I should be ashamed to talk of something so trivial as the printed game of bridge usually found on an inside page of the section of the daily newspaper which is variously called food, or arts, and sometimes home. If you don't recognize it under those names, you may know it as the section containing two pages of cartoons.

     The page can be recognized by a picture of Dear Abby and her daughter smiling from the top left hand column. Then usually at the bottom of the page is a diagrammed bridge deal with a column called "Think on These Things" by Joyce Sequiche Hifler on one side and a column called "The Daily Bridge Club" by Frank Stewart on the other.

     You with me so far?

     The compositor of this page - the man at the paper responsible for what goes where on the page, -- after he has positioned Abby has to find places for the two columns and the bridge diagram, along with other things.

     The column of daily inspirational talk runs about 150 words and the how-to-play-better-contract-bridge column also runs about 150 words The compositor, to separate solid blocks of type, usually puts the diagram of the bridge deal, all four hands and the bidding, between the two columns. Bridge, diagram, meditation.

     Stewart has evolved an oblique entry to his bridge lesson over the years. The first paragraph of his column the morning I am writing this begins:

     "Modern psychology has redefined the trait of patience: Now we tell our microwave oven to hurry up, and we can't function until our cell phone recharges."

     No matter what the beginning, you know the article is about bridge because of the bridge hand set between the columns. But sometimes the compositor flops the columns: meditation on the left, bridge on the right; meditation, bridge diagram, bridge column. And that is the source of my complaint. Moving the columns around, you can't tell which is which. Are you reading inspiration to meditation or invitation to bridge?

     I tell you what, I'll quote some samples, all from the same month, and you decide if you're reading the first paragraph of Think on These Things or Daily Bridge Club. Correct answers on page 2.

1. "Put off until tomorrow," said Pablo Picasso, "only what you are willing to die having left undone."

Think on These Things or Bridge Club?