Mike
Lawrence One
of the bridge world's most successful players/writers/teachers
is Mike Lawrence. Some years ago, Mike and his
wife Karen made a huge change in their lives
- they left Berkeley, California, moved to Nashville,
Tennessee, and virtually disappeared from the
American tournament circuit - causing Mike's
fans to wonder, Where's Mike?!
We
asked Mike to tell us why he and Karen decided
to relocate to Nashville, and what their new
life is like. Mike writes: It
was really not so much a question of moving to
Nashville but of getting out of Berkeley. The
city has the nickname Bezerkly and it is appropriate.
Two
stories
On
one occasion my wife observed a lady walking
around our garden. This should not have been
possible since we had an enclosed garden. My
wife went out
to get rid of this person and found that she was accompanied by a large disheveled
dog. When the lady saw my wife she ran to the top of the garden where it turned
out she and her boyfriend had set up a tent. They were living in the yard. When
my wife asked them to leave (they had broken the lock on a gate to gain entrance),
they refused. My wife called the Berkeley police department to ask for help in
getting rid of these people and they (the police department) told my wife that she
should be more tolerant. No help was offered.
My
wife had to get rid of them herself.
The city has a way of telling you what you can and can not do and they
make you pay them for doing it. For instance, at one point we were obliged to
spend a couple of thousand dollars making the house weatherproof. Then we had
to pay a Berkeley inspector to approve the work. When we sold the house, the
new owners observed that the window and doors were stuck, a result of the weatherproofing,
and they told us that they were not worried. They would rip it out as soon as
the sale was approved. |
Our
research as to where to move was not terribly logical.
We considered a number of places and Nashville won by a
nose. It is a lovely place. We have a number of friends
here, plus the area is stress-free, something that Berkeley
was not.
We
have a huge property and it is rife with wildlife. We
are not exactly on a first-name basis with every bird
and squirrel but we have come to know each other. We have
almost all forms of wildlife ranging from foxes to coyotes
to snakes to raccoons to opossums to skunks to deer to
turtles to frogs and quite a few more that we know of by
reputation. Business-wise,
we are involved in producing bridge books and software.
Recently I have been working on a new site, www.bridgeclues.com that offers two
bridge columns a day. If you look forward to the newspaper column, this is a
much improved version. The two hands offer questions and answers. The material
changes daily and it is free. A terrific combination.
When
not doing the above, Karen and I do cruises, averaging
just over one a year. And, of course, I teach. My favorite
format for classes is to visit a city for a week, giving
large lectures and/or small supervised classes. I have taught
in almost every state and in around twenty countries.
*****
Good news: We got Mike to get out a pen and write a few
articles for us. The first one, a recap of penalty double
situations, will help herald in 2005 in the January edition
of Bridge Today E-Magazine. In
addition, we found out that Mike has not one brand-new
product, but
two. The first is a CD on counting and bidding.
The second is a book called I Fought The Law of
Total Tricks. The CD, Counting at Bridge TWO, Bidding,
Play, and Defense, is already available. The new book,
I Fought The Law of Total Tricks, was written with
Bridge Today writer Anders Wirgren, and will be available
the first
week of January.
You
can obtain Mike's new software, Counting at Bridge
Two, Bidding, Play, and Defense" for $38.95 postpaid
to anywhere in the world.
Mike
and Anders's book, I Fought The Law of Total
Tricks is available for $21.95 postpaid to US addresses
(with additional postage to other addresses). Mailing for
this will start in the first week of January.
Resellers are welcome to email Mike for discount rates on
these and other products.
You
can contact Mike with book/CD orders or just to say hi via
his web site at www.bridgeclues.com,
or email him at
77bridge@best.com
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