Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 52

Mar 18 2011 Post-Gazette PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE 20, 2011 WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM E-6 E-6 im Ritts of Knoxville, saw a T-shirt in Vail, claiming: you think marriage is a 50-50 proposition, you know the half of A finesse is supposedly 50-50, but if you always think that, you know the half of it. Today we will look at a deal that might or might not involve a finesse. You are in four spades. West leads the diamond jack. What would you do? You might have rebid three no trump, which would have worked well with this layout because you would have had nine top tricks on any lead.

(Strong-club systems, when a one-club opening promises 16 points or more, work better with this type of hand, permitting a more leisurely discussion about the merits of each strain a suit or no-trump.) You have two diamond losers and two finesses, in hearts and clubs. So, you win trick one with your diamond ace, play a spade to jack, and take the heart finesse. It loses, they cash their diamond tricks and exit with a trump to ace. Now you take the club finesse. Unlucky it loses too: down one.

Well, that is how it would go for a finessing fiend. But surely you play it that way. After winning with the diamond ace, you cashed the club ace and played another club, you? They took their diamond winners ending with East, and he shifted to the heart jack, but you won with your ace, drew two rounds of trumps ending in the dummy, and discarded your losing heart queen on the winning club queen you? A WEEKEND WAYNE ROBERT WILLIAMS TODAY: MULTIFACETED A 1 Dinner party 8 Accompanied on a ticket 15 Works 20 Biofuel option 21 Size of a football field, roughly 22 e.g. 23 Chick lit book (1992) 25 longest river 26 Pie Island (artist commune on the Thames) 27 Turned right 28 The Browns, on sports tickers 29 Headline 30 A nut might go on one 33 Chick lit book with (1843) 36 Bear witness 37 Franco (watch brand) 38 with 39 Chick lit book (1965) 44 D. Young Man of the Year in 1929) 48 Two-time N.B.A.

M.V.P. Steve 49 Kerfuffles 50 Emphatic acceptance 51 Italian city where pizza was invented 53 Mich. neighbor 54 Clumsy handler 56 P.R. locale 58 Brand introduced by Philip Morris in 1975 59 Chick lit book (1974) 64 Iron Man co-creator 67 Where 76-Across may be worn 68 Affixes on 69 Chick lit book (1960) 74 Dog of writer 75 Pip of e.g. 76 67-Across jewelry 77 Fold member 80 Says 82 Theater with fans 84 Political commentator Colmes 85 Nerve cell projection 86 Opponent of Napoleon 87 Chick lit book (1930) 92 Start to production? 93 Tel Park 94 Refer (to) 95 Chick lit book (1985) 101 Group in and the e.g.

103 Some washers and dryers 104 Wine container 105 Whitman Bridge 106 Environmental pollutant, for short 108 Snarl 109 Chick lit book (1967) 114 Bracelet attachment 115 Christmas or Yom Kippur 116 Spread, as rumors 117 Some church overhead? 118 Bony 119 Game highlights shower WN 1 Rose high in some estimation 2 Besides 3 Gossip fodder 4 Down, with 5 Mille Roses perfume) 6 School in the Patriot League 7 Stage light 8 Artery 9 True-crime writer Rule 10 Home of Agate Fossil Beds Natl. Monument 11 First horse to compete in all three Triple Crown races 12 With cold feeling 13 Stuck 14 Famous bathrobe wearer, informally 15 Folk guitarist Leo 16 1986 Indy 500 winner 17 Wombs 18 the Short, early king of the Franks 19 Power cord feature 24 Chess opening? 29 moves sloganeer 31 Mosquito protection 32 Reno setting: Abbr. 33 180s 34 Vitamin and supplement chain 35 Night light? 36 time (never) 37 Old or morning follower 40 Harsh treatment 41 at first, the is not absurd, then there is no hope for Einstein 42 Ulster or Norfolk 43 Friends and neighbors 44 Broached 45 A quarrel 46 Cooking poet 47 Dodge S.U.V. 52 Affairs 54 Part of a support group 55 Skating maneuver 57 Femur or tibia 59 Rock singer Dee 60 a 61 Bookcase material 62 When most movies open: Abbr. 63 YouTube selection 64 Bar selection 65 Hypes 66 Dog named after a Japanese prefecture 70 Werewolf feature 71 Lakers star Lamar 72 Flame, e.g.

