Byzantine Blackwood convention Byzantine Blackwood convention Byzantine Blackwood is a bidding in the game of bridge. Devised by Jack Marx, it is a complex version of the (by which a four notrump (4NT) asks about 's holdings). Its premise is that both aces and kings may safely be shown in response to a Blackwood-type 4NT enquiry; provided that such kings are in well-defined "key" or "half-key" suits, there being no more than two such suits. The name was chosen to express the idea that Byzantine Blackwood is a development from Roman Blackwood, by analogy with the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire; rather
Father John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan Father John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan Father John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan is the protagonist in a series of 17 mystery novels by Roman Catholic priest and author Father Andrew Greeley. Fictionally, "Blackie" is a portly, little man. As the innocuous auxiliary bishop (under Cardinal Sean Cronin) and rector of the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, he travels the Archdiocese of Chicago and around the world (at Cardinal Cronin's ""See to it, Blackwood!"" charge) solving locked-room mysteries related to the Roman Catholic Church and its members. In his fictional biography, John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan was born in 1945 to a large Irish-American family,