l'appel du vide by Foxymoron

The heading translates as "the call of the void" which is an unfortunate phenomenon, known in psychology as autokabelesis.  It causes people, usually young males, to jump off a high structure. Archway Bridge in North London sees examples of this, and was the subject of a tasteless prank hoarding a few years ago, which caused at least one reader of Private Eye to extend his subscription ...

In bridge, when responding to RKCB, one has to decide what call to make with a void and whether to jump. Fortunately the stakes are not as high, but a missed grand can be the result of a misunderstanding. One method, discussed on Bridgewinners is: 

For an odd number of key cards and a void, you jump to 6 of your void if the void is in a suit below the trump suit, or 6 of the trump suit if the void is in a higher ranking suit.

The chances of partner having read the same post from some years ago are minimal, however. I think the right method is to jump to a level higher with a void. but never to bid above the trump suit at the six level.

The following hand proved beyond our methods, but we still emerged with an unexpected top.

We bid, uncontested, 1S-2C-3S-4D*-4H*-4NT*-5S*-6S. I think the fitting queen of clubs merits an upgrade to 3S after a 2-level response. 4NT was keycard for spades, and we had no agreement on how to show two key cards plus the queen of spades plus a void. I think that 6S is probably the call, but would it be interpreted correctly? And if South had hearts, then 6S would not be a wise choice as that would commit the partnership to 7H. The answer, of course, is to play kickback and minorwood, but that is a lot more work for occasional partnerships.

I am not sure why others could not bid a small slam. A phrase in Genesis Rabbah comes to mind: בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור, meaning "In the street of the blind, the one-eyed man is called the guiding light" and this predates the Erasmus quote I used some weeks ago by a millennium.