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Bridge: Sept. 27, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

Cy the Cynic, Rose, Grapefruit and I went to lunch at a restaurant. Our food was slow arriving, and Grapefruit called for the manager.“Did the waiter who took our order leave any family?” Grapefruit wanted to know.Grapefruit is as hard on his partners as unvarnished wood. He was today’s North in a penny game, and West led a spade against 3NT: three, ten, queen. Declarer then led the queen of clubs, preparing to run the clubs.STOPPERUnfortunately, East had a stopper. He won the fouth club and returned a spade, South went down one, and Grapefruit announced that South possessed a room-temperature IQ.“I ought to give you a piece of my mind,” South growled.“Careful,” Grapefruit snarled. “You don’t have much to spare.”South needed foresight, and an awareness of “avoidance” play. In case West has the singleton jack of clubs (maybe one chance in 30), South must lead the five of clubs at Trick Two. When West’s jack...

Word Game: Sept. 27, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — PANCAKES (PANCAKES: PAN-kakes: Flat cakes made of thin batter and cooked on both sides.)Average mark 30 wordsTime limit 40 minutesCan you find 39 or more words in PANCAKES? The list will be published tomorrow.YESTERDAY’S WORD — HOMILIES helm hole holism home hose mesh mile miso moil mole isle isohel lime limo lose semi shim shoe silo simile slim slime sloe smile soil sole someTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.Contact Word Game creator Kathleen Saxe at [email protected].

Ask Amy: I think her RV scheme is a big mistake. Am I allowed to say anything?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

Dear Amy: My BFF and I met in grade school. We’ve lost touch on and off, but we always find our way back, usually when she’s losing a relationship.The last loss was two Christmases ago, when after 10 years together her partner “Benny” called her at work, telling her: “This isn’t working anymore, I’m moving out today.”It was rough. She had custody of her toddler grandson whom she thought Benny would help her to raise.I was there for her. She got therapy and started choosing to focus on herself, versus always needing to be with a guy.Six months later, she met “Chris” on a dating website. He was one of five or six guys she was seeing. After four months, she decided she really liked him, and they became exclusive.I’ve seen her four times since then. Now I’m lucky if I talk to her once a month.Her birthday is coming up, so we caught up.She told me that her daughter and the daughter’s girlfriend are taking over her house, while she will live in the basement. They will pay the mortgage and...

Five-bedroom home in Pleasanton sells for $3 million

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

6007 Laurel Creek Drive – Google Street ViewThe spacious property located in the 6000 block of Laurel Creek Drive in Pleasanton was sold on Aug. 1, 2023 for $3,026,000, or $758 per square foot. The house, built in 1999, has an interior space of 3,992 square feet. This single-story house offers a capacious living environment with its five bedrooms and five baths. In addition, the house comes with a three-car garage, allowing for convenient vehicle storage and additional storage space.These nearby houses have also recently changed hands:A 3,718-square-foot home on the 5900 block of Laurel Creek Drive in Pleasanton sold in September 2022, for $3,100,000, a price per square foot of $834. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.On Laurel Creek Drive, Pleasanton, in July 2022, a 4,337-square-foot home was sold for $3,100,000, a price per square foot of $715. The home has 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.In November 2022, a 3,424-square-foot home on Crosby Drive in Pleasanton sold for $2,500,000...

Harriette Cole: She’s ignoring the do’s and dont’s of pregnancy, and I want to say something

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

DEAR HARRIETTE: My brother and his wife are expecting their first child together, and I am thrilled for them. However, I am growing increasingly concerned about my sister-in-law’s lack of caution during her pregnancy.Related ArticlesAdvice | Harriette Cole: I hate to think it, but maybe I’m a helicopter mom Advice | Harriette Cole: This macho guy is now being kind to me, and I’m suspicious Advice | Harriette Cole: Should I tell my wife what my friend said about us? Advice | Harriette Cole: I didn’t mean to get the Airbnb host banned Advice | Harriette Cole: Is it a bad idea to hang out with this man so I can meet his friends? As someone who has had three children of my own, I feel confident in my knowledge of the do’s and don’ts of pregnancy. I am constantly seeing my sister-in-law do things that make me worry for the safety of her and her unborn child.There are specif...

