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RGB stalwarts of yesteryear

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John Crinnion

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Apr 15, 2012, 9:34:35 AM4/15/12
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In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.

Included in the list were ReefFish, the opinionated statistician; and
"Mad Dog" (John Probst, who has sadly been obliged to take a back seat
on account of ill health).

I mentioned a doctor from Birkenhead, whose name I have had to
research - Chris Ryall, I can now reveal. Google Groups show his
latest posting was as far back as 2004.

In the course of this research, a couple of other names came to
light: Giovanni Bobbio (also 2004) and Sid Ismail (2010) - these
dates also according to G Groups.

Carl

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Apr 15, 2012, 11:04:17 AM4/15/12
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Chris Ryall has an active bridge website but the bottom copyright
shows 2008.
I remember him because of his collection of weak two treatments, also
on his web.

I only joined here in 2002 and many of the names I remember from that
era are gone, but I've not the experience to say who were the
stalwarts.

John Crinnion

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Apr 15, 2012, 12:02:26 PM4/15/12
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On Apr 15, 4:04 pm, Carl <C...@CarlRitner.com> wrote:

<SNIP>.

> Chris Ryall has an active bridge website but the bottom copyright
> shows 2008.
> I remember him because of his collection of weak two treatments, also
> on his web.

He also had a web presence to do with his involvement with folk music.

> I only joined here in 2002 and many of the names I remember from that
> era are gone, but I've not the experience to say who were the
> stalwarts.

I can only be subjective, and talk of posters who seemed stalwarts to
me.

Eric Leong

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Apr 15, 2012, 4:24:43 PM4/15/12
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I met Chris about six or seven years ago in San Francisco. He and his
partner won a trip to San Francisco so I took him out to a sectional
and we had some meals together.

Eric Leong

Larry

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Apr 15, 2012, 5:21:56 PM4/15/12
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On Sunday, April 15, 2012 9:34:35 AM UTC-4, John Crinnion wrote:
> In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.
>
> Included in the list were ReefFish, the opinionated statistician;

I partnered Bob (ReefFish) a few times in 2004. I once roughed in the long trump hand in a local game and he gave me hell. Never asked why. I was preparing early for a possible trump coup if trumps broke poorly! He died last year, mentioned in the ACBL Bulletin. He gave me a bottle of Kahlua once after a visit at his home with he and his lovely wife, Sue. Saw a bottle of some liquor given him by one of his students, To Emperor Ling!

Larry


Larry

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Apr 15, 2012, 5:23:05 PM4/15/12
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Whoops, ruffed - typing on my laptop in Gatlinburg.

Carl

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Apr 15, 2012, 6:22:15 PM4/15/12
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rec.scuba has a thread about his passing. He struck me as being
irrational in his discussions of mean and median and such, but that
was my only exposure to him, so that's why it's slanted. Still....

Danny Kleinman's cohort and co-author Nick Straguzzi used to post very
interesting material, especially about computer bidding and play. That
all seemed to peak around 2003 and faded away for the most part. Too
bad.



Sid

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Apr 15, 2012, 7:11:22 PM4/15/12
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Hi

I have posted here as recent as a fortnight ago. I am a regular
visitor to RGB albeit somewhat subdued in posting.

:)

Sid Ismail
South Africa

Charles Brenner

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Apr 15, 2012, 8:42:56 PM4/15/12
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On Apr 15, 3:22 pm, Carl <C...@CarlRitner.com> wrote:
> On Apr 15, 5:23 pm, Larry <lnlow...@flash.net> wrote:
>
> > On Sunday, April 15, 2012 5:21:56 PM UTC-4, Larry wrote:
> > > On Sunday, April 15, 2012 9:34:35 AM UTC-4, John Crinnion wrote:
> > > > In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> > > > RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.
>
> > > > Included in the list were ReefFish, the opinionated statistician;
>
> > > I partnered Bob (ReefFish) a few times in 2004.  I once roughed in the long trump hand in a local game and he gave me hell.  Never asked why.  I was preparing early for a possible trump coup if trumps broke poorly!  He died last year, mentioned in the ACBL Bulletin.  He gave me a bottle of Kahlua once after a visit at his home with he and his lovely wife, Sue.  Saw a bottle of some liquor given him by one of his students, To Emperor Ling!
>
> > > Larry
>
> > Whoops, ruffed - typing on my laptop in Gatlinburg.
>
> rec.scuba has a thread about his passing. He struck me as being
> irrational in his discussions of mean and median and such, but that
> was my only exposure to him, so that's why it's slanted. Still....

