Tidbits of Grand Forks - December 1, 2022

By Janet Spencer

Chess is considered to be the most played game of all time, including modern video games.

with Tidbits as we play a game!

THE ORIGINAL MODEL

• Chess is a game meant to simulate warfare: the king sits behind the ranks of the army; if he dies, all is lost. Pawns are expendable soldiers who guard and die for the king. Knights, rooks, and bishops are dangerous and powerful. But the most powerful piece on the board, capable of outmaneuvering and overpowering all others, is the queen. The queen can move as many unoccupied spaces as she wants in any direction, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

• The queen was not always so powerful. Original rules left her nearly helpless, able to move only one square at a time, diagonally. Her increase in power came as a result of changes on the political landscape, as female rulers came into their own. There was Spain’s Queen Isabella in the late 1400s. She financed Christopher Columbus and was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. Then there was Margaret of Austria, Catherine de Medici in France, and Elizabeth I of England. Russia was the last to adopt the power of the queen in chess, and that didn’t happen until Catherine the Great became Russia’s longest-ruling female leader in the late 1700s.

CHESS WORDS

• The word “check” originated with the Persian word “shah” meaning “king” as in “the shah of Iran.” The word was mispronounced by sea merchants. The Persians played a game that featured game pieces including a piece called the king. This game, and the mispronunciation of the word for king, ended up giving the English language many words and terms.

• The game was over when the king piece was captured by the opponent, and the opponent was required to call out “check” (“shah”) as soon as the king was put into jeopardy. If the king piece was captured, the opponent exclaimed “shah mat” meaning “the king is dead” denoting victory and the end of the game. The French mispronounced this as “eschec mat” which turned into “checkmate.”

• The French adapted the word “échec” to mean “defeat” and the plural “échecs” turned into the English word “chess.”

• The French term morphed into “exchequer” which came to mean the place where the King kept his money, possibly because if you stole all the king’s money, the king would be defeated. Then it started to mean “the government treasury” and next “the town accounting” and finally “the bank.”

• Therefore “exchequer” is the origin of the English word “check” with many meanings springing from both the game of chess and the world of banking.

• It gave us the word checkers, which is played on the same checkered board as chess. Now we have checkered tablecloths and a checkered past.

• When you write a check (originally spelled “cheque”) you are keeping track of your banking.

• When you make a checkmark, you are ticking off accounts that have been paid.

CHESS WORDS (cont.)

• When you check on the kids, or check on the progress, or check out the girls, you’re paying attention to the situation your king is on the game board.

• When you ask for the check in a restaurant, you’re asking for an accounting.

• When you put something in check, you’re protecting your king from damage.

• If you make sure the checks and balances are even, you’re balancing your accounting.

• A checker at a grocery store is keeping accounts straight.

• If you’ve asked for a “hat check,” a “baggage check” or a “rain check” you’re asking for an accounting of what you are owed.

• When a hockey player checks an opponent hard enough to knock him around, there’s a problem with the king on the chessboard.

MORE CHESS WORDS

• The rows on a chessboard are called the ranks, and the columns on the board are called the files: rank and file.

• The lowliest piece on the board is called a pawn, from the same Latin root word that gives us “peon.” In German and Spanish, the piece is called either a peasant or a farmer rather than a pawn.

• The rook comes from the Persian “rokh” meaning chariot. Today, “rookies” are chess players in their first year, a term which now denotes other newbies in their chosen fields. Rooks are often the last pieces to be moved into play, as are rookies.

• The French word “estale” meant “standstill.” When players are locked in and cannot make a legal move, the game comes to a standstill. “Estale” turned into the English word “stalemate” (as opposed to checkmate.) Today a stalemate counts as a tie, and the word now means any sort of a deadlock.

Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played airline copilot Roger Murdock in what 1980 comedy film? Defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban, a 1999 first-round NFL Draft pick for the Dallas Cowboys, was the first NFL player born in what country? What country won the first FIFA World Cup?

country has reached the World Cup Soccer Finals the most times? Which country has won the most Cups? What company, founded by Jim Jannard in 1975, is a leading manufacturer of sports visors, sunglasses, and ski and snowboard goggles?

the Ram is the official mascot of what Mountain West Conference school’s athletic teams?

