Here's another gem from my collected works.  I found it in 'Drafts,' and, as you'll discover, it's way too good not to publish. Love Poem   My love for you is a rash That comes and goes.   Inflames, burns, embarrasses-- Then it’s gone.   Where does it go when it’s not upon me? This … Continue reading Love Poem →

Suppose you're fortunate enough to find yourself playing White in the following position: [fen]8/8/8/3k4/8/8/6K1/1R2R3 w - - 0 1[/fen] Mating's a breeze with two rooks against a lone King, and illustrates really nicely the Rook's long-range power.  Simply drive the opponent's King to an edge of the board by cutting-off ranks or files.  Once you … Continue reading The Chess Project: Installment #4: Mating with the Rook(s) →

I recently played an 8 (5) blitz game with my friend (each side has 8 minutes to play all his moves, with a 5 second increment added after each individual move).  Since my first post in this series was on mating with the Queen, and since this game ends with me applying the exact procedure … Continue reading The Chess Project: Installment 3: Passed Pawns →

A famous chess player--I forget which one--once said that even positions that look objectively hopeless often have hidden resources, if only one is persistent enough to find them.  That's a nice line; it intimates the beauty and depth of the game, and also why creativity is as important as calculation (unless you're a computer which … Continue reading The Chess Project: Installment 2: A Chess Puzzle →

This is the first installment in what I hope will become a lengthy series of posts on chess. Each day, give or take--and history suggests more take than give--I'll post something about chess.  I'm doing this for three reasons, mainly.  First, I've been studying chess for about six months now, and it will impose some … Continue reading The Chess Project: Installment 1: Mating with the Queen →

“That’s just like, your opinion, man.” Jeffrey (“The Dude”) Lebowski, The Big Lebowski In the Coen Brothers classic, the Dude is called “a lazy man… probably the laziest in Los Angeles County, which puts him in the running for laziest worldwide.”  We laugh at the Dude’s outdated 60’s radicalism in lots of other forms.  His … Continue reading Teaching Students Past Moral Relativism – Some Experiences in a High School English Classroom →