Why I Never Got the Chicks

OK, ONE of the MANY reasons I never got the chicks....
AMONGST the reasons I never got the chicks.... LOL

I can still remember, with fondness, believe it or not, the summer of 1972, when my friends and I were all of 15, and we spent the summer days listening to songs on the radio by Nilsson, The Hollies, Cat Stevens, Bill Withers and Don McLean ... all the while being fascinated by Bobby Fischer as he played and beat the Russian, Boris Spassky, to become the first American Chess Champion. I didn't know until much later that it was yet another passion play representing the Cold War. I DO know that it made us love chess, and we followed every move, and every eccentric objection and argument that Fischer made.

Life goes like this, I guess. You forget all about things that you spent hours doing in your youth until one thing, usually a death, brings it all back.

The whole culture and mode of our lives as it was then seems so distant now... living on our bikes, summers seeming to last forever, every relationship new and deep and important.

For me, it's like watching the movie "Stand By Me". That was my youth.... OK, except that it was set in 1959 ... and there was no dead kid ... but you know... SORTA.

In my mind I can still see my friend Mark Kenney's kitchen and hear American Pie coming from WPRO-AM ... AM radio, for God's sake! I even remember where that "stereo" was in the other room. And we had a chess board set up to duplicate the moves from each match.

We had nothing to do for the seemingly endless days of summer but be experts in everything under the sun....

Yeah... except get chicks.... LOL !!! Stupid Geeks!
And now we're all old.
Anyway ... RIP Bobby Fischer. Thanks. Really.


Bobby Fischer, Outspoken Ex-Chess Champion, Dies
Friday, January 18, 2008
Associated Press REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died in a Reykjavik hospital on Thursday of kidney failure after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer was wanted in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. In 2005, he moved to Iceland, a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph.
Garry Kasparov, the former Russian chess champion, said Fischer's ascent in the chess world in the 1960s and his promotion of chess worldwide was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game. But Fischer's reputation as a genius of chess was eclipsed, in the eyes of many, by his idiosyncrasies.
Bobby Fischer, shown in 1962, was known for his outspokenness and idiosynchratic tendencies as much as his chess greatness.
"The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess," Kasparov told The Associated Press.
He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments, although his mother was Jewish.
Spassky said in a brief phone call from his home in France that he was "very sorry" to hear of the death of his friend and rival.
An American chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15, Fischer dethroned the Spassky in 1972 in a series of games in Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, to become the first officially recognized world champion born in the United States.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation, called Fischer "a phenomenon and an epoch in chess history, and an intellectual giant I would rank next to Newton and Einstein."
The match, at the height of the Cold War, took on mythic dimensions as a clash between the world's two superpowers.
Fischer played and won an exhibition rematch against Spassky on the resort island of Sveti Stefan, but the game was in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
In July 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan's Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport and threatened with extradition to the United States. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland granted him citizenship and he moved there with his longtime companion, the Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. She survives him.
In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, alleging that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance.
Instead, he championed his concept of random chess, in which pieces are shuffled at the beginning of each match in a bid to reinvigorate the game.
"I don't play the old chess," he told reporters when he arrived in Iceland in 2005. "But obviously if I did, I would be the best."
Born in Chicago in March 9, 1943, Robert James Fischer was a child prodigy, playing competitively from the age of 8.
At 13, he became the youngest player to win the United States Junior Championship. At 14, he won the United States Open Championship for the first of eight times.
At 15, he gained the title of international grand master, the youngest person to hold the title.
Tall, charismatic and with striking looks, he was a chess star -- but already gaining a reputation for volatile behavior.
He turned up late for tournaments, walked out of matches, refused to play unless the lighting suited him and was intolerant of photographers and cartoonists. He was convinced of his own superiority and called the Soviets "Commie cheats."
His behavior often unsettled opponents -- to Fischer's advantage.
This was seen most famously in the showdown with Spassky in Reykjavik between July and September 1972. Having agreed to play Spassky in Yugoslavia, Fischer raised one objection after another to the arrangements and they wound up playing in Iceland.
When play got under way, days late, Fischer lost the first game with an elementary blunder after discovering that television cameras he had reluctantly accepted were not unseen and unheard, but right behind the players' chairs.
He boycotted the second game and the referee awarded the point to Spassky, putting the Russian ahead 2-0.
But then Spassky agreed to Fischer's demand that the games be played in a back room away from cameras. Fischer went on to beat Spassky, 12.5 points to 8.5 points in 21 games.
Americans, gripped in the millions by the contest, rejoiced in the victory over their Cold War adversary.
In the recent book "White King and Red Queen," the British author Daniel Johnson said the match was "an abstract antagonism on an abstract battleground using abstract weapons ... yet their struggle embraced all human life."
"In Spassky's submission to his fate and Fischer's fierce exultant triumph, the Cold War's denouement was already foreshadowed."
The victory made Fischer the first U.S.-born world champion. Paul Morphy, an American, was regarded as the world's best player from 1858 to 1862, and William Steinetz, an Austrian immigrant to the United States, was an official champion from 1886 to 1894.