CHESS THROUGH HISTORY

• Chess began in India around the year 500 A.D. It’s gone through many changes since. Modern rules were set down in the 1800s.

• The oldest recorded chess game in history is from the 900s AD, between a historian from Baghdad and his student.

• A rule book written in Latin around the year 997 AD was found preserved in a monastery in Switzerland.

• The oldest surviving chess sets were found in northern Scotland, dated to the 12th century.

• The first chessboard with alternating light and dark squares appeared in Europe in 1090.

• The folding chessboard was originally invented in 1125 by a chess-playing priest. Since the church forbad priests to play chess, he hid his chessboard by making one that looked simply like two books lying together.

• The move where the pawn can move two steps instead of one was introduced in Spain in 1280.

• The reason why traditional chess pieces don’t look like actual soldiers, bishops, kings, and queens is because before the game reached Europe, it passed through the Islamic world. Islam forbids making statues in the likeness of animals or people, so chess pieces became vague-looking and stayed that way when the game moved into Europe and beyond.

• Blindfold chess is an impressive skill. Each square on the board is identified by a letter plus a number. With both players blindfolded, they call out their moves and an assistant arranges the moves on the chessboard. Both players have to visualize the game in their heads, which requires a sharp memory and abundant concentration. The record was set in 1960 in Budapest by Hungarian Janos Flesch, who played 52 opponents simultaneously while blindfolded – and won 31 of those games.

by: Lions Clubs of Grand Forks

by Lucie Winbourne

• Finnish Ph.D. students graduate in style! Along with their hard-earned diploma, they receive a sword and top hat.

• Cherophobia is the fear of being happy.

• Within a week of stealing 16 statues from an Indian Hindu temple, the thieves responsible believed their subsequent nightmares and bad luck were a direct result and brought back some of the property with a note asking for forgiveness -- but still held on to two of the statues anyway.

• Baby elephants suck their trunks for comfort.

• Do you like tequila? Thank a bat. Seriously. Bats are the main pollinators of the agave plant, which is the key ingredient in tequila. No bats, no agave, no tequila!

• If Michael Phelps were a country, he'd rank No. 35 on the all-time Olympic gold medal list, ahead of 97 countries.

• On Jan. 20, 2022, a U.S. hacker managed to bring down North Korea's entire internet. In addition, he performed this feat in great comfort, while wearing his pajama pants, watching "Aliens" and munching on spicy corn snacks.

• James Cameron came close to casting O.J. Simpson as the Terminator, but ultimately decided the athlete was "too pleasant" to portray the character.

• If you attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, perhaps you participated in a Thanksgiving tradition known as Frozen Turkey Bowling. And yes, it's essentially what it sounds like: A bunch of folks hurling oiled frozen turkeys down a grocery store aisle at a set of bowling pins. Strange? Sure, but it raises money to combat smoking, so we're on board.

Thought for the Day: "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." -- Zig Ziglar

THE ROSWELL INCIDENT

• In early July 1947, rancher W.W. “Mac” Brazel found wreckage on his ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Because several “flying saucer” stories had appeared in the press recently, Brazel thought that the wreckage might be something of that sort. He brought some of the material to Sheriff George Wilcox of Roswell, who in turn brought it to the attention of Colonel William Blanchard, the commanding officer of the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF).

• The next day, the RAAF released a statement which declared, “The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County.”

• According to that statement, Major Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer, oversaw the RAAF’s investigation of the crash site and the recovered materials.

• The following day, July 9, 1947, the RAAF released an updated statement declaring that the debris recovered from the crash site had actually been a weather balloon.

• Two hours west of Roswell, the first atomic bomb was detonated. There was ongoing atomic research at Los Alamos. Researchers at facilities at nearby White Sands were testing captured German V-2 rockets. And the first atomic bomb squadron was headquartered in Roswell. There was a lot of top-secret activity going on in the area, and the release of the statement that a flying saucer had been recovered there would have been excruciatingly painful for the higher-ups who did not want to draw unwanted attention to the area, whether it was true or not.

