[blml] Worst Method in the World

[David Burn]

[NG]

*Civil* law is more relevant than *Criminal* law to bridge legislation.

[DALB]

I am mildly surprised that contributors from France and other European
countries where the system of justice is "inquisitorial" rather than
"adversarial" have not protested strongly that analogies with the
"presumption of innocence" are at best useless and at worst false.

I have not followed too closely the various threads on the subject of what
should be said at the table when a sequence occurs in which one player is
not sure what his partner intends by a call. My own procedure may best be
summed up by a dream I had the other night, in which Richard Hills and I
were playing the Worst Method in the World and bid 1NT-2C-2H-2S. Asked what
that meant, I said:

"I have no idea. But if he'd bid 2NT, it would have meant that he wanted to
boil this auction in sawdust, salt it in glue, condense it with locusts and
tape, still keeping one principal object in view - to preserve its
Symmetrical shape. If he'd bid anything else I would have no idea what it
meant either, but if he actually had a weak hand with spades, he could..."

At that point I woke to the knell of a furious bell, which the Bellman rang
close at my ear. But the principle is: disclosure's a very odd concept that
won't be expressed in a commonplace way. Tell them all that you know, tell
them all that you don't, and if Herman's not there, you're OK.

David Burn
London, England