Are you hunting for eggs?

Who hasn't thrilled watching him thunder across the Savannah, stripes glistening in the sun as Lions leap after him?

Yes- the <fabled Zebra>...

Sorry, Prof. I'll redraft that as an academic paper: <Burning Motherboards: Prevalence of Combustion Metaphors in Internet Jargon>.

Anyhoo, *they* have been busy ... Jess, the most dangerous adversary with her Killer Kantuck Knowledge is temporarily downed with an actual physical injury. You and me, no real physical threat there, so they hit our puters.

I'm knitting this on a non-wireless comp that struggles to run Fritz 8 slowly ... and may not actually be 'online' at all.

What *they* haven't reckoned with is my propensity for broadcasting my delusions into the void.

<Jess> - <Advance Variation> is obviously being read as a coded message to our troops. Did you ever hear about an apocryphal case of Chinese Whispers during World War I? The message "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" was retransmitted many times until noise invaded signal and it became "Send three-and-fourpence, we're going to a dance".

Three and fourpence is a Cricketer from Leeds, no?

I hope you get a chance to check out my analysis of your FAMOUS DRAW in the <Max Euwe Center>--

I'm trying to publicize it so other <Froggers> can <Advance> their knowledge of the <French> as well...

A pity it's only half a game, really. If there was extra time on move 40 I'd have played on, but sudden death blitz is too much of a lottery for my shredded nerves to handle.

Monsieur l'Opponent, btw, actually *was* French, and probably still is. So playing his national opening was an <affaire> of <l'honneur> between <gentilhommes>.

So if a shilling was half a florin, and a florin - as inscribed on the 'gothic florin' of 1873 - was "one tenth of a pound" ... then three shillings and four pence equates to 16.7 new pence. Round it up, like every shopkeeper in l'Angleterre ever did, and it's 18p. Say 20p.

They still have pees in the UK, don't they? We here have Euros and cents. I don't know about dances, but you wouldn't get in to see Mr Cohen play for 3/4 anymore.

D-Day for Decimalization: didn't know I had a numismatic streak too, didja? I don't actually have any coins, though. Whatever they are.

My dear wife is having a baby, she is 39 weeks along now. When things settle down, I'll be back to write more. We're waiting to find out whether it will be a boy or a girl, but know that the baby will likely be in the 8 pound range.

And a 2700 rating, yes? Hilarious.

I've met roughly 10% of the world's *real* 2700+ GM types, and they tend to be polite, charming, intelligent and courteous. Since they've all put enormous effort into getting where they are, none of 'em would dream of insulting their less successful peers with a line like "I got better things to do".

Anyway: who thinks that <12-year-old> is a mortal insult? A <13-year-old>, that's who.

"Puberty came as a great shock to Furby. For a while, he thought he had become a mutant superhero, like the characters in his favorite TV shows. He worked on his spidey sense, but nothing happened. He tried bursting into flame like The Human Torch, but the results were weird, and kinda damp ..."

I'll get back to you all later.

I don't know about coffee! I took up drinking tea about 4 years ago. The extra ingredient sounds umm.. less than desirable.

My warmest congratulations and good luck!! Will you be teaching your new child chess?

My Dad started me off at age 5.

I look forward to more analysis from you!

Nope, I didn't fall-- And believe me I spent the first five days at the Hospital asking my Doctor <Ok how, exactly did this happen>?

In fact, I didn't even know I was injured until two days after.

It was on <Tuesday> that I woke up with so much hip pain that I could hardly move.

My doctor eventually diagnosed me with <atypical severe muscle strain> and gave me the encouraging explanation:

"These things happen sometimes."

Well somthing similar happened to me before. With no reason, I once woke up with strained muscles on the top of my left foot and couldn't walk for weeks. I remember begging the ER nurse for strong opiates and getting quie huffy with her-- eventually bursting in to tears. A small price to pay for 60 mg. of codeine phosphate!!

Anyhoo, I'm on the mend now and will return to work Monday.