Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

Thanks for the post. Sounds like you folks have a good system on the go there.

Well it has woked for 31+ years. See no reason to change it now.

Thanks for the post Pam234.

Today I've got a quote from Paul Valery: " The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. " I had to read that statement a couple of times to get how much it applies to a person as they get older.   

Good quote and very relevant to us oldtimers.

I Loved the Wilde quote --- 

Thanks a lot for the new posts. 

I found another cute quote from Oscar Wilde: " The old believe everything   ---   The middle-aged suspect everything   ---   The young know everything ".

Oscar Wilde had a real flair for the clever, timeless epigram, didn't he.

It sounded just right to me at first.... then I thought I'm "old" (73) and I don't "believe everything."  For example, I don't Believe who's going to be our next president.  (It Can't be True!)  

So that means I "suspect everything," so I must be "middle-aged."  And I'm sure I'm right about that because, well, I know Everything!

 Oh, dear that means I'm "young."  ... how confusing ...... so, well ... never mind.

P.S.  Oscar Wilde would have had trouble with our election results, too.

Yes,Wilde would have been troubled and frightened.

Thanks for all of the posts.

Found a cute poem by Oliver Goldsmith: " O, blest retirement ! Friend to life's decline   ---   How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these --- A youth of labour with an age of ease ! "

An apropos poem for this thread, badenwurtca, no doubt about that.  However, I'm not so sure retirement is an age of ease in these hectic, disquieting times.

I'd like to borrow H.G. Wells time machine to go back to Victorian England or small town America in the 19th century a la A Stop at Willoughby.  If it can't take me back that far, perhaps Mayberry, North Carolina will do.

Thanks for the posts.

This quote from Doris Lessing gets right to the bottom line: " The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in 70 or 80 years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. "

Oh, I've changed, badenwurtca.  I've grown more cantankerous and curmudgeonly with age.  I still have my report cards for 1st through 6th grade stored away and they have the highest pre-alphabetic checkmarks for "Is cooperative," "Is courteous," "Works and plays well with others."  I wonder what the hell went wrong -- ha ha.  The only "unsatisfactory" was "Finishes work on time."  The truth of life is that what makes you bad also, in other ways, makes you good, so though I've lost more than my share of OTB games on time control, perhaps in the long run I will live to a ripe old age and not "finish my real work on time."  

I'm getting grumpier, too, fightingbob -- at least some of the time.  Other times, I feel more patient and benevolent than I used to.  I attribute both of these shifts to all the years I've spent accumulating knowledge, especially about people (including me), just in the course of living.  

The more I know, the more I understand, or think I do.  On some days, what I "know" irritates or even infuriates me.  Other days, I go "Ah, well.  I know I'm doing the best I can with the 'equipment' I've got.  And all these other people -- even the most annoying ones -- they're doing the best they can, too, the poor dears."

The grumpy thoughts, I should add, occur much more often in certain specific situations.  For example, I never seem to have benevolent thoughts about the satanic fiends -- excuse me, "people" -- who manufacture plastic packaging.  Do they think All of us own our own chainsaws?! ... harrumph, harrumph!

Thanks for the posts.