Chess Tell Me You’re Kidding, Young Judges, Mac&Cheese and MORE!

Thank You Pogo!

This game site has been a solace, a challenge and a way to get relief from many problems of late

I have really enjoyed this game keeps my mind thinking, active, calm through all recent problems, and has been ‘a get-a-way’ for a short period of time. You see, I am an 90 year-old mother, grandmother and great grandmother. There have been many problems recently, not physical, but emotional.

THANK YOU!!

Alma

Hey Tahd … how’s it goin’?

Great answer to the ‘complaint’ about the upcoming chess Challenge next week… here’s something else from Wikipedia that you may want to keep and copy/paste as needed: “A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.” Oh, and I, for one, am looking forward to playing chess next week… GREAT game!

Even with this week’s Challenges… the Bejeweled thing was right up my alley… loved it… only thing wrong was that it only took 20-30 minutes… but still a game I don’t usually play and was pretty entertaining.

Then, I had to face the Casino Island BJ thing … yikes, it violated my ‘first’ rule of challenges (like you care about my rules… lol)… that ‘rule’ is that a Weekly Challenge should involve actually playing the game as intended… so, yeah, you could have played the BJ game as normal and just waited for the ‘Up the Sleeve’ cards but you really needed to get as many cards dealt as you could to increase your odds… so it was hit, hit, hit and you lose (unless you got 21 or 5 card charlie)… so, you’re just playing for the challenge and not playing the game… I know, I’m being overly critical as always.

Oh, and love the cookbook… did you see that I had a recipe there? And it wasn’t for limoncello! lol

Anyway … take care.

Pasta

Editor: Thanks for your thoughts, Pasta – and a quick perusal of the Pogo Cookbook shows that, indeed, you submitted a recipe!

Dear Editor,

I saw with dismay that chess will be a challenge for next week. And not only playing chess, but winning 5 games. I know of one person in my life that could win 5 games of chess. Do you remember when the computer Watson played on Jeopardy? My cousin was one of the people who developed Watson. He can win 5 games of chess.

Chess is an intricate game, requiring more than the basic knowledge of the moves. I have known how to move the pieces for many years. (I am over 60.) But I have never won even one game. That is because winning the game requires a great deal of strategy and long range vision. That is not something that the average pogo player can acquire in a weekly challenge.

Your argument made in this week’s letters to the Editor: “Pogo has a ton of games and chess is one of ’em” is fallacious. Bridge is also one of the games that Pogo has. There has never been a Bridge challenge. Why is that? I am guessing that the answer is twofold: that playing bridge requires a basic knowledge of the rules as well as strategy and long range vision and is therefore difficult to learn during a weekly challenge, and because people behind the scenes at Pogo play more chess than they do bridge.

If you find it necessary to offer a chess challenge, please make it something more winnable by the Pogo members. How about: losing 5 games? Or taking 10 of your opponents pieces?

I understand that I am not required to do all the challenges. I like to get as many done as I can. The ones I skip are games like euchre, spades, hearts, and pinochle. I have completed some of those challenges, but without actually understanding how the game actually works. That is not possible in chess.

Please reconsider the chess badge for next week. Or at least make it something more possible to achieve for those of us who are not good at chess.

Sincerely,

Not a Queen of Chess

Editor: Thank you for your feedback, and while I do (definitely!) appreciate the difficulties in earning this Challenge, I do think that if you really want this badge, it’s really not that difficult to get it.

Here is my 10-step plan to learn chess and earn the badge at the same time. 1. Print out the “How to Play”. 2. Read them. 3. Do NOT attempt to play the Robots. You won’t win. 4. Find someone who has an understanding of how the game is played and ask to play a few games with them. 5. Lose. 6. Lose again. 7. Continue to lose until you start to get how the game is played. 8. Win. 9. Win and lose a couple more games. 10. Congratulate yourself on learning a new game.

Dear Editor:

I enjoy seeing the ‘parade’ of Amazing Mini winners and participating as well.

Quite often I see some ‘really’ amazing minis in the event rooms who do not get chosen, and realize that perhaps your judges are too young to appreciate what they are reviewing (probably never even heard of) like old-time commercials, cartoons or characters (and their sayings) being reenacted… even overlooking great creative Minis with original and witty captions. May I suggest that you create a ‘Goodie’ Banner that reads, “Oldie But Goodie” (like your “Happy Passover” Banner) to display with our Mini to remind your judges.

Such themes as Lady Gaga’s outrageous outfits/hairstyles or the Prada fashions or futuristic stuff have no appeal to me, but do seem to please your judges. Albeit you have given us some great nostalgic items for the Amazing Mini events, some of the best captions are not being considered. We do have our wonderful memories! If you took a poll on the ages of those who participate in the events on a regular basis, I’ll bet us retirees would win by landslide. Perhaps a ‘sprinkling’ of some gray-headed judges are needed.

I have not seen in the Pogo News a profile, including the age bracket of your judges, which would be interesting. I don’t place judges on my Friends List, nor have I ever checked their Mini during the event to see if they posted a profile including their age; I’ll place that on my To Do List.

Strange things happen in those rooms during judging, some even try to “Brown-nose” the Judge. Some ‘Losers’ in these events chat about the judges selecting their ‘pets.’ I have noticed, however, that the same persons are picked on a fairly regular basis. I know some of these persons deserve multiple wins because they truly have a great talent yet others being picked DO NOT. This leads me to feel that some of the selections are being ‘randomly’ made (to ’round out the field’). We spend a lot of time, energy and expense creating our minis, so I truly hope this is not happening. I have noticed in the past that some judges are in and out of the room ‘Lickity Split’ so I know they didn’t take time to read all the captions… though this has not occurred so much lately. In all fairness, winners should be selected strictly on merit.

