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| This is me, completely paralyzed by Adrian's masterful chess strategy Photo courtesy of Kevin Rosseel at Morguefile.com |
We had a long-lost visitor from Tennessee join us - Mike G! The Hut hasn't been the same since he moved away a few years ago and it's always a treat when he pays a visit. Joe K and Tom L were also there - Joe was sporting his "Pipe Down You Silly Liberal" shirt in my honor (thank you very much!) and Tom had his Sarcasm Engine at full throttle.
Mike recounted how his recent flight from Maine to Florida was interrupted with an emergency landing in Norfolk for an unruly passenger. The official word was that he was upset that he couldn't smoke an electronic cigarette, but the word amongst the passengers was that the guy was brandishing a razor blade. In any case, the plane landed safely in Norfolk and was immediately boarded by all manner of law enforcement personnel who promptly handcuffed the man and dragged him off the plane. Mike was in the back of the plane and didn't see too much but his seatmate was a retired Canadian police officer who, when they were landed and the police cars surrounded the plane, looked at Mike and asked, "Anything I should know?" Mike must have that "look" about him!
Joe surprised me with a gift when he came in - a wireless keyboard and mouse for the iMac I bought from him last September! It was one he used but now doesn't have a need for. Thanks Mr. Joe! I'm using it right now and you can see by the words and letters I'm typing that it works perfectly!
New pipe smoker Ed F came in and brought a friend, Dan. Dan's trying to quit cigarettes and was looking at one of Lou's electronic cigarettes, plus he's also thinking of taking up a pipe. I think Ed might have some influence there as he is certainly enjoying his new hobby. It's always good to welcome an enthusiastic new pipe smoker to the "Brotherhood of the Briar."
I explained to Ed the perils of PAD and TAD - Pipe Acquisition Disorder and Tobacco Acquisition Disorder respectively. Each disorder is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and can be quite serious (okay, I made up the part of being recognized by the APA). PAD is when you just have to add another pipe to your collection and TAD is, of course, when you have this pathological desire to keep trying new tobaccos.
Ed has been in the throes of TAD, working his way through Lou's various tobacco blends, finally settling on a couple favorites, one of which is my personal favorite, Baker Street. As you can imagine, PAD can become a rather costly affliction (as my wife well knows). In fact, a couple years ago for Christmas, Paula surprised me with a new pipe (a Cavicchi volcano that I took on our recent cruise) and I gave myself a Christmas gift as well that year - another new pipe (an Ascorti Peppino). Paula was not pleased.
Anyway, a friend of mine who works for banks cleaning out abandoned houses came across an old pipe and gave it to me. I brought it in last week and asked Lou if he would clean it up and sanitize it. Lou had it ready this week and it turned out to be a decent-looking meerschaum with acrylic bit. Not sure if it's carved or molded, but it was well used - the patina was an almost-uniform deep brown. As soon as I saw Ed in the shop on Saturday, and knowing that he was probably struggling with his own PAD demons, I thought I would just give him the meerschaum my friend gave me. Ed was very appreciative and I'm sure he's enjoying the new addition to his budding collection.
I wrote an article in this space a year or two ago about the value in estate pipes and though they can be found all the time on sites such as eBay, as long as you keep your eyes open at garage sales, flea markets, antique shops, etc., you can pick up some great pipes. A shout out to Lou for cleaning up the meerschaum so nicely - it turned out very nicely and certainly looks 100% better than when I brought it in.
As I said, Saturday was a bit sad for me, because my unbeaten streak of chess games with Adrian came to an end. Actually, I'm not sad at all - it was a great game and Adrian came away with a well-played and well-deserved victory. The game actually had to be suspended from the week before because we ran out of time (I didn't think Lou wanted to stay open 'til we finished). Adrian took a picture of the board with his cell phone, we set up the board when he came in this Saturday and we resumed the battle.
Last week, about midway through the game, I left a bishop en prise and Adrian promptly captured it (en prise is a chess term of French origin meaning "in take": a piece is considered en prise if it is unprotected and vulnerable to capture). I think at that point I was only down a pawn or two, but losing the bishop hurt. Adrian changed up his strategy from the start; instead of being aggressive in the opening, he was more restrained and adopted a slower, more deliberate method of developing his pieces.
He tried to get me to exchange queens at one point toward the end, and though we were evenly matched on the other pieces, he had four more pawns than I did. Normally not one to shy away from exchanging queens, I declined and tried to go on the offensive. Alas, I checked his king a couple times, but just couldn't mount an effective attack. A knight sacrifice on my part gained nothing and soon it was all over. He promoted a pawn and then another, and what little defense I had withered in the face of two queens on the board. The game was over quickly at that point and good thing, for Lou was about ready to close up shop. I'm definitely looking forward to a rematch!
That's all for now. Until next week...
- Bob
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