2022 July: The Providence NABC 7/20-24

Providence NABC part 2. Continue reading

The tale of woe that describes the first five days that I spent in Rhode Island can be read here.


Wednesday July 20: I checked the Daily Bulletin to see if more COVID-19 cases had been reported. This was the alarming news:

The ACBL is modifying its COVID reporting policy, such that cases from the Providence NABC will be reported in the Daily Bulletin instead of by email.

Each of the following cases were reported by players to NABC@acbl.org. Anyone testing positive for COVID should follow the same protocol. For information on testing locations, visit
providenceri.gov/vaccinate/.

The ACBL has received reports of at least eight players who have contracted COVID since the Sunday issue where previous cases were reported. These players and staff members have participated in contests in multiple playing rooms across several days at the NABC in Providence.

So, at least a dozen people were spreading the disease in many events across multiple days. I could not help but think that this was just the tip of the iceberg. The question was whether this sobering news would impel more people to wear masks while playing. I tended to doubt it.

Paul Burnham.

My partner for the next two days would again be Paul Burnham, who is a very good player. In boxing terms, he fights above his weight. Our miserable performance together on Monday did not discourage me. I liked our chances in the Bracketed Round Robins scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The unknown variable was whether our makeshift teammates would hold up their end.

On Wednesday I had arranged to play with Abhi (AH vee) Dutta. His partner was, according to Abhi, “a good player, but he does not have much experience.” The young man’s name was Jaan Srimurthy. I did not know him, but I had met his father, Vik, who was a good player.

We did not yet have partners for the game on Thursday. I went to the Partnership Desk to fill out a card. Carol Seager told me that she and her partner, Michelle Blanchard, were looking for teammates. I had played against Carol several times and I actually had partnered with Michelle once at a sectional in Auburn or Watertown quite a few years ago. I quickly agreed.

Abhi Dutta.

We purchased an entry. We were the fourth seed (out of nine) in bracket #2 of the 0-3,000 Bracketed Teams event. The morning session was terrible, but we played better in the afternoon. In many of the matches our teammates were just overmatched.

The most interesting thing that happened was when we played against a woman whose nametag identified her as Terry Brooks. She revoked and then protested vehemently when Paul insisted on calling the director.

In the end we won three matches for a total of .57 red points. Jaan said almost nothing all day. It was not a good day.

I drove back to Warwick after another frustrating day. Paul and I would only have one more chance to accomplish something together.

For supper I ate the remaining half of the grinder that I had purchased on Tuesday at Stop and Shop. I received an interesting email that evening from Sohail Hasan, my partner for the final three days:

I have a pair to play teams with us on Friday and may have another for Saturday but not sure yet.

My experience with pickup partners is pretty negative.

So, I wasted no mental energy worrying about teammates for the weekend.

I really enjoyed the first half of Interlibrary Loan. It made me want to reread A Borrowed Man.

Thursday July 21: As usual, I started the day by reading the Daily Bulletin online. I was looking for news about COVID-19 when I saw an article about an award for best teaching tip that was presented to the same Terry Jones who complained so much when Paul called the director after she revoked. She must have known that the Bulletin was going to feature her in Thursday’s edition.

The article about COVID-19 was precisely the same as the one that had appeared in Tuesday’s edition.

Carol Seager.

Paul and I met up with Carol and Michelle. We bought an entry in the same event that we played in on Wednesday. This time we were the second-seeded team in Bracket #1. We ended up in fifth place with 80 victory points—exactly average. We needed to finish fourth to make the overalls, but we were 12 points short. I don’t know what happened at the other table, but it seemed to me that whenever our opponents did something stupid—and it happened several times—they would come out smelling like a rose.

So, I had to say goodbye to Paul on that rather bitter note. It was beginning to appear that my entire tournament would be a fiasco.

I picked up another pizza from Bertucci’s for supper. It was as good as the first one.


Friday July 22: By this time I had amassed a fairly tall stack of discarded food containers in my room at the Crowne Plaza. Fortunately, I had eaten everything that I bought. There was no noticeable (at least by me) odor.

I read in the Daily Bulletin that the last three days of the Summer NABC coincided with the Youth NABC. In Providence the Youth NABC was held in some rooms in the Omni Hotel that shared the garage with the RICC.

Exactly the same notice about numbers of cases that was in Thursday’s Bulletin was printed in Friday’s again.

Bob Lavin.

I munched on my breakfast sandwich on the way to Providence. I had to leave early. This was one of the days on which I was scheduled for volunteer duty. When I reported to Linda Ahrens, the volunteers co-chair, she said that they needed people at the Youth NABC. Bob Lavin, who had helped me with the bridge program at Duggan Academy in 2016, walked over to the Omni. Another fellow whom I did not know accompanied us.

