Du sublime au ridicule by Foxymoron

 Du sublime au ridicule, il n'y a qu'un pas is a saying wrongly assigned to Napoleon which essentially means there is one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. It is interpreted as meaning that great undertakings may end in disaster. Although sometimes attributed to the French diplomat Tallyrand (1754-1838), the expression is used much earlier by French historian Jean Francois Marmontel (1723-99) and later by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason (1793).

Almost all pairs opened 2C, except for Web Ewell and Michael Klein who had a strong club auction. One ridiculous auction went 2C-All Pass, which might have been a misclick, but the Robots managed a better effort. 2S was a positive, 3C showed five clubs, 3S showed 6 spades and 4S showed a doubleton. 4NT was RKCB and over 5S, showing 4, South made a grand-slam try with 5NT and North showed the king of clubs, That was all South needed to bid the grand. 

West followed the standard advice of leading a trump against a grand slam, but reading the auction as a 6-2 fit should have been a warning bell. The spade lead was a disaster and declarer soon claimed thirteen tricks when the jack of clubs fell.

The precision auction did not fare better. 1C was strong, and 1H showed spades. 1S asked and now 2H by South showed 6-(322). Now North could ask for specific shape with 3C, and controls, with further relays, and probably end in 7S, but there was a misunderstanding and they ended up in 6S.

The keen self-kibitzer of course bids and makes 7NT, and without finessing the jack of spades or the jack of diamonds. On the heart lead, he wins in North, cashes the top spades discarding a diamond and finesses the queen of diamonds. Now five rounds of clubs from the top execute an elegant double squeeze. And he will have played the right single-dummy line as well, so escapes punishment for his first ten offences. Sublime.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same ...

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, 

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!