[allen333]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...1946253958.html

[kenberg]

Amusing.
I don't think I have ever seen bridge compared to croquet before. I remember when Goren wrote for SI and I have a collection of his articles around somewhere. But thinking of Woody Allen as the ideal bridge player??? Back on OK bridge I once played a few very pleasant hands with Kevin Costner. That seems more realistic to me.

[hrothgar]

For me, the high note of the article was the following claim:

Quote

Bridge is a quintessentially bourgeois game. It is a fine game for respectable people to play—people who don't get to night clubs or bars all that often, or who do not have all that many extramarital affairs.

I've been involved in all sorts of organized mayhem in my life, ranging from debate club and Model UN to the Society for Create Anachronism to science fiction conventions to "adventure travel" to LARPing. The lowest common denominator has always been sex and alcohol. You can't get a even a medium size group together without folks getting smashing and rubbing genital together. (One recalls Churchill's famous comment about the British Navy "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash")

I SINCERELY doubt that bridge tournaments are any different. From the stories I've heard, ACBL Nationals wasn't quite Sodom and Gomorrah, however, I'm guessing its quite far removed from the author's claim.

[Hanoi5]

I didn't know Bill Gates partly owned BBO.

[Winstonm]

Quote

I SINCERELY doubt that bridge tournaments are any different. From the stories I've heard, ACBL Nationals wasn't quite Sodom and Gomorrah, however, I'm guessing its quite far removed from the author's claim

Sounds like you have heard about the exploits of "The Amarillo Stripper".

[kenberg]

hrothgar, on Oct 25 2009, 08:55 AM, said:

For me, the high note of the article was the following claim:

Quote

Bridge is a quintessentially bourgeois game. It is a fine game for respectable people to play—people who don't get to night clubs or bars all that often, or who do not have all that many extramarital affairs.

I've been involved in all sorts of organized mayhem in my life, ranging from debate club and Model UN to the Society for Create Anachronism to science fiction conventions to "adventure travel" to LARPing. The lowest common denominator has always been sex and alcohol. You can't get a even a medium size group together without folks getting smashing and rubbing genital together. (One recalls Churchill's famous comment about the British Navy "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash")

I SINCERELY doubt that bridge tournaments are any different. From the stories I've heard, ACBL Nationals wasn't quite Sodom and Gomorrah, however, I'm guessing its quite far removed from the author's claim.

Concerning bourgeois and respectability, there is also the quote from Marx (Karl, not Groucho)

"Our bourgeois, not content with having wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other’s wives."

The whole WSJ article requires several grains of salt, preferably placed around the rim of a margarita. But I got a kick out of it.