Life — November 27, 1931 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "A Bird in the Hand Gathers no Moss" This is a humorous article by Sam Hellman about bridge card game strategy, specifically the "Goofnaw" system. The illustration shows three men and a woman at a card table engaged in bridge. The satire targets the proliferation of complex bridge systems and bidding conventions popular in the 1920s-30s. Phil Delaney is trying to explain the Goofnaw system—which absurdly combines features of various established systems (Culbertson, Lenz effects, Bulgarian diamond threat, Danzig double, Siamese spade squeeze)—to his wife Alice. The joke is that bridge had become so complicated with competing methodologies that players needed elaborate systems just to play socially. The humor mocks both pretentious bridge enthusiasts and the snake-oil-like promotion of competing systems.