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The bridge night
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Yes, I am into bridge too. It’s the lightest of my obsessions. I am doing it mostly to keep in touch with good old friends. The usual pattern is that we set a time, and somebody is invariably late by at least ½ hour. By contrast, tonight we were supposed to start at nine, but they called me around eight to say that if I can come earlier, we could start, because the other three were already there. Since we didn’t see each other for a good couple of weeks, I hurried up and went out of the house without giving a second thought to what I am determined to do. I generally agree with T.S. Eliot’s remark that determination is no substitute for talent, but my situation is truly unusual, and I should develop a lot more discipline and stick-to-it-iveness, if nothing else, just to know for sure that I have no talent. I don’t have a good definition for talent, but I always teach my chess students and their parents, and anybody else who’s asking, for that matter (last time it was my doctor) that “Talent is the talent of letting your talent out”. It’s about time for me to start practice what I preach. In another departure from tradition, this time we didn’t play at any of our houses, but instead we all met at Molly Magee’s, an Irish pub in the neighborhood. I am an old hand at using a coffee house or a pub as my personal living room, but this one I never much like or visit.
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