I recall a discussion involving some bridge probability - something
akin to a routine combinatorial calculation involving counting the
number of possible distributions of two suits, the sort of computation
that should be trivial, beneath notice, for a professional
statistician as he apparently once was. However, he seemed to
flounder. He mentioned a few shards of a possible computation (and
ungraciously and incorrectly criticized a simple and correct
calculation that someone had put forth). It seemed to me that he was
not able to to hold his mind together sufficiently to complete his
solution. I guessed that he might be angry and frustrated at his loss
of mental capacity, and wondered if he had a propensity to
schizophrenia that was overcoming him.

Charles

Phil Sugar

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Apr 16, 2012, 10:31:47 AM4/16/12
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On Apr 15, 9:34 am, John Crinnion <jcrinn...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.

I assume they have asked all the questions they had remaining, and,
having learned everything they needed to know from this forum in order
to play bridge perfectly, no longer need us. A doctor is most
successful when he doesn't see his patients.

Jürgen R.

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Apr 16, 2012, 11:20:16 AM4/16/12
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"Charles Brenner" <challam...@gmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:75b0c95c-b4c2-4a41...@k10g2000pbk.googlegroups.com...
i.e. the man was stupid and unpleasant. May he rest
in peace.

Stu Goodgold

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Apr 16, 2012, 2:13:47 PM4/16/12
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Or he might just be a dismal failure.

And let's not forget Dr. Kervorkian treated his patients only once.

-Stu Goodgold
San Jose, CA

Steve Willner

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Apr 18, 2012, 8:22:46 PM4/18/12
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On 2012-04-15 9:34 AM, John Crinnion wrote:
> In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.

Kieran Dyke
Bob Lipton
Richard Pavlicek
"Raija"
Henry Sun

I fear some of them may have graduated to a higher flight (as it were),
but others are probably just too busy or have lost interest.

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123 swil...@nhcc.net
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

John Crinnion

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Apr 19, 2012, 10:59:24 AM4/19/12
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On Apr 19, 1:22 am, Steve Willner <swill...@nhcc.net> wrote:
> On 2012-04-15 9:34 AM, John Crinnion wrote:
>
> > In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> > RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.
>
> Kieran Dyke
> Bob Lipton
> Richard Pavlicek
> "Raija"
> Henry Sun
>
> I fear some of them may have graduated to a higher flight (as it were),
> but others are probably just too busy or have lost interest.


Good examples!

There is also Andrew Gumpertz, who had to go into hiding because of a
woman stalker.


> --
> Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
> Steve Willner            Phone 617-495-7123     swill...@nhcc.net
> Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Andrew

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Apr 21, 2012, 5:53:20 AM4/21/12
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On Thursday, April 19, 2012 7:59:24 AM UTC-7, John Crinnion wrote:
> On Apr 19, 1:22 am, Steve Willner <swill...@nhcc.net> wrote:
> > On 2012-04-15 9:34 AM, John Crinnion wrote:
> >
> > > In an earlier thread concerned with the real or imagined decline of
> > > RGB, mention was made of various regulars we no longer hear from.
> >
> > Kieran Dyke
Was recently spotted playing with Peter Gill, another former frequent poster, in the Australian Team Championships this month.


> > Bob Lipton
No idea what happened to Bob.


> > Richard Pavlicek
We have not heard from him in a while.

> > "Raija"
She passed away a few years ago.


> > Henry Sun
Henry seems to have stopped posting since the passing of his brother Steve. He is fine as far as I know.


> > I fear some of them may have graduated to a higher flight (as it were),
> > but others are probably just too busy or have lost interest.
>
>
> Good examples!
>
> There is also Andrew Gumpertz, who had to go into hiding because of a
> woman stalker.

Present and accounted for, sir!

Larry

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Apr 22, 2012, 7:42:25 AM4/22/12
to Jürgen R.
On Monday, April 16, 2012 11:20:16 AM UTC-4, Jürgen R. wrote:
>
> i.e. the man was stupid and unpleasant. May he rest
> in peace.

