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And as in uffish thought he stood,
    The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
    And burbled as it came!


from Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll


I always enjoyed Through the Looking Glass more than Adventures in Wonderland because I was a nerdy chess kid.

Incidentally, one of the amusing aspects of the book is that the chess problem at the beginning presents a forced mate in three moves. But of course that's not how it plays out, because the underlying logic behind the game is very different from a "regular" game.

A true story:

Some years ago I was a chess coach at a very successful scholastic program. Each year we ran a "chess-a-thon" where students stayed up all night playing chess and engaging in related activities. One event was a "live" game were kids took on the role of the pieces. 

So one year I was playing the white "pieces" and there was a little girl who so desperately wanted to be my queen. She was so happy, right up until the point where I was forced to trade her. After all, I'm a competitive guy and we were not playing by Looking Glass rules! Well needless to say she burst into tears and went running from the playing area distraught, resulting in much debate about the degree of heartlessness shown by the coach.

BUT - I'm a clever guy, and after much struggle got a pawn to the end of the board, whereupon the game was paused as everyone searched high and low to bring the little girl back and replace her as queen. And we went on to win the game together. Whew! I wish I could say her name was Alice.

I've also included an extra of the creature which appears above. I pass this bizarro sculpture garden on the way to and from work every day, and trust me the few items shown here are just the tip of the iceberg. I've never felt comfortable pulling over before, but for today's challenge I grew brave and stopped by. Someone came out from the house and was very nice, welcoming me to take as many photos as I wanted. Of course, you know what happened next?

My phone went snicker-snack and I came galumphing home.