TudoRama

Send us Fan Mail @Hepworthclare This is my New Year’s message to politicians of all stripes. " Last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await a new voice" (TS Eliot) @BenZeisloft The world would be a better place if more husbands led their wives. The world would be a better place if more wives submitted to their husbands. @NicholaJames007 I&a...

Send us Fan Mail Recently I settled down to watch a full-length film, The Big Four, based on an Agatha Christie novel. An added attraction, it starred David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, a role in which he consistently excels. To my disappointment, and then dismay, the film seemed distinctly unconvincing, as if it were some kind of inferior imitation of a work by Agatha Christie. The setting had moved...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Chess Battle of Cheadle’s Drift The gallant forces of East Cheadle’s Special Forces brigade engage the fearsome Wilmslow Warriors in their first battle of the new year. A report from the front line of the now deserted battlefield. Only an empty water bottle, and a crumpled score sheet abandoned at the field of battle, reveal the intense fighting that took place earlier h...

Send us Fan Mail I think so. My prediction is for a year in which at least the world begins to take the doomsday scenarios seriously enough to take belated efforts to avoid them. In short, there will be troubles ahead. But as the paean of hope by Irvin Berlin goes Before the fiddlers have fled Before they ask us to pay the bill And while we still have the chance Let's face the music and dance...

Send us Fan Mail Almost spoiler alert Although I tried to avoid reviewing sin of revealing too much, I touch on aspects of the story which might spoil the enjoyment for some people:  Reading the ‘do I buy’ decision. Cover pink as a rom com.  Turn to back cover, as, like many others do. The marketing is intended to capture a  punter’s  interest in a few sentences or plugs.  In this case both ‘Delic...

Send us Fan Mail My attempt to create briefer podcasts in keeping with the acceleration pace of modern life. I would like to acknowledge the new year message from master minimalism William .Thompson for the concept that often ‘less is more’ in communication theory. Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter!  Email everyd...

Send us Fan Mail End of Year Humour Pick-me-updated  Title should have been Pick-me-up, not  Pick-me-updated. Prescriptive text humour strikes again. @ChessVanDoom 2024 Chess Goals 1. Limit Rapid games to 2 per week, 15+10 only. 2. Analyze every Rapid game 3. 25,000 tactics solved 4. Complete 4 chessable courses (I start a bunch, but don't finish) 5. 50 coaching sessions 6. Play 4 OTB events...

Send us Fan Mail Chess player jokes tend to focus on clever but obsessed individuals, ignoring everyday matters, social conventions, etc. There is overlap with jokes about absent-minded professors. I’ve complied and invented a few, as a tribute to both these overlapping categories of person. Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to ou...

Send us Fan Mail My Books on this list do not exist - but might in the future. The idea of the list  was inspired by a Twitter exchange with @GirlGiada. Giada seems to be a rather mysterious young lady with declared interests in music, animals, politics and strategy. I have subsequently discovered that Giada hails from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, famous for its spaghetti bolognese, and Bol...

Send us Fan Mail I have talked and written in other places about my pleasure in reading Melville’s classic Moby Dick. How the work at the time was a critical failure, mocked by the critics of the age (the 1850s).  For me, it is an astonishing work. It has left as great an impression on me as any book, ancient or modern, with which I can compare it. Although published in 1951, its imaginative prose...

Send us Fan Mail In what follows, I describe myself as having a rare experience which led me to connect with the thinking processes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arguably the greatest musical composer of all time. (In a future note I will discuss the nature of modesty). I was later able to connect what happened to with much that has been written about with the moment of self awareness, often associa...

Send us Fan Mail Wit and Wisdom Christmas Edition, December 2023 @EvLenz What do you call a sad cup of coffee? A depresso. and … Q. How do you kill a Swedish band? A. Take them to the Abbatoir. and... What do you call the fear of being stuck in a chimney? CLAUStrophobia. @ShoabMolbi In the hospital car park I saw a sign saying ‘Thieves Operate Here’.  @revpaulwhite Can’t get used to the Queen’s Sp...

Send us Fan Mail Regular contributors continue to win accolades by being selected by the TudoRama panel of Pod-judges who wish to remain anonymous.  Special mention to Dee Lomas who seems to have found an eccentric vein of humour in domestic life (or maybe a vein of humour in an eccentric life.  Keep tweeting, Dee, we need your contributions ... Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, b...

