Lizzie Wade Sighting!

Lizzie Wade and Robert

Robert writes:

Last week, my co-worker (and successor as Muse‘s Q&A columnist) Lizzie Wade came to Science headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a big staff meeting. Lizzie is our Latin America correspondent, based in Mexico City, and doesn’t visit us nearly enough. Here we are in the hall outside a conference room. Yes, she really is as much fun as she looks.

Attention, Everybuggy!

Not quite Muse news, but close:

Cricket magazine is having a sort of homecoming for grownup readers. Here are the details, snatched from an email announcement from the publisher:

Remember when you got your first Cricket? Or maybe you rushed to the mailbox for your issues of Ladybug or Spider.

Whichever magazine you loved, we want to hear from you! Tweet: My favorite @CricketMag memory is…#celebratecricket or post it on our facebook page and you may receive a copy of Cricket’s 30th anniversary commemorative book. This delightful treasury of exceptional stories and poems, great art, and reminiscences is illustrated throughout in black and white and contains 20 pages of color reproductions of Cricket cover art.

Attention, Writers and Artists!

Muse‘s editor, Elizabeth Preston, alerts us to this Round-Robin ‘Riting over at the official Muse site. We’re not sure how many MBers are now technically Musers, so we’ll leave to your discretion whether you feel overqualified for this activity.

Continue reading “Attention, Writers and Artists!”

Harry Potter’s Chess Game

As mentioned on the August 2013 random thread (and in Robert’s article “Harry Potter’s Chess Teacher” in the September 2002 issue of Muse), here is the game finale that international master Jeremy Silman composed for the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Harry is the bishop on a3, Ron is the knight on g5, and Hermione is the rook on f8. Ron sacrifices himself on h3 so that Harry can win the game and keep pursuing the villain.

[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “5r1k/1pN1R1pp/1Pb5/n1r1P1n1/7N/b2p4/7P/1R1Q2K1 w – – 0 1”]
[CBBWhiteId “*”]
[CBBBlackId “*”]
[Result “0-1”]
1.Qxd3 Rc3 2.Qxc3 Nh3 3.Qxh3 Bc5+ 4.Qe3 Bxe3++

And here’s the alternative scenario that Ron rejected: one in which he could sacrifice Harry and win the game himself:

[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “5r1k/1pN1R1pp/1Pb5/n1r1P1n1/7N/b2p4/7P/1R1Q2K1 w – – 0 1”]
[CBBWhiteId “*”]
[CBBBlackId “*”]
[Result “0-1”]
1.Qxd3 Rc3 2.Qxc3 Bc5+ 3.Qxc5 Nh3++

A Q&A Reprint, by Request

Piggy asked to see the Q&A column from the September 2011 issue, which answered one of his questions but was published after his subscription to Muse had expired. As it happens, both questions in that column had MuseBlog connections. We’re a bit late in posting them, so, without further ado…

Continue reading “A Q&A Reprint, by Request”

February 2012 Muse Roll Call and Discussion

Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.

WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!

To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of any posts discussing things in the magazine:

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January 2012 Muse Roll Call and Discussion

Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.

WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!

To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of any posts discussing things in the magazine:

SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER.

November 2011 Muse Roll Call and Discussion

Tell us when your magazine arrives and/or what you think about it.

WARNING! Will definitely contain spoilers!

To spare MBers reading the “Recent Comments” columns, please paste the following message in at the beginning of any posts discussing things in the magazine:

SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER MUSE SPOILER.