The Greatest Game

My brothers taught me how to shoot pool. Then, like with poker, they were sorry, and stopped letting me play. So I would play by myself, and I figured out lots of interesting shots. For a short time, I was a pool hustler. I was about 14, and I'd go with my brothers to the slot-car tracks, and hustle pool while they raced their cars. I'd be the wide-eyed wee girl, getting the older boys to 'teach' me how to play. I improved rapidly, until we started going quarters for a game, then I miraculously would barely manage to win each game, until they started betting real money. Then I'd run the table and rake it all up. So, dumb me, pretty soon all the regulars quit playing me. DUH! I lost my sucker base. Lesson learned.
I don't play much any more. No time, no table, no cue. Oh well.
I was pretty good at ping-pong, too.

Eight ball was my game...

I never got the hang of playing pool.. Too much math .. The kids at Blackwell tried to teach me to play (they were all Hustlers).... I loved watching the Best Player on campus win though on most evenings & the best part about it was the fact that he was not arrogant. He won most, & he was willing to explain, teach & laugh while doing it. Everyone even those he beat, loved him for it... I will admit though I do know the placements to Rack'em Up... I don't mind palying every once in awahile if the people I am playing with are patient & realize I am VERY BAD at it..
 
I do however like to watch Paul Newman in the Huatler & The Color of Money... I also LOVE Monticello, am wanting to go back there for another visit & possibly scrounge the floor for any knicks that the pool table may have made in the floor there... Now I am also wondering if Washington, Adams, Madison & Sally Hemmings were good at pool....  

My first real billiards games came in my freshman year if college.On several occasions our(physics graduate student) freshman lab instructor adjourned class and reconvened at the closest off campus billiard table.There, we were given first hand pratical application of force,momentum,vectors and the like.
Jalopkin....if you are with us today, you previously indicated you spent time in Norfolk Va.
Do you remember the St Elmo's Club? I believe it was on the 2nd or third floor of a building downtown. It was a gentlemen's only establishment. I, however,was granted admittance as an inspector for the City of Norfolk( first one in the State of Va.....telling my age)If I made my call late enough in the day, I was invited to stay, after signing off with my supervisor over the phone.I would sit quietly in the corner, with the manager, and saw some amazing things. 'Nuff said.

I was banned from playing pool in college when I (would get drunk and) juggle the balls, quite expertly, but nevertheless disrupting the game entirely. And nobody could actually do much about it because, of course, drunks can't be reasoned with, and big drunks can't be threatened in any meaningful sense, and as expected I was just so damned jolly about it all. Who can really get mad at a large, drunk, jolly juggler? But I was still banned from playing pool.

Billiards is not pool. A billiards table does not have pockets. For further comments on the difference, rent the movie, "The Music Man."

lewisjones, you are absolutely correct, my appologies.
In my youth, playing billiards was a euphemism for playing pool, as well as its own game.
We play pool at the Do Drop In now days. I , by no means wish to convey any expert knowledge here, only life's memories.Still, both use many of the same props. May we use pool and billiards interchangeably in this discussion?

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Billiards_vs_Pool
 

I play in a poolroom in NYC, and when you see some of the greats close up as I have, you realize how skillful these players have to be. It truly is a superior game. And it's a shame even the top professionals have to struggle to make a living. Whereas , in England, snooker is revered...and has million dollar purses.

Happy birthday Thomas. I'm glad to see he wasn't above breaking the law occasionally espousing those freedoms he considered so importance. I may not be an Open on shooting pool, but because of a slightly misspent youth, I am an open in watching pool. Watching a master in straight pool run hundreds of ball is truly mesmerizing.
  

Who can really get mad at a large, drunk, jolly juggler? ~ is this meant to be a Rhetorical Question?...

Yes, "Trouble in River City.."
 At the risk of correcting Lewis Jones, while billiards is a three cushion game with no pockets, the term also refers to pocket billiards and cue sports in general, including pool, carom billiards, snooker, etc. That's straight from the dictionary. I have a subscription to "Billiard Magazine" which includes all forms of billiards. So, in other words, the term is interchangeable with pool. Unless you're talking about the specific game of Three cushion. 

Speaking of Jefferson, and the things that he did that still resonate today, I heard this morning that President Obama is the first US President since Jefferson to order direct action against pirates. And the wheel turns...

at the risk of being labeled crude.....jonathan...pocket pool is a euphemism for another sport....are you sure that's not why you were banned?
Olivia...love to hear the(butt)crack of the balls breaking....

Dutchman: To a purist of superior and snobbish intellect , the use of the term pool to equate with billiards would be considered a cacophemism.

Anything's possible, Janet, especially since my recollections are necessarily a bit beer tinted. But wait. If I was juggling three balls, then were did the THIRD ONE COME FROM!?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Best-first-date-activity-evahhhhh.

Witty banter. Moving cagily around a table, eying each other suspiciously, bending over at just the right time. Yuh huh.

