Today, Tay will go to chess club.
He puts his board and pieces in his bag.
He packs his clock.
Tay is ready…
                            from Tay: Tay Goes to Chess Club
                                         written by Phelicia Lang
                                      illustrated by Samanta Veliz
                                 Me on the Page Publishing, 2019

    Dad was a planner. He taught my sister and brother and me to play chess. It was a good way, he told us, to learn strategy, how to plan ahead. 
    I understood the game, as well as my ten-year-old self could, anyway. I studied how each piece moved around the board to guard his king. They were all men, even the queen. All the knights were men, and so were the pawns. No one even talked about the horses.
    That didn’t bother me. It felt like the generic guys, like in Hey! you guys! and I never gave it a thought until now. Let’s save all that for a different day.
    For now, I’ll introduce you to a much different ten-year-old, Bodhana Sivanandan, an extraordinary chess prodigy. She won against a 60-year-old grandmaster in Liverpool, England, on August 10, 2025.
    What else was an almost six-year-old to do during the COVID-19 lockdown in London, whose parents gave her a new chess set? And just 15 months after learning the game, she was described as “exceptional.” 
    Two years after that, the eight-year-old Bodhana said, “I love to play chess because it helps me to recognise patterns, focus my attention and is helping me to learn how to strategise and calculate moves in advance. Also, I like the way the chess pieces move on the board, especially the knight.”
    She learned to play on her new chess set by watching YouTube videos. Of course, she did! She likes to play against really good players. “[I learn] from what they are doing,” she said in a quote on GMA (Good Morning America, 8/15/25).
    In 2023, she defeated Peter Lee, 81-year-old FIDE Master. FIDE is the French acronym for the International Chess Federation, founded in 1924, and serves as the governing agency for chess competitions worldwide.
    And she’s been winning chess tournaments ever since. Her recent win makes her the youngest female chess player in history to win against a grandmaster. Malcolm Pein, himself an international master, predicts that Bodahana will become a grandmaster one day.
    Lest she thinks she’s special, Bodhana joins the ranks of several other child prodigy chess players. In 2023, eight-year-old Ashwath Kaushik defeated 37-year-old Jacek Stopa in Switzerland. To find others, click on ChessKid.com. 
    Besides playing chess, her mom calls her a “normal” kid. Her other interests include piano, violin, and soccer. She’s also considering becoming the Prime Minister or maybe a doctor one day. “We just encourage her to go forward with her dreams,” said her mom on the GMA interview.
    I changed my opinion of chess as I grew up. Besides objecting to all the “men,” games of war did not interest me. I viewed killing, pretty much anything, and still do, as something morally wrong. Chess, with all its war strategy, did not interest me anymore. Then I looked into what people gain when they play chess, and found some interesting reasons to reconsider. 
    Here are my favorites from Healthline.com and TheChessJournal.com.

• By anticipating an opponent’s moves, we widen our perspective. We become more able to “put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.”
• Playing chess improves our memory, both visual and auditory. Excelling at the game involves memorizing and predicting complicated patterns of moves.
• The activity of theta waves increases when we enter a flow state, the deep involvement we experience when we’re totally absorbed in the “task at hand,” whether it be athletic, artistic, or chess. In a flow state, we are most receptive to insight, imagination, and creativity.
• We build our planning skills during those long periods of silent concentration when we anticipate the consequences of our actions.
• Regular chess playing can increase our ability to focus on a task. 
• We practice patience when we postpone a decisive move in anticipation of a more advantageous move or wait for our opponent to move. 
• Related to growing our ability to be patient, we learn the importance of making sacrifices. We may choose to lose something now to receive something better in the future.
• We develop both halves of our brain when we play chess. Studies have shown that top chess players combine visual processing with analytical reasoning to reach decisions faster.

    Could the game not be about war? Probably not. Can I get over the idea of chess being about killing? Probably. After all, it’s just a game. And a very good one, at that.
    Thanks, Dad!

