Blum on Bridge Vancouver Nationals
	Last month the Spring Nationals were held in Vancouver, Canada, and as usual little happenings occurred that would make this NABC tournament unique. The one that excited me the most played itself out after the nationally rated Women's Pairs. Harriet Eaton from Miami has as effervescent a personality as anyone in the bridge world. Bubbly and almost always with a laugh or smile, she seems to invite all she's touched to love her a little bit. I'm certainly no exception. Among all of the deadly serious competitors at the table Harriet is very easy to pick out. She belies all of her good humor by being a steady player who would do justice for any partner and often can be found in attendance at both the Marco Island Regionals and Sectionals. A couple of years ago Harriet became quite ill and all of us were worried about the final outcome. Well, true to form, her optimism and unshakable personality won out. In Vancouver she left no doubt about a full recovery. Playing with good friend Ellen Crawford, also a most steady player, the pair came second in the Women's Pairs - or were they third, or perhaps first? Abbott and Costello would have been proud; who's on first? At the conclusion of the event Harriett and Ellen went to the bar to celebrate their second-place finish. Unbeknownst to them the pair finishing third filed a protest, claiming their score of -300 was in error and should have read +420 for making a non-vulnerable game. The score was checked and sure enough it was found their score should have been +420. The corrected score jumped them to first place, demoting the first-place pair to second and Harriet-Ellen to third. While the protesters were being interviewed for their victory the corrected final tally sheet was posted. What the protesters didn't know was that the -300 they thought had been accidentally given them on the board in question was actually posted +300. Instead of a total swing of +720 points, the revised score only gained them +120. Not only were they demoted back to third place, but "lo and behold" when the smoke had cleared Harriet and Ellen won the event and were crowned champions, all while the two little innocents were having a glass of wine. For me it was a real tearjerker as it all goes to show that if one is upbeat, regardless of the circumstances, there is a far better chance for the proverbial happy ending. I would also like to mention that my good friends and sometimes partners Mike Cappelletti and Shannon Lipscomb, who recently became engaged to each other, won the National Mixed Pairs. That's kind of neat, winning that particular event so soon after their announcement. Not only was it the first National win for both of them, but the victory gave Mike a Grand Life Master status as he had all ready won over 10,000 Masterpoints. However, in addition to the points to qualify for the rank one must earn a National victory. In other news Unit 128, our district that covers most of Florida, has announced outstanding achievements for 1998. Our own Virginia Lifton with 206 Masterpoints took second place in the Life Master of the Year race. I am especially proud of Ginny, as she was one of my students. Looks like the pupil will soon move ahead of the teacher, which would be OK with me. In another category, Silver Life Master of the year, Ron Schick of Naples, with a grand total of 330 Masterpoints obtained during the year, placed third.