I just read a piece in the New Yorker in which contract bridge is described as a dying game, with the author of the piece saying that at a recent bridge tournament he was he was the youngest player at 52. This came as a surprise to me, as I spent lots of hours in college playing bridge -- although, as I come to think of it, most of the people I played against learned to play either from me or from the people who taught me. (There were colonies of bridge players in the math department and also in the student-owned co-op I lived in.)

I haven't played much since then, although there was a while where I played online with friends from college every so often, but even that has trailed off.

Anyway:

[Poll #1056351]

Bridge questions, comments, and anecdotes are welcomed in the comments.

Also, I promise this is not part of a plot to lure my unsuspecting friends into the ways of bridge-playing. (Unless they want to be lured in, of course.)

This is a cartoon from the current New Yorker.



So.

[Poll #952961]

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And while I'm at it, here's this month's Cartoon Caption Contest.



My question here is simpler.

[Poll #952962]

This is from the current (December 13) issue of the New Yorker, from the section titled 'Pop Music':

Every college student who feels a little sad and sits down with an acoustic guitar to summon beauty and form hopes, whether or not she knows it, to come up with one of Keren Ann's songs. This, unfortunately, is not what usually happens. Right now, at a café somewhere, a guitar player is pouring out his acoustic vision in front of helpless diners who, bereft of legal protection, are silently praying for the robots to take over.