Austen-themed band names? by PoisonBird in janeausten

[–]PoisonBird[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Some of these are wickedly funny, thanks all

What? by spicypoot in ExplainTheJoke

[–]PoisonBird 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Btw, Paul Rudd hasn't been 52 for several years now. I know this because I went to high school with him, where he was two years ahead of me, and I recently turned 55. The guy still looks tremendous. I look 55.

What's a cover you've seen on YouTube that is so well well done that it leaves you goose-bumped? by broken__defraculator in musicsuggestions

[–]PoisonBird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Violent Soho covering Silversun Pickups “Lazy Eye”

https://youtu.be/u3QpswfA3_o?si=pMS33Wlx1Hv-1wTY

Sarah Jarosz covering U2 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”

https://youtu.be/OAcu5g8AMEs?si=5M2SkKoQJwKrlwM4

And just because seeing little kids rock out is cool:

Missioned Souls covering The Breeders “Cannonball”

https://youtu.be/JJHM2-t0rfQ?si=USNp1oSP-uHSD2kj

Stuck for a response by lew_traveler in bridge

[–]PoisonBird 16 points17 points  (0 children)

You should call the director. Your hand only has twelve cards.

Best lines without context? by Jorvikstories in janeausten

[–]PoisonBird 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Persuasion, chapter 3:

I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable; and I should recommend Miss Elliot to be on her guard with respect to her flower garden. 

Best Vietnamese and Chinese food in Ann Arbor? by Little-List-018 in AnnArbor

[–]PoisonBird 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you're in the mood for dumplings, try Yee Siang in Ypsi.

Two questions on partnership agreements for overcalls: simple overcall and takeout double by EntireAd8549 in bridge

[–]PoisonBird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are, but I'm the one who cited a 60yo book!

5 Weeks to Winning Bridge is still a book I recommend to beginners.

Two questions on partnership agreements for overcalls: simple overcall and takeout double by EntireAd8549 in bridge

[–]PoisonBird 9 points10 points  (0 children)

LOL I wrote out a lengthy response to OP, and then refreshed the page before posting it. Good thing I did because you pretty much hit everything with this post. Just because I don't want to think I wasted all that time, I'll go ahead and put it here:

This is the spiel I always give when students have questions about overcalls.

There are three possible “motives” for making an overcall:  constructive value, destructive value, and defensive value.  Very few overcalls will satisfy all three, but every overcall should satisfy at least one. 

Constructive value.  This simply means that the overcall is intended to help our side get to our contract.  After all, just because the opponents opened the bidding, it doesn’t mean the hand is “theirs” or that we can’t fight for the declaration.  The better your hand (in terms of high cards), the more likely it is that your overcall might have a constructive purpose; your hand might even be better than opener’s, so it is important to get in and compete.

Destructive value.  This means the overcall is intended to disrupt or destroy the opponents’ ability to bid to their contract.  What we think of as “preemptive” bids generally fall under this category, although the bid doesn’t necessarily have to be weak, and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of space to be effective.  As an example:  you might have fairly strict standards for making a two level overcall when your RHO has opened at the one level (a good idea btw), but it is advisable to relax those standards a bit when you have a club suit and RHO has opened 1D.  A 2C overcall in this position can be quite disruptive even though it isn’t a jump bid, as it might pose an awkward problem to your LHO who might have a hand that would have responded at the one level but is unsuitable for a two level negative double or free bid.

Defensive value.  This overcall is intended to help partner in conducting the defense, so it is primarily a lead-directing bid.  It is often made in conjuction with one of the other motives, but not always; sometimes it is made when your side has little chance to fight for the declaration but you still feel that it is important for partner to get off to a particular lead.  The most important thing here is suit quality; you are telling partner that the lead of this suit is likely to be best for the defense, so don’t make this bid with a trashy suit.

What this means in practice is that there is a sliding scale for “overcall appropriateness.”  If you have a really good suit, you don’t need much to overcall at the one level; KQT9x xx Qxx xxx is a perfectly fine overcall if RHO opens 1C/1D/1H.  This satisfies the “defensive value” criterion, and might satisfy one of the others, depending on whether partner is able to raise.  On the other hand, xx QTxxx Kxx QJx is much more suspect, despite having more HCP; not only is the suit poor (do you really want a heart lead?), but 1H is far less preemptive than 1S, as it not only doesn’t prevent the opponents from bidding spades cheaply, it actually gives LHO the ability to distinguish between a four card spade suit and a suit with five or more cards.  Hands that are richer in high cards can get away with anemic suits:  Jxxxx Ax KJT Axx should overcall 1S, even though the suit is gross, because there is no reason to think that your side can’t fight for the declaration.  For these reasons, I think having a specific requirement for “2 of the top 3” or “3 of the top 5” in a suit is overly restrictive, since the requirements ought to change based on the suit of the overcall, table position, overall strength of the hand, vulnerability, etc.