After we located the designated area, we had to fill out some forms. Then they sent Bob and me to help with the registration. There was only one seat available behind the desk. Bob quickly seized it. The other seats were occupied by ACBL people. My job was to direct people to the registration desk. I stood around for about twenty minutes twiddling my thumbs. It was obvious to everyone where the registration area was. When I asked if I could leave, they told me that I could go back to the RICC.

People in Madison love this crittur.

After a few unplanned detours I found my way back to the Partnership Desk. They did not need me there either. So, I stood around and waited for Sohail to appear. I had only played with him once before—at the Harvest Regional in Mansfield in 2019. There I learned that he had attended the University of Wisconsin and then worked on Wall Street. He lived on the
Cape, at least in the summer. He had asked me to play with him in the online regional qualifying for the North American Pairs in 2021, but I had no interest in that. Don’t get me started on the subject of online bridge.

Shazia has a very impressive LinkedIn page.

Sohail arrived at about 9:45. He told me that our teammates were already inside the playing area. They introduced themselves as Lauren Friedman, who had a lot of masterpoints, and Shazia Makhdumi. We found ourselves in the top bracket of the Open Bracketed Teams event. Both of our teammates were from California. I don’t know how Sohail linked up with them. There were twelve teams in our bracket, the worst possible number. Only four of them would place in the overalls, the same number as for a nine-team bracket. We were the #10 seed. Our work was definitely cut out for us.

The hard card to play is supposed to be the Jack.

I remember details from several rounds. We won our first round, but then we faced the team that ultimately won the event by twenty-four victory points. Three of them I knew very well from the Hartford Bridge Club: Trevor Reeves, Joel Wolfe, and Tom Joyce. The fourth was Mark Smith, who lived in Florida but directed online games for the HBC. We lost our match with them by 39 imps, but it could have been a LOT closer. On one hand Joel had bid a slam, and Sohail doubled. Sohail was on lead. He held the A in his hand, and I had the king and a low one to signal with. However, he chose to make a passive lead, and Joel scrambled for twelve tricks in the other three suits. Afterwards Trevor asked me in private why Sohail did not lead the ace. I admitted that I did not know.

Ellen and Chris.

I also remember the match against Chris Apitz and Ellen Dilbert, a couple who lived in Arizona in the winter and Massachusetts in the summer. Sohail got into a tiff with Ellen. I don’t remember what the original disagreement was about, but it was not of much consequence. Most of the argument was about which of them was being obnoxious about it. At the time I thought that this was just a one-off.1

We only lost one other match. On one hand Lauren bid a little too aggressively. She jumped to an unmakeable slam. Sohail got quite angry at her and admonished her to read the article in that day’s Bulletin, which, he averred said never to bid slams in teams.

One of the teams that we played included Sally Meckstroth, a pro in her own right. Our foursome ended up tied with her team, but we won our match against them.

I don’t remember who our opponents were for the most memorable hand of the tournament. I actually wrote the hand up and sent it to the editors of the Daily Bulletin. Even though Saturday’s Bulletin solicited material from players, the email, which I sent Friday evening, said that it had been received too late to be included. Here is what I wrote:

The most amazing hand that I have ever seen was #2 in round 7 of the Victor King Bracketed Round Robin on 7/22. I held six hearts to the Q-10, six clubs to the J, and the ace of diamonds. No spades. My partner, Sohail Hasan, opened 2C. I responded 2D, which showed something better than a bust. Sohail bid 2S. I bid 3H. Sohail bid 4D. Aaaargh! He had bid twice in suits in which I had exactly one card in total. What should I bid–hearts again or that ragged club suit? I did not fancy either of those bids. We were past 3NT already, and all I really knew was that I did not like either of his suits, and he probably felt the same about mine. It was cowardly, I know, but I passed 4D.

Here was the hand Sohail set down: S: AKxxx   H: AK   D: QJxx   C: AK. So I had accepted the invitation to play in a five-card fit at the four-level.

I somehow scrambled to nine tricks for down one, which was minus 50. I suspected that Sohail was peeved at me for putting us in such a hopeless contract. However, when we compared scores with our teammates, we actually won four imps on the board. Our teammates, Lauren Friedman and Shazia Makhdumi, had led a diamond to the 6NT contract, and the poor declarer never saw the board again. The result was down four.

It turned out that an unrecognized advantage of playing in a five-card fit was that the opponents were less likely to lead that suit at trick 1. In fact, I used my ace of trump to ruff a worthless spade, but not until I had unblocked the hearts.

A little later I gave our teammates ten guesses as to what our final contract was. They gave up after five or six incorrect attempts.

Tying for third was worth 11.53 gold points. Just think, though. If the ladies had somehow realized that their king, two queens, and two jacks could take five tricks in a notrump contract, they could have doubled. Then we would have gained thirteen imps on a non-swing hand. It would have been enough to put us alone in third place, within one victory point of second.

