One of my online chess games. I feel like I would have lost but it ended with a draw by repetition when Black ran short of time. Some annotations below . . . 2. Nc3 Vienna Game 3. …Nc6 Four Knights Game 12. Rad1 Probably 12. Bxc6 is better. 15. …Bg4 I feel like 15. …exf4 is an improvement. 20. …Bh4 I don’t see what this move accomplishes. 23. …Qf5 I like 23. …Qa5 here. 27. Rxc7 At this point, I feel like Black should be able to continue with something like 27. Rd8 and win by queening the a-pawn. (Capturing the a-pawn with 28. Rxa7 doesn’t help after 27. …Rd2. But Black only has 14 seconds left in a 2-minute game and after 6 seconds of thought, takes the draw by repetition. Read more →
Author Archive: Paul Epps
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. — George Addair
My Boyhood Sports Icons Are Dying: Ray Fosse
Ray Fosse was a major league catcher from 1967 to 1979, a two-time All-Star for the Cleveland Indians, a two-time World Series champion with the Oakland A’s, and a two-time Gold Glove winner. It probably has to be said that Fosse may be best remembered for the final play of the 1970 All-Star Game, in which he was injured in a collision with Pete Rose at home plate. Fosse sustained a fractured and separated shoulder, which healed incorrectly, causing chronic pain that was never entirely resolved. It was a controversial play. Rose said that he was simply trying to win the game, and it was well known that he played the game as aggressively as anyone. I assume Fosse thought that even Rose wouldn’t try to bolo him in an exhibition game, or maybe he was just trying to make a good baseball play. It does look from the photo… Read more →
Government Should Be a Referee
Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government — in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost comes in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player. — Milton Friedman Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: Four Knights Game
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . . 2. Nc3 Vienna Game 3. …Nc6 Four Knights Game 4. Nd5?! I think Bb5 or d4 is more common but I like this move. 7. Nxf6+ Qe2+ is a possibility. 8. …Be7 I feel like …h6 is an improvement as it prevents White’s next move. 12. Nxd4 Black seems to be in good shape with something like …Ng6 instead of 12. …Qxd4?? followed by loss of the queen. Read more →
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. — Goethe
To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s. — Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. The price of their self-indulgence is the sacrifice of our freedom. If we don’t defend ourselves against them, who will? — Thomas Sowell
Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl
He’s 76, but he still sings as well as anyone. Great show, great band. I tried to reconstruct the set here as a playlist. He did “In the Afternoon,” “Help Me,” “Raincheck,” “Burning Ground” and “Ancient Highway” as a medley, not one right after the other, but blended together as a long — what’s the right word? — let’s say a long reverie. There may have been snippets of a couple other things in there as well . . . something about Big Joe Turner and sittin’ pretty. He did more of a standard version of “Help Me” as an encore, then “Gloria” as a second encore. Read more →
Débrouillard
Débrouillard is what every plongeur wants to be called. A débrouillard is a man who, even when he is told to do the impossible, will se débrouiller — get it done somehow. One of the kitchen plongeurs at the Hôtel X, a German, was well known as a débrouillard. One night an English lord came to the hotel, and the waiters were in despair, for the lord had asked for peaches, and there were none in stock; it was late at night, and the shops would be shut. “Leave it to me,” said the German. He went out, and in ten minutes he was back with four peaches. He had gone into a neighbouring restaurant and stolen them. That is what is meant by a débrouillard. The English lord paid for the peaches at twenty francs each. —George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London Read more →
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Accidental Overdose
I hardly ever hear the word “overdose” by itself anymore, as in “so-and-so died of an overdose.” It’s always “so-and-so died of an accidental overdose.” Isn’t that redundant? If you want to put it that way, wouldn’t the only alternative be an intentional overdose? Which would be a suicide. The word “overdose” implies accidental. Someone tried to make themselves feel better in a high-risk way and miscalibrated. So it’s either a suicide or an overdose, not an “accidental overdose.” End of story. Read more →
Chess Game of the Day: 8-Move Closed Sicilian
One of my online chess games. A few annotations below. 2. Nc3 (Closed Sicilian Defense) 5. …Bg4 Everything’s been pretty standard thus far but this is unusual compared to, say, Be7. 7. Nxe5! I’m generously giving myself an exclamation point on this. 7. …Bxd1?? That must have been very tempting but it leads to a forced mate. Better to take the knight on e5. 8. Bxf7+ After 8. …Ke1 (forced) 9. Nd5# is mate. Read more →
Psaki: “Unfair and Absurd”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed during Monday’s press briefing that it would be “unfair and absurd” for companies to raise costs on consumers in response to the Biden administration raising the corporate tax rate: Jen Psaki: It’s “unfair and absurd” that companies would increase costs for consumers in response to us taxing them more. ? pic.twitter.com/rHilrYdj4j — Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) September 28, 2021 You can depersonalize the theft by saying “Well, it’s corporate tax rates — greedy corporations, you know.” You don’t need to be an economist to understand that corporate taxes, like any taxes, have to be paid by people: either shareholders, or employees in the form of lower wages, or customers in the form of higher prices. The money has to come from somewhere. Read more →
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
— Alexander Pope
A Solution for Abortion Access
From the Los Angeles Times: California law states that people have a “fundamental right” to choose and obtain an abortion before a fetus becomes viable. The governor has vowed to protect that right. But just because abortion has more legal protection in California does not mean it is readily accessible to all, advocates of reproductive choice say. Many Californians struggle to afford the procedure, and some live far from a clinic that provides it. Such practical barriers can make abortion too difficult to access for Californians, despite the legal assurances on the books, advocates say. What a calamity! There are no legal roadblocks to abortion in California, and yet a mother-to-be who doesn’t want to be a mother may still find the procedure inaccessible or unaffordable. What about condoms? Are condoms inaccessible or unaffordable? Read more →
If All We Want Are Jobs
If all we want are jobs, we can create any number — for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up again, or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward. Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real objective is not just jobs but productive jobs — jobs that will mean more goods and services to consume. — Milton Friedman Read more →
Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not. — Nathaniel Hawthorne
Work? Optional
London Breed: Next Governor of California?
San Francisco, like a lot of places, including Los Angeles County, where I live, has a mask mandate. You have to wear a mask indoors in public places, vaccinated or not. The woman in the photo, second from left, is London Breed, who as the mayor of San Francisco, would actually be the person responsible for issuing mask mandates, but she’s sitting in a club with no mask among a bunch of other people with no mask. I can’t even go into a convenience store and buy a soda unless I’ve got a mask on because someone will throw me out. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, also a mandate issuer, just this week parlayed his “masks are for serfs” philosophy into a decisive victory in a recall election. Which may be why Mayor Breed is not only not apologizing (as Newsom did, sort of), but doubling down on “I… Read more →
A Review of This Year’s Met Gala!
Excerpts from an essay By Glenn Greenwald: When it comes to mask mandates, it is now commonplace to see two distinct classes of people: those who remain maskless as they are served, and those they employ as their servants who must have their faces covered at all times. . . . Last month, a delightful event was hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for wealthy Democratic donors in Napa — the same wine region of choice for Gov. Newsom’s notorious dinner party . . . Pelosi’s donor gala took place as millions face eviction, ongoing joblessness, and ever-emerging mandates of various types. . . . Even though many of the wealthy white donors had no food in front of them and were not yet eating, there was not a mask in sight — except on the faces of the overwhelmingly non-white people hired as servants, all of… Read more →