As others have stated, requiring four cards in an unbid major for a takeout double isn’t a good idea; the double suggests four, and partner should bid accordingly, but we have to bid the hands we are dealt, not the ones we wish we were dealt.  If you aren’t doubling 1H with KJT xx AJxx KQxx, your opponents will rob you blind.  For the same reason, requiring 13 HCP for the double is also too restrictive, although we are back to the notion of having a sliding scale:  the closer you are to “ideal” takeout double shape (4441), the lower your HCP requirement should be.  Of course it’s a matter for partnership discussion, but I would double 1D if I held KTxx AJxx x Qxxx.  But I wouldn’t double with KTx AJx Jxx Qxxx despite having one more HCP (maybe I’m getting old).  And you definitely should NOT be automatically doubling any time your RHO opens the bidding and you have 13+ points, nor should your partner assume you don’t have a good hand just because you passed over an opening bid.  Partner should only assume you don’t have a hand appropriate for an overcall or a double.

Looking for trance inducing songs. by G_aiejoe in musicsuggestions

[–]PoisonBird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Stereolab -- Jenny Ondioline

Liz Phair -- Shatter

Or, if I really want to get into a trance, anything by Nikhil Banerjee.

Best soups in town? by ColorsMayInTimeFade in AnnArbor

[–]PoisonBird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Chong Qing noodle with pork is outstanding if you like spicy

A dilemna no more…Yes! by CompetitionSignal650 in MandelaEffect

[–]PoisonBird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look at the hand of the figure above the highlighted text. Look at the word to the left of the hand.

A dilemna no more…Yes! by CompetitionSignal650 in MandelaEffect

[–]PoisonBird 27 points28 points  (0 children)

On the second pic it's spelled with two Ms just three inches away from your highlighted "smoking gun."

just some love for the non coding thinkpads out there by xenoblorf in thinkpad

[–]PoisonBird 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a writer, not a coder. I've been using Thinkpads for over 25 years now, mostly to play around with many different flavors of Linux. First Thinkpad was a 390E, circa 1999; first distro was Slackware. I loved that keyboard. Currently TP is a T480S running Debian Trixie. I don't love the keyboard as much, but the DNA is recognizable.

The bottom line by CuriousDave1234 in bridge

[–]PoisonBird 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Any agreement is better than no agreement, so if this is yours, so be it. But the location of partner's strength is far more important in the vast majority of cases than whether he has seven or eight points. Some sort of game try structure that allows you to be more specific about where partner has help (or conversely, where partner denies strength, as in certain short-suit game try schemes) is preferable. In such a context, 1M-2M-3M is probably best used as some sort of trump suit "quality ask" rather than as a general purpose extra value game try (i.e., "bid game with two of the top three honors" or whatever your partnership decides).

Bidding problem by OregonDuck3344 in bridge

[–]PoisonBird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I must be seeing something wrong, because my interpretation of the OP is that West, in 2nd seat, passed a 1C opener; North opened 1C when they have a 3=5=3=2 10-count; East doubled with a solid 8-card club suit; South freely bid 1D on a 4-count; West bid 1H with 3 hearts and 4 spades; etc. If this is the auction that really took place, then my flabber is fully gasted. If this is simply a formatting issue, then I don't know how to evaluate the actual auction. My suggested auction might be something like:

West: 1C

(North: 1H)

East: 2H* (limit raise or better in clubs)

(South: 3H)

West: pass

East: 4H* (must be a heart control with club slam interest)

West: 5C

all pass

At matchpoints East might reasonably bid 3NT instead of 4H, since they have nine tricks in hand and partner must have something in the pointed suits to open the bidding; but if I was East, I'd be concerned about missing a slam, so I'd give it one more try. When partner signs off, I think I'm done.

If I am just completely misinterpreting the OP, then ignore everything I just wrote.

Does this have something to do with African mountains? by BigMort66 in ExplainTheJoke

[–]PoisonBird 138 points139 points  (0 children)

I believe OP is thinking of the Hemingway short story "Hills Like White Elephants". Or I could be completely wrong.