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bobsmythhawk
 
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Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:17 am
Mickey Spillane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Morrison Spillane (born March 9, 1918), better known as Mickey Spillane, is an American author of crime novels.

Early life

Spillane was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a tough neighborhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Starting his career writing for slick magazines, after some success, he would turn to pulp magazines and comic books. He was paid twelve dollars apiece for a block of copy and could do as many as fifty blocks of copy a day. During World War II, Spillane trained pilots and flew combat missions for the Air Corps.

After the war, Spillane returned to comic books. He also worked as a trampoline performer with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He had a short stint as a federal agent during which he helped smash a narcotics ring (he still carries the scars of two bullets and a knife wound to prove it).


Spillane's Works

For a time Spillane was one of the most popular authors in the United States, with seven titles among the ten best-selling American books of the 20th century. His first detective novel was I, the Jury in 1947. He wrote the book in a tent while he built his first house. I, the Jury introduced Spillane's tough detective Mike Hammer. The violence was more overt than it had ever been in a detective story. His books, although considered tame by current standards, had more than their contemporary competitors in terms of sexual episodes.

In 1965, he married his second wife, Sherri Malinou, a model who posed in the nude for the cover of his 1972 book The Erection Set. The book was also dedicated to her.

Mickey Spillane is the most translated living author in the world today.


Criticism of Spillane's work

Literary critics hated Spillane's writing, citing high content of sex and violence. (Ayn Rand, who highly praised Spillane's books, was virtually the only exception to this consensus.) In answer to his critics, Spillane had a few terse comments:

* Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.

* If the public likes you, you're good.



Acting


Spillane occasionally acted in movies. He had a chance to play himself as a detective in Ring of Fear in 1954. It was directed by screenwriter, James Edward Grant.

In the 1963 production The Girl Hunters, Spillane played his creation, Mike Hammer (one of the only occasions in film history in which an author of a popular literary hero has portrayed his own character). It also starred Bond girl Shirley Eaton and actor Lloyd Nolan. He also appeared as a writer who is murdered in the TV series Columbo.

Spillane also appeared in a series of beer commercials which parodied his tough-guy image.


Final quote

"I'm actually a softie. Tough guys get killed too early... I've got a full head of hair and don't wear eyeglasses"

?- Mickey Spillane, 2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Spillane
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bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:20 am
Raúl Juliá
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 - October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor who lived and worked for many years in the United States. His career spanned stage and screen, and included dramatic, comic, and musical roles.

Raul Julia's father dreamed of bringing pizza to Puerto Rico. In fact, his father made that dream a reality when he added pizza to the menu at "La Cueva del Chicken Inn," his oddly named restaurant in San Juan. His son later hailed that pizza as "the best you've ever eaten."

The success of La Cueva del Chicken ("The Chicken's Cave") provided Raul Julia with more than good pizza. It paved the way for him to follow his own dreams, and to become one of the finest American actors of his generation. For 30 years, working in theater, film, and television, he would challenge and delight audiences with his complex, often enthralling performances.

Raul Rafael Carlos Julia y Arcelay was born in San Juan on March 9, 1940. Throughout his youth his father's business was particularly successful.

This economic security ensured excellent schooling for young Raul. He studied at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola and attended the University of Puerto Rico.

Raul Julia discovered acting early in his academic career, beginning with a role in first grade. "From then on, that was it," he told Cigar Aficianado magazine in 1993. "I knew there was something special about the theater for me something beyond the regular reality, something that I could get into and transcend and become something other than myself."

Upon graduation from college, Julia was faced with a difficult choice between his parents' wishes and his own. They wanted him to continue to law school. He wanted to pursue an acting career. Finally, like so many Puerto Ricans, and so many aspiring actors, he left for New York. Juliá moved to New York City in 1964 and began studying drama with Wynn Handman. He soon found work in off-Broadway theater.

In 1966, Juliá hooked up with theater impresario Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival. His Shakespearean roles included Edmund in King Lear in 1973 and the title role of Othello in 1979. Juliá went on to enjoy great success on the musical stage, winning four Tony Awards for his roles in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1972), Where's Charley? (1975), as Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera (1977), and in the Fellini-inspired Nine (1982).

The stage successes led to his film debut in The Organization (1971), in which he starred opposite Sidney Poitier. In the early 1980s, Juliá was invited to join Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios company and appeared in One From the Heart (1982).

Although he never became a major film star, Juliá had notable dramatic and comic roles in a number of films and made-for-TV movies. In 1983, he starred in a spectacularly disastrous made-for-TV movie Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, an adaptation of a John Varley short story which would later be mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), he played a passionate political prisoner, and in Romero (1989) he played the Salvadoran Archbishop ?"scar Romero. In the first two popular Addams Family movies, Juliá played Gomez Addams.

In 1993, he was diagnosed with cancer, but Juliá kept on acting, creating one of his most memorable roles as Brazilian rainforest activist Chico Mendes in The Burning Season (1994), for which he posthumously won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award. He also starred in the videogame-inspired film Street Fighter as the villainous M. Bison, for whom he used a British accent.

