DO YOU PREFER CATS OR DOGS?

People tend to be in one of four categories: those who prefer cats to dogs, those who prefer dogs to cats, and those who like or dislike both. However, few are as funny about it as August Strindberg, a Swedish dramatist, who said, “I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven’t got the guts to bite people themselves.”

Bridge is a dogfight for every trick. Look upon defeat in a contract as a catastrophe. Against South’s fourheart contract, West led the spade king and switched accurately to a trump. How should declarer have continued?

That trump switch was annoying because the defenders were threatening to take three spades and one heart. After, say, a club shift, declarer could have ruffed a spade in the dummy.

South’s first thought was to take his two top trumps and start on the diamonds. If the defender with the last trump had at least three diamonds, declarer could have discarded a spade loser and made it home.

However, there was a much safer play available. South let West win the second trick! In this way, the defenders got their heart winner while there was still a trump on the board to ruff the third spade if the defenders went back to that suit.

If you didn’t spot that play, your partner would catapult you to the doghouse. He might also start doggedly to catalog your errors, and, without fear of catcalls from my readers, I can dogmatically state that that duck is the cat’s meow, doggone it!

1. Founded by and named for two Canadian men in the 19th century, this cigarette brand was associated with Buckingham Palace for more than a century, like a bustle in your hedgerow.

2. A study in 1991found that any given six-yearold could identify this cigarette brand as easily as they could Disney or Mattel toys.

3. Like English politicians, this is the name granted to a group of owls.

4. Holy procrastination, construction of this neogothic DC building began under the first Roosevelt and ended under the first Bush. At a towering 400 feet, it is the second biggest church in the country.

5. Before becoming the 28th President of the United States, he was the 13th President of Princeton University.

6. This old playhouse in DC is where 23 people have been mortally wounded. The first and most legendary was in 1865the rest were in 1893.

7. Muslims in many countries called for this man’s head in 1988 after he penned “The Satanic Verses.”