Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

Fightingbob: I find that I've mellowed a bit with age. In my younger days I had the nickname of " Ralphie Boy " based on the Ralph Cramden character in " The Honeymooners " TV series ( yup I used to " Bark " at people   lol ). Mind you working for a living was causing some stress. 

Motherinlaw: I had a funny thought after reading your most reason posts ( re: the term " Bi-polar "   lol, just kidding ! ).

Thank You for your reply, Mil.  You have a better attitude than I do, but mine has gotten worse because of all the people who have moved to Denver in the last five years.  It's traffic, traffic everywhere and rush, rush, rush.  It isn't the city I remember anymore.

I happen to agree with you about a lot of clam-shell plastic packaging.  It's why I always have a utility knife handy.  Remember the advice Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) received in The Graduate, namely PLASTICS, and we all smirked at the shallowness of the buffoon.  I guess the buffoon had the last laugh.

By the way, Badenwurtca, The Honeymooners (i.e. the classic 39 as well as the "lost" episodes) is one of my favorite character comedies, that is one driven by character rather than foolish situations, of all time.  Jackie Gleason was indeed The Great One.

Frankly, I love the nickname "Ralphie Boy."  Do you belong to the Raccoon Lodge? (ha ha)

I'm with you too on traffic, fb.  I should have mentioned it -- seriously!  I live in the Atlanta area -- horrendous traffic, perpetual construction, jack-knifed trailer trucks, shut down interstate highway lanes, and side streets, too.  The only (usually) clear windows of time to go Anywhere around here are 10:15 to 11:00 am and 1:45 to 2:30 pm.  That's right.  You read it right:  I have two 45 minutes periods a day to do errands and go to appointments, etc. to avoid being stuck in the kind of traffic that Threatens to make my Head Explode!  OK.  I got that out. ... Ommmm. ;-)

Mil, you make Denver sound like a cake-walk, which it is compared to Atlanta.  I've heard horrible things about Atlanta's traffic, and you've confirmed it.  I was in Atlanta for a computer class over 20 years ago and it wasn't so bad, but Denver wasn't bad 20 years ago either.  In short, I sympathize with you.

Saw a video of the traffic heading out of LA for the holidays. It was horrendous, 12 lanes of traffic crawling. Makes our Motorway jams look good!

Speaking of traffic .....Far be it for me to say anything in defense of all the Americans who buy big, expensive gas-guzzling, exhaust-producing, planet-destroying cars and then spend big chunks of their food budget on horribly unhealthy fast food meals .... but here I go anyway.  

People who go to work in urban areas, and work 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, can end up spending 15 or 20 additional hours a week commuting in their cars, in slow, frustrating, anxiety-provoking, stop-and-go traffic, with the boredom punctuated by occasional "slam-on-your-brakes-or-get-slammed-into!" moments of sheer terror. They get home from work too late and too exhausted to make a healthy family meal.  If they have kids, they're probably in their cars in the evenings and on weekends another 10+ hours a week.  

For people trapped in this "lifestyle," their cars are second homes, in which they spend as much as 30 hours a week -- so they buy comfortable cars.  And fast food, in addition to being wonderfully "fast," is comfort food --familiar, soothing (to most people), high fat, high salt, high sugar food.

Imagine if we had drive-through Mc-Heroin and Mc-Cocaine franchises on every other corner.  (I guess we should count our blessings.)

P.S.  I'm among the lucky Atlanta area people who Don't have to live like that -- I can arrange my own hours, so I avoid peak traffic times when I can.  And whenever I am on the road during rush hour, I'm usually going in opposite direction of the worst traffic.  It's just that, at those times, I can See the poor dears creeping along the other way -- 6 lanes of traffic going 20 mph for mile after mile after mile, and I feel for them -- deeply.

You're funny when you get goin', Mil, but don't give countercultural Colorado any ideas.  I can hear it now, "Would you like to get fried with that, Sir?"  After that scenario, no matter how McDonald's tried to brand itself as a family restaurant it would be known colloquially as a burger joint. 

Thanks for all of these nice new posts.

Re traffic: Up where I have been living in recent years one of the main concerns that I have is the Bambi critters, indeed I lost a car last February because a deer ran up onto the road. Also at certain times of the year one needs to keep an eye peeled for farm machinery as well. 

   ---   Yes one of the problems in California is their large population. Up here in Canada we have close to 35 million people going coast to coast however California has that amount of population all by itself.

Thanks, fb, and re:  "Would you like to get fried with that, Sir?"  (good one! - lol)

throughout my years i have always wondered why so many put themselves in this position-and then complain about it. 

while they may be bright in some areas, i don't think they get the big picture. which, to me, is quality of life.

a sidenote. i grew up near chicago, and, while i'm quite aware of how corrupt it is, the public transportation works. i've known some that lived in the city and didn't own a vehicle. 

Thanks for the posts.

Just saw an interesting item where a 89 year old widower in Devon ( UK ) put an ad in the local paper saying that he is looking for part-time work to " Keep From Dying Of Boredom ". Well I can see that the old fellow might be a bit lonesome but then again 89 does seem to be a bit elderly to be going back to work   lol.

I've never fully understood those who say they are "dying of boredom," not with all the things in the world to see or to read or, not to put too fine a point on it, to experience.  Is it a lack of imagination, I wonder?  I'm reminded of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence that begins:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

I first heard this passage read by the late, great Jacob Bronowski in his 1970's series, The Ascent of Man, and I never forgot it.

Perhaps at 89 the fellow has lost all innocence, is world weary and needs something to motivate him.  As an introvert in an extroverted culture, I count myself lucky to not need that kind of push, but I'm not 89 either.

To play devils advocate for the widower, his wife has gone into that good night, no doubt most of his friends have passed before him and he may feel as Hamlet did when he uttered "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!"

I hope I never get to that stage, so to speak.

Thanks for the post Fightingbob. Yes I imagine that it has a lot to do with the loss of his wife ( I believe she passed away a couple of years back ). I have a relative who lost his wife a few months ago after 64 years of marriage, it is a difficult thing to go thru. 

Btw, I've never been all that fond of the play " Hamlet " but I do like that quote. 

A quote from a terrific actor from some years ago, Sir Ralph Richardson: " Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing."