Play like a pro with expert knowledge from a champion of the game

If you don't know the ins and outs of play, bridge can seem like an intimidating game--but it doesn't have to be! Armed with the techniques and strategies in the pages of this book, you'll be bidding and winning hands like a boss! A good book for beginners, it has lots of advanced techniques useful to experienced players, too. This is as  close to an all-in-one bridge book you can get.

 

 

About the Author

H. Anthony Medley holds the rank of Silver life Master, is an American Contract Bridge League Club Director, and has won regional and sectional titles. An attorney, he received his B.S. from UCLA, where he was sports editor of UCLA's Daily Bruin, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of UCLA Basketball: The Real Story and Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed and The Complete Idiots Guide to Bridge. He was a columnist for the Southern California Bridge News. He is an MPAA-certified film critic and his work has appeared nationally in Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Click the book to order.
 

  

 

The Kingmaker (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 100 minutes

NR.

When people hear the name of Imelda Marcos, the first things that come to mind are 300 pairs of expensive shoes. But there is much more to the woman than shoes.

A beautiful young woman, she married Ferdinand Marcos 11 days after they met. Eventually he became the President of The Philippines and it slowly morphed into a brutal, corrupt dictatorship.

Written and directed by Lauren Greenfield, it starts with today’s Imelda handing out money to the hordes of people who surround her car. Then it jumps back to a short biography. Coming forward again it follows her as she tries to get her son, Bongbong, elected Vice President as a step towards the Presidency. In The Philippines, the President and Vice President are elected separately, not on the same ballot as in the United States.

As with most documentaries, the political views of the maker are important and Greenfield is a Democratic supporter of Barack Obama. But that doesn’t seem to play a part in this film that will be shocking to most Americans who don’t think or know much about The Philippines.

The Marcoses were driven from office in 1986 by a popular uprising against them. During their reign of terror it is alleged that 70,000 democracy activists were imprisoned, 35,000 tortured and more than 3,200 murdered.

Among the crimes of the Marcoses as shown in the film is what they did to Calauit Island that was peacefully inhabited by a few hundred peasants. Imelda wanted to import African animals like giraffes onto the island. Because they couldn’t live comfortably with the island’s inhabitants, the natives were forcibly removed.

Flash forward to today and Greenfield shows Bongbong’s campaign for Vice President along with Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign for President. Despite being hounded from the country for her crimes (and there were many as documented here), Imelda has returned to be elected to the Philippine legislature.

Duterte appears to be a chip off the Marcos block (and looks the part, scary that anybody would actually vote for him). In fact, Duterte has bragged about his many extra-judicial killings; he comes across as a man as cold-blooded and brutal as either of the Marcos’s. How could the Philippinos elect such a man?

This is an enlightening picture of Imelda Marcos and today’s Philippine nation. However, it clearly has a point of view. I don’t know how much to believe, but it’s a film I highly recommend; judge for yourself.

 

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