Two dates in November of 2024 were circled on everyone’s calendar. The presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was scheduled for Tuesday, the fifth. It was difficult to imagine a pair of candidates who were as different as they were. Most supporters of each considered that the election of the other would be disastrous. The experts judged it a toss-up.

The other big day was Thursday the 28th, Thanksgiving. Sue and I had been invited to Burlington, VT, to celebrate the occasion with the extended Corcoran family, but we had felt awkward at the previous such gathering, and so we declined.

The last regional bridge tournament on the calendar in New England was scheduled for Monday the 18th through Saturday the 23rd at the Holiday Inn in Norwich, CT. The Nutmeg State had not hosted a regional tournament since February of 2019.¹ I had a lot of hotel points for IHG, the company that owns both Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza. During the summer I had unsuccessfully tried to use them for the Ocean State Regional in September. No such rooms were available. Since the dates for the Harvest Regional in Norwich had already been published, I immediately reserved all five nights and paid for them with points.

1. Since I had been playing bridge a regional tournament had been held in February in Cromwell, CT. One was scheduled for 2020, but only a week or two before the event the Red Lion Hotel was closed by the state for failure to pay taxes. The tournament was hurriedly moved to Sturbridge, MA, that year.