There's no reasonable explanation other than the fact that I used to play with my grandmother all the time at her retirement home (and remind her regularly that ONE FOOT MUST STAY ON THE GROUND AT ALL TIMES), but I really can make the weirdest shots. I blame it on all that physics I slept through.

My rule, once you've hit that what-are-odds-of-that shot, excuse yourself politely and leave quickly, leaving their awestruck impression of your skill intact.

I also, now that I think of it, have the weirdest recollection of a pub in Edinburgh where people where playing a version of pool with red and yellow balls. Anyone?

One more fun piece of randomness. I was cleaning out my purse today and found a dented ping pong ball. I sat on my bed, called one of my travel companions from Vegas, and said, Huh?

Him: Ahhhh, yes. Beer pong night. You jumped into someone else's game. You were quite good considering you were aiming at seven pints of beer when in fact there was only one.

Me: So why is it dented?

Him: They eventually threw you out of the game. And all of us out of the pub.

Me: (nodding) Yeah. That sounds about right.

Liv,

Was just writing about my apron fetish with Morgan Day, and there you are in all your cuteness. Nice!

To Lewis: I can see this is a battle I can't win. However, the only "Pool" Room (sorry) devoted to the billiards you mention is the Carom Cafe. http://www.caromcafe.com/frameset.html Not sure if they still do, but they used to have a camera trained on the house table, where you'd catch a glimpse of some of the modern masters. But it'll still be worthwhile to take a look.
 

At the risk of irritating even more friends today, intellects should not be snobs.  It necessarily closes them off from other points of view and information.  Jus' sayin'...
 
Playing POOL does give us memorable experiences. 
 
At a bar recently with three old gal pals, roughly aged 43, after some other witty banter with some random drunk dude....
 
Us:  Wouldn't you like to stay here and buy us beer all night?
Him:  Sure, but somebody's gonna have to show me some ti&&ies!
 
That was the most honesty I've heard in a bar EVER!
 
 

And no, we didn't get free beer with no strings and he didn't get a show but everyone did laugh loud and long.

Lewisjones....perhaps in the spirit of conviviality, cacophemism should be substituted with dysphemism.
Dutchman...."If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant."

Happy Birthday Mr Jefferson
Legend tells the story of the annual race between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and some neighbors.Who ever harvested peas first hosted an annual dinner. apparently , Mr Jefferson won more often than not.
He is also considered the father of the American wine industry , by many.
MissIve.....yes on the first date activity. Tight hiphuggin' bell bottomed blue jeans.....ah my svelter yeras! And of course the "gentleman" would find it necessary to stand behind and lean into the shot, helping to guide the cue just so......Hey wait a minute...THAT'S what the grad student was up to !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI56fXtOwFc
 

In my old neighborhood, some of the signs read "Pool Hall, some of them, usually neon, read "Billiard Parlor"; but no matter what the sign read we went in and just shot pool.

Many of the tables in the neighborhood could be found in the local bars. These tables would be strategically located far enough away from the bar so that those not paying attention to the game would not be struck blindly by a flying cue ball. They were also eventually moved around until they were away from the heavily traveled main artery leading to restrooms so that the players would not be constantly bumped which significantly reduced the number of lost teeth, bent noses and broken cue sticks.

Pool for us "kids" (when we were kids way back then); was primarily a social activity. A pool hall for us was the perfect place for just laughing and having a good time. We would laugh at ourselves, laugh at each other.... And the only time the smiles would slightly fade into a serious expression was when we would be concentrating on THE SHOT that determined who had to come up with the quarter to pay for the next game.

Sometimes it was a way to fill in our dateless weekend nights and pretend that this was what we'd rather be doing anyhow. For many of us less athletically inclined it was a substitute for playing in the neighborhood softball and bowling leagues. For many of the "old-timers", it was what they did to either let their guard down and get away from the "wife-n-kids" or just to escape the loneliness of their apartments and do something besides just drink.

I think the initial attraction of the pool hall to me at least, was that it was a fairly safe way to stick your toes in the shallow muddy pool of "the other side of life". It was a way to cohabitate, be side-by-side with all those things, those paths to our ultimate downfall and destruction that our parents so often warned us about.... drinking, smoking, foul language without getting immersed in it. We would just stick with our group of guys while maintaining a buffer from those "hard-timers" who often inhabited these places.

Where I played pool back-in-the-day, whatever laws of physics were involved were strictly intuitive. If anything was "studied and applied" it was knowing which of the tables were less than level, how to adjust your stroke because the felt was paper thin on one end of the table and/or not properly glued back in place by the pocket.

There did seem to be one sure-fire rule of thumb that quickly became obvious to even the most casual observer. The more time that someone spent selecting their cue stick, walking around the table evaluating all of the possible angles and potential combinations of their next shot, chalking and re chalking the tip of their stick, bending over the table and ensuring that there was nothing or nobody behind them that might alter their strike......... the less likely they were to make even the most simple shot.

