To Code or Not to Code

One of the most beautiful things in the world is the IBM Selectric typewriter. It looks like a work of Mondrian, sounds like a tango, smells like the future, and responds like a thoroughbred beneath one’s fingertips. (That covers four out of five senses. I’ve never tasted a Selectric.) When I was quite young, I…

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The English Opening, or Is There Any Chess in Your Classroom?

The more chess that I play, the more I realize I do not know anything about chess. Recently, my third grader has taken an interest in challenging me. And it scares me. Not just because our chess set is made of good and evil Lego minifigures (with the evil ones being particularly menacing), but because…

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