This trip down to catch a performance of Chess is one for which flying makes no sense... with no Saturday-night stay and only six days advance, the fare on DL is $666, compared to ground fare of $55... 61.1 cents per mile is a really bad price.

I arrive and pick up a local paper. Reading to the entertainment pages, and find out there actually won't be a matinee! Now time to scramble for a hotel room... not easy with the Vikes in town. Try a Days downtown, am told they're sold out, but the 800# says they have rooms. Not that I'd pay $79 for a Days anyway, but I find one at the airport for $59.

I pass the day at the library and Underground (where I saw someone preaching a violent anti-white message... I left there with all deliberate speed). Arrive at the theater, and... **there was a matinee that afternoon!** I've just burned $59 plus 13% tax for bloody nothing! Not to mention extra food and a more expensive ticket to the play. Fortunately, Express Shuttle has an 800 number and no change fees... it's a good way to make an ATL/CHA or BNA/CHA run (although I usually prefer Greyhound to BNA).

The play was good. A few glaring blunders in the book that you would not notice unless you actually played chess, but you didn't need to know the game. The biggest rounds of applause, oddly, were for two of the lesser-known numbers, "Pity the Child" and "Nobody's Side." And entirely too many couples there--if I don't find a gal soon, I may take up flying SU and KE...

Hotel was OK, but I don't care for the part of town (Best Road)--will stay at the Courtyard in Hapeville next Friday pre-departure for Montreal. Get a driver who does a parody of the airline safety briefing on the way home, and cancel plans to go to another play.