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Oct-20-11
 | | Domdaniel: How do you mispronounce *Nixon*? Knee-khon? Nigh-yohn? Nicks On? A truly great President. I have fond memories of his time in office as the First Criminal, while wife Pat played the First Moll. And yet, in hindsight - with his China strategy and his poker-player's strategies - Nixon must be ranked among the *smartest* of US presidents. Not quite in Jefferson's league, but up there in the next tier with Garfield and Wilson. All disasters as chief executives, but that's what brains buys you. |
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| Oct-20-11 | | Shams: <Marmot PFL><38 years ago today, that RMN fired the special prosecutor Cox and attorney general (Richardson not John Mitchell of course). This was a desperate, and of course unsuccessful sacrifice, to fend off inevitable checkmate.> The full story of the "Saturday Night Massacre" is educational and makes for great reading-- for those who don't know it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturd... Richardson and Ruckelshaus were fired because they refused to fire Cox. Thank God Robert Bork, #3 at the Justice Department (#1 by the end of the evening) dug deep and found within himself the requisite moral steel to fire Cox. |
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| Oct-20-11 | | Shams: My previous post is a bit unfair to Bork. His side of the story may be found here: "http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/02/u..." But note: <"I was thinking of resigning not out of moral considerations. I did not want to be perceived as a man who did the President's bidding to save my job."> |
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| Oct-20-11 | | Marmot PFL: <Domdaniel> Jefferson, a disaster? Every historian I have seen ranks him near the top. Garfield was shot and died only 5 months in, but hadn't done anything to discredit the office as far as I know. <Shams> Nixon could have resigned at that point, but like many chess players could not face defeat. He also probably wanted more time to work out a pardon deal with Gerald Ford, but I don't believe Ford made any such deal. Maybe we will never know for sure though. |
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| Oct-20-11 | | Shams: <Garfield was shot and died only 5 months in, but hadn't done anything to discredit the office as far as I know.> To "English Bill" from <Unforgiven>, being killed in office was actually a discredit to the Presidency. "Nobody would kill a King, but a President...?" Something like that. I like your metaphor, but Nixon was facing the unprecedented. In hindsight, his resignation was inevitable, but in 36 previous games to that point White had never lost. :) |
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| Oct-20-11 | | goldenbear: <erniecohen> I didn't mean to imply that I think Nixon was especially bigoted. I don't think he was. But I do think Nixon could have been one of the great comedians of all time. His inflection is unique and perfectly suited to comedy. Plus, he was always thinking about interesting things. Here is Nixon on insect intercourse (literally): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxty... |
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Oct-20-11
 | | Phony Benoni: <FSR>: It looks like the speech was actually in 1973. Wikipedia has this in its article on the Watergate Scandal: "<Responding to the allegations of wrongdoing, Nixon said, "I'm not a crook," in front of 400 Associated Press managing editors on November 17, 1973."> Maybe you can't believe the President, but 400 Associate Press managing editors can't be wrong. I guess I'm not quite as excited about the pun because it's an old one in this neck of the woods. In the 1990s, the Michigan Chess Assocation had a President whose last name was Nixon, and he enjoyed using it. |
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Oct-20-11
 | | FSR: <Phony Benoni: <FSR>: It looks like the speech was actually in 1973. Wikipedia has this in its article on the Watergate Scandal:
"<Responding to the allegations of wrongdoing, Nixon said, "I'm not a crook," in front of 400 Associated Press managing editors on November 17, 1973."> Maybe you can't believe the President, but 400 Associate Press managing editors can't be wrong.> To you and erniecohen - sorry, I should have checked. I was sure Nixon had made that statement considerably closer to his resignation, which as I recall came on or about August 8, 1974. So, although I didn't realize it, my pun was even better than I thought - even if it doesn't resonate with you. Pretty amazing pun (through a lot of good luck) - R. Nixon, same year, involving a sac of a rook for a knight. Good catch, erniecohen. |
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| Oct-20-11 | | Shams: Wow, take a bow, <FSR>. Your golden goose of a pun lays yet another egg. |
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Oct-20-11
 | | HeMateMe: But his Vice President Spiro Agnew WAS a crook! He pleaded nolo contendre on stealing money from some sort of schools program, and was ran out of office. Lets see...Haldeman and Erlichman went to jail, Chuck Colson and G. Gordon Liddy got locked up...I guess we won't be seeing a Richard Nixon airport, anytime soon. |
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Oct-21-11
| | Domdaniel: <Marmot> Garfield, I think, once came up with a novel proof of Pythagoras' Theorem. This ranks him highly among intellectual presidents, which is what I was talking about. Jefferson, as I think I said, is in a different league: the only authentic genius to occupy the job. Even if he did make the mistake of buying Greater Louisiana from the French, kick-starting the process that changed the USA from a huddle of prickly east coast colonies into an Empire. The next prez will obviously be a woman - we've had 20 years of women presidents here in Ireland and they're very good at both the formal and touchy-feely sides of the job. It's more a ceremonial office here, though, with no nuclear briefcase. Hmmm. I presume it's a nuclear palmtop or iPad by now. Briefcases are so leathery and 1980s, like Reagan's tanned hide. |
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Oct-21-11
