I'm starting to think that chess is the most dangerous addiction of all. I mean, your average junkie just wants their fix ... they don't spend every available moment studying books about the molecular structure of opiates...

Well, um, ackshully *some* do. But that's another story.

I mentioned that I'd recently written an article on the Rolling Stones, and she made an "oooh, nasty" sound and asked why I didn't write about choirs and choral music instead.

I guess cos I can't get no satisfaction doing that?

And then somebody mentioned John Healy, the guy who wrote the book/film 'The Grass Arena' about how chess pulled him out of alcoholism and homelessness. A great and true story, written from the heart, I said.

She was horrified. "But how can people *live* like that?", she said.

Painfully, I said. But they *do*, that's the point. It's real.

And the nice lady made another "oooh, nasty" face. Me, I think it's absolutely fine if people want no truck with the dark side - probably much better off that way, in fact. But deliberately avoiding its existence is something else.

And nice people with a sense of civic duty sometimes vote for nasty governments who pass laws that make life even harder for those at the sticky end.

Also, one of the kibitzee's is deaf dumb & blind, its so insensitive.

A brief bio of a Bible character named Judah. Judah was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. Jacob was a son of Isaac. Isaac was the promised son of Abraham, who God has promised to bless in unimaginable ways through his descendants. Jacob was renamed Israel, and the descendants of the 12 sons became known as the 12 tribes of Israel. It was prophesied that from among the 12 tribes, the Messiah would come from the line of Judah.

So a few interesting events from the life of Judah:

<Gen. 37:17-20 ...So Joseph (One of Judah's brothers) went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.">

Judah was one of the brothers who wanted to kill their brother Joseph. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

<Gen. 37:26-28 Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.>

In this heartwarming tale of family love that could be a script for The Waltons, Judah realizes he shouldn't kill his own brother. Instead, he just sells him into slavery.

Later in life, Judah is involved in an event of family love that would make the young lady at the luncheon have a stroke. Judah's wife died, and Judah apparently decided to express his grief by procuring a prostitute. The woman he chose wasn't a prostitute, but was in fact his daughter in law. We pick up the action here:

<Gen. 38:24-26 About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!" As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.">

So Judah was ready to put his daughter in law to death for her sexual escapades and apparently had forgotten about his own adventures.

The daughter in law had twins, and one of those twins became an ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

1) time constraints
2) the game being *rated*
3) competition standings
4) prizes on stake
5) impact for the rest of the team
(in team events, where pros often draw)
6) live broadcast of your game

and probably more. :o)

Alas, time constraints caused me to give the Reader's Digest version. And yes, the circumstances I omitted did mitigate her role.

<It was not Yehuda who was widowed at the time, but Tamar>

Both were widowed at the time.

Gen. 38:11-12 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house. After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

<apparently she knew his habits quite well>

OK then, but his being a widower at the time was more-or-less irrelevant (especially since, given that his habit of picking up prostitutes - and not even paying them, btw - was so well known, this strongly implies that he must have been cheating on his wife before she died too...) whereas her widowhood was extremely relevant. ;)

He gave her a goat. What more could a woman want?

<this strongly implies that he must have been cheating on his wife before she died too...) >

Gen. 38:20,23 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her....Then Judah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her."