Bidding slams are exciting � never a dull moment.� Back in the late 1930s, Easley Blackwood came up with a conventional bid to ask partner to disclose the number of Aces.� Being a manager for an insurance company and wanting to capitalize on his newly invented bid, Easley called his convention �Wormwood� (not wanting senior managers to think his card play was risky). Easley also applied for a patent on Wormwood.� But the name never stuck and the patent office scoffed at the idea of patenting anything to do with Bridge.� Fortunately, his convention was loved by many who simply called his treatment the Blackwood convention.� And so Easley�s Blackwood bidding system has become the beloved slam asking bid over the last 70 years.