Send us Fan Mail Artificial Intelligence and real creativity. I took part in an international workshop this week. The MBA students were asked to investigate the capacity of emerging AI systems for generating outcomes deemed creative   This podcast from my audio diary  records my initial impressions that the students had  shown their own creativity  as well as the potential and limitations of the A...

Send us Fan Mail This podcast is the start of a presentation to MBA students in which I introduce the idea of everyday creativity, and the importance of commitment to ideas through actions.  It also shows an example of a 'warm up' exercise for creative meetings. Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter!  Email...

Send us Fan Mail The Guardian Quick crossword 16,722 appeared on Saturday 9 December. It produced a furious response from thwarted puzzlers.  In this podcast, I start with a crossword clue of my own, which crossword addicts may able to solve immediately. Those who can’t will have a second chance at the end of the podcast, where its relevance will become obvious. Dodgy speed. Almost never spoken in...

Send us Fan Mail Punk chess like punk rock is a popularist movement of mostly chess amateurs defying tradition in the interest of self expression.  In the space of a few years Punk Chess has roared into life through social media, first with Twitter as the site was known then. Maybe the Punk Chess pioneers were acknowledging the punk bands of the 1979s who rejected the perceived excesses of mainstr...

Send us Fan Mail Nature notes. The armchair birdwatcher. I have accidentally become an avid birdwatcher. Accidentally because my watching is confined to a partial view of my garden while engaged in other assorted interests. Typically, my garden attracts a few visitors on their way to or from the food bank operated but neighbour Stan, who is far more dedicated to the welfare of the Woodford Woodpec...

Send us Fan Mail Henri Grob has acquired notoriety for inventing one of the most eccentric of chess openings. But his story is of interest outside footnotes in a chess book.  First, you should know that as a player, Henri was of strong master level. He became Swiss champion and competed  in the strongest tournaments in his era in the 1930s and forties. He was also an accomplished painter Zack, a c...

Send us Fan Mail Wit and Wisdom special to end November 2023 Tudortweet Dear Advertiser. Don’t know how much you are paying ‘X’ was known as Twitter, for the daily ads for investing in gold, but investing in ‘X’ in that way isn’t working. @Hepworthclare And - given the cost of living crisis- Santa is scaling back. The elves are demanding the minimum wage , Rudolf is claiming red nose discriminatio...

Send us Fan Mail Lost in translation. Pigs might float. An apology in The Morning Bulletin, an Australian newssheet, recently ran as follows. There was an error printed in a story titled “pigs float” which appeared in, The Morning Bulletin, on page 11 of yesterday’s paper. The  story said that more than 30,000 pigs were floating down the Dawson river. What Barrala piggery owner, Sid Everingham act...

Send us Fan Mail How to be kind to your washing machine. A morality tale Do you take your washing machine for granted? Pause for answer. If your answer is yes, this is a message which will save you a great deal of anguish being stored up for you … If your answer is no, why not send this public service announcement to someone you think would have answered ‘yes’ or ‘I don’t see the point of that que...

Send us Fan Mail Wit and Wisdom November 20-26 @Tudortweet On Nigel Farage’s appearance on IACGMOOH: I’d like to say I’ve stopped watching IACGMOOH because of the publicity it gives to Nigel Farage. I can’t, because I’ve never watched to programme, and I claim my long-term Wokeist award. @BladeoftheS HS2, a train that travels only 120 miles on Earth, was more expensive than the International Space...

Send us Fan Mail The heart of darkness. Voyage to the Urmston roundabout. Our journey is one  I tell of with a warning that it is not for the faint-hearted. Our courageous little chess team set out aware of the dangers we faced.  The omens were not good. Perhaps I was over influenced my bedside reading of Moby Dick, that masterpiece of a voyage of discovery. But this was reality. We were bound for...

Send us Fan Mail For new listeners, the wit and wisdom comes from the posts found on the website X sometimes still known by its earlier name Twitter. This episode has its usual mix of political, cultural, and well just amusing posts. @RishiSunak Nitrous Oxide, also called laughing gas, is now illegal. Earlier this year I promised to crack down on anti-social behaviour, to create a better future fo...