On October 16, 1994, it was announced that Julia had suffered a stroke in his New York City apartment and fell into a coma. However, with his marked weight loss towards the end of his life, which was very much evident in his last films The Burning Season, Street Fighter (that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue), and the political drama Down Came a Blackbird, underlying HIV/AIDS infection was seen as a strong possibility - but never confirmed or proven. This in no way diminishes his immense personal and professional qualities. Julia died eight days later, at the age of 54. His body was flown back to Puerto Rico, where he was given a state funeral attended by thousands.

Film critic Leonard Maltin said of him: "Droopy-eyed, dark, and suavely handsome, this extremely versatile actor was one of the most respected stage performers of his generation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Juli%C3%A1
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bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:24 am
Bobby Fischer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (born March 9, 1943) is a grandmaster and former world chess champion, who on September 1, 1972, became the first American chess player to win the FIDE World Chess Championship. In 1975, he officially lost the title when FIDE, the international chess federation, refused to accept his conditions for a title defense. Garry Kasparov wrote that of all world champions of chess, the skill gap between Fischer and his contemporaries was the largest in history [1]. Fischer is also well known for his eccentricity, unconventional and irrational behavior, and outspoken political views. Despite his prolonged absence from competitive play, or perhaps because of it, Fischer is still among the best known of all chess players.

Fischer's victory over the Soviet champion Boris Spassky to win the world championship in the "Match of the Century" was seen as a symbolic victory for the West that catalyzed interest in the game internationally. His opponent was portrayed, in the United States in particular, as the product of an impersonal, mechanical, and oppressive system of state control, while Fischer was the solitary genius overcoming the Soviets' claim to dominance. As a national hero, Americans were willing to forgive his behavior and views as eccentricities, and in popular culture he became a symbol of the genius whose brilliance is so great that he is destroyed by it.


Early years

Robert James Fischer was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Regina Wender, a naturalized American citizen of Jewish Polish ancestry who was born in Switzerland, raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and later became a teacher, registered nurse and physician. His father was reportedly Wender's first husband, Hans-Gerhardt Fischer, a German biophysicist; the couple married in 1933 in Moscow, U.S.S.R., where Wender was studying medicine at the First Moscow Medical Institute. Though Hans-Gerhardt Fischer is listed as the father on Robert Fischer's birth certificate, a 2002 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that Fischer's biological father was Paul Felix Nemenyi, a Hungarian Jewish physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project on the development of the atomic bomb [2]. Nemenyi paid child support for Fischer during his infancy and early childhood. Later, FBI research determined that although Fischer's mother had returned to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1939, her first husband never entered the country after that date, making it improbable that Fischer, born in 1943, was Hans-Gerhardt Fischer's child. Although at least one of his parents was Jewish, Fischer has vehemently denied being a Jew in several public interviews, and blames the mischaracterization on a "Jewish conspiracy" to defame him. Fischer has noted that his outspoken nature comes from his Jewish mother.

The Fischers divorced in 1945 when their son was two years old, and Fischer grew up with his mother and older sister, Joan. In 1948, the family moved to Mobile, Arizona, where Regina taught in an elementary school. The following year they moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Regina worked as an elementary school teacher and nurse.

In May 1949, six-year-old Fischer learned how to play chess from instructions found in a chess set that his sister bought at a candy store below their Brooklyn apartment. He saw his first chess book a month later. For over a year he played chess on his own. At age 7, he joined the Brooklyn Chess Club and was taught by the club's president, Carmine Nigro. When Fischer was 13, his mother asked John W. Collins to be his chess teacher. Collins had taught several top players, including Robert Byrne and William Lombardy. Fischer spent much time at Collins' house, and some have described Collins as a father figure for Fischer. Fischer attended but dropped out of Erasmus Hall High School, where many teachers remembered him as difficult. According to school records, he has an I.Q. of 180 and an incredibly retentive memory.

Playing career before 1967

Fischer's first real triumph was winning the U.S. Junior Chess Championship in July 1956. In the same year, he played several brilliant games; his game against Donald Byrne, who later became an International Master, is often referred to as "The Game of the Century".

In 1957, Fischer won the US Open Chess Championship in Cleveland, Ohio, on tie-breaking points over Arthur Bisguier. Fischer was given entry into the invitational U.S. Championship, but many predicted that he was too weak and would finish last. Instead, he finished first.

In January 1958, at age 14, Fischer became the U.S. champion. He holds the record for being the youngest to hold the title. Along with the title, he qualified to participate in the Interzonals, the next step toward challenging the World Champion. Nobody gave the young Fischer much chance of qualifying from the Interzonal, so it was a surprise when, after a good finish, he tied for fifth place. The top six places qualified for the Candidates Tournament. His result also earned him the title of International Grandmaster. At the time, he was the youngest Grandmaster in history, a record that stood until Judit Polgár of Hungary became a Grandmaster in 1991.

It was at this stage, during the Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia in 1959, that Fischer came face to face with the Soviet chess team, which was to set the tone for the rest of his playing career. Fischer and others alleged that because of the number of "Russian" players involved in the tournament (the Soviet Union dominated international chess competition throughout most of its history), it was possible for them to agree on short draws among themselves and concentrate their full efforts on the non-Soviet contingent. Once the non-Soviets were effectively eliminated, the Soviets would then be left to fight against each other for the right to challenge the reigning World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. In interviews several years later, some Soviet players substantiated these claims. Fischer finished the tournament in the middle of the pack (12.5/28) and lost his four games against the winner of the tournament, Mikhail Tal, who also went on to defeat Botvinnik and become World Champion.