A Ukrainian Woman Protected Her Daughter From Russian Soldiers — and Was Accused of Collaborating With the Enemy

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

This article includes descriptions of sexual violence.BUCHA, UKRAINE — The first Russian soldiers arrived several days after Bucha had fallen, looking for any men left behind. Anna, a widow, lived alone with her mother and teenage daughter.“We have no men,” Anna told the soldiers, speaking in Russian. She warned her mother not to speak, worried that the soldiers would pick up on her distinct Western Ukrainian speech and mark her as a banderivka, a pejorative Russians often use to refer to Ukrainian nationalists or people they think of as such.Anna showed the Russians her father’s death certificate, which noted that he had been born in Russia’s far east. “It’s what saved us,” she later told me.She tried to appear welcoming, heeding a neighbor’s advice. “It’s going to be worse if you don’t let them in,” the elderly woman had warned. At first, the fact that they were three women alone did not feel uniquely threatening to Anna. Some of her neighbors were hiding male relatives in th...

The Hunt for the Nord Stream Bombers

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

In the early morning hours of September 26, 2022, in the deep abyss of the Baltic Sea, an international mystery of substantial consequence began to unfold when a bomb ruptured the Russian-dominated Nord Stream pipeline. It was the opening salvo in a four-pronged attack that day that would leave three of the four pipelines incapacitated. One year later, no suspects have been arrested and no sponsor — nation state or otherwise — has been formally accused of responsibility. This week on Intercepted, we present a special documentary, “The Hunt for the Nord Stream Bombers.” We hear from Holger Stark, an investigative journalist from Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper who has broken several major stories on the bombing, as well as retired Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who organized a groundbreaking independent expedition to film all four of the blast sites. Jeremy Scahill takes us through what we know and what we don’t about the bombing and examines the top suspects and the mou...

Child Care at a Crossroads: Finding child care is already difficult and expensive — and it’s about to get worse

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

You would think with all the money parents have to pay for child care — it can easily add up to or even surpass the cost of a monthly mortgage payment — that the child care industry would be a lucrative career field for the people who work in it.But it’s not.In fact, at the same time, parents are finding it hard to afford — much less, find — good child care, many of those providers are wondering how long they might be able to make it.It’s especially true of the licensed, in-home providers, which are rapidly declining in number every single year. And with the federal support that helped get child care providers through the pandemic about to end, it could serve another blow to a floundering industry.In the special series, “Child Care at a Crossroads,” WTOP is taking a look at the state of child care now, and what the future holds once billions of dollars in aid that has propped up the child care industry since the pandemic expires. If you thought options were limited and unaffordable ...

Britain approves new North Sea oil drilling in welcome news for the industry but not activists

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

LONDON (AP) — British regulators on Wednesday approved new oil and gas drilling at a site in the North Sea, a move environmentalists say will hurt the country’s attempt to meet its climate goals.The U.K.’s North Sea Transition Authority said it had approved the Rosebank Field Development Plan, “which allows the owners to proceed with their project.”Britain’s Conservative government argues that drilling in the Rosebank field, northwest of the Shetland Islands, will create jobs and bolster the U.K.’s energy security.One of the largest untapped deposits in U.K. waters, Rosebank holds an estimated 350 million barrels of oil.The field is operated by Norway’s Equinor and the U.K. firm Ithaca Energy, which say they plan to invest $3.8 billion in the first phase of the project. The field is expected to start producing in 2026-2027.Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucas called the decision to approve drilling “morally obscene.”“Energy security and cheaper bills aren’t delivered by allowin...

Mexican mother bravely shields her son as bear leaps on picnic table to devour tacos and enchiladas

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:28 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican mother bravely shielded her son after a bear leapt on a picnic table and devoured the tacos and enchiladas meant for the boy’s birthday dinner, inches from his face. Silvia Macías of Mexico City had traveled to the Chipinque Park on the outskirts of the northern city of Monterrey to celebrate the 15th birthday of her son, Santiago, who has Down syndrome.Soon after they sat down to eat the food they had brought, the bear showed up and gulped down french fries, enchiladas, tacos and salsa. A video shot by her friend, Angela Chapa, shows Macías sitting stoically, inches from the bear’s mouth, holding Santiago and shielding his eyes with her hand. She kept her eyes downcast, to avoid anything the bear might consider a challenge.“The worst thing was that Santiago might get scared,” Macías recalled Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. “Santiago is very afraid of animals, a cat or a dog, any animal scares him a lot.”“That’s why I...