Bob Johnson wrote:
(Blah)
> Has anyone else noticed this, or tried it?
> Do you know anyone who simply lines up, takes aim,
> adjusts, and fires with no practice strokes at all?

I was taught that practice strokes are evil. You're supposed to be
aligned correctly when you first bend over the shot. Practice strokes
can often convince you that you're lined up correctly when you're not.
Another bad thing about them is that if your practice strokes reveal
some flaw in your alignment most people are likely to simply adjust
their grip, arm angle, etc. when what they should be doing is standing
up, stepping completely out of the shot, and starting over.

My position has softened over the years, however, as I now feel that
practice strokes are helpful in getting a proper feel for the speed of
the shot-to-be. I usually take one practice stroke without even
looking at my stick then fire away, trusting that my alignment is good.

I think all that applause has really got to grate on the ladies. I mean,. at some point you have to start expecting them to make certain shots, and applauding after all those ducks takes all meaning from the applause.

Allison shoots a jump-three rail kick shot. The crowd goes wild. Allison shoots a stop-shot hanger from 1 foot away. The crowd goes wild. Allison dogs an easy shot. About half the crowd goes wild anyway, since they weren't really paying attention to the shot but they're completely conditioned to applaud at least once every 30 seconds.

These are professional pool players, not Special Olympians. I think we should give them some quiet in which to work, and save the applause for when it means something.

tom simpson wondered...
> On the other hand, if I replace the pro [on ESPN broadcasts],
> how could I avoid smacking Mitch?

Just begin every sentence with "That's pretty stupid, Mitch. Folks, what Mitch meant to say was..."

Or take all his catchphrases (All-important lag for the break, Beautiful Brunswick Gold Crown Four table, is really making a statement, etc.) and repeat them so often they lose all meaning. Oh wait, he already does that himself.

What I'd really like to see is, right after Mitch does his play-by-play of the guy racking the balls with the Sardo, when he says "...and there you are. A perfect rack of nine balls," I'd like to see the pro say "That's pretty stupid, Mitch. Folks, what Mitch meant to say is that while the Sardo rack certainly racks the balls well, it's killing the game of 9-ball. Notice how they've had to start racking with the nine on the spot to keep the corner balls from going in all the time. What Mitch also meant to say is that if ESPN had any balls whatsoever they'd at least acknowledge that they've done this instead of just pretending nobody will notice."

Patrick Johnson wrote...
> Imagine the table surface is vertical and you're trying to balance the
> object ball on the cue ball, which is stuck to the end of your stick.

Just be careful not to imagine the table tipping over and crushing you.

Since we've all had so much fun debating Jason's theories about spin transfer and tip/ball contact time, I thought I'd propose some more nonsense (IMO) for discussion.

THE DRAW SHOT MYTH DEBUNKED
Most people cannot draw the ball, therefore it must not be possible. What is commonly referred to as "draw" is actually an optical illusion caused by our expectations that a moving cueball will keep moving in the same direction.

ALL BALLS ARE GRAY
I know a player that is color-blind. He is a good player, and since he says that all of the balls are gray, it must be true.

THE 100 MPH BREAK SHOT
All this talk we've been hearing about 25-30 mph being the maximum break shot speed must be wrong. It sure seems faster to me, so it must indeed be faster.

THE HALF-BALL HIT SIDE POCKET SHOT
I don't really think we've completely covered this issue.

THE NINE BALL ON THE BREAK
The odds against this are astronomical! All those balls banging into each other in just the right way to drive the nine, from the CENTER of the rack, into a 4.5" pocket? Preposterous. I don't think we'll ever see it in our lifetimes.

SLATE
If you think about it, having a material that magically "just happens" to be exactly what we need to make our table beds out of seems pretty "lucky" doesn't it? That's what they want us to think.

Deno J. Andrews wrote...
> He [Gore] is picking the counties, and that is crazy because ALL
> counties have some problems.

How would you, and others like you, feel about ALL counties with less than say a 2% margin, in all states with less than say a 2% margin, being scrutinized very carefully before an official winner is declared? If I thought this could be done quickly enough I'd be all for it.

> So yes, by not accepting the votes as they are, and seeking to have
> votes changed (like the Buchanan votes that are "supposed" to be
> Gore votes) is a basic hurt to democracy, no matter how
> you look at it.

"Seeking to have votes changed" is wording I would disagree with. In exchange I would submit "seeking to determine the voter's actual intent" with the provision that it should be the voters themselves that declare that intent. A manual recount may allow that determination if it's done fairly and openly.

> On another note, what if 2000 or so people were to come forward in Palm
> County and say they voted for Buchanan? Would you think they were lying,
> or would you say, wow...I guess people did vote for Buchanan down there?
> Would that solve the debate?

I don't think it would solve anything. Republicans would probably think the issue was settled, but Democrats would probably assume that it was really 2000 Bush supporters. Since there would be no way to tell for sure, short of an official re-vote, nothing would change except there would be more opportunity for finger pointing.

> I don't mind a delayed vote at all. In fact, I like the hand-count idea.
> There are reps from both parties involved and I believe it will be a fair
> process.

I hope so, although it seems that it may not happen if they can't get it done by tomorrow afternoon.

> The thing that gets me is that the Libs tend to think that all those
> 19000 votes that were disqualified should somehow go to Gore.

Again, I don't really think this is true. They certainly think many of them were meant to go to Gore, but they're trying to determine this via re-counts. I haven't heard anyone suggest that any of these votes should just be arbitrarily switched to Gore.

> Count the votes and move on.

I also think this is the best solution we currently have, but I will be pissed if some serious changes aren't made to our voting and counting processes because of this fiasco. This country could end up with a President that the people didn't really want, and to me that's discraceful even if the President does a fantastic job. Once this election is over there had better be some steps taken to ensure that something like this never happens again.

> Remember, we also have an Electoral College, many of whom do
> not have to vote for the person their constituents voted for.

I don't think this has been given nearly the attention it deserves. I must admit that I was unaware of the elector's leeway in December until this election. I don't understand the reasoning for giving them this lattitude at all. As close as this election is I think the electors had damn well better vote as their constituents did. To do anything else would be unpardonable IMO.

> What do others think of letting the Electoral College in Florida decide? I
> think it is the best way to do it, since they make the final decision
> anyway.

I don't like it. It nullifies the vote of every single person in the state. Is Florida one of the states where the electors can vote their conscience? If so, you're right. They make the final decision anyway.

Deno J. Andrews wrote...
> If we "fix" their votes, there is no democracy as I have stated,
> because there WAS a vote, and whether or not their vote was
> "wrong," it was a vote nonetheless...and changing that for
> anything hurts democracy.

There's something about this attitude - that it's the vote itself, not the accuracy of the vote that's important - that's been bothering me since last week. To me, the physical act of voting is nothing more than the means by which the voters express their preference. If it fails to provide for an accurate expression, yet is allowed to stand anyway, IMO that is what can hurt Democracy.

> [...]
> Our democracy calls for a vote ON election day. That happened
> and the votes are in. As I stated already, if there were mistakes
> in the vote, too bad. The people had their chance to fix their
> mistakes, and they did not. To vote again goes against us, thus
> killing what we know of our democracy.

The same attitude re-stated, but this time warning of killing Democracy instead of just hurting it. I really fail to see how a wrong, yet timely, vote can be preferred over an accurate, yet delayed one. This attitude is one I'll probably never fully understand.

This election has been a wake-up call for Americans, and I know that we all hope that everyone does indeed wake up. I expect some serious voting reform actions the next few years, but that doesn't really help us right now. I'd like to see a national re-vote, but since I fear that it would be subject to the same sloppiness as this one displayed it would be pointless. My next choice would be complete and accurate re-counts of all close states, but I don't think this can be done without partisan finger pointing from both sides, and this could further divide us.

So what do I think should be done? I don't know, this whole thing is a mess. What I do know however, is that the anti-recount and anti-revote people should adopt different slogans than "if there were mistakes in the vote, too bad" and "whether or not the vote was wrong, it was a vote nonetheless." I don't think this attutide is what the framers of the Constitution had in mind.

bbentley wrote...
> Now..most carpal tunnel is characterized by
> numbness in the finger TIPS, and the pain almost
> always gets worse at night.

A quick test to see if you have CTS:

1. Locate a joint that you suspect may be inflamed. For me it was the base of my thumb.

2. Heat a knitting needle until it glows red.

3. Insert the knitting needle into the suspect joint.

4. If you can feel no difference in the pain, then you have CTS.

Hope this helps.

I recently was accused of making a sexist remark on another thread. I reflexively defended my position in ways that were probably not even necessary, as Ed eventually pointed out.

The problem is with the word "sexist." It ends in "ist." Words with this suffix are almost always associated with bad things, and cause a defensive reaction. Think about it:

Racist
Sexist
Communist
Fascist
Bigamist
Cellist
Lobbyist
Renquist

There's something about each of these words, that were they attributed most people, would cause a defensive reaction right away. All the words have in common is their suffix.

You almost never hear good words with that suffix. There's no "loveist," " fuzzybunnyist," or "peaceist."

How about, in the interest of peace, we all strive to eliminate this suffix from our daily lives. Except, that is, for the physicists, biologists, and novelists among us.

The suffix "ism" should also be banned, for the same reasons.

J Dub wrote..
> Geez, not even a decent flame war. C'mon guys, if you're going to get your
> testosterone boiling, take off the gloves and do it right. Don't expect us
> to vote for the winner.
If you want a flame war you'll have to start one yourself. Some good topics might be "Only chumps play one-pocket," and "Efren sucks because he isn't an American," and "Three-ball, the only true test of pool skill."

Since the recent troll invasion of ASP I've lost all inhibitions about plonking people, so I'd be more likely to just ignore someone than to get into a pissing contest with them. If I can't keep a disagreement up to at least a marginally adult level I just don't feel like wasting my time with it.