In view of Fischer's hostility toward the Soviet team, it is perhaps ironic that for several years after his first visit to the Soviet Union as a teenager, the FBI suspected Fischer or his mother had been recruited as Soviet spies.[3].

For many years Fischer remained one of the strongest non-Soviet players, together with Lajos Portisch, Svetozar Gligoric, and Bent Larsen, but did not qualify for a World Championship match. In the 1962 cycle he confidently won the Stockholm interzonal (17.5/22) but in the Candidates tournament in Curaçao he finished 4th with a score of 14 out of 27. This was a big disappointment for him, since he had been playing very strongly in the previous year and thought himself to be the favorite.

In the next cycle, Fischer did not compete. He reaffirmed his conviction that the Soviet players had a non-aggression pact and concentrated on playing against him. Therefore, he decided not to participate in the Amsterdam interzonal in 1964. He held to this decision even when FIDE changed the format of the eight-player Candidates Tournament from a round-robin to a series of knockout matches. (In the previous two cycles, FIDE had sought to address complaints of Soviet collusion by limiting the number of Soviet participants, which was a situation that Soviet chessplayers considered extremely unfair.) In the next cycle, at the Sousse Interzonal (1967), Fischer failed to qualify for the final stages of the World Championship due to a very controversial forfeit in which he did not play his game with Soviet IM Gipslis. It is said Fischer did not show up because he thought it unfair that he had to play so many games successively, but according to Bill Wall's biography, this was the natural result of tournament organizers constantly rescheduling his games around his religious holidays and the Sabbath.

At home, Fischer won all eight U.S. Championships that he competed in, beginning with the 1957-1958 championship and ending with the 1966-1967 championship. This string includes his win in the 1963-1964 championship, which he won with an 11-0 record, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament.


Religious beliefs circa 1965

In 1962, Fischer claimed that he had "personal problems," possibly related to the brutal murder of his patron Abe Turner, that coincided with his beginning to listen to various radio ministers in an attempt to find answers. This is how he first came to listen to The World Tomorrow radio program with Herbert W. Armstrong and his son Garner Ted Armstrong. In an interview with Len Zola, Fischer said that "God has finally shown me the one, I guess. This guy really has power. Authority. He doesn't talk like the other guys. He really knows his stuff!" Fischer became an avid reader of The Plain Truth magazine published by Ambassador College for the Worldwide Church of God, who also sponsored the radio programs to which Fischer was listening. He recalled that in late 1963 he was at a chess tournament when he made a decision to stop sending in odd amounts of money to the church and to start tithing instead. He says that "It was a really big decision."

The Plain Truth was advertised on The World Tomorrow radio program that Bobby Fischer began listening to in 1962. It outlined horrific prophecies, which were graphically illustrated by Basil Wolverton concerning World War III, when the United States and Great Britain were to be destroyed by a United States of Europe. According to this booklet, Fischer would not have been able to have played his famous 1972 Match of the Century, because he would have already fled with the rest of the Worldwide Church of God to Petra, Jordan, because he was one of "God's People."

According to Fischer, he began to have conflicts between the two halves of his life: the part devoted to chess and the part devoted to religion. He claims in his interview with Len Zola that "...if anybody tried to live by the letter of the law... it was me. I truly tried to be obedient. The more I tried, the more crazy I became. ... I can remember times coming home from a chess club at four in the morning ... half asleep ... half dead and forcing myself to pray an hour ... I was half out of my head?-stoned almost."

Fischer then stated that his life had split into two pieces: On the one side was his chess career, and on the other side was his religious life. This was the foundation of Fischer's belief system as he entered the "Match of the Century" in 1972.


Contending for the World Championship (1969-1972)

It was the candidates' cycle that started in 1969 that put Fischer on the road to the World Championship. The first step in the championship process was the zonal tournaments around the world. The U.S. Championship that year was also the zonal, with the top three finishers qualifying for the next stage, the Interzonal. Fischer, however, had sat out the U.S. Championship because of disagreements about the tournament's format and prize fund. To enable Fischer to compete for the title, the third-place finisher, Grandmaster Pal Benko, gave up his coveted place in the Interzonal, for which he received a modest $2,000 payment from the United States Chess Federation (USCF). All the other participants also had to agree to defer to Fischer, which they did. This unusual arrangement was the work of Ed Edmondson, then the Executive Director of the USCF.

Fischer proceeded to win the Interzonal by a remarkable 3.5 points, finishing with seven consecutive wins (one by default). He continued his display of chess prowess in the Candidates matches, defeating his opponents with a lopsided series of results which still has not been equalled by the world's top players. Both Mark Taimanov (USSR) and Bent Larsen of Denmark, the second best non-Soviet player after Fischer himself, were crushed 6-0 (+6 -0 =0). Larsen later explained in a ChessBase interview that his one-sided loss was due in part to his condition during the match: "The organizers chose the wrong time for this match. I was languid with the heat and Fischer was better prepared for such exceptional circumstances... I saw chess pieces through a mist and, thus, my level of playing was not good." Critics, however, feel that Larsen is exaggerating, still bitter from his terrible loss.