I just finished reading Uncommon Measure by Natalie Hodges (Bellevue Literary Press, 2022). It’s the memoir of a young Korean American violinist who, after experiencing performance anxiety, decides to turn her creative gifts into an exploration of the human perception of music: how it relates to time, neuroscience, and quantum physics. And it’s surprisingly readable. Recommended.
            -—Be curious! (and play hard, but work hard, too) 

    “Hey kids,” said Thomas B.m“Who wants to check in a book?” 
    Everyone took a turn with the book scanner--beep! beep! beep!
                     from Amelia Bedelia’s First Library Card
                      written and illustrated by Herman Parish
                                        Greenwillow Books, 2013

    “Children's book author Herman Parish is the nephew of Peggy Parish, the creator of the beloved Amelia Bedelia series. After his aunt died in 1988, he decided to continue Amelia's adventures himself and has since published more than a dozen stories featuring the comical housekeeper. Parish is a popular speaker in libraries and schools throughout the United States.” (Bowker Author Biography)
    Herman began a series, Young Amelia Bedelia, starring Amelia Bedelia as a young girl, which is where I found today’s quote.
    When I was a “newish” children’s librarian, our Children’s Department Supervisor thought it would be great fun to take Amelia Bedelia on the road during our Summer Reading Program. She was right! We brought Amelia Bedelia to life, performing hilarious original scripts she wrote based on Peggy Parish’s books.
    We visited lots of libraries in our county system, but never found a more ardent fan than Diane Varady, our Head Clerk at the Poland Branch. She and I worked together there for almost half of her 45-year career. 
    But this post is not about Herman or Peggy Parish. It is not about Amelia Bedelia or our Children’s Services Supervisor, or even about the library. All those things that I loved and still do.            
    This one is for Diane. Her humor, dedication, and her own love of our library were part of everything she did and everything I love about her.. 
    I had a 25-minute drive to work that I convinced myself only took 20. I was not the first to arrive, ever, but Diane always greeted me with a smile. New staff came to our branch, some left. Most stayed a long time, but Diane was a constant. She was Head Clerk when I arrived and Head Clerk when I retired. I worked in different branches, but for my whole 20+ years, Diane was a fixture at the Poland Library, old and new. 
    She knew everyone who came in. She knew the kids, the parents, and the babysitters who brought them for storytime. All three sections of storytime each week were the highlight of my job. I could not have been as successful as I was without Diane.
    She and the rest of the clerical staff readied crafts from my “prototypes.” How many railcars, balloons, apples, butterflies, construction-paper strips for a chain that circled the interior of the library three times, sneakers, paper plate face puppets? Once, for Halloween, I gave her a skeleton. The kids glued many small, white pieces onto a dark background. I know I did not give her all 206 bones, but there were A LOT. I apologized, but she just laughed. All in a day’s work.
    And the clown noses for the Summer Reading circus theme.
    And the error-less and seemingly endless typing. And filing. 
    Diane was the county’s best shelf-shifter. After I finished weeding a Dewey section, the remaining books needed to be moved so that the shelves stayed in order, but also so each shelf had about the same number of books. She was accurate and fast! We worked like a machine!
    And the story ideas.
    And the cow books.
    Diane was a cow aficionado! She loved cows. The books about them, especially the funny picture books. The songs about them. Their swishy tails and their deep, lowing moos. Diane was famous for many things in our library, but everyone loved her nails. She had them done professionally. They were seasonal. They were exceptional. There were cows during the Canfield Fair!
    It was one of the ways she expressed herself. 
    All the lunches. Bellaria, Bruno’s, House of China. All the laughs! 
    The Margarita party at my house to celebrate my remodeled kitchen. The whole staff came. I burned up my blender, crushing ice for the margaritas. 
    Working closely with the same people for 20 or so years, we got to know each other, as well as maybe we could know anyone.
    Diane knew her job. She kept our branch in Dewey order. Even the picture books. Especially the picture books. 
    Her flair with the public.
    Her kindness to her friends and associates.
    Her love of her family.
    In a word, Diane was fun. Not the loud, outrageous, laughing-all-the-time kind of fun. Hers was gentle, kind, empathetic, and spontaneous. 
    Diane will be missed by every life she touched. Mine included!

I'm reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn Books/G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009.) A young journalist in 1960s Mississippi secretly interviews the maids of her best friends for a book about race relations, class differences, and the infancy of the women’s rights movement. The takeaway for me is the similarities among people, our complicated love for our family, our need for each other, and the importance of self-respect. (The movie is also worth your time.)
                           RIP Diane, my friend.
                    Be curious! (and live your best, precious life)

… looking around, they worried their nest
needed more stuff to make it the best.

