Every timed game between two club members goes on the ladder. Practice-table games and games with visitors don't count. You get a point for a win and half a point for a tie, and the ladder is ranked by points, so the members who come every Monday climb. Spread is the total of your scores minus your opponents' scores in all your ladder games, and it breaks ties in the standings.

The ladder starts over the first Monday in January. The top four at the end of the year get their names on the plaque by the meeting room door, and the top one picks the snacks for the Christmas party.

How the totals check: every game has a winner and a loser, so the wins and losses come out the same, 503 each. The 8 in the tie column is four tied games, one tie for each player in each. Add up everybody's points and you get 507, which is the number of ladder games we've played this year. And every point one player wins in spread, somebody else loses, so the spread adds up to zero. If your numbers don't look right, come see me with your slips.

Notes from the commissioner's chair: Mattie S. is 81 years old and has not missed a Monday since Easter. She is on top of the ladder because she shows up and because she knows more three-letter words than the rest of us put together. Richard M. and Clifford H. have the best winning records in the club, and if they came every week they'd be fighting Mattie and me for the top. The ladder rewards showing up, and I won't apologize for that.

Dan S., don't let the spread get you down. You've had more bingos since June than in all of last year. The wins are coming.