As of tomorrow, I’ll be walking past this every day.
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Meanwhile, in a stunning turn of events, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Magnus Carlsen in not one, but two matches, to win the 2023 AI Cup and qualify for the Champions Chess Tour Finals in Toronto.
White to move. Find the mate.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Interested in learning? Try THIS.
Need to move? Sell your house? Buy a house?
Meanwhile, years ago in Rome I picked up a wonderful book called Le Livre d’Or du Savoir-Vivre. It’s an illustrated manual, a French DIY guide for manners. I’ve written about it before, I think. It includes the continental, French manners for the table, including place settings, what to do with all the silverware, etc., how to make conversation, how to comport yourself well in social situations.
The book isn’t just about doing the right thing, but living well.
Because it was very dated, it was both a hoot and also a somewhat melancholy read. We’ve lost so much decorum. Decorum is important. Loss of decorum – what is aptum et pulchrum – is highly corrosive, if the absence of something can be corrosive. It can be because nature abhors a vacuum, so to speak. Lack of decorum eventually results in the bad manners that result in self-centeredness that results in contempt of others which violates human dignity.
The self-absorbed contempt that the lack of decorum and formality eventually breeds results in idiot women on airplanes who shed their shoes and then put their bare feet upon the back of the seat in front of them. Yes, this and other disgusting horrors do happen, as any wizened traveler will attest. I’m sure you have your own examples. And to think that once people dressed in the Sunday best to fly… and to go to church, come to think of it. Now you have idiot women in flip flops and whatever the hell the rest of the “clothing” is. Men too, but it is worse in women, I think. It… just is.
Anyway, I was sent this sadly funny image by my father:
I might quibble with some things. For example, putting a salad fork to the left of the dinner fork. I like salad after the main course and you should set things up in the order, out to in, that they will be presented. But… here you see a salad plate on top. Salad first. American, I suppose. Okay. They have to eat, too. But… O tempora.
Bottom line: Formality is a good thing.
Speaking of formality, I saw – to my horror – this:
The coats of arms of some of the new cardinals-elect are absolute disasters
1) Bp. Stephen Chow Sau-yan, SJ (Hong Kong)
2) Bp. Protase Rugambwa (Kigoma, Tanzania)
3) Abp. Víctor Manuel Fernández (DDF, Vatican) pic.twitter.com/8V9UY8Mhmt— Fr. Tom Bombadil (@calix517) September 29, 2023
I’m reminded of the arms of the +F.Atticus together with the arms of the Diocese of Libville.
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1. Qf8+ RxQ
2. Ne7++
If Black takes the Queen with his King, then Rh8++.
Sent the table setting diagram to Mom; she’ll love it
Not much call for direct Twitter links given all the Muskery. I’ve blocked Twitter/X at my router and DNS, but I was able to procure 2/3 of the blasons at Wikimedia Commons:
Fernández: I’m not seeing the disaster. There’s a dove with radiant light atop a bare cross, and a crosier at its left foot? I mean, it’s definitely not old-fashioned traditional heraldry, I guess.
Chow Sau-yan, S.J: I just had to smirk at the subtle but subversive use of a rainbowed olive branch in the talons of the dove. Connects it all right to Genesis and definitely not any other modern social justice ideologies.
Were Noah’s sons really involved in the first acts of homosexuality? It seems plainly obvious?
In the Via Capo di Ferro, leading onto the Piazza della Trinità dei Pelligrini. I spotted that when I was there in February last, and took a picture – being an architecture fan. There’s another one just a few feet away, identically embedded (“attached” in purist architectural terms, but this ain’t “architecture”, more make-do). Both still have their complete bases, and the carving of the Ionic capitals is still very fresh. Wonder if they were painted back in the day? Most likely so.
Yes, the feet up on the chair or table or whatever is in front of the rude person is definitely a phenomenon from the last 20 years. I’ve been traveling in Europe and Asia since my 20s. I’m now 62, and I never saw this filthy habit until around the early 2000s when I first saw Scandinavians and Germans putting their feet up on seats in Thai airports. Asians were scandalized by their behavior.
The malefactors are almost always persons who live in the West, since in Asia and the Middle East, feet are considered dirty.
Westerners once taught their children not to put their feet up but that disappeared, along with teaching manners and propriety. Alas, even Asian children are now putting their feet up – not in Japan, however. There is still formality and civility there. In fact, it is the last place on earth where, if you have tattoos, they won’t let you enter an “onsen” (hot springs bath). You’ll have to go to an onsen dedicated to serving the yakuza (they’re the ones who have tattoos in Japan).
Okay, the Rugambwa arms are up (there are one or two really faithful Wiki editors who are amazing about authoring original images based on the blazons).
I see nothing disastrous or dumpster-fiery about it. (I’m not going to use heraldry language sorry) I see a blue shield with a golden globe surmounted by a golden cross, and there are multicolored jewels. The colors sort of bug me but are they some illuminati NWO code?
The motto is Latin Euntes in mundum universum which roughly translates to Going out into the whole world which seems to be an essential part of the Great Commission, so again, is this a disastrous SJW statement of some kind? Not seein’ it.