But, but, John, everyone picks their nose. Just not everyone admits to it. And you are just like the sticky booger I can't flick off, no matter how hard I flick.
I did not agree to "be cool." In fact here's what I wrote about that:
"I shoot and land prefect on the 10 and carefully line up the $10,000 money ball. .. blessedly, mercifully, it goes. The 10 ball disappears into my pocket. I’ve won the final game 8-3...
After the photos John tells me he hopes that we can 'bury the hatchet.' And all the while he is talking to me telling me this I am looking at him, wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a pool hall I am barred from in St. Louis, and about which he has taunted me for months. And I think about how John backed out on all the additional bets. I think of the coaching during the match. I remember how just moments ago he kept talking while I was shooting. And I conclude that any reasonable person would find it hard to accept John’s brand of sincerity. I want to be that good a person, but..."
Here's the unsaid part, John, since you're apparently too dense to read between the lines: I am not that good a person.
So then to the issue of crowing about the win.
Question: is there a single, solitary man here who believes that John would not be in my face, for the rest of my life here, in every thread, if he had won? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?
No. He would have used it against me, cudgelled me with it none stop at every turn, deserved or not. Jeezus, he still crows about beating me 2-1 for absolutely nothing 10 years ago. Just how nitty is that?!
And so, I practiced. I took my responsibility for $10,00 to myself, my wife, Mike, and all those rooting for me (including the ones you stiffed on the side bets) to heart. All the while you went on about how you were constantly in action, playing champions like James Walden, taking 15 hours of lessons with Stan "Mr. CTE" Shuffet, and barking at me in my home room for a lousy $100 a game. But I had the audacity to practice?
As to the 10 ahead, I just don't want to spent that much time playing you. Make it reasonable and we can get down, John. But no, you'd rather bark about a game I've told you repeatedly I will not play. 10 ahead -- not going to happen, so you're safe there and that's what you will bark about. What a surprise
Lastly, you think I can't get backing for whatever I don't want to cover? lol, John, I could crowd-fund my end if I was so inclined.
Lou Figueroa