The bridge of missed opportunity

Many seniors like to play bridge. It is strongly recommended by many physicians as a tactic against the penetration of the dreaded disease affecting older people... Alzheimer's. However, we must warn you that it can cause unexpected complications. Let me explain.

I recently had a heart attack.Fortunately it was not fatal or I would not writing, the doctor warned me this Artikel.jedoch against all types of shock to heart, it was pretty fragile now.

BRIDGE is primarily a game of skill.The idea of "hitting the jackpot" is in "Bridge".It is an element of luck is provided by the random distribution of cards to each Spieler.Es four players in the game with the opposite facing player as your Partner.Jeder player is dealt 13 cards and there are clearly defined rules for information you may give your partners (known as "commandments").

Similar situations are virtually never duplicated in the game (unless you are playing "duplicate bridge") because there 53,644,737,765,488,792,839,237,440,000 possible situations (offers) are so you most hardly ever the same hand twice recur in your life, to see, even if you every day, all day long play.

There are basically play the invitation to tender for a contract or as many tricks make four cards during 13 offers during a game gespielt.Sie get points for the production of your bid and bonus points for these additional offerings above made the contract.There is also a chance for your opponents bid against and even more tricks than you do, that will cost much I not go into detail, because it is pretty complicated. However, there are also other things, the game interesting... like e.g. "master points".

Hitting the winning home run with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Baseball-Spiels 25 rounds, your tennis opponent Indy 500 win six love beat, or get a Royal Flush when playing poker is the same thrill and skill as a bid of seven does no. trump in bridge. It is the best hack can make and means, which take each trick the and gives a huge boost in the direction of master points.

I have touched on the basics of bridge here. It is much more complicated than what I told you habe.Aber there are millions of people around the world who play and love the game and the competition it offers.

Is it a good treatment for a heart patients?There is a therapeutic value to the Spiel.Es is intellectually stimulating and rewarding good for the brain as it; difficult yet not so difficult to master challenging, you are enough, unable to get the reward noticeable progress. It is also complex enough to provide new spiritual worlds that intrigues of the subject will be exhausted, yet bored to conquer what level already achieved has whatever you %s.keeping sufficient diversity that never fear you will.

After a resting a few months after my heart attack, I went back to play in a tournament of computer, wonderful moments to bring back all these, I had enjoyed playing in live tournaments with many participants.Unfortunately it was a Fehler.Das problem occurred on the first deal in which computer tournament.I received what players dream about in your life playing bridge... the ten top deck (ACE) plus the three other ACEs down by five... the perfect hand seven no. Trump or a "Grand Slam."Commanded spades

Beat the shock my heart dramatic, and the power switch on the computer blipped.Ich lost everything, because I never button first hit the "Save" double shocking... had it!

So I shock offer always the "perfect bridge hand" and the possibility of the ultimate seven no. trump in.Schade bridge the opportunity came to the wrong time, and I miss es.Das is my story from the other world... and a Warnung.Verpassen your bridge chance....Save SAVE, SAVE on your computer!

Bernard block, editor and publisher of http://www.TheSeniorConnextion.com informed about news also edited impact on senior lifestyles from Monday to Friday on this Web Site.Er and published a companion Web site...SNN SeniorNewsNetwork.com international senior news abdeckt.Er is editor of his newsletter condo, CARRIAGE HILLS COURIER, in Hollywood, FL, and a few other non-profit groups.

Richard Jeng - Breaks Record for Youngest Life Master

Richard Jeng of Johns Creek, Georgia, at nine years, six months and twelve days has become the youngest Life Master in ACBL history. Jeng’s accomplishment breaks the previous record of youngest Life Master held by Adam Kaplan, of New Port Richey, Florida. Kaplan became a Life Master, in 2006, at the age of 10 years and 43 days. Read more...

Jeng, his brother and bridge partner, Andrew Jeng, who turned 12 in May of this year, both achieved the rank of Life Master together this past Saturday, September 12th. while playing at the Alpharetta Duplicate Bridge club in Alpharetta.

Achieving the rank of Life Master is the dream of all serious bridge players. Some never make it in their lifetime, while others seem to have a special gift for the game and become Life Masters within a very short time. The Jeng brothers, children of Sam and Wenwei Jeng, obviously, have that special gift for the game.

To become a Life Master, a player must win a specified number of masterpoints at different levels of play, including major bridge tournaments, and accumulate 300 specified “colored” masterpoints. A masterpoint is the unit which measures bridge achievement in tournament play.

In June, 2006, Richard Jeng, then, age 6 and Andrew Jeng, age 9, first learned to play bridge through a summer Atlanta Junior Bridge camp. They have remained steadfast bridge partners since that time and have earned most all of their Life Master points by playing together as partners.

