TudoRama

Send us Fan Mail 'How far can I improve my chess?' The question was answered recently by chess coach Jorge Murakami on the discussion site Quora. In essence, he argues that not everyone would be able to reach the ELO 2000 standard rating, He believes that those who achieve that level, (roughly at the top end of the ratings players in chess clubs around the world) would tend to be above a...

Send us Fan Mail Friday 16 November 2023 Politics in Britain this week moved closer to its favourite sport, commentating about the latest football story. The Prime Minister’s sacking of his Home Secretary Suella Braverman reminded me of what might happen after the sacking of a key player on the eve of an important football game. The timing of the real political sacking may have been calculated to...

Send us Fan Mail Suella Lagerman and Operation Raging Bull  Suella Lagerman popped into the war room to encourage her crack military officers in their efforts. General Dunking-Smith threw his commanding officer a smart salute and returned his attention to the large map of the battleground laid out over the trestle table which had been donated by Lord Witherspoon of Coney Hatch. Operation Raging Bu...

Send us Fan Mail @johnestephens Just when you thought you'd heard it all.... Boris Johnson asked scientists if you could kill Covid by blowing hairdryer up nose @Tudortweet If I’d been asked which politician came up with the question, I’d have said 100% Donald Trump! @PippaLeuven Trump: drink disinfectant. Johnson: blow hairdryer up nose. Honestly, even a 5 year-old would know better... Stay...

Send us Fan Mail How to Rescue a Hedgehog My hedgehog sensitivity has deepened since I had a series of evening visits from one during the summer. It made a purposeful trek across the garden always from the same direction, returning equally purposefully a few minutes later.  I learned how much love there is for hedgehogs, from an extended message on X formerly known as Twitter by @Hedgehog Cabin, a...

Send us Fan Mail An article captured my attention recently: ‘Rat race: rodents use imagination to navigate their environment’. The article in the Guardian, Friday third November, 2023, reported findings from a research study from the Howard Hughes medical Institute, Maryland, USA. The researchers claimed that the study is the first to show animals can flexibly activate the brain’s  representations...

Send us Fan Mail In a recent podcast I talked about Chess Tantrums. The subject cropped up again this week, with examples from my two favourite games, chess and tennis. I’m concentrating on the tennis  outbursts of Andy Murray and the chess rants of Magnus Carlsen ... Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter!  Email eve...

Send us Fan Mail Wit and Wisdom October 24-31, 2023 @Kangeroos991 Well done Scotland. Protester holding a placard saying ‘Scotland hated Trump before it became fashionable’. @SayeedaWarsi To Hamas I say End the violence and Let them Go  To Israel I say End the Occupation and Let them Live  #CeasefireNow  @TonySpeight1 This lady is one of the few relatively recent appointments to the HoL. She deser...

Send us Fan Mail Defender or Enemy of Free Speech? Review of ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover’ on PBS The PBS programme screened in the U.K. on 29 October 2023 revealed Elon Musk as both a defender and an enemy of free speech. Some of us Twitter users are in a state  of denial over the brutal cutting down of our favourite Social Media platform by its ruthless new owner Elon Musk. His act of Twitterci...

Send us Fan Mail Who are your friends, and should your boss know. I interrupt the planned agenda of the Didsbury Lit & Phil Society to gather views on a news item from ITV about disclosing workplace friends to their HR department. The meeting is reported unedited. Extraneous noises are due to late-arriving members and supplies of coffee. There was some confusion about the recording of the meet...

Send us Fan Mail The Great Fruit Fly battle. A New Weapon in the Fight. A public service broadcast on dealing with a fruit fly invasion. Views expressed are personal and should not be acted on as if backed by expert authority. After nearly three months of intensive battle, the invading army of fruit flies are being driven out of the stronghold established in my  kitchen area. It has been a savage...

Send us Fan Mail Wit and wisdom of the Website formerly known as Twitter.  October 20, 2023 An excessive number of tweets recently have been about the Israel/Gaza situation. I will deal with that topic elsewhere. Here are a few more humorous posts. Some are in longer ‘threads’ than usual:  @simonharris_mbd Let me be very clear regarding my baby formula fundraiser, as I keep seeing people moaning a...