Gratitude...

http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/fullmovie.php

Merry Christmas !!!

Welcome Christmas! Bring your cheer.
Cheer to all Who's ~ far and near.

Christmas Day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.

Christmas Day will always be,
Just as long as we have we.

Welcome Christmas, while we stand,
Heart to heart And Hand in hand
T. Geisel 1957,1966

Merry Christmas, and a safe and happy holiday season to everyone. I also want to thank every one of my friends for being there. Nothing means more to me than you all being part of my life.

B

The Story of the Kingdom of Tewksbury

My friends recently purchased a house in the town of Tewksbury, MA. and I was asked if I was excited to be going to see them there over the Christmas Holiday...


Ahhh..yes… Tewksbury. How could anyone resist the lure of such a lavish Eden??

21 square and blissful miles bordering on the Merrimack river…
Settled in 1637, and finally incorporated in 1734, after a bitter and heart-wrenching
battle for freedom from the vile oppressors of Billerica ~ a struggle now known as THE MIGHTY MORON MASSACRE OF ’34.

After that, reparations were made and the peoples of this new venture in social organization settled down to
heal and live their lives in peace. They gathered each Sunday to worship their deity, THE GREAT TEWK, who followed in the
path of his mentor and father, THE NOT-SO-GREAT-TEWK, who, to be honest, had some nasty issues with raping & pillaging.

For a short while, the citizens of this happy hamlet were TEWK-LESS, until NOT-SO-GREAT, whose given name was really EARL
(remember this, it’s important), had a young son who would be groomed to take the mantle of leadership.

Many locals refer to this time as “the dark ages”, though, in fact, it had little to do with them being leaderless,
and more to do with the fact that they lost the two sticks they had been using to start their fires. (historian’s note: It appears that the full objective was not achieved in the aforementioned MIGHTLY MORON MASACRE)

Finally, when almost all hope was lost, and people began to despair, the young prince saved the day by bringing light and fire back to their world.
The legend is told that one day in late Fall, after working in the town’s pig farm, the young and curious prince took a walk through the woods on his way to the stream to wash himself off. After cleansing himself (and unknowingly poisoning half of the inhabitants of Billerica by putting pig fecal matter into their drinking water), he lay out in the sunshine to dry his clothes in the late day sun. Tired, the prince quickly dozed off, and woke some time later to find that a thunderstorm was quickly approaching. Fascinated by the billowing dark clouds, the less-than-brilliant prince decided to climb the nearest tree to get a better view of the powerful storm. Once at the top of the tree, he watched in wonder … right up until the lightning bolt struck him senseless. Falling to the ground, his life was saved only by the large pile of leaves he landed in. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the lightning ignited his clothing.
AND the leaves.
And the tree.
Seeing the smoke, the townspeople came running, and that is how the young prince brought fire back to the town.
Overjoyed, the townsfolk put out the young prince and hoisted him on their shoulders, marching him into town.
Declaring them their hero and savior, the prince was then coronated as the new leader .. THE GREAT TEWK.
Wonder and happiness fill ed all the inhabitants, and they began to chant…
Knowing that this miracle would not have happened without the NOT-SO-GREAT-TEWK’s fortune of having a son, they gave thanks…
chanting over and over those words now glorified in song…

TEWK! TEWK! TEWK! TEWK of EARL!!!
TEWK! TEWK! TEWK of EARL!
TEWK! TEWK! TEWK of EARL!

(Thank you for groaning)

Words of Wisdom

...from the TV show "ANGEL"

Demon: "HOW can your species even begin to run this world?"
Mortal Human: "With opposable thumbs. And fire. And television."

On Thinking Ahead...

OK, so this isn't the most profound parable-type story in the world ... and I'm sure most everyone has heard it. But I heard it only recently and I like the concept of teaching personal responsibility....

HA. Now I need to get some.




"An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career. When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently. Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today." Unknown author

Some Pictures of Pawtuxet

Took some pictures of the neighborhood near my townhouse during last night's storm...