[blml] When to late

[Sven Pran]

> On Behalf Of Eric Landau
> At 10:02 AM 1/3/07, Sven wrote:
> 
> >And exactly how does ACBL expect their directors to handle cases where
> the
> >alleged offending side "swears to God" there was no BIT five minutes ago,
> >and had they known that the other side eventually would have claimed BIT
> >they would immediately have summoned the Director to have that question
> >clarified?
> 
> The same way, one supposes, that they would have had they been called
> five minutes earlier, and the alleged OS had sworn to God that there
> was no BIT fifteen seconds ago.  They either believe them, or they
> don't.  Indeed, either the alleged OS is telling the truth, or they're
> not.  But the truth won't change during the five-minute interval, and,
> the ACBL presumably assumes, neither will the alleged OS's story.  ISTM
> they're probably right about that.

Oh yes, it will! You would apparently be amazed (or preferably shocked) from
our experience of how quickly memory can change and "facts" be colored by
subsequent events.

On the very scene we usually get the correct impression of what really did
happen; already half a minute later may be too late and at the end of the
play most certainly will be too late. And this is not people knowingly lying
to us as directors, they really believe in what they tell us.

Sven