"Do you want fries with that?" Marvin said to the middle-aged woman who was accompanied by two screaming children, likely her grandchildren.

"What do you think, dummy? Of course I want fries! Can't you see the kids want fries? Two extra large fries and they better be fresh. Don't you give me any old stuff that's been sitting around for hours."

"Yes ma'am, coming up right away, ma'am."

"And another thing, I want you to clean the restrooms. I don't want us to get sick from some germs or something."

"Yes ma'am, right away, ma'am."

"And stop calling me that! I'm Mrs. Smith and don't you ever forget it."

"Yes, Mrs. Smith, understood, Mrs. Smith."

Mrs. Smith grabbed the children with one hand each and dragged them off to find a seat.

Recall from our last episode that Marvin and Priscilla had quite a set-to about Marvin being out of work, having resigned from the Detroit Doublejumpers and being contracturally forbidden to play for any other professional checker team.

Priscilla had invited or perhaps even ordered Marvin to move out if he wouldn't get a job--- any job, even as a bartender. They had been married for little more than a year and all of a sudden it looked like the marriage was in trouble.

Marvin thought about just getting another little apartment in a bad neighborhood. After all, it was the way he had been used to living and that way he could live off his savings more or less indefinitely. He of course wanted to go back to playing checkers, but it simply wasn't possible.

However, he really loved Priscilla. She had her moods, sometimes pretty difficult ones, but things had always had a way of coming around. So he went out and found a job. McDouglas was hiring and Marvin signed on for four ten hour shifts a week. The pay was $12.00 an hour with no tips. That fell something short of the $5 million per year contract he had held with the Doublejumpers, but at least he could show Priscilla he was working.

For a couple of weeks Prisilla seemed pleased, and even praised Marvin for his willingness to take a step down in order to remain "productive" as she called it, even though Marvin's income from McDouglas didn't make much difference considering that Priscilla's compensation package as CEO of Rust Belt Holdings approached $50 million per year.

But then one Saturday morning, Marvin and Priscilla were sitting in the breakfast room of Priscilla's swank 5,000 square foot condo. Marvin had worked the 2 PM to midnight shift the previous evening at McDouglas and he was quite tired.

Priscilla was picking at her Eggs Benedict and reading the morning newspaper, the Detroit Freewheeler. She looked up and said, "Marvin, your Doublejumpers aren't doing very well this year without you. They're in last place in their division."

"Not my Doublejumpers any longer," Marvin muttered, preoccupied with the latest issue of All Checkers Digest. He was studying the following intriguing problem.

"Well, wait, just listen to what this columnist has to say." Priscilla began to read.

"The Doublejumpers are off to a miserable start and after a month of play are dead last in the standings. They can't get their act together and are performing like a group of demoralized zombies. Despite the controversy surrounding him, the Doublejumpers miss the leadership and inspiration provided by former team captain Marvin J. Mavin. Word is that Doublejumper management remains unwilling to readmit Marvin to the team after he quit training camp, alleging mistreatment and harassment, allegations privately sustained by other team members who for obvious reasons have remained anonymous."

"Nice," Marvin said, "but not much help. And I ain't going begging to get back on the team, neither. They gotta come to me. Anyhoo, I got another shift at McDouglas today so I better get going."

Things went along for another week. Marvin kept serving up burgers and fries while the Doublejumpers lost match after match. On the next Sunday afternoon, there was something of a quiet period as Marvin was in the middle of his 2 PM to midnight shift.

His boss, Alan, didn't allow the staff to slack off even if there were no cusomers. They needed to be doing something, whether is was sweeping or cleaning windows or any of a million other jobs that restaurant work entailed. Marvin was busy wiping down tables.

"Hey, you, Marv," Alan yelled, "you've already been five minutes on that table job. Let's take it up a notch, huh? Get your lazy tail in gear. The floor needs mopping in case you haven't noticed. Of course you haven't noticed, you useless deadbeat ... "

Alan kept on with his stream of criticisms and invectives when just at that moment, who should come through the main entrance but ... Priscilla! Marvin looked up and, with great surprise, said, "Hi honey! Whatcha doin' here?"

Alan stopped his spouting, turned to look at Priscilla, and then turned back to Marvin. "Did I just hear you call this customer honey?" he said. "That's it! I've finally got a good reason to fire you. You're a lousy employee anyhow and this does it. You're done, boy. Turn in your uniform and get off the premises."

"But Alan, that's my wife ... " Marvin protested.

"Your wife? What, is she here to ask for free food or something? All the more reason to fire you." He turned back to Priscilla. "And you, lady, we don't cotton to thieves here and asking for free food makes you a thief. So take this worthless husband of yours and get your worthless selves out of here! You're banned! Don't ever come back or I'll call the cops!"

Up until now, Priscilla was silent, but she had slowly been turning red in the face. "You have no idea what you've just done," she said, addressing Alan. "You've abused my husband, you've created a hostile working environment, and now you've fired him without cause. You've also slandered me. Yes, certainly we'll leave and certainly we'll never come back. But you haven't heard the last from me, not by a long shot."

Now she turned to Marvin. "Let's go," she said, "I need to talk to you about the situation you've just put me in. I came here to see how you were doing with your job, and look what happened."

Marvin quickly went into the locker area, changed back into his street clothes, and joined Priscilla outside in her waiting limo. There was silence for a short while and then Marvin said, "Hey, at least I didn't have to take the bus home." He forced a laugh.

Priscilla's previous shade of angry red had since turned into a deadly white. "That's not even funny," she said. "Why did you take a job in a place like that working for a person like that?"

"Hey, I thought you wanted me to work and was glad I got a job."

"I was. But I had no idea that I was being set up to be insulted and slandered by your employer. That's on you. Why didn't you work in a bar or something? Or take the Doublejumpers' offer?"

Recall that the Doublejumpers had said they would take Marvin back onto the team if he would play without pay (or at minimum wage) for one season with a Single-A minor league affiliate, as "penance" for his actions and for quitting the team.

Marvin was silent. He had no idea how to reply. All he knew was that he was now out of work--- again.

"It's Sunday evening now," Priscilla observed, "but tomorrow morning I'll be making some phone calls and everyone just had better watch out."

To be continued ...

---

We certainly hope you, our reader, aren't suffering woes the likes of Marvin's (or any at all, for that matter). But whatever your situation you can enjoy the challenge of today's checker problem, which will require many star moves to find the winning path. Work on it, and then work your mouse over to Read More to see the solution.

Solution

1.	...	17-14*
2.	11-16	27-24*
3.	1-6	24x15
4.	7-10	14x7
5.	3x19	21-17*
6.	8-11	31-27*
7.	16-20	27-23*
8.	11-16	18-15*
9.	20-24	23-18*
10.	24-27	17-14*
11.	27-32	14-10*
12.	16-20	10x1

White wins but Black still tries; in the following line Black recovers a man only to lose it back later.

13.	20-24	1-6
14.	24-27	15-11
15.	27-31	11-7
16.	31-27	7-2
17.	27-23	6-10
18.	23x7	2x11
19.	32-27	11-15
20.	19-23	26x19

The White Win is now clear. Variations on the above play, particularly from the 13th move onward, are possible; you can explore them with your computer. Note that White must make at least 8 star moves to win.

Thanks to Lloyd and "Gosh Josh" Gordon for this interesting setting, which arose in the course of actual play.