(Untitled)

[spygrl1]

If it were possible to drive (well) and carry on a (coherent) phone conversation at the same time, then it would also be possible to talk on the phone and play chess at the same time. But you don't see grand masters with mobiles pressed to their ears.

Comments

[xiquatic]

Why do people feel like conversations don't occupy the same brain space that driving does? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I guess if you're just ignoring the other person and saying "yeah" and "uh-huh" reflexively whenever a dead space of two seconds occurs, then I guess that's freeing up your brain to drive, but then you're not really have a conversation at all, the brain's recall of what was said is non-existent.

[spygrl1]

Apparently the part of the brain people use to talk on their cell phones is the same part they use to avoid hitting pedestrians.

[anal_chemist]

I think it's always a bad idea to talk on the phone and drive at the same time, but I'm not sure there's any telling what a chess grandmaster will do. The only time I've ever seen one in person was about 20 years ago, before cell phones were common. He was playing a much weaker player in the first round of the U.S. Open. I had a pretty good view, since I was one of the people working the big magnetic board for the audience to see what was happening in the game. This Russian grandmaster was barely hiding his boredom. He would take off his watch, put it on the table, put it back on. Then he started to talk to people he knew as they walked by. Then he got up to get a drink of water and stood around talking for awhile. He finally sat down long enough for his poor opponent to resign. I was happy that he didn't win the tournament.

[xiquatic]

I get that he was a dick, but would have rocked if the guy was totally into wordplay, because he could have totally thrown out the one-liners:

"Please go slower! Don't be rushin' on my account! Get it? Rushin'? HAAA!"

"You're taking so long, it almost seems like you are STALLIN' for time! Get it? Stalin? HAAA!"

"Now I know why they call it a chess board, because I'm totally bored with chess! HAAA!"

"You Americans like to take it very, very slow - especially the process of paying off your massive credit card debts! HAAA!"

"Go ahead, buddy, tediously drag everything out over several painful hours, never moving forward, just like seasons one, two, and three of Moonlighting! HAAA!"

(I know this was 20 years ago, so I was trying to make references that were chronologically appropriate to 1989)

PS In Soviet Russia, pawn sacrifices you