And so when one of them stayed behind,
the other flew off to go and find
the extra things that they agreed 
their chicks were really going to need. 
                                           from Too Much Stuff
                         written and illustrated by Emily Gravitt
          Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021

    Sometimes it’s hard to let go of all those articles I told myself I needed to read. They languished in my email inbox until I put them in an email folder. Then they languished some more. They seemed so interesting, important, clever, necessary…at the time.
    Sometimes it’s hard to tell the good stuff from the junk. How about the sweater I knew would go just right with the slacks I never wore because nothing looked just right with them. Both should have gone into the donation bag, but like my papers, they languish. 
    Glass jars to hold leftovers and freeze tomatoes? Yes, I use them, but I have a lot of extras.
    Or all the stuffs that are clearly not family heirlooms, but decorate my house just like they did Mom’s. 
    Books fill my bookcases. Most of them I have read, many I have not, but intend to. Some just have beautiful covers or clever titles. They languish, too.
    My dad was a philatelist. He collected stamps. They all went in albums designed for just that purpose. Some went into tiny glassine envelopes sorted by issuing country, denomination, and date. He also collected a couple of philately journals and newsletters, I suppose in case he needed to look something up. Mom called him the pilot, but really the pile-it. He piled it here and piled it there.
    My brother is a little like that. I guess I am, too. We keep stuff. But we are not horders.
    According to the Mayo Clinic, “[h]oarding disorder is an ongoing difficulty throwing away or parting with possessions because you believe that you need to save them.” Hoarded items may be potentially useful. They may stroke a sentimental nerve. Or they might be worth something. 
    Hoarding behavior becomes a problem when the crowded living space becomes dangerous. Narrow pathways can cause tripping hazards. Surfaces like tables, chairs, and even the kitchen range can become unusable because they are piled so high with stuff. 
    In a Psychology Today article, I learned that “the International OCD Foundation estimates that one in every 50 people struggles with severe hoarding—but also that the public is fascinated by it.” I intend to explore the one in 50, but I’ll have to save the fascination of the other 49 of us for another day. 
    People who hoard have entered a vicious circle. The same PT article says “[h]oarding both relieves anxiety and generates it.” How do those two opposites play out?
    Keeping something feels good, like a security blanket. When a behavior feels good, we tend to repeat it to get the same good feeling. But at some point, the thought of making room for more stuff causes anxiety. When that happens, we might become overwhelmed. The feelings of security can lead to feelings of isolation, keeping friends and family away.
    In general, people who hoard have difficulty making decisions, including what and how much to keep.
    When someone doesn’t recognize that the amount of stuff they have collected, or kept, or set aside is interfering with their daily life or has become a safety issue, professional help might be necessary.  
    How do we know if we or someone we love is experiencing hoarding behavior? 
Watch for these symptoms listed by The Mayo Clinic:

• getting and keeping more items than you need or have room for
  • can result in disorganized and crowded clutter and possibly unsafe or unsanitary conditions
• feelings of distress when you’re asked to remove or even reduce clutter
• losing important items in the midst of clutter
• inability or unwillingness to organize items

    People who hoard, keep stuff that is “unique” or might be “necessary in the future” or is “sentimental,” reminding them of a happier time, or a beloved person from our past, or a loved pet.
    Speaking of pets, people who hoard pets (dozens or even hundreds of them) create an unsafe environment for themselves and their pets. They need professional help.
    Of course, there’s a difference between someone who hoards and a pack rat. According to David Decker, an agent who handles apartments for rent in Wisconsin, a pack rat’s clutter is made up of stuff that they may have a use for… somewhere or at some time.” Their stuff is usually organized in some fashion. A person who hoards,, though, “may be hard-pressed to explain why they keep many of the things they keep.”
    Collectors collect stuff. It’s organized, acquired according to particular specifications, and may have real financial worth. Dad was a collector and a “pile-it.”
    I have more stuff than I need, or really even want. I read somewhere that a good way to declutter is to go through your items, one by one, and box up those that feel too precious to get rid of. Label the boxes and put them in a safe place in the basement or attic. They remain retrievable, but not visible. At some point, those boxes might become irrelevant and therefore unnecessary.
    Maybe it’s time to get a few boxes and try again.