| | Domdaniel: I submit that the name of this opening, viz, <The French Defense, King's Indian Attack> is *culturally insensitive* and may even be racist. The 'French'? What have the French ever done for America, apart from sending guns and 'advisors' to George Washington (ie, 'arming terrorists' from a European perspective), selling Louisiana (plus Florida) to the newly independent republic, and enhancing the American diet with Fr-Freedom Fries? <King's> -- George III and his monarchist cronies may have subverted some Native American tribes with firewater, but that's neither chess nor cricket. <'Indian Attack'> The First Peoples were peaceful and freedom-loving, and *never* shot burning arrows at peaceful wagon trains. Or whooped. The whole idea of an 'Indian Attack' is wrong. Just look at Custer, the infamous suicide bomber of Little Big Horn. |
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| Oct-21-11 | | Marmot PFL: <The next prez will obviously be a woman - we've had 20 years of women presidents here in Ireland and they're very good at both the formal and touchy-feely sides of the job.> It should happen in my lifetime, but I can't say it will be the next election. <I submit that the name of this opening, viz, <The French Defense, King's Indian Attack> is *culturally insensitive* and may even be racist.> The PC thing would be to rename the opening, maybe for some animal, or just use informant code (C00) |
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Oct-21-11
| | Domdaniel: <Marmot> I was joking. Actually, [C00] is among the less useful ECO codes, as it fails to connect the 'French' KIA to the 'Reti' KIA ([A06], I think), despite regular transpositions. And then there's a Sicilian version of the same thing. Not to mention that [C00] also functions as a waste bin for French lines that don't fit anywhere else. But an animal might work. The *Marmoset Up*, maybe? |
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Oct-21-11
| | Domdaniel: When the Nixon/Watergate movie, <All the President's Men> came out, I was in continental Europe, somewhere between Belgium, France and Germany. I was bemused by efforts to translate the title - the idiom doesn't work too well in other languages. French presidents have mistresses, not men. So they mostly called it something like The Last Days of Nixon. Even more confusing was that year's other hit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ... I think it emerged as *Einer Flug uber das Kukusnest* and *Un Vol au-dessous le Nid de Coucou*. Or, as somebody said to me, "Have you seen *One Fell out of the President's Nest* yet? |
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| Oct-21-11 | | Shams: <the Nixon/Watergate movie, <All the President's Men>> Probably my all-time favorite film. Steven Soderbergh talks about its influence on him here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/16/m... |
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Oct-21-11
| | HeMateMe: <like Reagan's tanned hide.> It couldn't have been any older than Maggie Thacher's arse, now could it? "Ronnie in the saddle" and "The Iron Lady." Poor Gorby didn't stand a chance. The man was relegated to doing ads for Pizza Hut and Louis Vitton. I was all set to vote for <Hillary Clinton>. I was sure she would get the Democratic nomination, and beat hard to get along with John McCain. Obama really came out of nowhere to win. |
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| Oct-21-11 | | I play the Fred: <R. Nixon> said this, of course, in his infamous <Chess Speech>. After 21...Nd4, Nixon was overheard to lament, "I won't have e2, kicked this round evermore!" |
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Oct-22-11
| | Domdaniel: <Shams> I interviewed Steve Soderbergh in his London hotel room, on his first-ever promotional trip overseas. He was still stunned by the reception of "sex, lies and videotape" -- but eager to chat about his ideas for future movies. One involved a ship-of-fools scenario in a post-apocalypse world ... I wonder what became of it. |
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| Oct-22-11 | | rogge: Well, <Traffic> and <Ocean's> were all right. |
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Oct-22-11
| | Domdaniel: <rogge> Yep, I'd pick those two as well. And - is it <Out of Sight>? - Clooney sprung from the pen to resume his career thievery and fall for an improbably curvaceous cop, having spent quality time with her in the boot/trunk of a car? I can't make up my mind about <Solaris> - I loved Lem's novel and the original Russian film by Tarkovsky, but it just seems *too* slow now. I think my temporal bandwidth is distorted. |
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Oct-22-11
| | Domdaniel: On the subject of movies - and since this is a Nixon page, kinda - I think the best Nixon film was neither All the President's Men nor the Oliver Stone biopic. It was Robert Altman's wonderful <Secret Honor>, adapted from a one-man stage show (!). Nixon, drunk with a revolver on his last night in the White House reveals the truth ... how he is sacrificing himself and his reputation to save America from the Mob, the Chinese, and the guys in that Orange Grove who put him in power. Meanwhile he takes pot-shots at presidential portraits on the walls, mumbling that "the founding fathers was a bunch of English prigs". At least it sounds like 'prigs'. |
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Oct-23-11
| | FSR: <Domdaniel> My family and I saw the film "Anger Management" in Santiago, Chile (it had Spanish subtitles there, of course). Understandably, they gave it some much different title, no doubt figuring that the original title would completely confuse people. |
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Oct-23-11
| | Domdaniel: I always regard "Anger Management" as an instruction. Or at least a strong hint. What else is Management good for? Not counting the better angels of CG, of course. |
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Jan-14-12
 | | technical draw: I voted for Nixon (twice!). Another of his famous quotes (after losing the 1962 California Governor election): "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" He of course famously returned to win the 1968 presidency: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9F... |
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