• The matter seemed resolved, and the incident faded into the background for several decades.

• Then, in 1978, a UFO researcher interviewed Jesse Marcel, now retired. Marcel had been in charge of transporting the material from the debris field to the authorities. But now his story changed. He claimed the debris was “not of the Earth.” Marcel's statements contradicted those he made to the press in 1947. He said he had been forced to stick to the weather balloon story, and that photos of him posing with actual balloon fabric had been set up after the fact. The real material had a “super strength” and included strange writing. His explosive interview was included in a documentary about UFOs, rekindling interest in what became known as The Roswell Incident. More interviews followed; theories were proposed; books were written.

• His son, who had been 11 at the time, was one of the few people who saw the material. He concurred with his father’s statements, and wrote a book in 2007 called “The Roswell Legacy.”

• The government clapped back with a number of everchanging stories. Finally, in 1994, they admitted that the weather balloon story was fake, claiming it was a cover story for the fact that the wreckage was actually a device meant to float above the USSR in order to detect atomic explosions and monitor nuclear activity. The new report claimed that because it was a covert operation, a false explanation of the crash was necessary to prevent giving away details of their spy work.

• Today, the Roswell Incident remains a defining aspect of the area’s identity: The town boasts a UFO museum and research center, a flying saucer-inspired McDonald’s, alien-themed streetlights, even an extraterrestrial “family” stranded in a broken-down UFO on the side of State Route 285, looking for a jumpstart.

by Matilda Charles

It's that time of year again when we do holiday shopping, much of it online. It's also the time when more scammers come out.

And what is it scammers want most? They want your personal information so they can turn it into cash and fraudulent purchases.

Here are a few ways to avoid getting scammed online this holiday season:

Beware sales emails that include links, even if the email is from a store you usually use. Thieves are very good at making their scam pages look genuine. Instead of clicking a link, open a web browser and go directly to the website itself. Sometimes the email will request that you update your account information. Instead, call the store and ask if they've sent out that request.

Beware the tracking emails you get with updates about packages that you're expecting. Remember that genuine FedEx and UPS emails won't ask for any personal information from you. Don't click links. Go directly to the website.

Be careful where you shop online. Check reviews to see what others have to say. Avoid those with few or low ratings.

Consider using Amazon for most of your online purchases and having a Prime membership. Amazon is good at protecting customers when it comes to you receiving damaged items or not receiving any items at all. A Prime membership now costs $139 a year, but it includes free shipping, free movies and videos, and more.

If you are scammed, report it. Call your bank and the police, and then notify the Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-3728311.

A goal for 2023: Go inside your bank to do your transaction now and then. Yes, it's easier to just use the drive-up window for deposits and cash withdrawals, but there is a lot to be said for letting them put a face to a name. Once they know you and your banking habits, they're more able to quickly identify anything that might be wrong.

• On Dec. 10, 1768, the first part of the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the oldest continuously published and revised work in the English language, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh, Scotland.

• On Dec. 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, in which he asserted that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was from the moment of her conception free from the effects of "original sin."

• On Dec. 9, 1868, the world's first traffic light was erected near Westminster Bridge in London. It didn't have much of a chance to prove its worth, however, as it had to be removed just a month later following a gas leak that caused one of its lights to explode.

• On Dec. 6, 1933, U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey announced that James Joyce's novel "Ulysses" was not obscene in a legal sense but a work of merit. The ruling was hailed as a landmark and would open the door for greater freedoms in future literary works.

• On Dec. 5, 1955, the Georgia board of regents rejected Gov. Marvin Griffin's request that the Georgia Tech football team be barred from playing in the following month's Sugar Bowl simply because the school's opponent, the University of Pittsburgh, included a Black athlete.