When asked about the secret to his success in bridge, 9 year old Jeng, states, “The secret to success and winning in bridge is that there is no secret at all. All you have to do is believe in yourself.”

The Jeng brothers play bridge in all the Atlanta Junior Bridge games and tournaments and are frequent winners. They also play in adult bridge games and tournaments in the Atlanta, Georgia area, as well as online at Bridge Base Online. They have attended the past two ACBL’s Youth North American Bridge Championships.

In addition to bridge, the brothers are award winning pianists and both have earned first degree Black Belts in Karate.
Link to this article

Thanks,
In His Service
Jerry Lemieux

Horn Lake Welcomes ACBL

Amid considerable fanfare and with numerous government officials on hand, the city of Horn Lake MS welcomed the ACBL, which will relocate national Headquarters from Memphis later this year. Horn Lake is a suburb of Memphis, just a few miles from the Tennesse border in North Mississippi.

Ceremonies took place on the property, a 30,000-square-foot building originally designed as a medical facility. The ACBL will have it renovated to accommodate the Headquarters staff. Jay Baum, ACBL's chief executive, said the work probably will begin in mid-July. "We hope to be able to move in before the end of the year," Baum said. Read More...

The total cost of the project, including the purchase price of the building and renovations, is expected to be about $3 million. On hand to welcome the ACBL were Horn Lake Mayor Nat Baker, representatives from Mississippi's Senator Thad Cochran and Congressman Travis Childer's offices, along with representatives of the Board of Supervisors, plus others involved in business development in DeSoto County.

Baker read a message from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, whose trip to Horn Lake for the occasion was scrapped because of bad flying weather. ACBL's decision to move to Horn Lake, Barbour said in his message to Baker, "is good news for the city, DeSoto County and Mississippi as a whole."

The ACBL has been in Memphis since 1972, when Headquarters was moved from Greenwich CT. For 18 years, the ACBL occupied a building on Democrat Road near the Memphis International Airport. The ACBL moved to its current Airways Boulevard location in 1990. The ACBL Board of Directors considered moving out of the Memphis area -- Dallas and Atlanta were possibilities -- before approving the purchase of the Horn Lake property.

Just off of Interstate 55 in North Mississippi, the new facility will be easily accessible for visitors to the Memphis area and will have ample room for housing the North American Contract Bridge Museum, the world's largest collection of bridge memorabilia, the Albert H. Morehead Memorial Library and the ACBL Bridge Hall of Fame.


Thanks,
In His Service
Jerry Lemieux

This is very interesting!/In The 1500's

This is very interesting!
In The 1500's

The next time you are washing your hands

and complain because the water temperature isn't

just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500s:

These are interesting...

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May,

and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell,

so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege

of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally

the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually

lose someone in it. Hence the saying,

Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath.

It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other

small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery

and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a

real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up

your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the

top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt.. Hence the saying,

Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet,

so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on,

they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside.

A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always

hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.

They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the

stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then

start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there

for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,

peas porridge in the pot nine days old...

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors

came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man

could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all

sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of

the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often

with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf,

the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to

bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a

bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to

have scratch marks on the inside and they realized

they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist

of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie

it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be,

saved by the bell, or was considered a dead ringer.

And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

Educate someone.

Share these facts with a friend.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of history
thanks
Jerry

How to maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice!

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Marijuana"

6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.
9. Sing Along At The Opera.

10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache..

11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity:

Send This To Someone To Make Them Smile. It's Called ..

THERAPY

Enjoy your day tell someone you love them today
Jerry Lemieux

At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age

Georgia Scott, 99, center, during a game of bridge at her retirement community. “It’s what keeps us going,” she says.

By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: May 21, 2009

LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. — The ladies in the card room are playing bridge, and at their age the game is no hobby. It is a way of life, a daily comfort and challenge, the last communal campfire before all goes dark.

The 90+ Study

For all that scientists have studied it, the brain remains the most complex and mysterious human organ — and, now, the focus of billions of dollars’ worth of research to penetrate its secrets.

This is the second article in a series that will look in depth at some of the insights these projects are producing.

This bridge game is not for the timid. Norma Koskoff, left, Ruth Cummins and Georgia Scott expect the best from every player. If someone’s skills start slipping, it is time to find a new table.

“We play for blood,” says Ruth Cummins, 92, before taking a sip of Red Bull at a recent game.

“It’s what keeps us going,” adds Georgia Scott, 99. “It’s where our closest friends are.”

