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Dream room: Best (well maintained) equipment, furnishings & lighting, the VERY best in a private/separate room (admission only to those who had earned the privilege). NO alcohol or food sold, no music, cell phones banned, only pool, charged by the hr. Open 24 hrs. Good local motels a must, as...

In that ‘Armageddon‘ scenario, gold/silver would be just as worthless as greenbacks (anything you can’t eat/shoot/burn/etc.). I use plastic strictly for convenience, at a few select locations (thus minimizing the # of businesses where my personal data can be hacked/stolen). Any time saved...

Don’t forget the spittoons.

Luckily, the guy I bought my house from was a contractor, and I made alteration a condition of sale. He simply bolted a steel ‘I’ beam to the main floor joist, and thus gave me basement room for a 9’ table. Headroom only allowed a singe 8’/2-bulb shop light though (LED bulbs helped).

Interesting aspect of ‘playing for money’: The old time pool hustlers would NEVER school you (you have to be ruthless I guess, if you make your living that way). I avoided those guys like the plague. The players that I lost to growing up were sportsmen. They had no qualms about giving away...

This discussion is rather silly. We might as well be arguing politics or religion. Those that won’t play for money, but only ‘for the love of the game’, should likely research why it’s called POOL. A competition of skill between honorable players of similar known speed, with a monetary...

True. The world certainly has changed. Anyone desperate for a little action, and willing to play for pennies even, is considered a con man looking to steal your life savings. Go figure. True sportsmen game for competition, appears to be an extinct species.

I had heard Dick Lane was notoriously slow, but when I watched him in a 14.1 ‘shot clock’ tournament video, he still played quite well. BTW: ’Slowest of all time’ was Paul Jones from Chicago (George Fels had his fun steering annoying challengers to him). If Paul got way behind in straight pool...

When we ‘mortals’ go into the pack often, we soon get stuck/frozen and have to kick, jacked up. It’s an incredible shot-maker that sinks THOSE every time!

Back in the 80s, a Milwaukee pimp swiped it while exiting my car after we couldn’t come to an agreement. I cruised the streets until I spotted him carrying it, and made a deal to buy it back.

”This is Ames mister”. (I guess Willie forgot to tell the director to have lines drawn on the cloth, where the big time straight pool action would take place..😁)

IMHO, any rule requiring marking the cloth is rather silly. The referee (generally, your honorable opponent), decides (to the best of his ability) where balls are spotted, whether a ball is in the kitchen or in the rack, etc. If you want to risk leaving a break ball too close, and a clumsy ref...

“Back in the day”, the issue of changing cues never came up, since no one ever had more than one. We could ‘hover’ with the rack, but not place it (room owners would never allow drawing on the cloth). Likely that shouldn’t have even been allowed though, since it probably qualifies as ‘improper...

Perhaps table designers originally wanted to prevent two balls getting jammed in the corner jaws (?). A rare occurrence, but perplexing none the less.

Just as a side note: I wonder if (historically) it was ever considered a foul to intentionally loft the CB (?). It’s one thing to hop over the edge of OBs with your full length playing cue (a questionable call, that likely referees always gave to the shooter the benefit of doubt), but to hop...

Common joke circulating in ‘65: MACV soldier med-evacted from jungle fire fight explaining his injuries: Heard cong voice from the bush: “Long live Ho Chi Minh”. I responded: “F__k Ho Chi Minh”. He answered: “F__k. LBJ”. As we were shaking hands in the middle of the road, a truck ran us over!

No pool that I recall, but played straight-rail carom under a tent, with a local kid in NaTrang (‘66).

Carelessness: The inevitable result of abandoning a long tradition (‘all fouls’). The pros can’t afford to get so sloppy (can’t call an OB foul on myself either under the now common local tournament rules). Forcing uninformed idiots to comply with the rules only invites ill feelings &...

Go figure. Even the few who HAVE watched ’THE HUSTLER‘, most didn’t even notice they weren’t playing 8-ball. It’s a common mistake to assume others are as informed as we. I was flabbergasted when another classic car fan my age had no idea what a ‘continental kit’ was.

Someone like that, you don’t leave a shot, even if have to take 3 fouls, eat the 17 points & re-break. They know all the safety traps.