"Dr." Fred

[anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com]

The most charitable explanation for "Dr." Fred is that
he's degenerated into the professional equivalent of
those pathetic aging former chess masters who try to 
eek out a subsistence living by charging five bucks a 
game. People often play with them out of sympathy, or 
for the novelty of having lost to a past great. It's 
part of the chess culture, and it's basically harmless 
and sort of quaint.

The difference, of course, is that its almost impossible 
to have sympathy for Dr. Fred. His hussle is for a hell 
of a lot more than subsistence. He was also never actually 
a master of his field, a fact that becomes increasingly 
obvious as our exposure to him goes on. Now he's reduced
himself to trying to collect someone else's winnings.