And, no, I did not sleep in! It's just that we had a couple of visitors and I was on breakfast-chef duties - as well as clearing up afterwards duties! Anyway, when I eventually slumped down before my computer what did I find? Nearly twenty spams - grrrrrh! Clearing them put me in a bad mood but inadvertantly I came across this: http://www.youtube.com/embed/KgoapkOo4vg?rel=0 and instantly my good humour returned. I have linked to it in the past but it's worth watching again. Your view of Moscow and Muscovites will never be quite the same!
The blind gambit: I was rather taken with this tale during the week because once upon a time I became very interested in chess although, alas, my skill never reached anywhere near my fascination with the game. Anyway, CBS Chicago reported on a rather nice idea of Mr. Timur Gareev, currently #3 in the American chess rankings. He went to Cook County jail and played ten inmates simultaneously whilst being blindfolded! In turn, his opponents' moves were called out to him and he simply (or perhaps not so simply!) envisioned the board in his mind and made his counter-move. He won 10-0! All this was part of a programme to train the inmates to avoid instant gratification and to think before they act. How successful it is I do not know. Irritatingly, the report mentions a chess match organised by World Master Anatoly Karpov held earlier in the year between the American convicts and a team of Russian equivalents but it fails to mention who won. Anyway, perhaps I might take up chess again!
Telling 'porky pies': For the benefit of my foreign readers I should explain that 'porky pies' is an example of Cockney rhyming slang meaning 'lies'. I have a book by Philip Kerr entitled "The Penguin Book of Lies". It is one of those 'dip in and read at random' type of books. I was struck by this piece introducing an essay by Paul Ekmann, an analyst of "non-verbal communication", who comments on the historic meeting in 1962 between President Kennedy and Andrei Gromyko, then the Soviet Foreign Minister. According to Kerr, based on Ekmann's analysis, they both lied and lied again through their teeth:
He [Ekmann] concludes that both Kennedy and Gromyko were 'natural liars, inventive and clever in fabricating, smooth talkers, with a convincing manner', and that 'any politician who comes to power, in part through his skill in debate and public speeches, who is agile in handling questions at news conferences, with a glistening TV or radio image, has the conversational talents to be a natural liar'.
So today, no change there, then!
The greatest legs - ever! Another compendium-type book I found the other day following a (late!) Spring clean of my garret was Tinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer, a collection of Daily Telegraph obits. I was struck by this compliment to the late and totally gorgeous Cyd Charisse offered by Fred Astaire, perhaps not too grammatically correct but it says what it means: "That Cyd! When you've danced with her you stay danced with." (Sigh) I never understood why she failed to reply to my many letters!
Dave's judgment (lack of): It's often the little things that give them away and in the case of 'Dim Dave' there are so many things that one hardly knows where to begin. For example, they way he instantly embraced the 'Green sickness' even to the point of putting a stupid windmill on his house when anyone with an ounce of judgment would have recognised the whole global warming movement for the semi-hysterical con trick it is. Similarly, there was his action in hiring the ex-editor of the News of the World as his communications director. I have nothing against Mr. Coulsen who is currently in the dock at the Old Bailey defending himself on various charges, indeed, from what little I have seen of him I was rather impressed with his cool intelligence. However, in the same way that you do not expect the men who clean our sewers to come up smelling of roses, neither do you expect the editor of the 'Screws of the World' to be without blemish and if you are prime minister you play safe by keeping some distance. Finally, we have his almost instant dismissal of Andrew Mitchell, his former Chief Whip, on the basis of accusations made without proof. To be fair, his chief civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, was supposed to have 'investigated' the affair and he, obviously, "should have gone to Specsavers". Even so, 'Dim Dave' dismissed his 'Right Honourable Friend' whom it is now clear was the victim of a lying campaign by the Plods and all this leaves Dave looking stupid and disloyal. So, nothing new, really!
No more rumbles today
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