“the hearts of men; who knows what evil lurks within them?”

Hi y’all. Just dug out some snippets from my favourite man, the ‘9′. Check these:

‘attack mode’; “…your brain is like Kevin Bacon, ‘Hollow, Man’…”

‘evil mode’; “…I’ll put you midgets in a deep pan and watch the ‘Small Fry’…”

‘dismissive mode’; “…put your d**k in your saliva, and f**k what you spat…”

Hey look, the guy’s said it himself; “he’s a lyricist”. For all of you haters out there, compose a rhyme and step into the ring. I’ll back my man 24/7.

Attributed to Julius Caesar at the crossing of the Rubicon: “the die is cast”.

Ever had that feeling you’ve been ’snookered’? Been roused into motion from your preferred state of inertia by forces you would deem unfriendly/unwanted? Y’all know the popular saying that goes; “between Scylla (the rock) and Charybdis (the whirlpool)”, or in plainer english; “between a rock and a hard place” right? I guess the general assumption is that it is only at certain critical times in our lives that we find ourselves in this precarious position isn’t it? Wrong!

I postulate that we are ALWAYS between Scylla and Charybdis. The only thing is, we are sometimes forced to wake up to this uncomfortable reality, ok, I know; we’d all like to remain in our more or less constant sleepwalking half-aware dream state wouldn’t we? Yeah right. What was that one about ‘pigs’ and ‘levitation’ again?

Anyway, it is at these occassional points of clarity that we ‘backbenchers’ and ‘professional fence sitters’ say to ourselves; “s**t!, these guys have involved me! d**n!”. O’ pitiful man. ‘Involved’ from the moment of birth, just takes time to realize this harsh fact. 

This is the point when we commonly say to ourselves: iacta alea est. “the die is cast”. “in for a penny…etc etc”.

Now, how do we proceed after finding out we’ve been snookered? The Good Move! Guide!!!  Moves galore!, moves galore!

Anybody need some Good Moves! ?

“Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.” Alphonse Karr (1849)

The more things change, the more they are the same. Or; ‘the more things change, the more we remain the same’.

Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? I mean, how can you mix ‘change’ and ‘constancy’ in the same sentence/definition? Well, I look at this as another facet of the ‘world is a stage…’ idea, obviously, if we all are simply ‘actors’ in the ‘game of life’ then it does not really matter if the script changes from scene to scene, play to play, one movie to another.

Michael Franks: ”the music begins/and the titles fade in/starring you and me…”, “love is like two dreamers dreaming/the exact same dream/just another technicolour romance on the screen…”, “we love and we fight/but it’s all day for night just a masquerade/we’re real til the red light is off/then we go take our faces off/like two clowns in a sideshow…”, “the feeling is already gone/I don’t know why I’m going on/can’t remember the ending…” 

Taken from this perspective, the onus remains once again; recognize your part in the frame of existence, play your part and play it well. We do not change; we are, and always have been; ‘actors, playing a part in a changing script’.

I guess on a worldly view, would it matter if: ‘Obama becomes US president?’, ‘Tiger Woods and Federer relinquish their strangle holds on golf and tennis?’, ‘Asia/Africa become the next world superpowers?’ ‘the sun winks out of existence?’, ‘life is found to exist on Mars?’, ‘England win the football world cup ???!?!’ 

Picked these all time greats out of a tangle of grey matter somewhere in my head.

“Gboko!!”

“don’t put your hand in the finger”

“goes finally”

“you and who?”

“that’s a joke; but I’m not joking”

“playing to the back”

“put them on high jump”

“too good; wins”

“come down!!”

“share come”

“flush one”

“wey your collat?”

“break and two shots”

“syntaculous!!”

The basement brigade, salut to y’all.

Here are a couple of my favourite one liners from the Nigerian Chess Scene. The blitz arenas are simply fantastic, talk of the ‘trash talk’ republic.

“If pawns be the food of chess, eat on!”

“Attack my queen I’ll attack your king” 

“I have him.” (referring to your opponent, said with a broad smile to the spectators)

“mi si mi l’ara” or “feed me” (said to your opponent after winning a game and asking for your ‘teaching fees’)

“o’ o le bo’ ni inu eleyi” (you can’t escape this one)

“of’s” or “ajeg’s” (slang to say, that one was free and there’s no trap attached, gone, period!)

“there’s nothing ‘free’ in ‘freetown’!”

“touche’!” (self explanatory, ok; touch, pls move)

“ifun” (said in a doomsday tone. slang that means; I’ve taken out his innards, it’s curtains!)

“se’ o ni o le’ abi?” (I thought you said you were tough?)

To the finicky language people, pls pardon any misspells, I don’t want to get into any ‘infinite’ discussions

I love quoting all sorts of stuff, rambling and rumbling. Ok, for real this is a serious view - we all know that famous whatever from Shakespeare’s Hamlet; “to be or not to be, ……blah blah blah” right?

I have seized this statement and declared it to be the fundamental question at the root of all life (well most aspects anyway). But consider the real beauty of that simple question; to do or not to do, to commit or not to commit, turn right or left (chess: b2 or not b2 - heh heh), etc. Well u get the drift I guess.

Answer that question and you’ve got life figured out. Nuff said.

“penance I have done and penance I am doing, but who is my mariner? when and where did I murder my albatross? 

“this then is the curse of a man, to perpetually lust after that which seems unattainable to him, even at great peril to his continued good health”

I think, therefore I exist. The most common english translation of Rene Descartes’ original latin quote. I have been fascinated with this simple statement for many years, maybe because as a chess player, thinking is a ‘compulsory’ activity, not an optional one.

I translate this quote to mean; ‘I must rationalise the purpose of my existence in this world by continually identifying and defining all aspects of the physical and metaphysical elements that make up the fabric of the space in which i exist’. Hmmm………..