[Event "FICS rated blitz game"]
[Date "2010.03.02"]
[White "NN"]
[Black "AnnieK"]
[WhiteElo "1421"]
[BlackElo "1457"]
[TimeControl "600+0"]
[Mode "ICS"]
[Result "0-1"]

Nothing more amusing than drunk people of color.

I hate bashing out familiar opening lines, and I like to start thinking on move 2 or 3. Not *long* thinks, just considering transpositions etc. But taking even 10-15 seconds per move is impossible at blitz -

<Annie> - your 2...Nc6 is admirably different in this regard. I've noticed recently that more people are playing ...Nc6 systems, usually transposing into a Chigorin or one of those e4-e5 things like the Spanish.

I've scored 2.5/3 with this system, which I named the Munster Attack (the two nearest equivalents I found in the databases were played in Munster, Germany and Munster, Ireland ... and it reminds me of The Munsters).

1.Nf3 Nc6
2.a3 e5
3.d4 e4
4.d5

This is actually a Reversed Alekhine's. The big test of an early a3 by White is whether it's useful in the black opening that you're reversing into. Here it is, very.

Black can also play 2...d5, of course. In that case I tend to play g3/Bg2/0-0 etc, and c3 if necessary. The thematic c4 can wait.

Anyhow, this sort of stuff is a good part of the pleasure I get from chess. Ditto tangled complex middlegames with most of the pieces and pawns still on the board.

Where blitz is concerned, I'm with Botvinnik. (And Dylan - 'No Time to Think').

But I'm not buying the idea that linguistic idioms derive from individuals. These usages (girls, boys etc) seem to come from the linguistic substrate - 'translations', conscious or otherwise, from another language. Most of the peculiarities of Hiberno-English - the variety of English spoken in Ireland - relate directly to grammatical features of the Irish language (even though the Hiberno speaker may not know Irish and may be several generations removed from contact with it.)

I don't know much about Modern Hebrew, but I could make some guesses.... an influx of Russian borrowings in the past 20 years? Before that, a period of Americanisms? And a difficult and ambiguous relationship with other Semitic languages, notably Arabic? Because it's the closest relative both linguistically and geographically, but there are certain political considerations which might give a negative spin to the act of borrowing Arabic words or idioms ... while at the same time former residents of Arabic-speaking countries arrive with linguistic baggage of their own ...

I could be completely wrong. Maybe the energy that went into forging Modern Hebrew was strong enough to resist such influences. But I'd be surprised.

At another level, you're right about individuals. Every word was a novelty once, and every novelty starts *somewhere*. It may be a question of perspective - or even an ideological bias between the individual and the group - but I find 'population thinking' more useful with regard to languages.

As for Clinton, what's wrong with your own suggestion: first SO?

Or First POSSLQ, pronounced 'postle-cue' ... person of opposite sex sharing living quarters.

<Dom: <Oy, Blitz. It just doesn't do it for me personally, maybe because I can't play a chess game in 5 minutes. Or I can try, but it's not chess. And I lose on time.>>

I can play 5 0 blitz, but it <is> a bit fast for my taste too - time becomes too much of a factor. But once you get to the point of being more-or-less able to handle 5 0 blitz, you can return to 10 0 and feel positively comfortable with it. Heh. I rarely use up most of my time in 10 0 games anymore - in this particular game (and thanks again to <chancho> who pointed me to the FICS online database, where I could look it up) the (remaining) times at the end of the game were

White Clock: 4:20
Black Clock: 6:31

so the entire game <was> in fact played under 10 minutes, but I never got anywhere near to having to worry about the time.

But then, blitz is blitz, is indeed not quite chess as we know it; I play it purely for fun. Apart from the quite common actual blunders, I'm also likely to blithely try crazy sacs just for the heck of it. :D

Thanks for your comments, btw - I'll check them out more closely when I get home (at work now...)