Sohail told me that he had secured partners for Saturday’s game just before I said goodbye to the ladies from California.

No drink, please.

My drive back to Warwick was much more pleasant than the previous six journeys on southbound I-95.

I went to KFC for the third time and ordered another four-piece dinner. I then wrote an email to Sue describing the hand in the same detail that I submitted to the editors.


Saturday July 23: The ACBL finally began to come clean about the extent of the spread of COVID-19 among bridge players in Saturday’s Daily Bulletin:

The ACBL has received reports of dozens of players who have contracted COVID at the Providence NABC. Many more have not reported becoming infected. These players and staff members have participated in contests in multiple playing rooms across several days at the NABC in Providence.

When I arrived at the RICC I overheard many players talking about others who had become ill. Several people from the Hartford Bridge Club were reportedly stricken. The percentage of people who had donned masks on Saturday might have been a little higher than before, but not much.

Our teammates in the 0-3,000 Bracketed Swiss Teams were from Ottawa, Lisa Hebert and Mark Lacroix. Mark was a Tournament Director and an employee of the ACBL. I was fairly certain that we would be in the top bracket, and I was right. There were nine teams in our bracket. Every team played four three-ways. We were the #5 seed, but the seeds did not mean much. The winning team was the #9 seed. They outscored us by twelve victory points, and we bested the third-place team by thirteen. It had been tight throughout, but the winners pulled away at the end.

We garnered another 9.83 gold points. We all agreed to try to return and play together on Sunday in the last Bracketed Round Robin. I saw no reason why we should not win our bracket.

I had another pleasant drive back to Warwick. I then ordered a combo supper from On the Border. I drove there, picked it up, and ate it in my room at the Crowne Plaza. It was very good. In fact, every supper that I had on this trip was good. The atmosphere of the dining room was not great, but the food was excellent.

Sunday July 24: The headline on Sunday’s Daily Bulletin was “Yu Wins Mini-Spingold”. This immediately sprung to mind:

Abbott: Yu won the Mini-Spingold!

Costello: What? I didn’t even play.

Abbott: No, no. Watt didn’t qualify, but Ai lost in the semifinals.

Costello: Then who won the event?

Abbott: Hu was disqualified. So Yu won.

Costello: How could I win if I didn’t play.

Abbott: Ai lost in the semis. Yu won!

Costello: Nonsense!

Abbott: Eliminated in the first round.

The Bulletin repeated the language about “dozens” of cases, but I now had the sinking feeling that the Providence NABC might have been a super-spreader event.

When I arrived at the tournament site my worst fears were realized. Sue Miguel found me in the exhibition hall that was used for teams. She told me that both Joe Brouillard and Lois DeBlois had COVID-19. On their behalf she gave me a swag bag that had a lot of nice little stuff in it as well as a $100 gift certificate for Amazon.

Sohail showed up only a few minutes before game time. He said that both Mark and Lisa also had COVID-19, and they had gone home. We would have to play in the Fast Pairs.

For the first time Sohail wore a flimsy mask, and he complained about one woman who was coughing.

I am not going to write about the rest of that experience. I had never played under those rules before, and we got behind. I made lots of mistakes. It was very cold. Somehow we won some red points in the morning, but at the end I just wanted to get out of there.

I arrived back in Enfield before 6PM.


Epilogue: It definitely was a super-spreader event. Both Mike Heider and Jim Osofsky got COVID-19 and had to leave early. Mike was quite sick for a while. He passed out, and Jim had to drag him into bed. Dozens of people from the Hartford Bridge Club were also stricken, including several people who were quite careful.

I was lucky, I guess, but I was also very careful. I wore an N95 mask at all times that I was not eating or drinking, and I almost always drank alone. The supper on Sunday evening with Mike and Jim was the only time that I was unmasked in a public place.

To tell the truth I don’t know if it was worth it. A lot of people got sick. I don’t know if anyone died of it, but almost certainly someone contracted the disease in Providence and spread it elsewhere. the BA.5 variant of the virus was extremely good at transmitting and avoiding defenses.

The one thing that this really proved was that the vaccination check was a joke.


1. I later played with Sohail in Warwick later in the summer. I found his behavior on that occasion intolerable.

2022 July: The Providence NABC: 7/15-19

The extensive preparations for the NABC in Providence are described here. Friday July 15: If there is no traffic, the drive from Enfield to Providence takes a little less than two hours. I packed up enough clothes for ten days … Continue reading

The extensive preparations for the NABC in Providence are described here.

My bridge schedule for the Providence NABC.

