Single Comment

Five years old uncommented needs annotations. (1) Gilman just mentions Caliph (Bishop + Camel) 2-D and Cafila (Unicorn + Camel) 3-D. Cafila means Caravan, as in the desert.  Caravan  is here in one lead quote of Flecker's ''Gates of Damascus,'' leaving Damascus dangerously for Baghdad. (Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose) (2) The best early Islamic chess player in the world was taken to be Alrashid, Caliph of Baghdad, only a century plus after the Prophet.  E.A. Poe mentions Alrashid in the 4th quote here, before the poem begins, and Poe wrote ''Maelzel's Chess-player'' in 1836 about the Turk chess automaton. (3) Chess & Philosophy thread in current comment implies ''lack of a common ground,'' the very words of Luna(P) here. (4) In diversion Mercury(B) -- Mercury is always sidetracking -- brings to light some interesting anatomy. Namely your bones from the tip of any finger trace backwards Fibonacci numbers by ratio of sizes: they are called phalanges distal, middle, proximal fingerbones, metacarpal (skip the wrist), and ulna your arm are large sample 2,3,5,8,21 (skip 13) statistically. Flower petals often are Fibonacci too,
 but space does not allow explanations. (5) Jupiter(K) declares ''right to life'' for all species not just ones already populated 10x over optimum, like cattle. (6) The last line of Saturn and ''number forty-two'' are connected to Douglas Adams' conceit in 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' for one thing that each morality is 42 lines.