Sincerely,

Alex

Editor: Thanks for your thoughts on the Mini Events. The judges run from about 30 to nearly 50, so you may be right about them not “getting” some of the more time-sensitive Minis.

Let me say this – being a Mini judge is not easy. There are WAY too many good Minis to choose from, and there are only a limited number of spaces we can fill. It’s no secret that deserving Minis get overlooked every week. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t get seen. The events allow all participants to enjoy the creations everyone contributes.

And as for those that do get picked – it’s totally subjective. The judges – and I am one, so I can attest – do not purposefully choose favorites, nor do they choose ‘randomly’ to round out the field. They really do try to choose the Minis they feel will be the most entertaining in the Hall of Fame.

As far as picking the same names over and over again – we don’t do it on purpose. We really are looking for the best Minis of the day, and we can’t remember which Mini got picked last time, so it can be that a very clever person gets picked often.

When I saw White Haven Mysteries, I had to chuckle.

You see, I retired from a facility currently named White Haven Center, and is in the town ot White Haven. It started as a TB center, about 100 years ago, on the side of a mountain. A new facility was built on the flats around 1970.

I think the game and the facility have a lot in common. :)

aawnana

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!

First for the change in the Vaults of Atlantis Island Holiday Badge. I don’t know how they did it but I was able to avoid the shark 3 games in a row. Total time was an hour and twenty minutes.

Secondly for printing the mac and cheese recipe, can’t wait to try it! (there goes my diet)

Now a comment on the letter from “A Concerned Member” about the glitch in the Mini Mall and naked mini. As you so kindly pointed out it is not anatomically correct and there was nothing lascivious about it.

Anyhoo thanks Pogo for keeping this old lady occupied and entertained for the last 8 years and for introducing me to my husband!

Hugs,

Bren

Would someone please tell me the name of the dictionary that is used by the computer to play scrabble. There are a lot of words used that are not in any dictionary that I can find.

Then when I have a legitimate word that is in the dictionary it is booted for not being a word. I need to find your dictionary so I can find these unknown words that are used by this game. I only hope that it is in English.

LCB

Editor: Ah yes, the dictionary in SCRABBLE. I’m assuming you’re talking about the default dictionary. That one is called “Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary”, comes from the official Merriam-Webster Scrabble Players Dictionary.

You can also choose to play in one of the NSA rooms. In there, you’ll be playing with the uncensored official SCRABBLE word list.

Dear Editor,

I always read the weekly letters and I have to say, the first letter about the naked mini left me howling, not gently chuckling. I am one of those that like to show off her “wouldn’t it be nice, if I had that body” mini in those oh so wonderful well proportioned bikinis and low cut dresses. I don’t see a problem since magazines and tabloids readily available at the check-out counters in grocery stores show a lot more revealing bodies than our pogo minis. Please don’t make our minis looking like pilgrims from now on.

As for the embedded games, it was just something to get used to and never represented a problem for me.

But I am also not looking forward to next weeks badges.

Chess and Fortune Bingo are the ones that are mostly missing from my old albums. I have tried and tried and tried my little heart out with chess and the hated Fortune Bingo, (well I’ll do that one as I am allowed to do Personal Challenge at the same time) but Chess will be a problem. I WILL try but I am sure you’ll be getting requests for a free badge and I might be one of them. Remember the Risk badge from a few years ago, when people got their free badge?

That was an uproar if you recall.

Well, at that time I went into the forum and threatened not to renew my membership that’s how upset I was.

A lovely young girl left a note in my guest book and she and her twin sister helped me get the Risk badge. I will therefore go to the forum again and maybe find a nice person to help me with the Chess Badge.If not… you’ll be hearing from me, begging on my knees.

Keep up the good work, Pogo is my life, my morning get up and go and I love my badges. Am I an addict? You darn well right, I am.

The best game site for the least money 24/7 for 365.

Pogo Lover from the North

I love Mac and Cheese and the recipe you printed looks like a good one. However, once the basic recipe is mastered, variations are endless. A recipe that uses solid cheese layered with the pasta (shards or grated) will produce bites of pasta with strings of melted cheese. Decadent and delicious.

If you are in the mood for a creamier Mac, melt grated cheese in the hot white sauce. I usually add some cayenne to a cheese sauce for some extra bite. Mix the cheese sauce with the pasta, add some grated cheese to the top and bake until top is melted and browned. A lot of times I’ll add buttered breadcrumbs, along with the grated cheddar, to the top of the dish before baking. My family likes the crisp crust that results.

If you decide to go with a creamy sauce, use whole milk. Cheese does not blend well with low fat milk and, if you use it, you’re likely to end up with a soupy sauce and clumps of cheese.

But Mac gets really interesting when you venture into different cheeses or combinations of cheese, e.g. cheddar, asiago, parmesan and fontina. Recently I tried an artisan cheese from Sam’s Club — Mango Fire Cheddar. Quite a change of pace.

Editor: You’ve just made a world of Pogo players very hungry. Thanks! ;)

Have something to say to the Editor? E-mail editor@pogo.com. Please note – if you are having any customer support or technical support related questions, please contact our Customer Experience Team