Border Battle

New Hampshire defended its chess honor against Maine yesterday in a ten-board, twenty-game match held at the Portsmouth Public Library in Portsmouth, NH. This event was held for two years in the late 1970s before beginning a thirty-five year hiatus. It was resurrected last year (New Hampshire won 12-8) and the organizers are hoping it will become an annual event. This year's edition saw New Hampshire field a slightly stronger team than in 2010, and when the dust settled, the Granite State retained bragging rights by a score of 14-6. Maine managed to save face, however, by scoring two second-round upsets; International Master Joe Fang lost to David Oshana and yours truly went down in a topsy-turvy game against Adam Schaff. I had an absolute blast playing, and I hope I will still be in New Hampshire for the 2012 edition!

I recently finished Closing Time by Joseph Heller. This 1994 novel is the sequel to his seminal work, Catch-22, and several characters return. I wanted to like Closing Time, I really did. As much as it occasionally irritated me, I found Catch-22 hilarious. Closing Time, unfortunately, just didn't make sense. I finished it half out of a sense of obligation and half in the hope that Heller would explain it all in the end (he didn't). If you enjoyed Catch-22, you may want to read Closing Time if only to see where all the characters' stories end. But if you decide not to, I wouldn't blame you a bit.

Now that the weather is turning cooler and the leaves are beginning to lose their verdancy, back to school is not far from mind. My schooling is, for the time being, complete, and as a graduate student Ellen works year-round. But DOC Freshman Trips is well underway, and Move-In Day for the Dartmouth freshmen is this coming Tuesday. Ellen and I strolled through campus this morning, and I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. It's hard to believe that it was only six years ago that I was in their shoes.

And of course, no post published on this day would be complete without a mention of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Every generation has a day that comes to define it--November 22, 1963 for some, December 7, 1941 for others--and I think September 11, 2001 will be ours.