#bridge a love story

[lilliankillthisman]

Finished Bridge, A Love Story this evening after reading most of it over the weekend. By Zia Mahmood, probably the biggest personality in world bridge, it follows the same formula as his 1991 classic Bridge My Way - a mix of anecdotes from his life, problem hands and exemplars across different themes, and more general expounding of his approach to bridge and to life. His writing style is very recognisable; his sense of humour shows through in every chapter.

Bridge My Way was for some time my number one favourite book; it is still my favourite book on bridge and might be the book that's influenced me most in my life. It left me in floods of tears; I teared up just now checking the back cover for the publication date. It... isn't supposed to do that; it's a light-hearted not-quite-autobiography by a libertine gambler with an enormous ego which hit me in ways that I'm not going to explain here. So I really wasn't expecting Bridge, A Love Story to have anything like that impact, and it didn't.

But it's good! The anecdotes are funny and charming (his story of psyching opposite President General Musharraf and being threatened by armed guards is a highlight), and nothing major is reused from Bridge My Way apart from the bones of his start as a professional bridge player, which is pretty essential. His love for his children (new additions since the earlier book) really shows through. There are sections on the 2010s cheating scandals, where his pride and love of the game show through in a much harsher way than the rest of the book. And the bridge is good too! This is fairly mass-market stuff; the problems aren't top level, and the exotic hands shown off aren't too hard to follow, but there's still a lot of theory to enjoy. I'll definitely try out some of his recommended treatments in future.

And yes, I still teared up at one point.

[star-trekster]

ST@CEC 4: Deep Space Nine; In Charles’s Shadow

[alasforher]

[thewalrusespublicist]

Cynthia Lennon truly was gods strongest soldier. Like imagine your husband, your childhood sweetheart, father of your child, the man who carved your name into the churches of Europe as his form of worship. This same man, the man who once wrote you aching letters about wanting to live and be alone with just you, telling you and the world that he can’t be apart from his boy besties for five minutes.

Then barely a year later he gets into a frankly comical amount of LSD, essentially moves in with his most special boy bestie, goes through his multiple affairs in detail with you like a hellish ‘what I did on my holidays’ slideshow, and finally tells you that he wants to leave you by having his mistress/heroin buddy/your former stalker sit on the sofa wearing your dressing gown as you return home from holiday before dragging you through the court until you are broken in every sense. Broken hearted, broken financially and broken homed. You are destitute, in tatters with a little boy he won’t see due to distance and commitment to said former stalker who he is parading round with on a ‘peace and love’ tour whilst filling up rooms with fur coats.

Then a few years later he temporarily splits from his new wife, seems to recover himself slightly and finally trots out a song. A song of apology, contrition, love, devotion, and recommitment full of personal little in jokes and messages. It is a song of love but you can’t understand it because it isn’t to YOU, it mostly isn’t even to HER, but to his FORMER BANDMATE.

HIS. FORMER. BANDMATE.

With hammers. I would have killed him with hammers.

[limitedseries]

[♪ "I Love You Always Forever" by Donna Lewis playing ♪]

Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone as Rebecca and Cam Under the Bridge (2024)— "Mercy Alone"

[evagelieneinthesky]

Usually, when we talk about the most heartbreaking part of Fleabag finale, we talk about this:

It is incredibly heartbreaking. But we all knew it was coming. And so did Fleabag. Which is why, even with the massive heartbreak, she accepts his decision. She knew he loved God, and no one will come in between that. She knew they could never be together. She had known that from the start. She neither expected nor hoped to be in a relationship. She just wanted to let him know, that she loved him. She wanted to let him know that he was loved. By her. No conditions. No matter what. Which is what makes this scene so heartbreaking.

But I think the most heartbreaking part comes right after:

These four words are enough to break her apart. Fleabag had spent most of her adult life thinking that she was unlovable. And then there comes this man, whom she loved, despite her heartbreak, telling her that he loves her back. Something she almost never hears. And this too is coming from a man, for whom admitting that he loved someone, like romantically loved someone, was a big deal.