Send us Fan Mail Chess Tantrums. The chess world has once again been gripped by a tale involving Magnus Carlsen and possible cheating by an opponent. Magnus is no longer chess world champion. This is because of an earlier incident in which Carlson publicly accused his young opponent of cheating. After the game, Magnus pulled out of the next world championships, and has remained somewhat in the wil...

Send us Fan Mail Artificial Intelligence and real creativity. How I discovered the potential of ChatAI I recently offered Morgan, a young member of my family, some advice in her career as a writer. It turned out I learned far more than I expected, as the following extracts from my LWD notes demonstrated, in the form of emails to Morgan and her writing Partner Rhys. Me Hope you have been getting my...

Send us Fan Mail William Brown, Mrs Bott and the Bubble Gum mystery When school teacher Mr Naismith took on his duties as Chess Master at the Village Hall, he little expected to become embroiled in a mystery involving Mrs Bott, the dinner lady at his school and mother of Elisabeth Bott, close friend of William Brown, who were two of his chess pupils.  Master surveyed the scene ahead of him at the...

Send us Fan Mail Before you have a recognised grade you will have have a provisional grade which is explained below. Grades change as you play other graded players and the authenticated results are published regularly. Theses  estimates were provided by Hakon Strand, a chess correspondent and data analyst who likes to classify himself as a friend of the once and perhaps future chess world champion...

Send us Fan Mail How to speak chess. Beginners course, session 1 Chess has a language of its own. if you want to be a good chess player you will have to learn to read chess as it is described in chess books. Next, you need not just to read chess but speak it in a way that is understood by other chess players. In this course, you will learn a simple version of chess which will allow you to write re...

Send us Fan Mail Our Chess Club Social Event won by Tom Jones … It’s not unusual. The East  Cheshire Chess Club held its season-opening social event on Wednesday 27 September. As ever, the event was to produce some unexpected surprises.  The carefully planned six round rapid play tournament included a rehearsal for the new technology being used to arrange the draws for each round using on the much...

Send us Fan Mail Twitter (now known as X) wit and wisdom, late September, 2023 @Tudortweet BBC Chat show presenter not known for his false modesty “Question for our listeners. Which part of my anatomy did I graze so seriously I had to go to hospital for treatment?” Answer from a listener. “Your Super Ego?” @aled-job It's comedians who often tell you the truth in life. Here's Groucho Marx...

Send us Fan Mail Bridge over troubled buttocks. A ten minute programme for combating advanced muscular aches and pains.  A public health podcast by TudoRama. Hello. I’m Tudor Rickards. I want to talk to you today about a way to maintain agility to combat the advance of the aging process. It is based on three deceptively simple exercises which can be done in the time it takes to order a Uber for a...

Send us Fan Mail The Mill.  An example of everyday creativity in action A few years ago, a young journalist founded a creative initiative in regional journalism. He named it The Manchester Mill, capturing the history of Manchester’s contribution to the Industrial Revolution, as well as indicating an appropriate location for its founding premises.  A recent article in a regional business newsletter...

Send us Fan Mail Conversations at a crossing The worse traffic signals at a road crossing I know can be found in the suburban village of Bramhall, close to the TudoRama headquarters in Woodford. The signals are cruelly in favour of cars over pedestrians. Green crossing lights are as rare as Liverpool football supporters.  Throughout the day, the queues of citizens wait for the red light to change...

Send us Fan Mail The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tay. Who really killed the Princes in the Tower? Richard the third, according to our history books, backed up by William Shakespeare. But not according to the Richard 111 Society founded in 1924. Nor according to crime writer Josephine Tey, in her crime novel originally published in 1951. Tay never received the fame of Christie or Sayers, but her...

Send us Fan Mail Message to Mark Brown. ‘How are the dolphins?’ Dear Mark, It was great to get your recent email after so long since our last meeting.  How long? I retrieve a date from my unreliable memory Filofax as it being sometime in the eighties. Let’s say forty years, give or take a decade. Yes, we planned to meet, from time to time.  But perhaps inevitably, our good intentions were not enou...

Send us Fan Mail September 2023 @amrakunj My 11 year old just said to me, Mum, your shirt is very diaphanous. I don’t know whether to be impressed that he know what diaphanous means or change my shirt. 😳 Stay up-to-date with all of Tudor's podcasts, blogs and current affairs commentary by signing up to our newsletter!  Email everydaycreativityuk@gmail.com to sign up! Follow Tudor on Twitter...