Only former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, Fischer's final opponent in the Candidates matches, made any impression against Fischer's skill and strength. Fischer won the first game to complete a remarkable streak of twenty consecutive wins, a feat which has been compared to throwing back-to-back no-hitters in baseball. Petrosian broke the streak by beating Fischer in the second game. After three draws, however, Fischer won the next four games to win the match by a comfortable score, 6.5-2.5 (+5 =3 -1). In 1971 Fischer had finally earned the right to challenge the World Champion, Boris Spassky, whom he had never beaten before.


The Match of the Century

Main article: Match of the Century

Fischer's career-long stubbornness about match and tournament conditions was manifest in the run-up to his match with Spassky. Of the possible sites, Fischer preferred Yugoslavia while Spassky preferred Iceland. For a time it appeared that the dispute would be resolved with an unusual split schedule, putting some games in each location, but that arrangement fell through. At one point Fischer announced that he would not play the match. In answer to Fischer's objection that the prize fund was inadequate, London financier Jim Slater donated an addition of $125,000, bringing the prize fund to $250,000. For whatever reason, Fischer eventually decided to go ahead.

The match between Spassky and Fischer took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, from July through September, 1972. Fischer lost the first two games, the first on a blunder, the second by forfeit when he refused to play his game. It seemed that Fischer was going to forfeit the entire match until Spassky intervened surprisingly, and yielded to Fischer's demands to move the next game to a back room, away from the cameras. After this controversial incident, Fischer proceeded to win seven of the next 19 games, losing only one and drawing 11, for a final score of 12.5 - 8.5, to win against Spassky.


World Champion (1972-1975)

The outcome of the Match of the Century cemented two milestones in Fischer's career--the ambition of being the World Chess Champion, and being the highest rated player ever according to the Elo rating system (a rating of 2780 after the Spassky match, although he had been as high as 2785 in 1971).

The win over Spassky was also considered something of a Cold War propaganda victory for the United States, confirming as it did that the strongest player in the world, in a sport dominated by the Soviets since World War II, was now an iconoclastic American who defeated the mighty Soviet chess establishment almost single-handedly.

In the same interview with Len Zola, Bill Hughes asked Bobby Fischer about the money that he won in 1972 and what he had done with it. Fischer said that he had given the Worldwide Church of God $61,200 out of the $200,000 that he made that year. However, 1972 was also the key year in the climax of prophecies both broadcast and written by Herbert W. Armstrong and those prophecies had failed to come true. Meanwhile Garner Ted Armstrong was exposed as having engaged in a series of sex scandals and he was subsequently removed as the main speaker on The World Tomorrow program. Fischer became disillusioned with the organization and left it, subsequently publicly denouncing it.

All of these events had a tremendous impact on Fischer, who felt betrayed and swindled by a church that kept the seventh day Sabbath, did not keep Easter or Christmas, but celebrated many of the days that are holy to Jews, while claiming that the Anglo-Saxon peoples constituted the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. (However, unlike other groups who believed variations on this same theory, the Worldwide Church of God held that Jews were brothers within the same family of Israel.) This may have catalyzed Fischer's extreme anti-Semitism and beliefs in a worldwide conspiracy against him.

Publicity of chess in the United States

Fischer's winning of the title brought both him and chess tremendous publicity in the United States. The U.S. public went wild over Fischer's victory against Spassky. Fischer became an instant celebrity whose name became known by people who knew nothing about chess. He received countless product endorsement offers, had his picture featured on the cover of Life magazine, and even made an appearance on national TV. Membership in the United States Chess Federation tripled, creating what is commonly called the "Fischer Boom" years. The last time chess had been so topical among the general American public had been when Paul Morphy returned to the U.S. after beating Europe's greatest masters. More recently, his name appeared in the title of the film Searching for Bobby Fischer, about a young chess prodigy. Fischer cited this film as a Jewish conspiracy's attempt to make money off his name, since he has received no royalties from it.

Fischer authored two best-selling books on chess during this time: My 60 Memorable Games (ISBN 0671214837) and Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess (ISBN 0553263153).


Fischer - Karpov 1975

Fischer was scheduled to defend his title against his challenger Anatoly Karpov in 1975. Fischer had not played any tournament games since winning the title, and he laid down numerous conditions for the match. FIDE agreed to all of his demands but two, rejecting Fischer's demands on how the match would be won. Fischer claimed the usual system (24 games with the first player to get 12.5 points winning) encouraged the player in the lead to draw games, which was not good for chess in his opinion. Fischer instead wanted a match of an unlimited number of games, with the first player to score ten wins winning the match, draws not counting. Many detractors argued that this proposal was unrealistic and would turn the match into a test of stamina rather than skill. (For these critics, the aborted "first to six wins" Karpov-Kasparov match in 1984 would later serve as confirmation.) Most controversial of all Fischer's conditions however was his demand that, in the event of each player winning nine games, the champion (Fischer in this case) would retain his title. This meant that Fischer only needed to win nine games to retain the championship, while Karpov had to win by a score of ten to eight. Because FIDE would not change the rules to give Fischer more of an advantage than previous champions had enjoyed, Fischer resigned in a cable to FIDE president Max Euwe on June 27, 1974:

"As I made clear in my telegram to the FIDE delegates, the match conditions I proposed were non-negotiable. Mr. Cramer informs me that the rules of the winner being the first player to win ten games, draws not counting, unlimited number of games and if nine wins to nine match is drawn with champion regaining title and prize fund split equally were rejected by the FIDE delegates. By so doing FIDE has decided against my participating in the 1975 world chess championship. I therefore resign my FIDE world chess champion title. Sincerely, Bobby Fischer."