Friday July 15: If there is no traffic, the drive from Enfield to Providence takes a little less than two hours. I packed up enough clothes for ten days and left the house at about 7:15. The trip got off to a terrible start. As usual, I stopped at McDonald’s in West Stafford for a sausage biscuit with egg and a large black coffee. The biscuit reminded me of a brick that had been sawed horizontally. The coffee was a couple of degrees above room temperature when it was handed to me, and it did not taste right. I cannot describe the taste, but it was definitely wrong.

The first 99.99 percent of the drive was otherwise blessedly uneventful. I had driven this route a few weeks earlier for the walk-through that has been described here. I remembered that the Rhode Island Convention Center (RICC) was very close to Route 146. The only tricky part was finding the correct entrance to the garage that was attached via a corridor on the fourth level to the third floor of the RICC. I had a distinct recollection that the right entrance was the first on the right. Therefore, I pulled in there and attempted to enter. The unmanned gate would not let me in. Evidently this was now designated as the entrance for monthly parkers. I tried to back up, but a jeep had pulled in behind me. He was understandably upset at me.

Eventually, I was able to back up and return to the street, but in the process the left side of my car scraped against something. The plastic cover for my left side-view mirror also came halfway off. I tried to push this mishap out of my mind completely until the first day of bridge was over, but it was not easy.

I found the correct entrance and drove up to the east side of the third level and parked near the stairs and elevator. It did not seem possible to get to the east side of the fourth level of the garage from where I had entered. I tried to reattach the cover to the mirror, but I did not have much success. I then climbed the stairs to the fourth level and walked across the sky bridge to the entrance to the RICC.

At the entrance to the third floor two people were checking for vaccination status. Players with an orange wristband could just walk in. Otherwise, players needed to show a vaccination card or the equivalent proof on a smartphone. Upon doing so they were presented with a stylish piece of bright orange plastic to wear on the wrist. When the band had been locked, it was very difficult to undo. I just kept mine on for all ten days that I was in Rhode Island. Then I cut it off with scissors. I don’t know what the people checking for vaccinations did if a person would not or could not show proof.

Very few people wore masks. I resolved to wear an N95 mask and to keep my distance from everyone, even teammates and partners, whenever possible. The fact that I was not staying in a hotel associated with the tournament gave me some optimism. The BA.5 variant had recently become dominant in both Europe and the Americas. Vaccines made it less lethal, but they did little or nothing to prevent transmission. Good masks worked, and the ones that I brought with me were the best available to the general public.

Donna and MW in 2019.

For the first two days I was scheduled to play with Donna Lyons, a long-time friend whom I had hardly seen since we had won the Mid-Flight Pairs at the Ocean State Regional in Warwick in 2019. Donna and her husband Bob lived in Granby in the summer and in Naples, FL, in the winter.

Donna was not at the tournament yet when I arrived. So, I went to the welcome desk and received my SWAG bag. It contained the restaurant guide and a gift. I don’t even remember what the latter was. I then went to the volunteers desk to talk with Linda Ahrens about my assignments. When I left I thought that I was clear about when I needed to show up.

Joe and Linda circa 2016.

Linda provided me with a stack of scrip for my entry fees1, and Joe Brouillard, the co-chair of the tournament, provided an exit card to pay for my parking.

I picked up a copy of the Daily Bulletin to see what had happened in the GNT championship. Most of New England’s representatives, including Felix Springer and Trevor Reeves, were still in contention.

I went to the partnership area and looked for a likely partner for Sunday. The only person available was Phyllis Bloom with 800 masterpoints. I called her five times, but the line was always busy.

Soon thereafter Donna appeared. We were scheduled to play in the Open Pairs on Friday and the Bracketed 0-3,000 Swiss on Saturday. Before the morning session we went over the convention card that we had used in 2019. If we made any adjustments, they were not significant. Our morning session was disappointing. We only scored a little more than 43 percent.

I don’t remember what Donna did for lunch. I bought a Diet Coke and a bag of nuts from a vending machine. I did this every day that I was playing so that I would not get sleepy in the afternoon. This also helped me avoid the COVID trap of the lunch area.

Our afternoon session was much better. We scored above 53 percent, which earned us 1.48 red points for finishing third in B in our section. If we had done that well in the morning, I would have been quite pleased.

That direct route across eastern CT was stressful.

Donna was commuting from Granby, even though she lived considerably farther away than I did. So, she was facing roughly five hours of driving both days. I advised her not to take the two-lane route back to Connecticut, despite the insistent advice from Google Maps. Instead I told her that driving on Route 146 and the Mass Pike was much less stressful, only slightly longer, and less subject to delays from construction and slow vehicles.

Right mirror for comparison
Left mirror after fixing.

