Here's to the person you see six days a week, and probably don't even notice -- your PostPerson. Collectively, they deliver 154,000,000,000 pieces of mail a year! Imagine! And oh, the dangers they face.

Mailboxes are filled with danger, from wasps to (honest!) a snake. They are trained to use their satchels as defensive weapons against dogs -- and sometimes drunks who don't want that cable bill. They drive vehicles that are mostly 25-30 years old.

Surprisingly, cats also present a danger. They often lie in wait to swipe that hand putting mail through the slot. Many PostPeople wear a special glove for those houses.

They are also life savers. About 25 percent of PostPeople have called 911 when they saw something wrong at one of their regular deliveries.

And they love junk mail. They call it "job security mail."

Speaking of junk mail... we as bridge players need to be able to differentiate between junk hand and good hands. Today, we're going to look at hands, deciding on their value. Our focus is going to be on "texture." Texture is the quality that makes one hand better or worse than another with the same number of points.

When we are valuing a hand, we look for honors focused in long suits rather than in short ones. We look for shape... the more, the better. We look for intermediates... a hand chock-full of "honorettes" is much better than one with wee cards.

THERE WILL BE NO BIDDING TODAY!!

We are going to look at hands and decide if they are better or worse than the sum of their points. In other words, should we consider upgrading or downgrading the hand. This is a little different than what we usually do. We're going to separate the junk from the checks.