Event: FICS rated blitz game
White: NN (1633)
Black: AnnieK (1425)
Result: 0-1
Time Control: 600+0
Date: 2010-02-26
White Clock: 4:26
Black Clock: 6:42

1. d4 d6 2. Nf3 Bg4 3. c4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 g5 7. Bg3 Nh5 8. Qc2 Bxf3 9. exf3 Ndf6 10. Bd3 Nxg3 11. fxg3 e6 12. O-O Qd7 13. b4 Bg7 14. a4 Nh5 15. Ne2 f5 16. Rfe1 O-O 17. Rad1 Qf7 18. c5 d5 19. g4 Nf4 20. Nxf4 Bxd4 21. Kh1 gxf4 22. Bxf5 e5 23. Rxd4 exd4 24. Be6 Rae8 25. Qg6 Kh8 26. Qxh6 Qh7 27. Qg5 d3 28. Qxd5 c6 29. Qd4 Qg7 30. Qxd3 Rf6 31. Qd6 Rfxe6 0-1 White resigns

And a 5 0 game:

Event: FICS rated blitz game
White: AnnieK (1473)
Black: NN (1754)
Result: 1-0
Time Control: 300+0
Date: 2009-06-19
White Clock: 1:07
Black Clock: 0:54.151

Here's one more, freshly in:

<How NOT to play the French> - especially for you, <Dom>. :D

Event: FICS rated blitz game
White: AnnieK (1476)
Black: NN (1445)
Result: 1-0
Time Control: 600+0
Date: 2010-03-03
White Clock: 7:37
BlackClock: 6:34

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 cxd4 6. cxd4 Qb6 7. a3 Nge7 8. b4 Nf5 9. Be3 Nxe3 10. fxe3 Bd7 11. Nc3 Rc8 12. Na4 Qd8 13. Nc5 b6 14. Nxd7 Qxd7 15. Bb5 Qb7 16. O-O a6 17. Bxc6 Rxc6 18. Ng5 Be7 19. Nxf7 O-O 20. Qh5 g6 21. Nh6 Kg7 22. Qh3 Bg5 23. Rxf8 Kxf8 24. Rf1 Kg7 25. Rf7 Qxf7 26. Nxf7 Kxf7 27. Qxh7 Ke8 28. Qxg6 1-0 Black resigns

Oh, call me an idealist. 'Incorrigibly lazy' and 'as inert as a rock' also fit.

I know a TV newsreader who uses strategic pauses like that. Usually, though not invariably, for different reasons. And she's a she, so the strategy must work both ways.

Pause.

The thing is, be careful with animal metaphors. Somebody once told me I looked like a sheep-killing fly. Not the same thing at all.

Well done good sir! You are a perceptive observer of the womanly element. Or you saw the movie too. And it was indeed the pause that was so effective.

ie, Tony Danza: <Puzzled look on face> (Redundant, I know)

Woman: What, what?

Tony: Well, it's just that......

Woman: Go ahead.

Tony: You have this look in your eyes........oh, never mind.

Woman: (Captivated, knows this is going to be a transcendent moment, not the usual bar talk) What?! What is the look?!

Tony: You have this look......like a wounded animal.....

Woman: YES!!!! That's how I feel.........wounded.

Annie, you have this look.......like....a wounded animal.

http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/littl...

Odie, you have this look in your eyes.....like a wounded animal.

Stock Response: "You'd like one of those too, yes? Just a sec... that can be arranged." :p

<Dom: <I don't do this for the filthy lucre, you know. I do it for the filthy lookers-on.>>

"It's all 'bout the lurker"

<Do continue. [posting games here]>

<Ohio>

Thanks for the "ho ho ho" video alert that brought me to the <Frogspawn viewing gallery>.

You know I really enjoyed that-

<Tashan Full Song Chhaliya Chhaliya bikini dance of kareena kapoor>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QsM...

"She must be having a blast... B____tch!"

You know not only is she fabulous- but I'm struck by how "Indian" Indian pop music is.

This is what drives me spare about Korean pop videos.

Korean pop has no indigenous element of any kind- whatsoever. Not one Korean instrument, no Korean dance traditions, no Korean music traditions- ZERO- just a straight copy of the worst of American pop videos.

But this Kareena video features Indian instruments, Indian musical styles, and Indian choreography that is FUSED with - not just copied from- American pop.

Thanks for reminding me how much I love Bollywood- and why.

That Bollwood horror film "Apt. 13" took a big bite out of me- best horror film in twenty years if you ask me.

When I was doing my Fabulous Furry Freak Brother act in Houston, Texas, I had to walk by Gilly's Bar to get to the chess club. You know, the one with the bull riding gimmick and line dancing. Urban Cowboy was filmed there. "You're like a wounded Debra Winger."

Anyhoo, every night there was an unbroken line of women with enormous hair and little cowboy hats on top accompanied by slow walkin', slow talkin' men who by day were accountants. The parking lot was filled with hundreds of pickup trucks with gun racks and longhorn hood ornaments.