From a friend in Rome, at my usual flower stand run by “Pippo” where I have bought flowers for some 30 years.
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From the 1969 musical version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
What a lot of chaos there was in 1969, in and out of the Church! BUT… this was a nice retelling of a lovely story, made several times into a film. The book, Goodbye, Mr. Chips! was by James Hilton in 1934 and the first movie adaptation was in 1939 with Robert Donat and Greer Garson. Donat won the Oscar for this over Clark Gable, James Stewart, Laurence Olivier, and Mickey Rooney. It was very successful. The 1969 musical remake was updated to the time between the wars, in the 20’s, and some plots were altered. It starred Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark. There are some nice views of S. Italy. A lesser known remake, and a splendid one, was in 2002 made for Brit TV with brilliant Martin Clunes and Victoria Hamilton. A young Henry Cavill has a role. This is a movie – movies – I return to with some regularity and with a touch of melancholy. I sometimes think that it might have been very good “fit” for me to teach Latin in one of these great old schools. Alas, they are mostly gone and the years have slipped away. Oddly, I’ve never read the original book. It would be nice to have a good 1st edition for that pleasure.
Meanwhile,…
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Need to move? These realtors contribute part of the fee to pro-life causes.
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In other news, Levon Aronian – wearer of wild shirts – beat in tie breaks Gukesh and Nepo to win the WR Chess Masters (and €40K) in Dusseldorf.
In the Pro-Chess League, nihil fit.
Finally, through Twitter I saw an obit article about a truly interesting fellow, who was a great Classics scholar, fine player and, it seems, a true gentleman. HERE This is the type of fellow whom I’d like to have as a coach and perhaps fellow live streamer. You might put in a word to the Guardian Angel network to bring us together.
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As a Latin teacher I recommend the book Goodbye, Mr. Chips. In the book some attention is paid—more than in any of the film adaptations I’ve seen—to the switch from the traditional English pronunciation of Latin in the classroom to the “new” reconstructed Classical pronunciation and sense of dislocation caused by the change. (I refuse to call it the “restored” pronunciation, as some do, because, while based on good evidence, it’s still a conjectural academic construct. Absent discovering actual recordings of Cicero speaking, all we can do is make our best evidence-based educated guess as to how the ancients actually spoke.)
@Albinus1
As jarring as the invasion of the so called “reconstructed” pronunciation must be (blegh), I do have my doubts about the claims of the “englishness” of the “english” pronunciation that preceeded, and that Italian way had invaded for some time. It seems that the Italian Renaissance and the Caroline glory days that followed left somewhat of an “Italian” mark long before the days of Cardinal Manning. As evidence, I offer no less than John Milton as a witness:
“For their studies, first, they should begin with the chief and necessary rules of some good grammar, and, while this doing, their speech is to be fashioned to a distinct and clear pronunciation, as near as may be to the Italian, especially in the vowels . For us Englishmen, being far Northerly, do not open our mouths in the cold air wide enough to grace a Southern tongue, but are observed by all other nations to speak exceeding close and inward, so that to smatter Latin with an English mouth is as ill as learning law French.”
1. … Rd2
2. Rf2 (or Qe2) Rxf2 (or Rxe2)
3. Qe2 (or Rf2) Rxe2 (or Rxf2)
4. … Qxg2#
Best move appears to me to be Rd2. Couple different lines can follow from there, but that white king is not long for this world in any case.
1. . . . Rd2
2. Bxb7 Rh2#
1. . . . Rd2
2. Qg4 Qxg2
3. Qxg2 Rxg2
4. . . . Rh2#
Are your lines forcing enough?
1. … Rd2 (threatens 2. … Qxg2# or 2. Bxb2 Qh2#)
but!
2. Qf7+ Kh8
3. Qh5 (beginning perpetual check)
My take…
1. … Qxg2+! (sac)
2. Kxg2 Re2+ (discovered and double)
3. Kg3 Rg2+
4. Kf4 Rf8+
Blocking with the Q is pointless.