The Writer's Life 10/29 - Masters

From an article in today's NY Post, edited by yours truly: Six years ago, Ambakisye Osayaba made a big move, quitting a part-time city job cleaning Central Park to play chess full-time. Now he earns up to $400 a day, taking on all comers from a two-by-two-foot fold-out table, chairs and chess board he rolls in a metal shopping cart every morning to Union Square Park. He is known by the initials T.C., which stand for “teaches chess.” He charges $3 for a no-wager game. If you want to bet, the winner gets $5. He offers 30-minute lessons for $20. He plays year round, rain or shine. The only way to get an appointment with him is to show up at his table. “I threw my phone off the Brooklyn Bridge,” he said. “You need to give the game your full attention.” He claims to have once won $600 from a worker from a Best Buy employee who talked a big game. He was ten in 1968 when he got a chess set for Christmas. He grew up poor, one of 17 siblings crammed in a tiny Harlem apartment. He would spend hours after school every day studying strategy with a local librarian. “I was infatuated with being the best,” he said. “And I never stopped.” Kudos.

Last night PBS, channel 13 in NYC, ran a screwball comedy with which I was unfamiliar - Libeled Lady (1936), starring Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow and William Powell. It was fun. In researching it at IMDb, I discovered another unsung Hollywood stalwart, director Jack Conway, who had 104 credits as an actor before he went behind the camera, where he helmed 113 films. He is one of ten directors to have had more than one film nominated for Best Picture in the same year. A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and Libeled Lady (1936) were nominated at the 9th Academy Award in 1937. Several other of his titles are notable. He frequently worked with Clark Gable. His career spanned 40 years, 1908-'48. He passed away at 65 in 1952. Kudos. Here's a pic:

A blurb from the Post annoyed me. President Obama has been called to jury duty in Chicago. I suppose it would be a cute story if he actually served, but the fact that he was even summoned is more government lunacy, at least as I see it. 

The floating book shop was rained out today. It gave me a chance to catch up on chores.

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