After saying goodbye to Donna I went back to the garage to inspect the damage on my car. This time I was able to reattach the cover much more securely. I later tried to rig up a little more protection for the electronics by covering it with a plastic bag, but I failed to devise a way of keeping it attached. In the end I convinced myself that this arrangement was good enough to last through the rest of the trip.2

At some point on Friday Mike Heider and Jim Osofsky, my teammates for Saturday and Sunday invited me to have dinner with them on Saturday night at their favorite restaurant in Providence, Pane e Vino. I told them that I had already committed to attending the VIP reception on Saturday evening.

I then exited the garage. I had been led to expect that the entire parking charge would be covered by the exit ticket that Joe had given me. However, I was still charged $15. Evidently Joe gave me the wrong ticket.

I found my way from the RICC to the Hampton Inn in Warwick without any problem. I have stayed at dozens of Hampton Inns around the country, and it had never taken more than five minutes to check in to any of them. This time, however, only one person was on duty at the reception desk. A handful of people surrounded the desk offering advice to a woman who was trying to check in. She demanded to see the manager about whatever was impeding the process. The clerk abandoned her station for at least five minutes in order to summon him.

She returned with the unwanted news that the manager was on his “lunch break” at 6:30 in the evening. Eventually he did appear, and he succeeded at calming everyone down. All the people around the desk—except for me—went over to the lounge/breakfast area to wait for the room to be ready.

My room was very close to the entrance on the left.

I was impatient, no doubt, but there was no good reason to be. I had nothing planned for the evening. The clerk had no problems in finding a room for me. I had to provide my credit card, of course, but then she quickly handed over my key. My room was on the ground floor.

When I reached the hallway I was shocked to see trash piled there. I had never experienced anything like this before at a Hampton Inn. At least the pile did not impede my path to the room.

The room itself was fine, but it had one very peculiar trait. There was no closet! I looked everywhere that I could imagine. I mean, how do you hide a closet in a hotel room? I must have been mistaken, but I accounted in my head for every square foot of space, and there did not seem to be any place it might be.3 Because I was only staying two nights, this anomaly was of small consequence to me.

I had no trouble deciding where to eat. The hotel was within a mile of the KFC, and I had had more pleasant experiences dealing with the store than I had with the many other franchises that I had patronized over the years. This occasion was no exception. My four-piece meal was ready very quickly; it was hot and delicious.

About a week earlier I had misplaced my American Express card that awarded frequent-flyer miles on Delta. I hardly ever used that card, but it bothered me that it was missing. While I was at the KFC I noticed that it was hidden behind another card in my wallet.

I received a text from Phyllis Bloom. She was happy to play with Mike, Jim, and me on Sunday. So, my “dance card” was now completely filled for the tournament.

The book that I brought with me to Rhode Island was Newcastle Upon Tyne: Mapping the City. It was written by Mike Barke, a Professor of Geography from Newcastle. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife Vivienne on the European River Cruise that I took in May of 2022. That adventure is related here.

The book is a history of the Tyneside area from Roman days up to the present with maps of various types used as signposts. I really enjoyed learning about the development of the area not only because it was Mike and Vivienne’s stomping grounds, but also because it helped me to understand better what the characters on the television show Vera were dealing with. On this trip to Rhode Island I also discovered that the huge book could serve as an excellent mousepad when I was using my computer while in bed.


Saturday, July 16: My standard operating procedure at Hampton Inns had long been to hit the breakfast room early. I arrived at 6:15 and was surprised to see that it was already rather crowded. There were quite a few children dining with their parents. Most of the people wore shorts. One kid walked up to the orange juice dispenser and filled a gallon jug. I thought that this was somewhat outrageous, but no one said anything about it.

In addition to the families quite a few uniformed airline employees were among the early diners. This was not a surprise. The Hampton Inn is very close to the airport.

The drive from Warwick to the RICC was very easy. I worried about the left mirror, but the cover stayed on, and it seemed to function as well as ever.

I asked at the Partnership Desk if they needed me to help, but Jan Smola and Carol Seager said that they had it under control.

Mike and Jim.

Donna and I played in the 0-3,000 Bracketed Round Robin. Our teammates were Jim Osofsky and Mike Heider. We found ourselves in the top bracket. We were in contention until the last two matches. In one of those rounds Donna timidly passed my 5 bid, and we missed a slam that would have really helped us. So, we finished well out of the overalls and were awarded only .69 “pity points”.

Donna needed to rush home at the end of the last match. I said goodbye to her and thanked her for playing with me. I then walked over to Joe’s desk and asked him for directions to the WaterFire event.4 While I was standing there I was surprised to see a distraught Donna walking toward me. She said that she could not find the key fob for her car. She said that she had looked all through her purse several times.

Donna and I searched around the areas in which she had been. There was no sign of the missing fob. Upon Joe’s advice she went to the facility’s security desk on the ground floor and asked the man there. No one had turned in anything resembling a key fob.