I’m reading Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press, 2025). It’s the fifth book in the Hunger Games series. The main character, Haymitch Abernathy, is a young tribute, fighting for his life in the Arena, and takes place in the 50th year of the games. If you’re a fan of the series, this prequel will not disappoint.
                                      Be curious! (and organized)

    “I’m Greem. I’m a shadow cast from this rock.”
    And that was just the beginning.
                                      from Shadow and the Ghost
                                                 written by Cat Min
                                            illustrated by Cindy Kay
                                              Levine Querido, 2024
                                      accessed on Hoopla 8/3/25
    Shadows are where the ladders and yard equipment live in our garages or basements.
    A shadow can be a hint or an indistinct image, as in “shadows of things to come” or “the shadow of her smile.” And a shadow is someone who follows you for presumably nefarious reasons, say a spy.
    A shadow can remind us of what once was. “Even after she recovered, she was a shadow of her former self.”
    Shadows are the dark places in a painting. 
    A shadow can be a specter or a ghost, an inescapable threat or influence, or even the general atmosphere, especially one that causes gloom, fear, or doubt, as illustrated in the phrase, “they lived under the shadow of war.” 
    Shadows are ominous.
    In 2015, Chicago law professor Will Baude coined the term shadow docket. While the term is not explicitly derogatory, these court orders on the shadow docket are unsigned and unexplained. Even though, as noted by Baude, they are usually innocuous (up to 99% of the time in 2015), by their nature, they are controversial.
    Most of the time, a case is selected for the shadow docket when the court needs to decide whether an appeal in a lower court should be allowed to stand. These cases get very little discussion, briefs are very limited. Decisions are made quickly, in a week or less. They are used when the Court believes “irreparable harm” will be caused if the request for a decision is not made immediately.
    And as mentioned already, they are unsigned and unexplained. Also, as already mentioned, they are (or maybe were is more accurate now) very often inconsequential. They are in response to an “emergency application.”  
    That’s the history. 
    According to the Brennan Center, since 2017, the Court’s role has been changing. Cases being admitted to the shadow docket have become much more frequent and more substantial. They are more consequential. And can serve as precedential (introducing a precedent).
    In testimony before Congress (and included in the same Brennan Center article), law professor Stephen I. Vladeck explained the shadow docket. “Owing to their unpredictable timing,  [often late at night], their lack of transparency, and their usual inscrutability, these rulings come both literally and figuratively in the shadows.” 
    Since 2017, the Court has used the shadow docket to rule on issues related to gerrymandering and environmental regulations. These “emergency motions” often try to suspend or even reverse a lower court’s orders while the case is still in progress. And it touches on the “irreparable harm” clause. Critics argue that a case can be decided even before a litigant has proven that harm is really imminent.  
    And there is no transparency.
    Refer to the Brennan Center’s article for some interesting examples of decisions the Court has recently handed down. 
    In Merit Cases, the Court will wait until a lower court establishes facts and makes a decision. Then, if they decide to take on the case, they receive full briefs, hold oral arguments, and provide detailed, sometimes very long explanations of their orders.
    None of this takes place if a case is part of the shadow docket. 
    After application is made, a case is chosen using the Court’s four criteria for selection:

1. “reasonable probability” that at least four Justices will agree
2. a “fair prospect” that a majority of Justices, upon review, will determine the lower decision was erroneous
3. irreparable harm will result if not taken on
4. in a close case, balance is sought between the applicant, the respondent, and the interests of the general public  

    A surge of cases has reached the shadow docket since 2017, coinciding with Trump’s first term. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed 41 emergency applications in his first term. As a comparison, during the previous 16 years (during the administrations of Obama and Bush), DOJ filed a total of 8 emergency applications.
    You can find a detailed and informed paper here. 
    Without owning or explaining their decisions, the public is hard-pressed to trust the integrity of the Justices and trust that their work is in the best interest of the public. 
     Ellena Erskine of CNN quoted Ted Cruz, former solicitor general of Texas, in September 2021. He said, “Shadow docket, that is ominous. Shadows are really bad, like really, really bad.”
    I’m not sure that in 2025, he’d agree with his own statement.

I’m reading Allegedly, by Tiffany D. Jackson (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, 2017). It’s an emotional thriller, a departure from what I usually read. The main character is a 16-year-old doing time for a crime she may or may not have committed when she was nine. The crime is heinous. The punishment is severe. From a starred review in Booklist, it “…ends with a knife twist that will send readers racing back to the beginning again.” I’m almost finished.
                                     Be curious! (and choose light)