73 Impersonate, in a way 77 Clear of charges 78 Carpentry fastener 79 -ess alternative 81 2005 World Series team, for short 83 Classic sandwich 84 End in 85 Part of many ristorante dish names 88 end? 89 Book before Num. 90 Hesitates 91 Locale for many a gondola 92 Whence the phrase will both lay me down in peace, and 95 Conifer with durable wood 96 Home of ConAgra 97 Seagoing 98 de los Reyes month 99 Group think? 100 contests? 101 102 (old NBC slogan) 105 Maze choices 107 Tanning salon fixtures 109 Doctor from the planet Gallifrey 110 home 111 vian, e.g. 112 113 Hue and cry BRIDGE PHILLIP ALDER A 1 Shady bower 6 Inmates 10 Bitterly pungent 15 Icy coating 19 Line of Londoners 20 Baseball brothers 21 Audible waves 22 French priest 23 Head over heels 25 Use a thurible 26 Road turn 27 Sundial numeral 28 Explorer Ericson 29 Olympic swimmer Matt 31 Ventilated 32 Highland boys 34 Winner of ten Academy Awards in 1961 36 Brian of Night to 37 Layers 38 Wide-open space 39 Kickoff stand 40 Latch on to 41 Whole 43 Half a dolphin fish 45 Quilting event 46 One of the Balearic Islands 48 Drench 51 Word before bag or box 52 FDR address 55 Attendant 56 Settled a debt 58 star Keach 59 Conduct 61 Do penance 62 Beauty parlor do 63 comment 66 Bridge seats 67 Have a liking for 69 Legendary Yogi 71 Provocative comedy 72 Sicilian resort town 73 Deathwatch 77 Roman god of the underworld 78 Part of a tennis match 79 Implore 80 Objective 81 Part of DMV 82 prolonged howling 83 Mother of Brunhilde 85 longa, vita brevis 86 Delighted 89 Shoestrings 91 Inhumanly cruel 94 Innovation location 97 character 98 Fumigate 99 Ancient Neoplatonist theologian 100 Opinion pg. 101 Light brown 102 Friend from France 103 Egg-shaped 104 Football ploy 107 Numskull 108 job 109 Tableland 110 1988 Olympic Games city 111 Forestry tools 112 General tendency 113 Birth a lamb 114 Plant with button like, yellow flowers WN 1 Eagle in the night sky 2 Indonesian currency 3 Irrelevant 4 Avignon affirmative 5 Tachometer zone 6 Muslim magistrates 7 Palme of Sweden 8 At the moment 9 Ray of light 10 Fancy neckwear 11 Filmmakers Joel and Ethan 12 Language of Bujumbura 13 Favorable position 14 Ike 15 Environment 16 husband 17 Doubleday and Haynes 18 Artificial primary pigment 24 Extra-wide shoe 30 suffix 31 Humane org. 33 Eins, zwei, 34 Pursue with passion 35 Combo bet 37 John of 40 Neighbor of Pol.

41 Business abbr. 42 Japanese drama 43 Oases, maybe 44 Nail polish remover 45 Make an offer 46 Four CDs 47 A.A. Milne character 48 Stop along the road 49 Self-gratifying spree 50 Superlatively suspenseful 52 Feudal estate 53 Orch. section 54 Like feet? 55 Funny kind of fall? 57 Dancer Pavlova 60 Not imaginary 62 Chair 64 Cross or Kupcinet 65 Water nymphs 68 Toed the line 70 Old English letter 71 Fig. of speech 74 Hibernation spot 75 Pc.