It was always the guy that just grabbed the first stick on the rack, who would then approach the table only once after a quick glance, and then, in one continuous movement.... Chalk his stick, bend over, line up and just make the shot that was usually the best player in the room. In other words, the more show, the less go.

Now as for the game of pocket pool. It was socially acceptable as long as no one tried to play an "away game"

Peace out..... and always play nice

SO, JS, was that bell bottoms, circa 1970 or bellbottoms circa 2005?

Janet-Shhhh-don't mention to Jonathan about the buttcrack of the balls. He might get the wrong impression.
Jen-Where you been, girlfrien? Glad to see your cute lil sef back amongst us.
Later in life, I always found pool to be a good excuse to bend over strategically, in the right place/right time/right guy (Mr. Right? or Mr. Right Now?). I'f I'd sprayed on the right pair of jeans (or even better-Daisy Dukes), the night would often take an interesting trajectory from that point...

Janet-you have all the buttcrack secrets. You must be a safebuttcracker!

I'm partial to saltine buttcrackers myself...

I'm so ashamed...why is this so addictive?

It all ties up to bending over a pool table. Back to square 1.

Nah, no worries Olivia. When it comes to playing pool, I'm all about the rack.

That might be a Wyoming colloquialism...

olivia....as I said several days ago....we have become (butt)crack addicts!
 
 
WT....1970 of course!!!!

Jonathan....I think it's a reference to "Tetons" in most parts of the country....

when asked by a friend if he was a leg man or a breast man , my hubbie replied that he liked "chicken" and would be happy to have any part served...

Good answer!
 

Dutchman: This is not a battle to win or lose. Indeed, the preponderance of the usage of pool to include billiards, and visa versa has blurred the cognition between the two.

I grew up with a pool table in the house, and basically shot a solitaire game with myself at least once daily from age 8 til age 18. I took a lot of advanced study in high school, and about once every two hours of studying I'd either go give the piano a thoruhgly good Brahmsian thumping, or go shoot pool for a few rounds. The lounge at my medical school had a pool table, and I could always go up there on a Friday afternoon and win a few bucks to buy theatre tickets for the weekend.
 
Years ago, I was somewhat smitten by a co-worker, and she asked me to go out and shoot pool with her one night at a nice restaurant that had pool tables in one section. She arrived, however, with her own personall pool cue, where upon she revealed she was semi-pro. Though I kept up, she managed to ease me out of victory in every game.
 
Women...I would give anything to find a right one and a good one with whom to share the rest of my life. I've been successful in life and have never had a problem finding someone to date, and people tell me I am kind and sincere and generous and loyal. But it just never works out. My family and friends say I make a lot of poor choices. Increasingly I fear the abyss of being an incompletely happy roving bachelor the rest of my life. At the 11th hour, I was stood up by someone, with no reason given, for a trip to Paris this weekend. I paid for her nonrefundable ticket. The difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. This one has me flummoxed and lachrymose.

P.S. I really think a good grasp of physics helps with shooting pool. Although my first love is English literature, I have always figured that I can teach that to myself. So for college, I sort of cluster-majored in chemistry, math and physics all at the same time. The physics burnished my pool game.

Mark-I'm so very sorry. From what we all know of you, I don't think you deserved that. It might be interesting to hear her excuse, as if there could be one for such an inconsiderate act.
You shoulda called me-I'm always up for Paris! You'll know next time.

Mark....just keep on keepin' on. Let her find you.Try not to exude "needy'. I know it sounds sick, but many out there are looking for a victim.( they might not even realize it themselves.) I did't marry until I was 31. I had given up on finding Mr Right. Then it happened. My husband and I are both loners of sorts. He and i still operate as independent units, even with a 14 yr old daughter. Some local gossips have , in the past, started rumors that our marriage had dissolved.  Not the case. And don't fall in the trap of being in love with being in love. Each Relationship is unique so don't start any new ones with preconceptions and unrealistic expectations.                

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rz92JWtS50&feature=related
 
 

Thanks for jumping in there, Janet. I knew you'd have to have a buttcrack at it...

Greetings: I have a game at the bar that consist of a stainless ring aprox. 3" in diameter, tied to a sailboat boom hung from the ceiling with aprox 5' of line. On the wall across the room is a brass hook, aprox 4.5' off the floor . The object of the game is to swing the ring and place it on the hook. We call the game "ring toss". Clever, huh? Now, what's great about the game is that it's kind of like darts except if you miss, the ring comes right back to you. Similar to pool in that geometry and physics are crucial, except you don't have to strut around a large playing field to play, just dodge a few tourist who have no idea there is a hook on the wall as a target. Simple fun for simple minds and the game can last forever. Just like me.

Notable pool game, playing a member of the Hells Angels in a biker bar at age 19.  I lost.  Not sure what I was doing there but it was notable.  Thirty years later I dont know any Hells Angels anymore but I still play pool with bikers from time to time.  Happy birthday Mr. Jefferson.