How do you know this statement to be true, have you ever met Bob in person??? He seemed to have two personalities and his on line personality was mostly unpleasant. His face-to-face personality mostly was gracious and pleasant and his wife was a wonderful hostess.

Once, when we returned from a bridge cruise docking in Florida, his wife asked if he had gotten a ticket in Georgia. He had, $600 for speeding with us in the car. My wife thanked the police officer who stopped us from going 89 mph!

Larry

John Crinnion

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Apr 22, 2012, 9:49:08 AM4/22/12
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The acid test for me would be how his face-to-face personality woud
react in a discussion of the taxonomy of statistical measures of
central tendency.

Steve Willner

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Apr 24, 2012, 7:22:18 PM4/24/12
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On 2012-04-21 5:53 AM, Andrew wrote:
>>> Kieran Dyke
> Was recently spotted playing with Peter Gill,

If anyone talks to either, you might mention that we miss them.

>>> "Raija"
> She passed away a few years ago.

Very sad. What was her real name?

>>> Henry Sun
> Henry seems to have stopped posting since the passing of his brother Steve.

He posted for some while afterward, I think, but then stopped.

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.

Adam Beneschan

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Apr 24, 2012, 8:04:01 PM4/24/12
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On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 4:22:18 PM UTC-7, Steve Willner wrote:

>
> >>> "Raija"
> > She passed away a few years ago.
>
> Very sad. What was her real name?

Raija Davis, from Reno. I don't know why someone put her name in quote marks.

-- Adam

Adam Beneschan

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Apr 24, 2012, 8:26:44 PM4/24/12
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P.S. I found her name on a list of results from the 2010 Winter NABC in Reno (January 2010).

-- Adam

Stu Goodgold

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Apr 25, 2012, 12:47:49 PM4/25/12
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On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 5:04:01 PM UTC-7, Adam Beneschan wrote:
This was a shock. I partnered Raija in the 2010 Reno NABC. It is especially a shock since I contacted another player in Reno who wrote that she was alive and well and played in the 2012 April Reno sectional a couple of weeks ago.

Sid

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Apr 25, 2012, 3:09:03 PM4/25/12
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Rich Reisig's wife died about 1 year ago. Her name was Raija. Rich
is a yellow and a star on BBO. Is there confusion in the names
perhaps?

Sid

derek

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Apr 25, 2012, 3:25:42 PM4/25/12
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Because she only ever posted under her first name, so there's no
telling if it's a pseudonym.

Adam Beneschan

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Apr 25, 2012, 3:43:46 PM4/25/12
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Well, I knew what her name was and I've never met her, so she must have included her last name somewhere. Probably at the bottom of her posts.

-- Adam

Andrew

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Apr 25, 2012, 8:45:17 PM4/25/12
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On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 5:04:01 PM UTC-7, Adam Beneschan wrote:
D'oh!

Sorry to have misinformed. There were two bridge playing Raija's who I have confused. One in Florida who passed away and Raija Davis from Reno who is a different person. I am very sorry to have made this mistake!

Adam Beneschan

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Apr 25, 2012, 10:13:14 PM4/25/12
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On Wednesday, April 25, 2012 5:45:17 PM UTC-7, Andrew wrote:

> D'oh!
>
> Sorry to have misinformed. There were two bridge playing Raija's who I have confused. One in Florida who passed away and Raija Davis from Reno who is a different person. I am very sorry to have made this mistake!

I'm glad to hear she's still with us. So, I'm sure, is she.

-- Adam

Mark Brader

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Apr 25, 2012, 11:27:57 PM4/25/12
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Andrew Gumperz:
>> Sorry to have misinformed. There were two bridge playing Raija's who I
>> have confused. One in Florida who passed away and Raija Davis from Reno
>> who is a different person. I am very sorry to have made this mistake!

Adam Beneschan:
> I'm glad to hear she's still with us. So, I'm sure, is she.

And I'll just add, after some time with Google Groups, that the
person who posted frequently to this group until 2010 as just
"Raija", and sometimes also as "Raija D", did sometimes include
her last name of Davis.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "The language should match the users,
m...@vex.net not vice versa" -- Brian W. Kernighan

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Stu Goodgold

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Apr 26, 2012, 12:12:06 AM4/26/12
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Having played with her more than once, I can unequivocably say that Raija Davis from Reno is the Raija who posted on rgb. We even mentioned our posts on rgb while discussing our convention card.
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