Your Birthday
FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017
Look for innovative ways to make your life better. Steer clear of any sort of excess or indulgence. It’s important to weigh your actions and to stick to a budget if you want to control stress and maintain your lifestyle. Emotional manipulation and ulterior motives are apparent.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) — Keep your plans secret until you are ready to move forward if you want to avoid someone meddling in your affairs. Consider your motives before you make a personal change.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) — Evaluate what you are being told by someone close to you, and make adjustments as necessary. Love can cloud your vision, causing you to make bad choices if you aren’t careful.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Discover what life has to offer. Attend a seminar, or network with people who share your interests to find inspiration to develop new relationships and expand your dreams.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) — If you share your plans with someone close to you, together you will bring about positive change. A joint effort will lessen your burden and encourage success.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 22) — Use your skills and strength to reach your destination. You can make positive changes if you put in the time and use your talent to outmaneuver anyone who gets in your way.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21) — Keep changes at home to a minimum. Staying within your budget regardless of the temptations you face will help to maintain a sense of financial security.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — If you live within your means and avoid making unwise choices and promises, you will avoid an unnecessary setback. Focus on keeping life simple and spending time with the one you love.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — Make personal changes before you try to change someone else. A child or friend will give you a glimpse into how others view you by revealing something that he or she overheard.
PISCES (Feb. 20-March 20) — Making home improvements or hosting an event or family entertainment is highlighted. If you use your imagination, you will come up with an idea that will please the people you love.
ARIES (March 21-April 19) — Taking a business trip or having a discussion with someone who has more experience than you will help you make an important decision about your future. Verify any information you are given.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) — Don’t believe everything you hear. One of your peers will purposefully mislead you. Stay on top of the facts and be secretive about your endeavors.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) — Partnership issues will need to be addressed before you can move forward. Reveal how you want to move forward and find out exactly where you stand. Focus on equality. By Phillip Alder
E.M. Forster, an English novelist who was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature 16 times but never won, said, “Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.”
Every bridge hand has a shape — a distribution. One of the key aspects of accurate bidding is describing your hand shape to partner. In today’s auction, for example, what did South’s three-notrump bid convey?
There is a lot to discuss here with your partner, especially if you use twoover-one game-forcing, as this Northsouth pair was doing. North’s one-no-trump response was forcing. He was expecting to rebid three spades to show game-invitational values with three-card support. After South’s threeclub jump-rebid, some pairs play that a leap to four spades indicates the gameinvitational hand, but this pair prefers to save space on a good hand when slam is possible. (For example, give South 5=1=3=4 distribution.) Here, South bid three no-trump to describe his 5=2=2=4 pattern.
North wondered about a slam because of the double fit, so control-bid four clubs. However, South had too many red-suit losers.
West led a heart. East won with the ace, and South unwisely falsecarded with his queen. Then, East gave his partner a club ruff, leading a suit-preference 10. West ruffed and, getting the message, led another low heart. East won with his heart 10 and delivered a second ruff to defeat the contract.
It’s embarrassing to make a slam-try, then go down in game.