I knew a chess teacher who asked his students if they looked at an entire menu of ice cream offerings before ordering. He was working at getting the kids to examine all the choices before jumping at a move. That’s not how proficient chessplayers operate, but little kids would surely benefit from that habit. I once heard my teacher pose the same question, though it wasn’t I’ve cream, but some other menu items. RRS told the kids that adults have a harder time at chess because they’ve already made their minds up about so many things, and considering a wider …

Fuzzyologist Jane Goodall died at 91. She was not a relative of the great chess organizer Mike, but… Mike was in court on a possession charge. Judge heard Mike’s last name, said: Any relation to Jane? Instantly, Mike’s lawyer said: “They’re married, Your Honor”. Case dismissed. “You’re kidding”, I said. “He bought that?!” “That’s what I was paying him for”, Mike said about his counsel’s quick thinking, then shared a riddle. “What do you call a judge with an IQ of 50?” “What.” “Your Honor.”

I said that I neglect my blogs because if I write or imagine something worthy of a book, I save it for a book. And if it’s not serious enough to keep, I put it on Facebook.   Eventually, nothing gets blogged, because FB posts are so much easier to write than blog entries.   On a social network, you’re connected to the readers somehow. Sometimes you tell people “how the hell do we know each other”, but there’s always something — even a friend of a friend of someone whose comment you liked shares a sliver of your experience. …