Red Herring by Foxymoron

The literal meaning of red herring dates to at least 1250 AD when Walter of Bibbesworth wrote in The Treatise, “He etep no ffyssh But Heryng red.” Its figurative meaning was discussed on Countdown recently. A theory that "strong-smelling" red herrings were used to distract the hounds from the hare is unlikely to be true.

A 1682 pamphlet printed by Richard Baldwin, defending the Earl of Shaftesbury is an early reference: "But your Lordships business is, to keep your Hounds in full cry, against the pretended Association, for since you cannot find one really in being; a red-herring from your own Kitchen, must be hunted and trail'd through the Kingdom, to make a noise." Unconvincing.

There are quite a few pubs called The Red Herring in Britain. One in Gresham St, London, claims: "Samuel Pepys enjoyed red herrings for his breakfast on the 28th February 1659 while waiting for his boot heel to be mended, so think of Sam when you drink in The Red Herring." As you might expect, this is completely apocryphal.

The jack of diamonds turned out to be a red herring on the following hand this week:

My partner had a nasty guess. He opened 1S, third in hand after two passes, and the auction proceeded 2H-3D-3S-4S-Double-All Pass. 3D, by a passed hand, was a fit-non-jump and showed 4-card spade support. West led a top club and switched to the jack of hearts. Declarer won with the ace, drew trumps in two rounds, and had to tackle the diamonds. Without the jack of diamonds, he would have been forced to play a diamond to the king, relying on the diamonds to be 2-2 with the ace onside.  However this red herring introduced an alternative line of running the jack of diamonds. East won with the queen and the defence still had the top club and the ace of diamonds to come. One off was a top for East-West.

Declarer's line was suspect for two reasons. West surely has the ace of diamonds for his double. If West did have AQx of diamonds, the layout Declarer was playing for, then the opponents would be making 4H. Therefore, 4Sx-1 would get some matchpoints. On the actual hand, the mirror distribution means that 4H does not make for East-West. Finally, the silver bullet is that with AQx of diamonds, West could have given his partner a diamond ruff, and he did not do so. The expression "silver bullet" is also very old:

Walter Scott’s Tales of My Landlord, 1816: "Many a whig that day loaded his musket with a dollar cut into slugs, in order that a silver bullet (such was their belief) might bring down the persecutor of the holy kirk, on whom lead had no power."

Dog's Dinner by Foxymoron

We had a poor auction on one board this week, and I think the blame was entirely mine. The auction was a bit of a dog's dinner. A little research shows that this phrase arose a few years after the similar expression "pig's ear". It first appears in T.F. Benson’s 1902 novel Scarlet and Hyssop, in which a character compares a jumble of leftovers to a “dog’s dinner.” D. W. Barrett’s Life & Work among Navvies, 1880, uses the other expression: “Now, Jack, I’m goin’ to get a tiddley wink of pig’s ear.” But that is just the Cockney rhyming slang for beer and does not indicate something messed up. It is not clear how it came to get its modern meaning.

Our auction was unconvincing: My partner's 1NT as dealer was 15-17 and was pushy - the KR evaluation is only 13.5, despite the three tens. We continued, uncontested, 2D-2H-3C-3NT. I should now bid 4C, shaping out. East's fitting rounded suit cards will help us reach slam, with East bidding 4D and West bidding 6C. Instead I bid 4NT, invitational, and East was quick to put down a green card. With the clubs behaving, 12 tricks rolled in. 6NT is slightly against the odds needing the clubs to come in and a 12th trick in one of the majors. I feared reaching the dreaded 5C (fatal at matchpoints), but that was my excuse for a poor auction. The advantage of playing in clubs may well be that you can ruff out the hearts. Even when partner has Kxx in clubs you may just be able to ruff two hearts in East. On this hand everything works. I was surprised to get above average for 4NT+2.

So a dog's dinner, which reminds me of my neighbour's dog being unwell. When I asked him how he was feeling that day, he replied "Rough".