Nonsense. Ibid above. Tony was another one of those crackpots that gravitate
to chess. History will him place amid the Sloans, Bibulds, and Parrs that haunt
chess. -- Stan Booz

History has already placed Tony Cottell among those who insisted on saving
money that Al Lawrence and, yes, Gerry Dullea get the credit for making.

Tony was a CPA, who was the beancounter. He has since been succeeded, though
not as treasurer, by a CPA who, quite frankly, often loses count. You know how
it works with our Stan Booz: "One-two-three-turds; four-five ... ah, wait ...
that was one-two-three, that is, Parr-Sloan-Bibuld ... now where was ...
one-two-three turds -- no, that's buckle my shoes, four-five-six, pick up
sticks. Wrong things! Turds, I was counting turds!" One imagines him using his
fingers, albeit for what purpose, we would best leave unexplored.

Stan Booz appears to come from the Enron school of accounting. He doesn't
believe that USCF members are entitled to see the contract with Crossville and
how their funds are being used. Secrecy is his slogan.

Tony Cottell insisted on paying for most items up front, and he was accused of
ye olde J. C. Penney business practices. He once said to me that if the USCF
were another organization run by other kinds of people than the Delegates, then
he would have favored doing things the "smart" and "modern" way. It was his
insight that money had better be saved before others could squander it. He had
no faith in the political process as then constituted, and he would only shrug
when I argued in favor of one member one vote to bring in new blood.

Tony had his faults, but without the gelt that he insisted be piled (the
piling was done by Gerry and Al) there would be no Federation today.

The alternative argument, which Stan Booz could not quite twig, is that
without the cushion, the crisis would have come earlier. People would have been
fired en masse in, say, 1998; and the USCF would be the better off for having
done the bloodletting many years before.

-- Larry Parr

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"FIDE has made its decision. Players who refuse to be drug tested will not be
able to play chess." -- Dr. Press, co-founder of the FIDE Medical Commission.