Okay, so one thing you probably aren’t expecting to see in a chess blog is videos of cute kittens. In fact, I may just be blazing a new trail here as far as the chessoblogosphere is concerned. But I’m sorry, I just can’t resist. Consider this an experiment: What will cute kitten videos do to my blog readership?
My wife and I have started fostering kittens this year for the local animal shelter, after the last of our three old cats died earlier this year. (Some long-time ChessLecture subscribers might remember having heard some of their meows in my videos.) We have fostered 13 kittens so far. Eleven have been successfully placed in permanent homes, and the last two are still in residence at the Mackenzie Finishing School for Felines.
The last two, Pearl Gray and Dewey, are featured in these two videos that I took a couple days ago and have now uploaded to YouTube. Here is episode one:
After seeing that riveting action, I know that you will want to watch the exciting and dramatic conclusion!
Poor Pearl. The moral is: If life keeps beating you over the head, cover up your head. Also, I like the way that Dewey just sits there completely unperturbed throughout the whole video, not paying the least bit of attention to the savage battle that is going on between his tail and another kitten just a few inches away.
By the way, in the first clip, if you have the volume turned up high enough you can hear Dewey purring even while his tail is being attacked. You’ll also hear some sounds that are just me shifting in the chair, I promise. In the second clip there are a couple seconds of annoying static, which is interference from my cell phone. Sorry — if I were any good at editing movies I would take that out, but I don’t really know how.
“But what does this have to do with chess?” I’m glad you asked! If you look very, very closely at one of the videos, you will see something chess related. Can anybody spot it? Here’s a hint: Only people who have read this blog before will know what it is.
No, the answer is not, “This video is a metaphor for how I feel when playing against the Hedgehog Defense,” although that would be a pretty good answer. It’s something more specific than that. Keep on looking!
If you want to see the videos at full size (which might help), you can go to:
Cat vs. Tail, Part 1 and Cat vs. Tail, Part 2.
Ciao!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
your USCF National Master Certificate is in the backround. Is thar rhe chess related thing?
Correct! You have very good eyes.