She then went back to her car because she said that there was an emergency method of gaining entry and operating the car. She was pretty sure that her husband could talk her through it over the phone.

So, I went out on foot on my own looking for the VIP reception for the WaterFire. I went the wrong way several times5. I finally found the viewing area, but I saw nothing that looked like a reception. At about 7:00 it occurred to me that the WaterFire event always took place in the dark, and the sun would not be setting in Providence for nearly two hours. I decided that it was not worth the wait. I drove back to the Hampton Inn.

I was able to exit the garage without paying. Joe had given me enough tickets for the remainder of my days. Since I was not planning on coming to the tournament on Tuesday, I gave one of the tickets to Donna.

I was shocked by two things at the hotel. The pile of rubbish had grown considerably larger, and no one had cleaned my room. Since I was leaving in the morning, these developments hardly mattered to me, but my overall impression was that this must surely be the worst Hampton Inn in the country.

Because I had again skipped lunch, for supper I treated myself to a small Ultimate Bertucci pizza. It was absolutely delicious. I ordered takeout and ate it in my room.


Sunday July 17: As I made my way to the hotel’s breakfast area I could hardly believe how big the rubbish pile in the hallway had become. It was piled high with pizza boxes. I could barely get past it. I doubt that someone with a wheelchair could have done so.

Never on Sunday?

I was equally surprised that the breakfast area was closed. Evidently breakfast was no longer served on Sunday, or perhaps it was open much later than usual. I was not certain whether this was “the new normal” or just another indication of this hotel’s mismanagement.

I checked out, got into my car, and drove into Providence. I did not record in my notes what I ate that morning, but I think that it was part of the hospitality—a muffin or something like that—that the tournament provided. I picked up a Daily Bulletin and discovered that all three of the remaining GNT teams from New England had lost in the semifinals.

Mike and Jim told me that they had postponed their supper at Pane e Vino until Sunday. They asked me whether I wanted to join them. I happily agreed.

I met up with Phyllis Bloom, who was, as I suspected, Ken Bloom’s wife. We spent some time going over our card, which was rather simple. We were playing with Jim and Mike in the Mid-Flight Swiss teams. We were done in on the very last hand. Phyllis played 6. At the other table our counterparts bid the grand slam. Both went down one. Mike led the , which enabled the declarer to finesse the 10.

So, we earned only .78 more red points. I had a good time playing with Phyllis. We did as well as a new partnership could expect. However, I think that she was a little frustrated with her mistakes.

After Phyllis left, II walked with Jim and Mike to their hotel, which was called The Graduate. We took the elevator up to their suite. Mike seemed to be a little embarrassed that some clothes were strewn about. Please!

At some point Mike also realized that he had lost his convention card. Presumably it was somewhere in the playing area of the RICC.

We picked up Jim’s car from the hotel’s parking garage and drove to the restaurant. Mike continually criticized the route that Jim took, and Jim repeatedly reminded us that Mike drove like an old woman. They do this sort of thing all the time. For years I thought that they were actually arguing, but, in fact, they almost never argued. Jim just talked all of the time, and Mike occasionally broke his vow of silence and vocalized his opinions, some of which contradicted Jim’s. However, it never went past that. Each has a lot of respect for the other, and they have been playing together for at least a decade that I know of.

The restaurant scared me. It was crowded, and no one—not even the staff—was wearing a mask. I kept mine on until we reached the booth, and I put it back on before walking to the door at the end.

I ordered the fettucine alla Bolognese and a glass of Barbera. After consulting with the waitress, Mike selected lasagna. Jim had the same veal dish that he always ordered there. The titles of all of the dishes were in Italian on the menu, but the descriptions were in English. I found it peculiar that our waitress was unfamiliar with the titles of the dishes.

I ate everything that I ordered, but the Bolognese was a little too rich for my taste. When Jim asked me if I would order it again if I ate there, I had to answer in the negative. Nevertheless, I had a good time with these guys. They are a lot more fun away from the table, but that is not uncommon for bridge players.

Randy Johnson.

So, we drove back to The Graduate. I went down the elevator to walk to the RICC garage. In the lobby of the hotel I ran into Randy Johnson. I talked with him for a minute. I asked him if his wife Ann (Hudson), one of my former partners, was also in attendance. He claimed that she was too busy working at home.

I walked over to the garage, found my car, and drove to the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, which, like the RICC, is in spitting distance of I-95.

Over the next week I often saw this logo.

I walked from the hotel’s huge parking lot to the revolving door. at the main entrance. To my surprise a young man and woman were greeting people as they entered. Neither of them wore masks. They were from the annual gathering of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, which was held throughout that week in the Crowne Plaza. I wore my mask whenever I was in or near the hotel.

I checked in in a minute or two. The hotel employees also had no masks.

