[Lord Lovat] was ordering now, as they waded up Sword Beach, in that drawly voice of his: “Give us a tune, piper.” Mr Millin thought him a mad bastard. The man beside him, on the point of jumping off, had taken a bullet in the face and gone under. But there was Lovat, strolling through fire quite calmly in his aristocratic way, allegedly wearing a monogrammed white pullover under his jacket and carrying an ancient Winchester rifle, so if he was mad Mr Millin thought he might as well be ridiculous too, and struck up “Hielan’ Laddie”. Lovat approved it with a thumbs-up, and asked for “The Road to the Isles”. Mr Millin inquired, half-joking, whether he should walk up and down in the traditional way of pipers. “Oh, yes. That would be lovely.”

Dead at 88.

Senate candidate from Alaska Joe Miller is an amateur radio operator, with the call sign AL0J. So we endorse him.

On my commute (by car) this morning, I listened to the New Yorker Out Loud podcast, in which Patricia Marx is interviewed about the experience of shopping for a car.

Of course, the idea is that New Yorkers needs to have someone explain to them what buying a car is like. Which they do. Not how to do it, nor how to do it properly, but What is the experience like? It starts with this exchange (approximately) between the interviewer and the author: “Patricia, have you ever bought a car before?” “No.” “Me neither. What’s it like?”

Later, Patricia lets fly a pretty good funnyism. When asked, if she were to actually ever buy a car, which would it be, she says, “I’m kind of won over by the electric cars. I like the idea of not going to a gasoline station and I like the idea of pretending that you’re saving the environment, because the pollution that you’re causing isn’t near you. It’s not coming out of the car. It’s somewhere far away where you can’t see it.”

I was quickly scanning the Wikipedia entry for novelist James Gould Cozzens and I misread the sentence “After a year he accompanied his mother to Europe, where he tutored a young polio victim to earn money” as “After a year he accompanied his mother to Europe, where he tortured a young polio victim to earn money.”

Topalev evened it up to 4-4.

FYI, here at the Junior Ganymede club, we’re rooting for Vishy Anand to retain the title.  That’s our official position.

Florencio Campomanes, past president of FIDE, the international regulatory body of chess, is dead.

His obits have mentioned that his mismanagement of FIDE lead to the defection of Nigel Short and Kasparov from FIDE in 1993, splitting the world title, which wouldn’t be reunited until 2006.  Disastrous for chess.

Unmentioned in the obits so far is that he was probably an agent of the KGB.

Says the managing partner of his law firm: “He’s seeking counseling.  He needs to figure out for himself what led to all of this.”

My guess is that it’s greed.

World Number One in the chess rankings (which is not the same thing as world champion) 19 year-old Magnus Carlsen gives an interesting interview. 

A highlight:

SPIEGEL: Mr Carlsen, what is your IQ?

Carlsen: I have no idea. I wouldn’t want to know it anyway. It might turn out to be a nasty surprise.

SPIEGEL: Why? You are 19 years old and ranked the number one chess player in the world. You must be incredibly clever.

Carlsen: And that’s precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that.

SPIEGEL: How that?

Carlsen: At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess.

SPIEGEL: Things are different in your case?

Carlsen: Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

Also covered: impact of computers on training, Kasparov, work ethic, family, and girls.

Via the invaluable Manolo.

B.J. Harrison’s The Classic Tales podcast just started doing Right Ho, Jeeves in an eight part, weekly series.  The program is free, but only if you get it fresh.  After two weeks, it is only available for a fee.  So subscribe forthwith.

Stephen Fry’s endorsement: “The masterly episode where Gussie Fink-Nottle presents the prizes at Market Snodsbury grammar school is frequently included in collections of great comic literature and has often been described as the single funniest piece of sustained writing in the language. I would urge you, however, to head straight for a library or bookshop and get hold of the complete novel Right Ho, Jeeves, where you will encounter it fully in context and find that it leaps even more magnificently to life.”

From James Taranto:

• “Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with is this: Slow down. Stop everything. Let’s start over. If you think you have heard these same excuses before, you are right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said: Slow down. It is too early. Let’s wait. Things aren’t bad enough.”–Sen. Harry Reid on ObamaCare, Dec. 7
• “Democrat Reid Says ‘No Rush’ on Health Bill”–headline, Reuters, Jan. 26

From Philip Cala-Lazar, K9PL, in the excellent K9YA Telegraph newsletter (.pdf; free subscription required), we get a wonderful report on the amateur radio aspects of this off-road romp across Asia in French half-tracks. 

No word yet on whether any chess was involved.

I’m waiting to see whether this qualifies for the California Continuing Legal Education credit that I need before I register.

On the recommendation of Mike Lief, I visited the web site The Art of Manliness.  I was particularly interested to note the article 45 Manly Hobbies. 

#1: Chess.  #2: Ham radio.  #12 Camping. 

This was particularly interesting to me because about a year ago I started the Society for the Establishment of Competitive Off-Road Radio Chess Camping.  (Join the Facebook group!)  In doing so I apparently created the manliest hobby in the history of man.  You’re welcome.