Chess in the news and other nonsense

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

ALTON – The mayor is refusing to allow a private club on Belle Street to reopen in light of its history of violence and other crimes.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s denied permanently,” Mayor Tom Hoechst said about the former Chess Club, 1009 Belle St. “It won’t reopen as long as I’m mayor. I am not going to tolerate these things in the Downtown area.”

Frank Anderson Jr. and Clifton Moore Jr. applied for the Chess Club license. Frank Anderson Sr., of Godfrey owns both the Chess Club property and the CTW Lounge across the street. Anderson said he has no intention of reopening the private club and he was not aware that his son had applied for a business license. If someone were to approach him about renting the small building, he said he would consider leasing the property.

Hoechst and Police Chief David Hayes said last week that the mayor is denying business licenses for a total of three applications based on criminal background checks and building inspectors’ reports of the buildings’ premises.

The latter reason did not apply to the Chess Club, as inspectors were not allowed inside the small building, Hoechst said.

The location was referred to colloquially as the Crap House in the 1990s. Before the business opened in the 1990s, it was called Pepper’s Place.

Hayes said a computer check of police reports tallied 39 incidents on the Chess Club property from 1995 to 2000, when it closed, among them two armed robberies; criminal damage/unlawful use of a weapon; two homicides, those of Kenny Wayne Spann and Eugene Warr; and aggravated assault/unlawful use of a weapon.

Seven of the 39 incidents involved drug-related arrests, ranging from unlawful possession of cannabis to unlawful delivery or possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, Hayes said.

“The Chess Club has been known as a place for illegal gambling activities over the years involving card games and poker machines,” Hayes said.

In February 1996, the Alton Police Department’s former Special Community Area Target Team raided the club and arrested 23 people for illegal gambling. Police confiscated more than $1,600 in cash, three video poker machines and a poker table. They destroyed a pool table that had been converted to a craps table.

Otis L. Anderson, 23, of the 400 block of East Eighth Street, Alton, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm in that shooting.

An Alton woman, Brittany R. Turner, 24, of the 2000 block of Mulberry Street, Alton, was charged with obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a detective investigating the incident.

Hayes said witnesses told police they were playing cards inside the club at time of the shooting, and police saw several video poker machines along the south wall of the Chess Club during the investigation.

Hayes said police have problems with large crowds of people congregating in the 1000 block of Belle Street area in early-morning hours, particularly weekends, with fights sometimes breaking out. Frank Anderson Sr. said he does not like the loitering outside his 38-year-old business and in the street, either.

“The police should run them off,” he said.

The procedure for obtaining a business license in Alton is to apply at the Treasurer’s Office. City officials check to make sure the applicants do not owe any money to Alton; police run criminal background checks, and inspectors check the potential business site.

“All three have to be passed,” Hayes said. “The department heads get back to the Treasurer’s Office, and any one (aspect) can prevent someone from getting a license. This is all a part of trying to maintain public safety in the best interest of the city.”

Hayes recommended that applications for two other business licenses be denied based on criminal background checks on the four applicants: Glenn Seeger and his father, Jack Jennings Jr., who wanted to open a resale shop called Trader Glenn’s, at rear of 1240 Milton Road; and Rodger N. Jennings and Alex Ladd, who applied for a license to open A & C’s Possibilities Resale Shop, 911 Milton Road.

Hoechst said he wants businesses to come to Alton, but the applicants have to pass background checks and be legitimate. He also is warning liquor license holders that he will not tolerate nuisances and criminal activities at their businesses.

On Oct. 22, Hoechst sent a letter to all liquor license holders in the city, warning them that ordinances regarding nudity, litter prevention measures, prohibition of “go cups,” illegal drug activity and violence “will be strictly enforced.”

“I plan to hold the liquor licensee accountable for illegal drug activities or violence occurring within or upon the licensed premises,” the letter says. “I am offering this letter as my first and final warning that this administration will be forceful and act swiftly on any violations of the city’s liquor ordinances. Please be advised that I am working closely with the Police Department to monitor these issues, and I will not hesitate to take appropriate action following this warning.”

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/19/bad-sex-factor-prize-shortlist
 (AP) – today


The offending passage compared female genitalia to various Greek fiends, including the mythical monster Gorgon and “a motionless Cyclops whose single eye never blinks.”

Littell beat other shortlisted authors including Paul Theroux and John Banville to the prize, which celebrates crude or ridiculous descriptions of sex in modern literature.





The awards were established by the editors to “gently dissuade authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels.” They are annually awarded to the author who produces the worst, most laughable and/or jarring description of a sexual encounter in a modern novel.








Littell’s book, “The Kindly Ones,” is a 900-page epic narrated by a fictional Nazi officer. Originally published in French, the international best-seller won France’s top literary honor, the Goncourt Prize, in 2006.




“Una had stretched out on the bed of the guillotine; I lifted the lunette, made her put her head through it, and closed it on her long neck, after carefully lifting her heavy hair. She was panting. I tied her hands behind her back with my belt, then raised her skirt. I didn’t even bother to lower her panties, just pushed the lace to one side and spread her buttocks with both hands: … ‘No,’ she protested. I took out my xxxx, lay on top of her, and thrust it in. She gave a long stifled cry…. because of the awkward position – my trousers were hindering my legs – I could only move in little jerks… I whispered to her: ‘I’m going to pull the lever, I’m going to let the blade drop.’ She begged me…I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.”




Last year, the magazine gave the annual prize to British writer Rachel Johnson for a passage in her satirical novel “Shire Hell.” John Updike was awarded a lifetime achievement award after he had been shortlisted for the prize four times in its 17-year history.



Literary Review said Littell’s editor accepted the prize, but the author himself was not available for comment.

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