It is significant that in Fischer's cable, he emphasizes his resignation of the "FIDE" world chess champion title. This detail would later manifest itself in Fischer's remarks during his 1992 rematch with Spassky, in which Fischer claimed he was still world champion. These comments mirrored the growing unease in the rest of the chess world, where FIDE's management of the title was becoming increasingly questioned, ultimately culminating in Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short's split in 1993.

Regardless, soon after his clash with FIDE, Fischer disappeared and did not play competitive chess for nearly twenty years. Rumors as to his whereabouts were common, with the general consensus being that Fischer changed his residence every once in a while.


Disappearance and aftermath

In 1982, Fischer's pamphlet (published under the name Robert D. James) I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse! was published, detailing Fischer's experiences following his arrest in 1981 after being mistaken for a wanted bank robber. It alleges (at some length) that he was treated "brutally" at the hands of the police. He was eventually charged with damaging prison property (specifically, one mattress.) In 1984, Fischer wrote to the editors of the Encyclopedia Judaica asking for his name to be removed from the publication because he claimed he is not Jewish [4].


After 20 years of not competing publicly, Fischer emerged from isolation to challenge Spassky (then placed 96-102 on the rating list) to a "Revenge Match of the 20th Century" in 1992. This match - which was played with his new clock (see "Chess innovations", below) - took place in Sveti Stefan, FR Yugoslavia, in spite of a severe UN embargo which included sanctions on sports events. Fischer, who insists to this day that he is still the World Champion because he never lost a title match, demanded that the organizers bill the match as "The World Chess Championship," although at this time Garry Kasparov was the recognized FIDE champion. The purse for this match was reported to be $5 million, with two-thirds to go to the winner. The United States Treasury department informed Fischer, before the match, that his participation was against the law, and, following the match, obtained an arrest warrant for him. Fischer won the match, 10 wins to 5, with 15 draws. Many grandmasters observing the match said that Fischer was past his prime. In the book Mortal Games, Garry Kasparov wrote: "He is playing ok. Around 2600 or 2650. It wouldn't be close between us." Fischer has not played any competitive chess since the 1992 match.

Since 1972, Fischer has occasionally given interviews, but only if they are broadcast live. In 1999 Fischer gave a call-in interview to a radio station in Budapest, Hungary during which he described himself as the "victim of an international Jewish conspiracy." The Budapest station eventually cut him off, but a similar episode occurred after the September 11, 2001 terrorism attacks. Here, Fischer gave a broadcast interview to Pablo Mercado and Grandmaster Eugenio Torre on the Philippine radio station Radio Bombo in which he has confirmed his strong anti-Semitism - among other things, he spoke of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, and denied the Holocaust happened.

In another Philippine broadcast, he applauded the September 11 attacks. "This is all wonderful news," Fischer said. "I applaud the act. The U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them... Now it's coming back to the U.S." In 2003, Fischer's United States Chess Federation membership was revoked following these comments, although it's unclear whether Fischer knew any details of the September 11 attack when he made these statements that day.

Similar anti-Semitic broadcasts were made through a station in Iceland. Fischer made disparaging remarks about the political situation in chess, alleging that chess is dominated by Jews and that every World Championship match since he had left the scene in 1975 had been pre-arranged. The sudden re-emergence was apparently triggered when some of Fischer's belongings, which had been stored in a Pasadena, California storage unit, were sold by the landlord in response to nonpayment of rent. He claimed this was further evidence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy perpetrated by "the Jew-controlled U.S. Government" to defame and destroy him [5]. In 2005, some of Fischer's belongings were auctioned on eBay.

For some years Fischer was reportedly living in Budapest, where he became acquainted with the Jewish Polgár family and coached them, and later on in Japan.

Detention in 2004 and 2005


On July 13, 2004, Fischer was arrested at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan near Tokyo for allegedly using a revoked U.S. passport while trying to board a Japan Airlines flight to Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila, Philippines. Fischer used a genuine passport that the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland issued to him in 1997, but which was revoked in 2003.

He has been wanted by the United States government since 1992 when he played a chess match with Spassky in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which violated the presidential executive order #12810 of George H. W. Bush based on UN sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia. Fischer's supporters have stated that other U.S. citizens were present at the match, specifically reporters, and were not prosecuted. They also have stated that although Japan and the United States have a mutually binding extradition treaty, Fischer should not have been deported, as violating a U.S. executive order is not a violation of Japanese law. Tokyo-based Canadian journalist and consultant John Bosnitch set up the "Committee to Free Bobby Fischer" after meeting Fischer at Narita airport and offering to assist him. Bosnitch was subsequently allowed to participate as a friend of the court by an Immigration Bureau panel handling Fischer's case. He then worked to block the Japanese Immigration Bureau's efforts to deport Fischer to the United States and coordinated the legal and public relations campaign to free Fischer until his eventual release.

Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship, according to the AFP. The following month, it was reported that Fischer would be marrying Miyoko Watai, the President of the Japanese Chess Association, with whom he has been living since 2000. There has been speculation that he married her in order to aid his chances of being allowed to stay in Japan. He also appealed to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell to help him renounce his citizenship.

Under pressure from the U.S., Japan's Justice Minister rejected Fischer's appeal that he be allowed to remain in the country and ordered him deported.

Icelandic citizenship

Seeking ways to evade deportation to the U.S., Fischer wrote a letter to the government of Iceland in early January 2005, asking for Icelandic citizenship. Sympathetic to Fischer's plight - but reluctant to grant him the full benefits of citizenship - Icelandic authorities granted him an alien's passport. When this proved insufficient for the Japanese authorities, the Alþingi agreed unanimously to grant Fischer full citizenship in late March [6] for humanitarian reasons as they felt he was being unjustly treated by the U.S. and Japanese governments. Meanwhile, the U.S. government filed charges of tax evasion against Fischer in an effort to prevent him from traveling to Iceland.

Fischer also attempted to receive Serbian citizenship but was denied.

As confirmation of Fischer's new citizenship reached Japanese authorities, they agreed to let him out of custody to fly to his new home country. Although Iceland has an extradition treaty with the U.S., according to Icelandic law, Icelandic citizens may not be extradited from Iceland and they reaffirmed their perception that the U.S. government had singled Fischer out for his political statements.

Shortly before his departure to Iceland on March 23, 2005, Fischer and Bosnitch appeared briefly on the BBC World Service, via a telephone link to the Tokyo airport from where he departed for Iceland. Bosnitch stated that Fischer would never play traditional chess again and Fischer began by denouncing President Bush as a criminal. He then stated that he would appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court but that he would not return to the U.S. while the current administration is in power. He denounced Japan as a puppet of the U.S. Bosnitch added that Fischer now considered his home to be Iceland. With that, Bosnitch shouted "Bon voyage!" to Fischer as he left to board the aircraft for his new home. He was welcomed by a crowd in Reykjavík.

In May 2005, a delegation, including Boris Spassky, visited Iceland with the intent of "drawing Fischer back to the chessboard." Fischer appeared interested in playing a Fischer Random Chess match against a "worthy opponent." Spassky said that he was not planning to play Fischer. [7]

Chess innovations

Fischer made several contributions to chess theory, in particular, playing the Black side of the so-called "Poisoned Pawn" variation of the Najdorf Sicilian (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qb6!) Fischer's plan of quickly developing the queen and snatching a pawn challenged then conventional opening principles, but through rigorous analysis, Fischer was able to prove that the variation was perfectly safe for the second player. [8].

He also wrote an article entitled "A Bust to the King's Gambit" [9] in 1961 for the first issue of Larry Evans' American Chess Quarterly, after being beaten with the black pieces in this opening by Boris Spassky, in their first ever game against each other. Reportedly, Fischer was so enraged by this loss that he immediately started working out how to make the King's Gambit more favorable for Black. After its publication, the opening was seen even less frequently in master level games, although Fischer himself employed the White side of the King's Gambit in the 1963 U.S. Championship - against Evans.

In 1988, Fischer filed for U.S. Patent 4,884,255 for a new type of digital chess clock. Fischer's clock gave each player a fixed period of time at the start of the game and then added a small amount after each move. Soon, the Fischer clock became the standard in most major chess tournaments. The patent expired in November of 2001 because of overdue maintenance fees.

On June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Fischer announced and advocated a variant of chess called Fischer Random Chess that is intended to avoid the problem of having to memorize many opening variations in order to obtain chess mastery.

Previously most world class players adopted a particular style of play. Fischer mastered several styles of play and was able to play many different types of positions very well. After Fischer became world champion many other players adopted his approach to the game. World Champion Kasparov has referred to Fischer as the first professional chess player.

Bobby Fischer and the Jews

Fischer has been quoted as having made numerous hostile comments toward Jews. Some examples: [10]

* "You know they [Jews] invented the Holocaust story. There's no such. There was no Holocaust of the Jews in World War II."
* When asked what he wished to do with the remainder of his life, he answered, "[T]o expose the Jews for the criminals they are, the parasites they are, the liars they are, the thieves they are, the niggers they are .... Jews were always bastards throughout history. They are liars, they are the worst pieces of **** in the world. They mutilate their own children."
* As for the United States, it is "a farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards."

Writings of Bobby Fischer

* My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1969, and Faber and Faber, London, 1969). A new edition, published by Batsford, London in 1995 and edited by John Nunn, introduced many changes of Fischer's words and variations. Fischer did not authorize the text changes, and accuses the editors of having falsified his analysis on purpose, to make him look bad. Fischer only autographs the Simon and Schuster edition. This book is considered a classic text by most chess masters.
* Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer, Donn Mosenfelder, Stuart Margulies (Bantam Books, May 1972, ISBN 0553263153) This book is widely used by chess instructors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:27 am
A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak.

After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done.

