, why don't stations allot more time to the game?  It would allow for proper post-game coverage unless the game really runs over and it would result in more predictable schedules for those of us who don't appreciate programming after the game getting preempted every single time.

As for why I'm posting this now?  The college football game on ABC was a real nail-biter.  Not because I care about college football (though I am curious why college games run longer than NFL games; shouldn't it be the reverse?), in fact I spent the hour and a half of it I was home watching the local news on NBC thanks to this, but because I was worried that my World News Tonight experience would be ruined.  As it happens, they actually altered the broadcast of World News Tonight to account for the missing three minutes (and I'm finally just now getting my daily dose of News10 local news) rather than cutting in with it "already in progress" like they usually do, which is good because watching the ending "behind the scenes" bit with their special rendition of Auld Lang Syne is a New Year's tradition, so I couldn't just stick with NBC for the national news like I would if this happened on literally any other day of the year.

They really should have done that bit last night.  What would they have done if the game went more than three minutes over?  Normally whenever I encounter a college football game in the programming schedule (which thankfully isn't often, but still), the game runs over by 30-60 minutes!  To circle back to the original subject of this post, most sporting events I encounter could do with an additional 30 minutes allotted; 60 minutes for playoffs or golf.

To be fair, networks do figure in the average time if most games.

Case in point, for the longest times, NFL games started at either 1PM or 4PM Eastern time.  Finally, enough people spoke up and complained that either an early game was cut off at the end to show the later game at 4 (usually due to the later game being the local markets teams.which get priority) or the later game starts "in progress" after the first one ends.

Now many of the later games start around 430 ET.  and at least Fox pads their late games with a longer post-game show to buffer between football and normal Sunday night programming.  CBS still delays 60 Minutes and the rest of their Sunday night programming until the second game is over.

Remember too, that for those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, programs scheduled after sports games are rarely affected.  In many cases, the local shows that were pre-empted for the earlier sports times run immediately after the live sports shows.

[webny99]

When you're approaching an all way stop sign and a car that's already sitting there waits until you come to a complete stop before they'll go, as if to question your intent to stop and police you into doing so.

I don't think they're policing anyone. Too many idiots who don't stop/roll the stop, or come blasting up to the sign at full speed before a hard brake that makes it look like they may not stop or at least not stop in time.

Yes, but what is waiting doing to help anything?

I think I need clarification here. Is the vehicle in question that you are referring to:

A. waiting to make a movement that would cross into your path (which was the basis for my comment before)

or

B. driving the same direction as you and takes its time at the stop sign when it doesn't have to, leaving you waiting behind it

I was initially thinking of A, but B is annoying as well (just not as common in my experience, unless additional cars are also involved, making it the same as A but with a third car being the one in the cross path instead of you)

Either way it seems waiting extra time delays others at the intersection.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I think I need clarification here. Is the vehicle in question that you are referring to:

A. waiting to make a movement that would cross into your path (which was the basis for my comment before)

or

B. driving the same direction as you and takes its time at the stop sign when it doesn't have to, leaving you waiting behind it

I was initially thinking of A...

Either way it seems waiting extra time delays others at the intersection.

In what way does it delay you though? You still have a stop sign. Not to be that guy picking on you, but is the issue that someone who waits to make sure you stop before they go from their stop sign mean you feel you cannot roll your stop and it slows you down because you had to actually stop at the stop sign?

[vdeane]

Remember too, that for those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, programs scheduled after sports games are rarely affected.  In many cases, the local shows that were pre-empted for the earlier sports times run immediately after the live sports shows.

So... I should move to California?

[Max Rockatansky]

Remember too, that for those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, programs scheduled after sports games are rarely affected.  In many cases, the local shows that were pre-empted for the earlier sports times run immediately after the live sports shows.

So... I should move to California?

Watching games early in the day is pretty sweet. 

[webny99]

Either way it seems waiting extra time delays others at the intersection.

In what way does it delay you though? You still have a stop sign. Not to be that guy picking on you, but is the issue that someone who waits to make sure you stop before they go from their stop sign mean you feel you cannot roll your stop and it slows you down because you had to actually stop at the stop sign?

No, I'd never intentionally do a rolling stop if there are other vehicles in, at, or near the intersection. Not saying I never have if it's late at night or early morning and there's no one else on the road.

Regarding the delays, they're already stopped, so if they would go while I'm still approaching, I could go immediately after stopping, rather than being stopped for however long it takes them to clear the intersection.

[Rothman]

I do rolling stops because Nissan's brakes suck.

[Max Rockatansky]

Out in the farm lands by me stop signs might as well be glorified yields. 

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife likes to pollute my text messages with TikTok links despite me repeatedly telling her I don't have a TikTok app.

[Rothman]

My wife likes to pollute my text messages with TikTok links despite me repeatedly telling her I don't have a TikTok app.

Don't need one to watch.