A Lovely Penpal

Well I am back from sunny Florida.  This time we went to a resort on Captiva.  My sister Judy with Mark and Ray and I took the long drive down the causeway to the very end of the island.  We kept debating if we loved it or not.  The resort was gorgeous especially the main pool and the beach.  The tennis was good and we even did some sea shelling.  But somehow we kept leaving the island to shop or go to  which took rather a long time.  But in the end we decided that Sanibel-Captiva was a bit of paradise, especially during Snowmeggadon.  So during the whole trip I hardly thought about bridge.  Just at bedtime I would start thinking about system notes or something equally silly.  I did check email and I got a rather wonderful review of my adaptation of Love, Bridge Squeezes from a really bridge book expert.  So that made me feel really good.  I just have to include an excerpt:

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Last week while browsing a Borders book store at 100 Broadway, New York, NY, I went to the games section and checked out the bridge books on the shelf.. I am a big collector of bridge books because I love the game and enjoy the reading/entertainment side.  After playing bridge for over 35 years, you can imagine the number of books I have amassed in my collection (275 books at my last count).  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the title, Bridge Squeezes Complete, 2nd edition, by Clyde E. Love.   When I arrived home, I started reading the book and realized that this was indeed a terrific, exciting and marvelous revised book. I went to my library and found my copy of Clyde E. Love’s Bridge Squeezes Complete – NYC – Dover publications, $2.75 US; 1968 edition.  What surprised me the most about your edition (with Julian Pottage) was the lucidity, clarity and “teaching” modus operandi. It is such a delight to read an advanced bridge book with such ease and wonderful organization. Even the glossary at the end of the book is great (my choice would have been to place it toward the front of the book so that the reader learns the terms before starting to learn about squeezes). This is just my preference.

It is obvious that you and your great team have put a lot of effort, hard work and thoughtfulness in recreating a classical bridge book. I applaud and commend you and your team for a delightful book. Your book should be voted as one of the best bridge books of 2010.

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Now the author of this lovely email then sent me back to the book when he found an error in the analysis of one of the deals.  Thank you, Willie Fuchs, for both the congratulatory email and for pointing out the mistake.  It will be fixed in the ebook version and in the next printed edition.

I find that I feel jet lagged after arriving back home today.  I am trying to decide if it was doing all the laundry, playing bridge against the robots on BBO, or the enormous change in temperature.  I have promised myself that next year I will go down south during the winter for more than just two one week trips.  I love Florida.  I love the palm trees, the beaches, the warm sun, Disney, shopping.  Now if we can just find a way to manage Master Point Press from there.