In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club — the fewer than one in 200 of us who, like Ms. Scott and Ms. Cummins, have lived past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to provide a glimpse into the lucid brain at the furthest reach of human life, and to help researchers tease apart what, exactly, is essential in preserving mental sharpness to the end.

“These are the most successful agers on earth, and they’re only just beginning to teach us what’s important, in their genes, in their routines, in their lives,” said Dr. Claudia Kawas, a neurologist at the University of California, Irvine. “We think, for example, that it’s very important to use your brain, to keep challenging your mind, but all mental activities may not be equal. We’re seeing some evidence that a social component may be crucial.”

Laguna Woods, a sprawling retirement community of 20,000 south of Los Angeles, is at the center of the world’s largest decades-long study of health and mental acuity in the elderly. Begun by University of Southern California researchers in 1981 and called the 90+ Study, it has included more than 14,000 people aged 65 and older, and more than 1,000 aged 90 or older.

Such studies can take years to bear fruit, and the results of this study are starting to alter the way scientists understand the aging brain. The evidence suggests that people who spend long stretches of their days, three hours and more, engrossed in some mental activities like cards may be at reduced risk of developing dementia. Researchers are trying to tease apart cause from effect: Are they active because they are sharp, or sharp because they are active?

The researchers have also demonstrated that the percentage of people with dementia after 90 does not plateau or taper off, as some experts had suspected. It continues to increase, so that for the one in 600 people who make it to 95, nearly 40 percent of the men and 60 percent of the women qualify for a diagnosis of dementia.

At the same time, findings from this and other continuing studies of the very old have provided hints that some genes may help people remain lucid even with brains that show all the biological ravages of Alzheimer’s disease. In the 90+ Study here, now a joint project run by U.S.C. and the University of California, Irvine, researchers regularly run genetic tests, test residents’ memory, track their activities, take blood samples, and in some cases do postmortem analyses of their brains. Researchers at Irvine maintain a brain bank of more than 100 specimens.

To move into the gated village of Laguna Woods, a tidy array of bungalows and condominiums that blends easily into southern Orange County, people must meet several requirements, one of which is that they do not need full-time care. Their minds are sharp when they arrive, whether they are 65 or 95.

They begin a new life here. Make new friends. Perhaps connect with new romantic partners. Try new activities, at one of the community’s fitness centers; or new hobbies, in the more than 400 residents’ clubs. They are as busy as arriving freshmen at a new campus, with one large difference: they are less interested in the future, or in the past.

“We live for the day,” said Dr. Leon Manheimer, a longtime resident who is in his 90s.

Yet it is precisely that ability to form new memories of the day, the present, that usually goes first in dementia cases, studies in Laguna Woods and elsewhere have found.

The very old who live among their peers know this intimately, and have developed their own expertise, their own laboratory. They diagnose each other, based on careful observation. And they have learned to distinguish among different kinds of memory loss, which are manageable and which ominous.

A Seat at the Table

Here at Laguna Woods, many residents make such delicate calculations in one place: the bridge table.

Contract bridge requires a strong memory. It involves four players, paired off, and each player must read his or her partner’s strategy by closely following what is played. Good players remember every card played and its significance for the team. Forget a card, or fall behind, and it can cost the team — and the social connection — dearly.

“When a partner starts to slip, you can’t trust them,” said Julie Davis, 89, a regular player living in Laguna Woods. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s terrible to say it that way, and worse to watch it happen. But other players get very annoyed. You can’t help yourself.”

• At the Friday afternoon bridge game, Ms. Cummins and Ms. Scott sit with two other players, both women in their 90s. Gossip flows freely between hands, about residents whose talk is bigger than their game, about a 100-year-old man who collapsed and died that week in an exercise class.

  For all that scientists have studied it, the brain remains the most complex and mysterious human organ — and, now, the focus of billions of dollars’ worth of research to penetrate its secrets.

  But the women are all business during play.

  “What was that you played, a spade was it?” a partner asks Ms. Cummins.

  “Yes, a spade,” says Ms. Cummins, with some irritation. “It was a spade.”

  Later, the partner stares uncertainly at the cards on the table. “Is that ——”

  “We played that trick already,” Ms. Cummins says. “You’re a trick behind.”

  Most regular players at Laguna Woods know of at least one player who, embarrassed by lapses, bowed out of the regular game. “A friend of mine, a very good player, when she thought she couldn’t keep up, she automatically dropped out,” Ms. Cummins said. “That’s usually what happens.”

  Yet it is part of the tragedy of dementia that, in many cases, the condition quickly robs people of self-awareness. They will not voluntarily abandon the one thing that, perhaps more than any other, defines their daily existence.

  “And then it’s really tough,” Ms. Davis said. “I mean, what do you do? These are your friends.”