76 Angelina Jolie movie 79 Musical Count 81 Beat decisively 82 NBA scores 83 Thrifty management 84 Movie critic Reed 85 Maximally dry 86 Latin American Christmas festival 87 Oaf 88 Star in the French sky 89 Map key 90 Pres. Lincoln 91 Ran in the wash 92 Ancient calculator 93 Limply 95 Smidgen 96 Discover by chance 97 Of bees 100 Greek peak in Thessaly 103 Table scrap 105 French born 106 New Zealand parrot THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD TODAY: CHICK LIT (0320) Stumped? 1-900-285-5656 $1.20 per minute LAST ANSWERS THE WORD JAN FREEMAN 1 6 8 10 11 12345678910111213141516171819 202122 232425 26272829 303132333435 363738 394041424344454647 4849505152 535455565758 5960616263 6465666768 6970717273 747576777879 808182838485 868788899091 929394 9596979899100101102 103104105106107 108109110111112113 114115116 117118119 MCSDENIMTAPSSAABS RHOALONEISLAMADMIT MARRYINGTHEKALEFLITE OREOSHORSYSPEEDUP MOSTPASTORSSTAIRRAMP AWARDSBOASTLEE SGTATEIOUSARYANS CRACKYOURPATEPIE CHOPPERNIABACARDI HOMERSCANDLEWITHHAIR ELYMARSINEZIVE RAKINGMYMOUNDSBOWMEN IRONOREHEENOWHERE RDAGROUNDHOWLING AFRESHMOTHAILGTE RIOABACONAUSEA TRAILMUCKBETTERLOCKS DENSESTPIANOPARCH EBOLACHILLEDWITHFEAR COKESHALLEDRAMAERE OXEYEMESSSYNCSLSD LAST ANSWERS Enjoy your jimmies guilt-free hen I mentioned jimmies the regionalism for chocolate sprinkles, in a recent column, it was just as a passing example; I mean to reopen an etymological can of worms. But a few days later, along came an e-mail from Ron Slate of Milton, repeating the rumor that has dogged the term: mother told us never to use the word because it is an epithet for he wrote. we always said Even before that tale got abroad, jimmies was trailing clouds of factoid and fancy. Its origins are murky, so like whole nine and real it attracts just-so stories, some plausible and some less so.

At the website UniversalHub, commenters will tell you that jimmies are named for Jimmy Fund, the cancer charity; for a kid named Jimmy who got them on his ice cream as a birthday treat for a Jimmy who was extra generous with sprinkles; and for a guy who (maybe) ran the chocolate-sprinkles machine at the Just Born candy factory. Of all these theories, only the last is even remotely plausible. Just Born, the candy company that still provides us with our marshmallow Peeps, was founded in Brooklyn in 1923; the website says that jimmies invented at Just Born and named after the employee who made (Company spokesmen have mentioned a Jimmy Bartholomew, but his existence is unverified.) But company histories often include a fudge factor, and this claim of invention seems dubious: Chocolate sprinkles, so called, were already popular in the 1920s, the newspaper archives show. The Nashua, N.H., Telegraph is advertising a treat made with chocolate sprinkles in 1921, before Just Born was born. Later that decade, the sprinkles show up in Ottawa and Spokane newspapers, and by 1927, Sunshine is producing a Chocolate Sprinkle cookie topped with marshmallow and sprinkles.

even a laxative consisting of Swiss-like milk chocolate a 1928 ad in the Pittsburgh Press says it has given of Pennsylvanians the Glorious Complexion of a Regulated And the earliest print evidence for the word jimmies comes not from Just Born but from a December 1930 ad in the Pittsburgh Press. An ad from Mc a local food emporium, offers sponge cake creamy butter frosting and chocolate adding helpfully: case you know what jimmies are tiny chocolate This suggests that the term was new (to Pittsburgh, at least), but it offers no clue to its coinage. Whatever the source of the name, though, nothing in the record suggests that jimmies was racially tinged. And not likely anyone would have been coy about it, as racist brand names (and artwork were unremarkable in the 1930s and Katharine Weber, whose novel is set in a family candy company, blogs about some of them at Staircase Writing: The Abba-Zaba wrappers with their smiling cartoon savages, candy, and infamous Pickaninny Peppermints, a brand that persisted until Thurgood Marshall, then a young civil rights lawyer, took on the company in the early 1940s. So where did the rumor come from? possible that people old enough to remember the candies of the like Ron mother, wrongly assumed that was also a slur.

But the notion have much documented history; David Wilton, who investigated jimmies in his 2004 book, found no record of it before 1997. And though hard to prove a negative, the absence of evidence for a racist jimmies is striking. Nobody cites examples of its use as a slur; just a vague hint that it might have some connection to In this instance, though, the facts may finally prevail. Yes, you can find fictional etymologies of jimmies on the Web, but the accusation seem to be catching on. So be of good cheer, jimmies fans in Philly and New Jersey and Boston; you may feel guilty about the calories in those chocolate tidbits, but no shame in the name.

Jan e-mail address is for more language commentary go to her blog, Throw Grammar from the Train fromthetrain.blogspot.com). To finesse or not to finesse.