Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

Thanks for the Post Fightingbob.

A cute quote from the late great Casey Stengel: " The trick is growing up without growing old. " A nice clear one from the man who invented Stengeleese  lol.

The great Casey Stengel was right, but of course for too many that came of age in the 1960s it was all about growing old without growing up ... unfortunately.  I look in the mirror and hope I reflect Stengel's dictum and not the other, but sometimes I wonder.

I have no doubt you're right with what you say, Bob, but being one of those you talk about I have to say, looking back, I have no regrets.  I still managed to get my engineering degree, marry and raise a family.  I am a firm believer in the old adage, "no one on their death bed ever said, damn, I wish I'd spent more time at the office, except maybe a porn star"

lol - I'd never heard the last part of that. 

Well, Steve (PoolPlayerToo), it sounds like you became an upstanding citizen with a wife and children.  On the other hand, I go to bed late, wake up late and let too many things slide that I should be on.  In former times when pool was played on 5 x 10s, the era of Mosconi, Crane, Caras, Ponzi and Lassiter, in short when pool was king, I might have made something of myself and become a pool room bum.   My hours and attitude were made for it. 

wait, one has to be married with kids to be an upstanding citizen?

i do like pools, though...

Not sure if I have ever been accused of being an "upstanding citizen", always preferred to be a little outside of that designation.

You're right about the pool though but you're really going back in time with Caras and Ponzi.  I can easily see you more the Lassiter type, "a game of 9-ball sir?  Just a few dollars?"  Don't think I'd want to try to make a game with you, you'd end up owning my house. 

I guess I am going back in time with Caras and Ponzi, Steve, but not as far back as I could have gone with Greenleaf.  Pool really was king in those days when Ralph Greenleaf and Willie Hoppe garnered as much ink in the sports pages as Babe Ruth, which to modern sensibilities seems ridiculous.  Now we're on the twilight side of the hill as kids with their Androids and iPhones and game apps just aren't interested; it's killing the game, at least in the U.S.  Sad, really.

Frankly, I always enjoyed watching Irving Crane tower over the table with his tall frame and businesslike approach, and of course Willie Mosconi for his rhythmic "moves like a dancer" manner at the table, but no one entertained me like Wimpy Lassiter and his gentlemanly southern drawl while running out in 9-Ball (and darn good at straight pool too).  He was a hustler with class.

Bob, I too have the circadian rhythms of an adolescent boy!  Fortunately, I've always been able to arrange my working day to start at noon and end after 9 at night.  And it's perfect for comedy clubs, too.

It is just the opposite for me, I suppose I enjoy the hours of silence until wife and kids wake up on free days.

Thanks a lot for all of the new posts.

   ---   Sorry I meant to reply to this post earlier ( forgetful hmm ? ). Yes I spent the first 9 yrs of my life in the Black Forest, aka the Duchy Of Swabia back in the old days. Then we moved to the bald prairie of the south-eastern part of Alberta but these days I live a near Edmonton.  

I just came across this item from Clarence Darrow: " The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children. " Not the most cheerful of people I must say  lol.  

Not the only thing he was wrong about!

You had Clarence Darrow portrayed by Spencer Tracy and H. L. Mencken portrayed by Gene Kelly in Stanley Kramer's Inherit the Wind (1960)  Though it is a fine film with excellent performances, it takes liberties with the actual Scopes trial but also the images of Darrow and Mencken.  Though Gene Kelly is a real cynic in the film, the real life Mencken as well as Darrow were far more curmudgeonly; the above quote posted by badenwurtca confirms Darrow certainly was.

Thanks for the posts and for the info.  

Curmudgeons are like 4 year olds -- if you ask them a question, they'll tell you exactly what they think.  I like them both. 😉 

You can tell you are getting older because you watched Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on TV. Btw Tiny Tim had out a cute version of " Tiptoe Thru The Tulips ". 

Johnny Carson was the best, but the marriage of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicky was too odd even for me.  It was like watching Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), though not as odd as watching the unfunny pinheads who currently dominate late night and the boring stars hawking their current, soon to be forgotten films.  Uh oh, I'm being a 4-year-old again.