[mycroft]

One of the hands I played in my crazy bridge game was "Adjective bridge" or "Winter rules bridge", where you could, if you chose, use a "single word" (exceptions were made for "fourteen-thirty" or "South African Texas" or the like) in your call. Whether it made it easier or not was an interesting proposition. At our table it went:

• Two subminimum diamonds (playing EHAA, that could be *really* subminimum!)
  
• happy pass
  
• reluctant pass
  
• balancing double
  
• reasonable pass
  
• two required hearts
  
• confident double...

[mikestar13]

 steve2005, on 2015-December-05, 18:42, said:

The penalty double in some ways has gone the way of the dodo. Everything is takeout.
I always thought it would be good to make change to the rules to allow 3 separate bids: takeout double, penalty double and other doubles.

Echoes of Sidney Lenz and the "challenge" this is deliciously ancient.