One of my online chess games. A pretty even game all the way until it ended with a colossal mistake, as chess games sometimes do. Some annotations below . . . 5. b3 Rubinstein Opening 37. Qf1 I kind of wonder about this move as it lets Black deliver a queen check on the 2nd rank. 39. Nf6+?? We were both running short of time (in a 2+1 bullet game) and I was about to offer a draw when White did this, missing that he can’t recapture. 40. Qfx6+?? So he recaptures anyway. Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Joan Didion, 1934-2021
I was discovering that not all of the promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable and that it had counted after all, every evasion and every procrastination, every word, all of it. — Joan Didion, “Goodbye to All That” RIP Joan Didion Read more →
Two Quotes From the Same Book
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. — Ecclesiastes 1:18 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. — Proverbs 4:6-7 Now I’m in a quandary . . . Read more →
What You’re Seeing and Hearing Is Not Real?
The times that we’re living in right now are forcing lots of people on both sides of the aisle to look at a thing, or hear a thing, and be told that what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing is not real. And you can’t do that to people indefinitely and expect them not to push back somehow. You can’t tell people that the border is secure and then show them images of tens of thousands of people flooding over it. You can’t tell people that the evacuation of Afghanistan was a success and then show them people falling off of a plane. … And you can’t ask people who are watching a NASCAR race at home, who clearly hear the crowd yelling ‘F*** Joe Biden’ to pretend that what they’re really hearing is ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’ I think what’s happened is people have just become sick and tired of… Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: Halloween Gambit
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 4. Nxe5?! I never saw this before in a Four Knights Game but it actually has a name: the Halloween Gambit. In exchange for a knight, White gets to chase black knights around the board with pawns. 9. …c6? This is not such a good move if White had played 10 h4 because the knight at g6 doesn’t have many options. Instead, 9 …cxd6 10 exd6 Qf6 11. Qe2+ Qe6 12. Nb5 Qxe2+ simplifies with a material advantage. 11. Nxb5? Just backing the bishop up to d6 looks better. 14. …a5? White could have played 15 Bd2 attacking the pawn. 15. O-O? 15. …Nh6? This gives White time to play 16. Be3 (which he doesn’t) and cut off the diagonal to his king so Black can’t play 16. …Qb6+, which I should have played this move. 16. f5??… Read more →
Annie Died the Other Day
annie died the other day never was there such a lay— whom, among her dollies, dad first (“don’t tell your mother”) had; making annie slightly mad but very wonderful in bed —saints and satyrs go your way youths and maidens: let us pray — e e cummings Read more →
Which is More Important — Education or Super Bowl LVI?
Schools in Inglewood, CA shut down completely for more than 400 days due to COVID-19, eventually reopening in a “hybrid” model of in-person and distance learning. Kids can be deprived of an education, but in February 2022, Los Angeles will host Super Bowl LVI, mashing more than 100,000 ticket-holders together (plus I don’t know how many ushers, food vendors and other support staff) in a mostly enclosed Inglewood, CA stadium. Draw your own conclusions. Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: Modern Defense
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 2. …Bg7 Modern Defense 11. Ng5?! 11. b4 is a safe alternative. 12. Ne6?! 12. Nf6 is positionally better than leaving a pawn hanging at e6, but then what was the point of moving the knight to g5 in the first place? (Spoiler alert: This move will turn out okay.) 14. …Rb8 14 …b6 would have been better. 15. Rd1? In hindsight, I think 15. c5 would have been stronger. The rook move gives Black time to play 15 …c5 (which he doesn’t do) and prevent White’s c-pawn from advancing. 15. …Nf6? Much worse than 15 …c5. 16. …c6?? The game is pretty even here, but Black needs to get the king to h7, out of the White queen’s line of fire. Instead he makes the worst move on the board, allowing a discovered check, losing the queen… Read more →
Status
I don’t like to play a game unless I know I can win. It’s a characteristic trait of the sociopath or psychopath, I forget which.
Status
Getting old: It used to be I went to a lot more weddings than funerals. In recent years, I’ve noticed it’s the other way around..
Never a Dull Moment
“I can’t eat a big lunch because it makes me feel sluggish in the afternoon, you know what I mean?” “No.” “You never eat a big lunch then feel sluggish in the afternoon?” “No, my job is too exciting. Never a dull moment.” Read more →
How Can You Do Good With Someone Else’s Money?
The essential notion of a capitalist society is voluntary cooperation and voluntary exchange. The essential notion of a socialist society is fundamentally force. If the government is the master, you ultimately have to order people what to do. Whenever you try to do good with somebody else’s money, you are committed to using force. How can you do good with somebody else’s money unless you first take it away from them? The only way you can take it away from them is by threat of force. You have a policeman, a tax collector who comes to take it away from them. Whenever you use force, the bad moral value of force triumphs over good intentions. — Milton Friedman Read more →
My Role Model
My boss showed up late as usual for a conference call . . . “Sorry I’m late,” he said, when he finally arrived. “No problem,” I said. “You’re my role model. Someday I want a job where I can just show up whenever I want to.” Read more →
Employee of the Year
Scorching Hot Cuisine
This pack of chips caught my eye at the Circle K today so I bought one. The clerk pointed out on the back of the package that the chips were classified as “FREAKIN’ HOT,” accompanied by a temperature gauge with the needle pegged in the far-right, bright red FREAKIN’ HOT sector. To no one’s surprise, except the Circle K clerk, the chips weren’t any hotter than a bag of Doritos. Have you ever gone to a fast food place where they sell a product like a jalapeno burger advertised as SCORCHING HOT? Then you take a bite and you’re like, “That’s it?” No company can produce a mass market food product that can only be tolerated by maybe one percent of the population because they can’t sell it, which is the opposite of what they want to do. They want to sell a lot of them. If you want to… Read more →
San Fransicko by Michael Shellenberger
From a podcast featuring Michael Shellenberger: Progressives have controlled California for decades. Democrats have a supermajority in Congress. We spend more than any other state per capita on homelessness and mental illness, and we have the worst outcomes. So I wanted to write “San Fransicko” to both get to the bottom of what’s really going on and also figure out what the solutions are because, obviously, we’re dealing with a catastrophe. I mentioned drug overdose deaths rose from 17,000 to 70,000 by 2017. Last year, drug deaths were 93,000, which is almost three times as many people than die from car accidents and four times as many people as die from homicide. Clearly, we are in the midst of a massive drug crisis, and it felt like nobody was offering a particularly clear explanation of it or offering very good solutions. San Francisco remains one of the most spectacularly beautiful… Read more →
Hollywood 1969
“You’ve got people your age just coming into the business who will be running Paramount in five years, along with Warners and Columbia and Fox and MGM — all of which will be run by companies that have nothing to do with pictures — who have never heard of Minnelli or Preminger, or just might be erudite enough to think of Liza when you say her father’s name. Then you’ve got people like me who have been around long enough not to have much romance about any of it anymore and are just trying to find some cover because we have no idea what’s going on. Biker pictures are winning prizes at Cannes and pictures about cowboy hustlers in New York getting sucked off in the cheap seats are winning Oscars, so the execs upstairs who are old enough to be my grandfather — which means we’re talking Dawn of… Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: 8-Move Three Knights Game
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 3. …Bb4 Three Knights Game 5. …Nxe4 Not wild about that move. Maybe d6 is better, or Qe7. 6. …Nf6?? Terrible. 7. Rg8?? Black could stay alive with Rf8 but why bother? Read more →
The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position. — Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing
A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life. — Christopher Germer