Rise And Fly Tall Tales And Mostly True Rules Of Bid Whist

Chapter 1: WILD, WILD WHIST On the wall of the foyer in Myra J's home in Atlanta hangs a mahogany-framed print of Annie Lee's famous paintingSix No, Uptown. The painting depicts four women playing cards around a kitchen table. One sister is kneeling on a chair with her right arm reaching toward the heavens, elbow bent, ready to slam onto the table the winning card that will make her opponents wither in shame. Although faceless in the painting, that ruthless woman symbolizes Myra J, comedian and cohost of theTom Joyner Morning Show, which is syndicated on more than 120 radio stations, reaching 6 million listeners daily. Myra is a bid whist player's bid whist player. She pities the fools who don't play bid whist, and she won't let them play any other card game in her house. And if you're a bid whist player of the losing variety, she might just let you starve or even freeze. "I've given parties whereby we didn't just play rise and y, we played rise and go stand out on the porch," Myra recalls, her hazel eyes sparkling as she throws back her blond locks in a sly but hearty laugh. "You get one chance. You lose; you're out of here. You couldn't even come in the house. "It would be so funny, 'cause the porch would be all crowded with everybody saying, 'You almost through?' "No! You don't get no barbecue. You don't get nothing to eat. You are not worthy of eating any food in my house, because you cannot play cards!" While Myra is a bid whist player in the extremeon the verge of needing a 12-step programshe's not alone. And the ranks are growing. Some are lifelong players like Myra, who gambled for a quarter or fifty cents a game in high school and played all through college. Others are recent converts, who saw the error of their ways and have abandoned spades, tonk, and other diversions to play a real card game like bid whist. Since bid whist is considered a "shit-talking game," it stands to reason that bid whist players are a wild bunch. They're loud enough to wake the dead and scare sleeping children. They're ruthless enough to win by any means necessary. Even a mild-mannered journalist will strategically place a butcher knife near the card table as a playful warning to his partner about avoiding screwups and to his foes against cheating. Melannie Cunningham of Takoma, Washington, recalls a spectator who was scared the First time she watched a bid whist game. "If they don't understand, they think we're mad and about to Fight because we're talking so much stuff." Bid whist players invite such behavior. After all, they're addicts, and unpredictable behavior is a predictable part of any addiction. They welcome fellow players to join them on the edge and to cross the line. It's expected. Bid whist is a friendly game but not a polite one. You're supposed to talk trash, sell wolf tickets, play the dozens, blaze 'em, kill 'em, diss 'em. Get the point? Myra J started crossing the line early. "We used to get in trouble in high school for gambling, playing bid whist," she recalls. "It became so prevalent at our school that they actually opened up the cafeteria early to keep us off the steps. It was like, 'Fine. Bring them in here; give them some donuts and some milk. Just don't gamble.' " It was a good deal for Myra & Co., but it didn't go exactly as educators had planned. "We just learned to pass the money under the table,Lamb, Yanick Rice is the author of 'Rise And Fly Tall Tales And Mostly True Rules Of Bid Whist', published 2005 under ISBN 9781400051687 and ISBN 1400051681.