I went back to KFC for supper. It was as good as the first time.

When I checked my email I found one from Monday’s partner Paul Burnham. He reported that he had just arrived in Providence. I also received the following missive from Donna:

First of all, the key fob business was somewhat of a mess and more than somewhat had me spinning.  When I got to the garage, my car would not open when I touched the handles, as usually it does.  Of course, I tried and tried, tried the lift back, nothing.  So, I searched in my bags for the fob, which I knew I had, but I could not find it.  Panic began to set in.  After too much wasted time running from the bridge info table who sent me to security who sent me back to the info table who sent me to another security man, I went back to the garage to see if I had dropped the key fob.  I could not find it, so I emptied my bags again in the dark corner where I had parked, thinking it had to be there.  No fob.  I dug and dug, freaking out more and finally found it zipped in another pocket.  But the car still would not open.  Dead.  I called Bob, and [after he calmed me down] he talked me through taking the fob apart to find some hidden skinny key.  It was so dark in the garage where I was that I was near tears running over to some sunlight, worried that I would be sleeping over on 4 East.  I did get the fob apart, got back to the car to try the hidden key, and, for some reason, once I had the fob apart, all the lights went on and the car just opened.  Then I worried that all batteries had died, but Bob kept telling me to start the car and it would be fine.  It was.  But then …this story has a better ending…I was still so rattled [77-year-old women should not navigate Providence traffic when they are rattled] that of course I kept missing turns directed by my robot-voice navigator who was trying to get me home.  I missed route 6 back to 84, and I ended up on 146 north driving home by the MassPike.  This route was an infinitely better route, as you suggested.  I am sure I lost another three years of heart life, but at least I was not stuck in the garage overnight.

The nicest part of the fiasco was that your kind gift of the validation card worked like a charm, and it was great to have that bonus in all of the mess.


Monday July 18: My room on the third floor of the Crowne Plaza was very nice. The bathroom had two sinks! It was a good thing, too. The stopper on the main sink did not work. So, I shaved at the one on the end.

I have walked there, but I drove every day on this trip.

I drove to McDonald’s for my usual sausage biscuit with egg, a breakfast that I consumed six of the seven mornings of my stay at the Crowne Plaza, which does not offer free breakfasts. I ate the sandwick on the car while I drove on I-95.

I worked at the Partnership Desk on Monday morning. While I was there I espied Mike Heider’s missing convention card lying on the table. I took it over to Joe and left it with him. When I spotted Mike later that day I told him that I had found it and let him know where it was.

I assisted a few people looking for partners in understanding how the cards were displayed: teams on one board and pairs games on the other. Each board was sorted by day of the event. Usually that was all that was needed. A player would find someone of about his/her level and call them.

One fellow did not have a phone. I offered to let him use mine, but he had no idea how to use a smartphone. I had to dial the number for him. This process was repeated a few times.

Judy Hyde.

Perhaps twenty-five minutes before 10:00, the starting time for all the games, Paul arrived at the Partnership Desk. To my surprise the ponytail for which he was renowned had disappeared. Shortly thereafter we saw Judy Hyde, with whom I have often been a partner or teammate and even more often an opponent. We talked for a bit, and both Paul and I came away certain that she had agreed to play in the Bracketed Round Robin Teams with us. Then she vanished to find her partner. We never saw her again.

At 9:59 Paul and I walked over to the Open Pairs game and registered. It was a nightmare. We were East-West in the morning, and we were between Robert Todd and his partner, who played a customized Big Club system, and a pair that played a Polish Club. The senior member of both of these pairs delivered a lengthy pre-alert speech explaining the unusual conventions that they used.

Thirteen rounds of listening to both of these dissertations would certainly have been enough to drive anyone to distraction. However, we had the completely unique distinction of playing North-South for the thirteen rounds in the afternoon session seated between the same two pairs. By the time that the last round had ended we could recite either speech with no pauses.

Paul played badly throughout, and I was worse. Our scores reflected it. Fortunately, he got to play with a different partner, his college roommate, Rob Stillman, on Tuesday. I, on the other hand, had already been planning on taking that day off.

The most amazing thing about our second session was that a guy with whom I had talked at The Graduate on the previous day came late to our table. On one of the two hands that we played against him he took at least—this is no exaggeration—five minutes to decide on a single play on defense. On every other trick he played in tempo. I suspect that he was astral traveling.

To add insult to injury Tom Gerchman came up to complain to me after the round was over that he was unable to obtain a parking pass. I simply said in a Chico voice “That’s not my chob.”

I picked up some tacos at the Taco Bell that was across the street from McDonald’s on Bald Hill Rd. in Warwick and consumed them in my room at the Crowne Plaza. Life is definitely romantic and exciting at bridge tournaments.