• On Dec. 11, 1981, after an extraordinary 21-year career in the ring and despite pleas that it was time for him to definitively retire, American boxer Muhammad Ali fought his last professional bout, losing to Trevor Berbick in a match that would be nicknamed "Drama in the Bahamas."

• On Dec. 7, 2020, American aviator Chuck Yeager, who in 1947 became the first person to exceed the speed of sound in flight, which was approximately 662 miles per hour at his altitude of 40,000 feet, died at the age of 97.

Country Estates at Valley Senior Living

A wonderful place to call home. Combine the freedom of independence and community with all the amenities of Town Square. 4000 24th Ave S, Grand Forks, ND

www.valleyseniorliving.org

NUGGET OF KNOWLEDGE

The first game to ever be played in space was chess in June of 1970. The Soyez-9 crew played against their ground control and made headlines worldwide. The game ultimately ended in a draw. It used a specially designed chess set made for zero gravity because magnetic playing pieces are not allowed on board spaceships.

Grand Forks

• A woman lived near the mouth of a canyon in a rural area of Colorado. She was working outside in her yard when she heard a raven squawking from somewhere up the canyon. As she continued to work, the raven grew closer and closer, squawking up a racket all the while. Finally the sound of the raven’s calls was close enough that she decided to go investigate. And there she spied a cougar, only 20 feet away, getting ready to pounce on her. She screamed for her husband who came racing out of the house, scaring the cougar away. “Thank goodness for that raven calling out and warning me!” she exclaimed, and the story went out in the newspapers, carrying the heartwarming story of how the calls of a raven warned a suburban woman of the imminent danger of a cougar. Later, an ornithologist explained that ravens often team up with large predators such as cougars in order to lead them to potential prey, so that the raven can feast on the leftovers. It’s far more likely, but much less newsworthy, that the raven saw the woman as a meal.

• In Britain in the 1930s, milk was delivered to the door with each bottle sealed with a crimped paper lid. The milk was not homogenized, so the cream always rose to the top. Suddenly the local dairy started fielding complaints that the cream was being stolen from the milk bottles while they were on the doorstep. Local birds called blue tits make their living by peeling back bark on trees and eating bugs they find beneath. In captivity, they will peel back wallpaper in search of bugs. At some point, one blue tit peeled back the paper lid on a milk bottle and discovered cream beneath. When another blue tit watched the first blue tit do this, it learned to do the same – and soon the entire blue tit community was stealing the cream from every porch in town – and then, every porch in England. It took ten years for the dairy to design lids that could not be raided by blue tits.

• Songbirds are born with a genetic program of what song they should sing, yet they are unable to learn the song if they don’t hear it being sung. Cowbird chicks are born with the imprint of a cowbird song, but because cowbird eggs are laid in other bird’s nests, the chick is also imprinted with ability to mimic other bird’s songs so that they are not identified as imposters by their foster parents.

• Carotenoids are the pigments that give plants their color, such as turning tomatoes red and carrots orange. Birds with brightly colored feathers tend to eat more carotenoid-rich foods, compared to birds of the same species that do not. Dull colors on a bird that should be brightly colored indicates that the bird is either in ill health, or is not having much luck finding or competing for food. A female will always choose the male with the brightest colors.

• Likewise, a male bird who can sing enthusiastically for long periods of time indicates a bird in better health than one who cannot sustain the concert for very long.

• Up to a quarter of eggs in any given bird nest may have been fertilized by a male inhabiting a neighboring nest. Apparently the female likes increasing her chances of raising babies that have the right set of genes.

• There are about 200 species of a small bird called the tit. The males of one species sport a black stripe on their chests. The birds who have a wider stripe make better parents to nestlings, and females choose the males with the widest stripes.

• A bird’s eye takes up about 50 percent of its head; our eyes take up about 5 percent of our head. To be comparable to a bird’s eyes, our eyes would have to be the size of baseballs.

• The chicken is the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Russia “Cobra Kai” Orange and Green Drew Barrymore (7 years old) Sports Answers

“Airplane!” Ghana Uruguay Germany-8; Brazil-5

5. 6.

Quiz Answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. 3. 4. Oakley