A metaphor

Jake and Gina have been married for 50 years.

Since forever they have been doing everything together: work, house chores, raising a family and... of course, play Bridge together. Ever since they learned to play, they always played together as partners and never ever had any fights over bridge (when they got a bad score, they always tried to analyze what went wrong in order to improve their play, and never hesitated to take the blame when they realized one of them made a mistake).

"Don't you realize couples should never play together?", they got asked every now and then.

"Nonsense! It's just a game", would answer Jake. "It's a joy for me to partner my loved one at bridge too", said Gina.

When their kids grew up (a son and a daughter) – they taught them how to play, and played at home once a week.

When the children got married and had kids themselves – they also taught their grandchildren how to play.

The tradition of a competitive game of Bridge once a week at Jake and Gina's home was kept over the years, and the number of tables in play kept growing, as the family grew.

For today's game, they had their daughter and her husband, their son and his wife, and their four grandchildren for the weekly bridge. Jake played with Gina (as always), the daughter played with their son's wife, the son with their daughter's husband, two grandsons partnered each other, and their two granddaughters formed another pair.

During the play, the youngest grandson (7 years old) asked out loud: "Grandpa, how come you chose grandma? It's clear that she's the right one for you, since you're always together, even at bridge!"

All ears where turned to their table to hear the answer...

"I'll answer you question with a question: The king wanted his son, the prince, to get married. Many wanted to marry the prince but in the end only three remained: a blonde, daughter of a rich businessman, a brunette, daughter of a successful doctor, and a redhead, daughter of a priest. So... which one did he choose?", asked Jake.

Many different answers were offered from all three tables, as each bet on another answer.

"And what do you think, my grandson?"

"I think he married the most beautiful one", answered the grandson.

"Right! You are so clever", Jake complimented him with a smile.

For the hand below, Gina was the only one who managed to make the contract:

Dealer South - All vulnerable:


6NT was easy to reach, and the lead at all three tables was the ♠J. At the other two tables, declarer won the lead, played ♣QJ, went to dummy with the ♦Q, pulled the ♣AK and tried to establish the Diamonds. But East won the 4th Diamond and cashed the 5th Club for down one. The Heart finesse doesn’t work here either.

Gina started the same way by winning ♣QJ. But then she made the move which guaranteed her success: She ducked a Diamond! East won, but Gina made the rest of the tricks: the ♦Q was an entry to the ♣AK, and the Diamond suit is high now: 4 Diamonds, 4 Clubs, 3 Spades and 1 Heart.

"Is it true? Did grandpa really choose you because you were the most beautiful?", asked the young grandchild.

"No. There were plenty more beautiful girls around. I think he chose me because of other reasons. Using the word 'beautiful' is just a metaphor, dear", said Gina.

"What's a metaphor?", he asked.

"A metaphor is sort of an image, giving one thing as an example to make a point of something similar. It's like a fable. You understand?".

"Sure! Now I get it. He chose you because you were the best Bridge player around", he shouted, and everyone laughed out loud...