www.alphadictionary.com

A wonderful German word from the chess world. Just over 100 years old, but quite resonant. Essentially it's a no-win situation, perfectly suitable to much of politics these days. It boils down to "Damned if you do, and damned if you don't", or "Damned no matter what you do".

From the German roots i immediately thought of a use for this word. Then I thought bettter of it. A literal rendering is, "You are required to pull."

I don't think enough of our readers play chess. I think this word is too technical for a GW, though I could do a nice Word History on it.

--RB