And at this point, everything that they have been through, just becomes infinitely more profound. This is the moment, we, the audience and Fleabag, realize, that she was loved. By the man who finds her in moments where she loses herself. By someone who made her feel infinitely better about herself. By the man who made her see life in a brand-new way, who made her see herself with more love. The full realization hits, and that is what makes her (and me) breakdown. She isn't sad because it didn't happen. She mourns, because it did happen. She was loved.

(I don't know if any of this even makes sense)

BONUS:

The Hot Priest will never know that she saw The Fox, and immediately knew it was for him. He will never know, that the woman he loved saw something that apparently only he could see, and KNEW it was for him.

[wildflowercryptid]

these two have been on my mind recently, i think they'd be so cute together...

[internet-goblin]

My favorite archetype of any media has to be "Really adorable artstyle and visuals with a story that quickly becomes incredibly dark."

I'm serious. Which of these games do you think features more dead children? (The answer might surprise you!)

Which of these shows kills more of its named characters in the first season? (The answer will probably not surprise you, but it's really damn close!)

[beanghostprincess]

Actually thinking more about Reiju's only sin being a woman and... Going into more depth, I know that logically/canonically she's smart and empathetic enough to not want to be in her brothers' place. She doesn't want to be an heir/ successor or follow the family's footsteps at all. She knows they're bad. She sees herself as such, too, unable to change/be different like Sanji was. She doesn't think she can bring her mother's kindness to this world the way Sanji does, so she sticks to what she knows, whether it is to protect Sanji too or to accept her fate.

BUT (and bear with me for a second here, I know I have been watching too much Succession lately) we also do know that during her childhood she didn't do anything to help Sanji from the abuse. She watched it happen because that was the way things went there and because she knew what would happen to her if she did. Of course, she ends up helping him escape and taking care of him but-- I'm just thinking, for a tiny little moment, about how she's actually the oldest.

She should be the heir. She should be the person everybody views Ichiji as. She should be considered the most responsible. The smartest. The strongest one. The one who should take the throne. And she doesn't even want it now, but what about back then? What about when she did have some little, tiny faith/hopes for her family and what they did? She sought approval and naively thought "my father is going to offer me the place I rightfully deserve, right?" blindly seeking acceptance like all of them did.

But no, because she might be the oldest but Ichiji is a man. She might be the strongest, the smartest, the most reliable... But she is not a man. And I believe there must have been a time when she expected her destiny to be something more, and once she realized she was just a woman in their eyes... Well, we know what happened.

I just keep finding similarities between The Vinsmokes (OP) and The Roys (Succession) and perhaps my headcanon of Reiju being similar to Shiv has gone a bit too far. But the scene where Shiv is like "This is real?" when Logan promises she'll be the CEO and he goes "This is real. Remember this. The slant of light" for it to be a lie later is something I fear could have happened with Reiju and Judge if Oda had given us more content,,,,

[not-the-coffee-machine4]

Me: *tries to see what the Queen fans on TikTok have to say*

*Jim hate*

*”facts” that may or not be actually true*

*”Freddie Mercury was bisexual-“*

*Using Barbara Valentin as evidence*

*thinking things that happened in the movie actually happened irl*

*general misinformation about everyone and everything*

Me: aaaaand back to Tumblr I go

(open tags at your own risk, there’s a whole essay in there)

[booboodaddysblog]

Evan as Julian Dillinger 😏

Promo Tron Ares at D23

🎥 twitter: IMDb

[tr4v3rs3-t0wn]

henry emily but this time he's evil, also he has a gun

[alasforher]

[faragonart]

@1driedpersimmon I just thought it'd be neet if they meet hee hee~

with @pali-himbo 's Vatii Kiri~

[xpsx-8]

Sapphic south asians in media!!

[lovethytendytenderly]

The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy // an edit a day til penguins hockey, a countdown (day 9)

x x x x