The monsignor replied, " When I am worried about getting nervous On the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip."

So next Sunday he took the monsignor's advice.

At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink.

He proceeded to talk up a storm.

Upon his return to his office after the mass, he found the following note on the door:

1. Sip the vodka, don't gulp.

2. There are 10 commandments, not 12.

3. There are 12 disciples, not 10.

4. Jesus was consecrated, not constipated.

5. Jacob wagered his donkey, he did not bet his ass.

6. We do not refer to Jesus Christ as the late J.C.

7. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not referred to as Daddy, Junior and the spook.

8. David slew Goliath, he did not kick the sh*t out of him.

9. When David was hit by a rock and was knocked off his donkey, don't say he was stoned off his ass.

10. We do not refer to the cross as the "Big T."

11. When Jesus broke the bread at the last supper he said, "take this and eat it for it is my body." He did not say " Eat me"

12. The Virgin Mary is not called " Mary with the Cherry,.

13. The recommended grace before a meal is not: Rub-A-Dub-Dub thanks for the grub, Yeah God.

14. Next Sunday there will be a taffy pulling contest at ST. Peter's not a peter pulling contest at St. Taffy's.
0 Replies
 
George
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:36 am
The Banks Of Newfoundland

On St. Patrick's Day, the seventeenth, from New York we set sail
Kind fortune did favour us wi' a sweet and a pleasant gale
We bore away from Americay, the wind bein' off the land
And wi' courage brave we ploughed the wave bound down for Newfoundland

Our Captain's name was Nelson just twenty years of age
As true and brave a sailor lad as ever ploughed the wave
The Eveline our brig was called belonging to McLean
And wi' courage brave we ploughed the wave bound down for Newfoundland

When three days out to our surprise our Captain he fell sick
He shortly was not able to take his turn on deck
The fever raged which made us think that death was near at hand
So we bore away from Halifax bound down for Newfoundland

At three o'clock we sighted a light that we were glad to see
The small-pox bein' ragin', that's what it proved to be
At four o'clock in the afternoon, as sure as God's command
He passed away in Arichat bound down for Newfoundland

All that night long we did lament for our departed friend
And we were prayin' unto God for what had been his end
We prayed that God would guide us and keep us by his hand
And send us fair wind while at sea bound down for Newfoundland
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:39 am
Oh, my gawd, listeners, and Bob can continue; that's savoir faire. :wink:

And speaking of which:

Ex-Teacher Takes Hostages at French School 13 minutes ago



LE MANS, France - A former teacher armed with a gun Thursday took about 20 hostages, including students, in a high school classroom, police said.



The hostages were seized at the Colbert de Torcy High School in Sable-sur-Sarthe, near the western town of Le Mans.

Watch for continuing coverage, listeners.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 10:47 am
Missed you again, George. Great sea song, oh, furry one. Here's a question for you.

What's the difference between a newfoundland dog and a st. bernard, and which was the one that carried a little keg of brandy around its neck?

http://www.budget.gov.nl.ca/budget99/economy1/images/Nf%20Dog%20Medium%20300.JPG
0 Replies
 
Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 12:20 pm
Good day to all.

Letty, the dog in your picture looks just like my friend's dog which is a Bouvier des Flandres.http://www.myhappydog.com/pict/tegundir/bouvier_des_flanders.jpg (Dog of Flanders)

As to the difference between a Newfoundland and St. Bernard, I'll wait for George to answer that one.

My choice for celebrity picture of the day is the very talented actor, Raul Julia:
http://www.relaxorium.com/mindspringbs/hmraul.JPG
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 12:38 pm
Hey, Raggedy. Wow! there's a big difference between the two, PA.

Raul Julia died of AIDS, I think, and the last picture in which I saw him was Kiss of the Spider Woman. I believe that was the name of the movie. Well, listeners. I must do some shopping for paint. Sounds exciting, no?

Have a sip from this:

http://www.sover.net/~newfvt/Hulkbd.jpg
0 Replies
 
oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 01:38 pm
he newfoundland dog is w********f I believe.

in the meantime ------- one for the femail f the speezies,,,,

What can you do while driving?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4788910.stm

A woman has been fined after being caught on camera applying make-up while driving. So what can you do while at the wheel?

With a compact mirror in one hand and an eye liner in the other, Donna Maddock applied her make-up. But this wasn't in her bedroom, the 22-year-old was driving at 32mph at the time.

cont ---- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4788910.stm
0 Replies
 
Tryagain
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 02:31 pm
Hands Off The Wheel Lyrics


Don't, don't it make you sad
To lose the things you love
For what you never had?

Don't, don't it make you cry
To feel the broken tie
And always wonder why?

Don't it make you feel
Like your hands are off the wheel?
Like your hands are off the wheel
Don't it tear you down?
Don't it your world around?
Don't it love to let you down?

Don't, don't it make your day
To gather up your strength
And feel it slippin' away?

How, how much can you take
Before you fall apart
Before you start to break?

Close your eyes it's only
No surprise you're not alone

Don't it make you sad
To lose the ones you love?

Don't it make you feel
Like it's tearing you down?

