At least it has a pop top lid

Is this something we really need? A cheeseburger in a can. I hope that they come without onions or tomatoes.

Chess on TV or In Movies

A recent casual conversation brought up how chess appears in movies or TV shows to portray a character's traits while playing the game. The one discussed the opening scenes of Casablanca in which Rick (Bogart) is playing chess with Peter Lorre. What does chess say about Rick? and why at the beginning of the movie. It turns out Bogart was a big fan of chess and was a fairly strong player.

What movies come to mind that I have seen in which chess featured? Searching For Bobby Fischer immediately pops up. Chess was used a device to illustrate a child's gift and the changes this gift brings to his family. Lots of chess action, and players are not necessarily made fun of. Next is 2001 A Space Odyssey in which the computer HAL plays chess with the astronauts. Nice use of chess here to convey the computer's precision in planning and strategies to defeat mere frail humans. The first Harry Potter movie uses chess as a protective obstacle for the Sorcerer's Stone, and here demonstrates one of the character's willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of the others (altho in the end he survives of course). Finally from my memory comes Stalag 17 where one of the chess pieces is used to inform Nazi prison camp guards of allied POW plans for escapes. I think a James Bond movie has chess but a can't find it in my memory.

I can only think of three TV shows that had chess anywhere in them. The first was Star Trek. For some reason Capt Kirk is able to defeat Spock on a fairly routine basis, probably to show that Kirk relies on a fusion of logic, emotion, and intellect to strategize while Spock is logic bound. However in one episode Spock is able to defeat the ship's computer in three straight games when he should only be able to draw - this clues Spock to conclude that the computer is malfunctioning and therefore some intruder is aboard. Genius. The TV mystery series Columbo had an excellent episode in which two chess grandmasters are competing in a match and one ends up murdering the other, or else Columbo wouldn't have anything to do. I recall an interesting restaurant scene in which the two players begin playing a game using items found on the tables for pieces (olives, salt shakers etc) and the gingham table cloth as the board, and I believe the outcome of that game provided the final straw for one GM to kill the other. Lastly is the Cosby Show but since I rarely watched it I don't remember why it was used. Probably so Cliff could talk a big game only to be defeated by Rudy.

That's all I can conjure up. I know there are others. Give me time to remember. Chess is usually a metaphor for stuffy, nerdy, or other diminutive characterizations, but the above shows used it quite effectively and in a good chess light.

Unfinished posts

Blogger really does me no favors by allowing a post to be saved without publishing. I am able to leave some things in there like leftovers in our refrigerator, eventually they turn bad and are thrown away.

Here's to starting something that gets finished, or rather the other way around.

Not another New Year Resolution post!

Not exactly. Philo recommends taking up something you once loved to do but have quit doing for some reason.

I’m struck, too, that one can still take up paths long neglected, and that doing so is surprisingly rewarding. I took up playing the bass again after thirty years; in fact, my main Christmas present was a Crate BX100 bass amp. I’ve started composing music, something I hadn’t done since college. Dymphna has taken up ice skating. If you’re in search of a New Year’s resolution, I recommend thinking back and taking up again something you used to love but gave up along the way.

I've given up so many things in the past that picking one is going to be difficult. I think I'll look over a few.

In the not too distant past I was serious about learning to play the piano. At my 33rd birthday I showed up at my first lesson with a book of Scott Joplin's rags under my arm and told my teacher that was what I wanted to play. She kindly took the book away from me a gave me the basic Piano 101 books that every beginner must start from. Before beginning lessons I drafted 10 goals I wanted to accomplish. After receiving much encouragement from an AOL online group of teachers I dove in. Five years later I stopped taking lessons. I estimate I made about 2 years worth of progress, and probably met only about 2 to 3 of my stated goals. Sounds disappointing, but not really. Having elementary and preschool age children made practice time difficult. Plus I am not a natural - everything learned was through hard work. I still can play bits of the music I did learn, and at the time listened to much music I wouldn't have otherwise heard or cared about. I went to the Scott Joplin Music Festivals in Missouri, met performers there, became a distant friend to one of them. I could go on. Piano was good to me.

Before starting high school I was bitten by the chess bug. Bobby Fischer was playing for the world championship against the hated Russians, and I followed that match closely. I received a chess set and clock for Christmas 1973, of which I still have the pieces, lots of books and began playing competitively. I actually would get into trouble for staying out too late at night going to chess meeting held at the local university. I got better through study and practice, to a point, and then hit a snag. At some point I realized that chess is a really difficult game that would take some major studying in order to get beyond the average competitive levels. I wasn't ready to give up my golf game for chess.

For some odd reason hockey is a family favorite. My two boys played quite a bit of roller blade hockey growing up. It always looked like fun. A few years back I tried it playing in an adult league in Round Rock Texas. It was a blast. I can't remember a team sport being that much fun. Hockey was fun, frustrating, physically demanding, and exciting - and that's from the adult slow motion league. In my final season I scored the 2 goals in the championship game.

Of the 3 listed, hockey ain't gonna happen. My skates have been cannibalized by Evan and Tory for wheels and bearing and the hardware is missing. Plus I am so badly out of shape I wouldn't last 30 seconds on a shift, and I haven't skated since that last game.

Piano - I like it. Still play occasionally. I am all for playing more but I won't be taking lessons anymore. I will play simpler music and practice reading music as much as possible, and try to enjoy the music. At times when I was learning, I tended to get angry and frustrated at my progress or lack thereof and wouldn't be able to hear what I was doing as a whole. Playing for my own enjoyment sounds like a worthy goal.

Chess is the likely winner here. Tory has shown great interest in learning the game in the past few months, going as far as helping start a club and ladder group at his school. He has managed to beat me once so far, but other than that I have had the upper hand. The bad news for Tory, as I have told him, is that I am not very good meaning he has a long way to go. Looking at chess books and playing through instructional games does not seem so onerous anymore. I think I am more patient and able to take in the intended information, maybe even pass it on to Tory in a way he will absorb it as well.