SHOWDOWN 2021

A composite of images from Pixabay

TRUMP got run out of Wash DC by 81,293,098 voters.  He's back up in his Florida digs plotting revenge. The law is on his tail. Criminal evidence piles up. Big-business cash, banks, Twitter and Facebook have dumped him. Old-Money, Palm Beach neighbors want to kick him out of Mar-a-Lago.  But his MAGA  gang is hanging in. 

Showdown 2020 by Little Margie Productions

What a movie – horrible and hilarious. A second impeachment will try to nail him for stoking up up the rally crowd to storm the capital. And for two months he tried to annul the election. We wait for the scene when the sheriff opens his toxic tax returns. The reveal? Money laundering for the Russians? Over-evaluating properties to get loans?  Under-valuing them to taxes? Secret payoffs to women he sexually harassed? A shocking surprise? All of the above, or worse?

Trump has 70 million in campaign-cash to make trouble. We've gotta hope that the cray chaos of the last four years is a wake-up call for US. We thought he was a joke.  Ha. Ha. TRUMP turned out to be THE JOKER.

“What fools these mortals be” --  Shakespeare

Sources: Washington Post, New York Times, Economist, MSNBC, CNN, FOX News, the Shark

Next week:  FINLAND for FOREIGNERS: an outsider's view - ODDBALL  EVENTS

Note: On this blog, Maggy writes, and I find and/or make the images (and fix the typos, ha!). This week, we discussed a cartoon with Trump writing "AIR FORSE 1 TOO" (sic.) to the side of his private jet with a sharpie. It was a funny idea, but A) i do not think it would have worked too well in practice B) it would have been quite a lot of work to make well and C) I like to surprise Maggy with my choices of imagery. So Trump the joker it is ;-)

CU

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Eki

CHECKMATE!: "Everybody's doin' it, doin' it' NOW" *

Image by Kejamy / Pixabay

Chess is hot. And why not. A game that's been played, more or less for 1500 years has legs.  Blame the latest surge on the the 'Quern's Gambit'  - a Must Watch during Social Isolation.  Or credit Magnus Carlsen, the hunky, young, Hollywood-handsome Norwegian, who is the highest-rated player since ratings began. 

Google must have picked up that I was checking chess sites.  Magnus showed up. I could follow his moves and learn how to WIN.  Gave up after the second move – lost. Checked out Bobby Fischer, who got wiped out by comedian, Bob Hope, who played checkers with the pieces. Chess clubs are all over the place. Finland is into it. A perfect game for Finns – it takes strategy and there's not a lot of blah-blah. Oodi, Helsinki's central library, where you can do almost anything, has a club. Beginners welcomed.  The oldest chess club in the world – Part I (1800  - 1914) – has the longest name:  Schachgesllschaft.

I've learned the rules for beginners: for ex., how to set up the board, the best openings, to castle early -  preferably on the king's side, en passant, move knights before bishops,  control the center, the points for each piece, the queen is the most powerful, but the king is the most important. According to the Washington Post, chess is sexy.  Maybe that's why the majority of players are young. And you don't have to be a genius to be a good player  - it takes hard work. Mangus Carlsen said the first line in his memoir will be: "I am not genius".  Whew. Whatta relief.  CHECKMATE!

*Irving Berlin 1911

Sources: Washington Post, Google, Fred Haeger

Next week: SHOWDOWN 2021

Note:

I've played chess a bit but was never very good at it. And to add insult to the injury, some of my friends are. So, while playing chess at a bar was all fun and games when we were hanging out when young, it was also a somewhat constant stream of losses for me - also financial ones due to the many, many beers I had to buy for the winners ;-)

CU

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Eki