  Staying in the Game

  So far, scientists here have found little evidence that diet or exercise affects the risk of dementia in people over 90. But some researchers argue that mental engagement — doing crossword puzzles, reading books — may delay the arrival of symptoms. And social connections, including interaction with friends, may be very important, some suspect. In isolation, a healthy human mind can go blank and quickly become disoriented, psychologists have found.

  “There is quite a bit of evidence now suggesting that the more people you have contact with, in your own home or outside, the better you do” mentally and physically, Dr. Kawas said. “Interacting with people regularly, even strangers, uses easily as much brain power as doing puzzles, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this is what it’s all about.”

  And bridge, she added, provides both kinds of stimulation.

  The unstated rule at Laguna Woods is to support a friend who is slipping, to act as a kind of memory supplement. “We’re all afraid to lose memory; we’re all at risk of that,” said one regular player in her 90s, who asked not to be named.

  Woody Bowersock, 96, a former school principal, helped a teammate on a swim team at Laguna Woods to race even as dementia stole the man’s ability to form almost any new memory.

  “You’d have to put him up on the platform just before the race, just walk him over there,” Mr. Bowersock said. “But if the whistle didn’t blow right away, he’d wander off. I tell you, I’d sometimes have to stand there with him until he was in the water. Then he was fine. A very good swimmer. Freestyle.”

  Bridge is a different kind of challenge, but some residents here swear that the very good players can play by instinct even when their memory is dissolving.

  “I know a man who’s 95, he is starting with dementia and plays bridge, and he forgets hands,” said Marilyn Ruekberg, who lives in Laguna Woods. “I bring him in as a partner anyway, and by the end we do exceedingly well. I don’t know how he does it, but he has lots of experience in the game.”

  Scientists suspect that some people with deep experience in a game like bridge may be able to draw on reserves to buffer against memory lapses. But there is not enough evidence one way or the other to know.

  Ms. Ruekberg said she cared less about that than about her friend: “I just want to give him something more during the day than his four walls.”

  Drawing the Line

  In studies of the very old, researchers in California, New York, Boston and elsewhere have found clues to that good fortune. For instance, Dr. Kawas’s group has found that some people who are lucid until the end of a very long life have brains that appear riddled with Alzheimer’s disease. In a study released last month, the researchers report that many of them carry a gene variant called APOE2, which may help them maintain mental sharpness.

  Dr. Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has found that lucid Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians are three times more likely to carry a gene called CETP, which appears to increase the size and amount of so-called good cholesterol particles, than peers who succumbed to dementia.

  “We don’t know how this could be protective, but it’s very strongly correlated with good cognitive function at this late age,” Dr. Barzilai said. “And at least it gives us a target for future treatments.”

  For those in the super-memory club, that future is too far off to be meaningful. What matters most is continued independence. And that means that, at some point, they have to let go of close friends.

  “The first thing you always want to do is run and help them,” Ms. Davis said. “But after a while you end up asking yourself: ‘What is my role here? Am I now the caregiver?’ You have to decide how far you’ll go, when you have your own life to live.”

  In this world, as in high school, it is all but impossible to take back an invitation to the party. Some players decide to break up their game, at least for a time, only to reform it with another player. Or, they might suggest that a player drop down a level, from a serious game to a more casual one. No player can stand to hear that. Every day in card rooms around the world, some of them will.

  “You don’t play with them, period,” Ms. Cummins said. “You’re not cruel. You’re just busy.”

  The rhythm of bidding and taking tricks, the easy conversation between hands, the daily game — after almost a century, even for the luckiest in the genetic lottery, it finally ends.

  “People stop playing,” said Norma Koskoff, another regular player here, “and very often when they stop playing, they don’t live much longer
  

Thanks Enjoy your Holiday Weekend
Jerry Lemieux

It's Only A Game

It’s only a game

By Earline Sloan

Duplicate players tend to be a serious lot. We want to compete, do well and improve our play. There are two ladies at the Shore Bridge Club in Atlantic City NJ who remind others that it is only a game, and we play to have fun. Dolores Wilson and Becky Dickerson met at the club four years ago while attending bridge lessons. They became close friends and discovered that they shared an interest in clowning.

They first showed up as Christmas trees at the annual holiday party. Now they have a surprise costume for almost every occasion. Other players don’t know if one will be Abraham Lincoln and the other George Washington on Presidents’ Day, or someone dressed in boxer shorts and gloves at knockout team games.

Club Manager Martin De Bruin thinks of the club as a family and the two help promote that spirit. Other club members say, “They keep us young,” and “They put a smile on my face.”

Because the two don’t take themselves too seriously, they make bridge more fun for everyone.

Enjoy your bridge Everyone