Friday Night Miscellany

Hola Darlings! Man oh man, it is HOT and HUMID out there. Yech! After bussing it from downtown (where I work) and trekking a half mile from the bus stop to the supermarket, and then lugging home 16 pounds of groceries (I have it down to an art - I can carry eight pounds in bags dangling from each hand) and walking the mile home, I am pooped! And sweaty - double yech! I am very girly when it comes to sweat - I hate it, even though it is designed to cool one off. I just get drippy and my make-up starts to run, I don't get any cooler. So tonight I'm just winging it while I sit front and center next to the cooling vent and slowly decompress (and dry off). I'm taking the night almost-off! I wanted to mention first off about Susan Polgar's appearance and involvement with the 2007 Canadian Youth Championship. All those great photographs she's had posted at her blog makes me want to visit Ottawa. My significant other is a Canadian and a few years ago we talked about taking a road tour to Ottawa, I think I'll resurrect the subject :) It looks like a lovely city. I think it's just great that Susan Polgar has made herself so accessible to the young chess players, as well as giving lectures and simuls and signing autographs and advice - whew! The CYC is just the latest in a string of events that she has been involved in. The woman is a whirlwind! I may not always agree with her views or some of her actions, but I do admire her and have a great deal of respect for her, both for her accomplishments (which are myriad) and for her personal integrity. Although I do not know her personally and have never met her, I also find her to be a warm woman, and a committed and caring and passionate woman. Those qualities come through in her posts and photographs. She'd be someone really nice to get a hug from if you needed one, and someone you could always rely upon to cover your back in battle - er, just everyday life. Moving on - I received the July edition of Chess Life Magazine in the mail today. I've just been flipping through it here and there. It's fabulous that the cover this month is of Jesse Krai, who at age 34 recently earned his third and final GM norm. WAY TO GO JESSE! He is also, as the cover by-line reads, the first American-born person in TEN FRICKING YEARS to earn a GM title. Well, it doesn't exactly say that - but that's the point it makes! Okay - I'm a little emotional over the subject, I'll admit. We have 300 million people in the USA and at least some of them have been BORN here - why aren't we producing more GMs (of both sexes)? (Darlings - that was a rhetorical question...) Just skimming through Jennifer Shahade's interview with Jesse on page 25, he was pleased to note "that I could still do well with the ladies and ride my bike around!" (even though he was "materially poor"). Well yes of course, darling! Some women prefer guys with great legs, and biking gives a man great legs. My own main man bikes all over Montreal and environs and has really great legs :) (Gee, maybe I shouldn't write that, he may get embarrassed - oh, what the heck). Back on page 8, in an article about the Fairfield Knights chess team of Fairfield High School in Ohio - I noted only one girl in the photograph of a group of "fans" that includes nine bare-chested teenaged boys who have no business going shirtless because they just don't have the physiques for it :) She was fully dressed, by the way, and quite cute, too. Alas, what kind of role-models do those shirtless boys - who painted letters on their under-developed chests spelling out "CHECK MATE" - have? They are only emulating what they see on television during football season - grown men who should know better parade around half-naked and painted in NFL stadiums all across the land. LOL and blech! I'd really rather not see all those shots of gelantinous blobs of men who need bras, serious diets and liposuction. Now here's a thought - if a baby was hungry and needed milk, could a man with such breasts nurse, do you think? With a blanket thrown over the offending boob, of course! We wouldn't want to offend anyone's sensibilities, after all... You know, I'm sure I read a story somewhere - perhaps the National Inquirer? - about just such a man who, under dire circumstances, nursed an infant from his man boobs. Hmmm... Getting back to that article on page 8 of Chess Life - the article was "signed" by one Jonathan Hilton and he has a sense of humor, yippee! He actually led off the article with a "cheer" regarding Bobby Fischer that was performed at one time or other on Saturday Night Live. I don't recall ever seeing the cheer performed but just reading the words - and being familiar with the zanies who have populated the show over the years - I was laughing out loud "seeing" it performed in my mind's eye. This introduction caught my attention and I read the rest of the article to find it very interesting - and well done. Okay - one more entry while my bubble bath is filling up - I'll go back and read the entire article later on but I have to mention the ending to the "All Girls' National Again a Success" article on pages 36-37 by Betsy Dynako which ends "If you looked at the sea of chess players studying moves while in dresses and pigtails, many with stuffed animals at their side, it may lead you to believe that the players are weak. Most boys would consider those "girly" things a sign of weakness, ..." Well, the only photograph of the event in the article shows NO girls with pigtails and they are wearing teeshirts (probably with jeans or shorts). As for the stuffed animals "on the side," if it's good enough for Judith Polgar, it's good enough for me, darlings!