I was only slightly surprised to find that my room had not been made. Apparently that was the new normal, at least at chain hotels in Warwick.

I called Abhi Dutta and confirmed with him that Paul and I would team up with him and a young man named Jaan Srimurthy in the Bracketed Swiss on Wednesday.


Tuesday July 19: In 2019 I took a day off at the NABC in Honolulu, but that was only because my partner, Ann Hudson, refused to play with me any more.6 The idea of a voluntary respite was a new one.

The award was presented by Mark Aquino, the Regional Director.

I read the Daily Bulletin on the ACBL website. The first thing that I noticed was that Sue Miguel had been presented with a Special Goodwill award for her outstanding work with the Intermediate/Novice program in District 25 and at the two NABCs in Providence.

So, evidently I had missed another meeting of the Goodwill Committee. I have tried to attend them several times, but I have never succeeded.

I also searched the Bulletin for information about the number of COVID-19 cases that had been reported thus far, but the only reference was to the ACBL’s mask (not required) and vaccination (required) policies.

I went to IHOP and treated myself to a ham and Swiss-cheese omelette with pancakes. They were as good as I remembered. I was disappointed that the restaurant no longer played oldies on the intercom system.

Two very old ladies7 sat across the aisle from me. I could not avoid listening to much of their conversation. One of them was treating the other to breakfast because it was her birthday. I was tempted to wish her a happy birthday, but I did not want to disturb their illusion of a private conversation.

After breakfast I called the front desk to ask about the housekeeping regimen. They told me that they would bring me more linens. That afternoon a large bag appeared in my room. It contained towels.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Barnes & Noble and bought a copy of Interlibrary Loan, Gene Wolfe’s last book. It was a sequel to A Borrowed Man, which I had read a few years earlier. I only vaguely remembered the plot.

I then walked around the exterior of the hotel and then took advantage of the beautiful weather to read my new book while I sat on a bench for a half hour or so. Occasionally an employee would come out to smoke, but they stayed far enough away that it did not bother me. As I came back inside I saw Sally Kirtley and Helen Pawlowski. They were on site to check out the hotel for the regional tournament scheduled for the week before Labor Day. It would be held in the Crowne Plaza.

Helen asked me what I was doing there. I told her that I was staying at the Crowne Plaza and that I gave myself the day off after four days of frustration. She replied, “That makes sense.”

I then went up to my room and took a nap in my unmade bed. After I woke up I talked with Sue on the phone. I told her about how terrible the previous day had been.

Of course, I actually walked straight from the hotel’s door across the parking lot and field to the intersection of East Ave. and Greenwich Ave.

In the afternoon I walked to the Stop and Shop. The walk there was fairly easy. The only challenge was to cross East Ave., a major highway. There was a button to initiate the pedestrian crossing lights, but it only worked for the main part of the street. Crossing the entrance and exit required alertness and quickness.

At the grocery store I purchased a large roast beef grinder and four two-liter bottles of caffeine-free Diet Coke using my GO rewards card to qualify for the $4 price on the colas. The walk back was not quite as easy. I had brought a tote bag to carry the Cokes in, but I had to change it from one hand to the other several times. Eight liters weighs 17.6 pounds, and the burden was mostly borne by my fingers. I should have brought two bags; that would have been considerably easier.

When I got back to the hotel I slept for another hour. Then I ate half of the grinder and drank a considerable amount of Diet Coke for lunch/supper.

In the evening I read some more and fooled around with my laptop computer.

My plans for the last three days were still up in the air. I was scheduled to play with Sohail Hasan, but we did not have teammates lined up.


The report of the last five days of the tournament is a little more upbeat. It can be found here.


1. The fine printing on the bottom of each voucher clearly stated that only one could be used per entry, but I later realized that the directors did not enforce this limitation. They accepted as many vouchers as each person presented. I played in eighteen sessions at the tournament, but I spent very little cash on entry fees.

2. As of November 2022 I still had done nothing about the mirror. It has functioned admirably.

3. My inability to find things is legendary. It almost caused me to flunk first grade. That story was told here.

4. WaterFire was a spectacular event that was held periodically in Providence. It is difficult to describes. People rode in boats, and they used torches to light larger torches that are permanently in the water. I watched the event in October, 2014. On that occasion it was becoming dark by the time that the afternoon session ended, and volunteers had been stationed along the route from the RICC to the viewing area so that all the bridge players could find the event.

5. Towns and cities in New England felt under no obligation to provide street signs that identified every street at every intersection. I have complained about this since I first came to the area in 1972.

6. The adventures at that tournament and the week afterwards that we spent in Maui are documented here. Ann and I remained good friends, and I have played with her several times subsequently. She even volunteered to pick us up at the airport after we returned from Hawaii.

7. I long ago realized that women my age are very old.