Like your hands are off the wheel
0 Replies
 
dyslexia
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 02:44 pm
Bessie was a lovely child from west Tennessee
Leroy was an outlaw wild as a mink
One day she saw him starin' and it chilled her to the bone
And she knew she had to see that look on a child of her own.

?'Cause ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs
Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold
And outlaws touch the ladies
Somewhere deep down in their soul.

Linda was a lady blonde and built to last
Benny was a no good guitar picker runnin' from his past
She heard all of his songs tellin' nothin' but bad news
But she made her mind up to try to get him win or lose.

Ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs
Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold
And outlaws touch the ladies
Somewhere deep down in their soul.

Jessi like the Cadillacs and diamonds on her hands
Waymore had a reputation as a ladies' man
Late one night a light of love finally gave a sign
Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line.

?'Cause ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs
Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold
And outlaws touch the ladies
Somewhere deep down in their soul.

Ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs
Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold
And outlaws touch the ladies
Somewhere deep down in their soul
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 03:43 pm
John, I am assuming all those asterisks were expletives, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why. As for the woman and her make up foolishness, you ought to see the bikers down here. You would pray for a woman driver to slow things down. Evil or Very Mad

Try, that sounds like a down song. Hope it isn't you, honey.

Hello there, dys. Another bad boy song I see, but there ain't no baddies in Tennessee. <smile>

I could have played this one for George, but I'm glad that I didn't:

Rolling Stones:

Wading through the waste stormy winter
And there's not a friend to help you through
Trying to stop the waves behind your eyeballs
Drop your reds drop your greens and blues

Thank you for your wine, california
Thank you for your sweet and bitter fruits
Yes, I've got the desert in my toenail
And hid the speed inside my shoe

But come on come on down sweet virginia
Come on honey child I beg of you

Come on come on down you got it in you
Got to scrape that s**t right off your shoes.

er, I don't get that one.
0 Replies
 
oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 04:23 pm
no the asterisks aren't expletives
0 Replies
 
Tryagain
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 04:28 pm
Hope it isn't you, honey."

No way Miss Letty, it was a reply to the news; No hands on the wheel.

Artist: The Kinks Lyrics
Song: Everybody's Gonna Be Happy Lyrics

And I know, and I know,
And I know that ev'rybody,
And I know that ev'rybody be happy,
As happy as you and me.
'Cause I know, I know.

Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say
Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say, and

Ev'rybody's gonna be happy,
Which means you and me.
Ev'rybody's gonna be happy,
Which means you and me.

And I know, and I know,
And when I see ya walking down the street
Well it makes me happy to see you walkin'
It makes my life complete
'Cause I know, I know.

Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say
Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say, and

Ev'rybody's gonna be happy,
Which means you and me.
Ev'rybody's gonna be happy,
Which means you and me.


And I know, and I know,
And I know, and I know,
And I know...
0 Replies
 
oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 04:38 pm
Raggedyaggie wrote:
Good day to all.

Letty, the dog in your picture looks just like my friend's dog which is a Bouvier des Flandres.http://www.myhappydog.com/pict/tegundir/bouvier_des_flanders.jpg (Dog of Flanders)

As to the difference between a Newfoundland and St. Bernard, I'll wait for George to answer that one. *

My choice for celebrity picture of the day is the very talented actor, Raul Julia:
http://www.relaxorium.com/mindspringbs/hmraul.JPG



the answer re: the 2 dogs is * -----w********f. the st bernard is in part a mountain dog,,,, the newfoundland is at sea level
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 05:04 pm
Well, Thanks, John, for clearing that up. Confused I realize the dog of Flanders must be Belgium in origin, but at that point, I am stumped. Still don't understand your asterisks, however.

Hey, Try, now that song is more like I would like you to be, buddy. <smile>

I noticed today on the news that the people who grade SAT's are goofing up, listeners, and there is some flak over the FCAT'S. That doesn't work either.

How about a Beatle's song about working it out:

The Beatles

Try to see it my way,
Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on?
While you see it your way,
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Think of what you're saying.
You can get it wrong and still you think that it's alright.
Think of what I'm saying,
We can work it out and get it straight, or say good night.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Life is very short, and there's no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend.
I have always thought that it's a crime,
So I will ask you once again.
Try to see it my way,
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
While you see it your way
There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
Life is very short, and there's no time
For fussing and fighting, my friend.
I have always thought that it's a crime,
So I will ask you once again.
Try to see it my way,
Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.
While you see it your way
There's a chance that we may fall apart before too long.
We can work it out,
We can work it out.
0 Replies
 
oldandknew
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 05:11 pm
waterproof
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 05:47 pm
Boy, you're going to carry that weight,
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you're going to carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time

I never give you my pillow
I only send you my invitations
And in the middle of the celebrations
I break down

Boy, you're going to carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time
Boy, you're going to carry that weight
Carry that weight a long time

Paul McCartney
0 Replies
 
Tryagain
 
  1  
Reply Thu 9 Mar, 2006 05:58 pm
Frank Sinatra - Winners Lyrics
Writer: Raposo

Here's to the winners, lift up the glasses
Here's to the glory still to be
Here's to the battle, whatever it's for
To ask the best of ourselves then give much more
Here's to the heroes, those who move mountains
Here's to the mountains they make us see
Here's to all the world, here's to all the people
Here's to the winners all of us can be.
0 Replies
 
 

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