VERY INTERESTING: POOL

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about

Fun Facts About the Game of Pool

• Billiards (or pool) evolved from a lawn game similar to croquet played sometime during the 15th century in Northern Europe (probably in France).
• The word "cue" is derived from the French queue, meaning tail. Before the cue stick was designed, billiards was played with a mace. The mace consisted of a curved wooden (or metal) head used to push the ball forward, attached to a narrow handle. Since the bulkiness of the mace head made shots along the rail difficult, it was often turned around and the tail end was used. Players eventually realized this method was far more effective, and the cue as a separate instrument grew out of the maces tail.
• Throughout history, billiards has bridged the gap between the aristocracy and the masses. Both gentlemen and street toughs played.
• In 1586, the castle of Mary, Queen of Scots, was invaded and captured. The Invaders made a note of forbidding her the use of her billiard table. They then killed her, and used the covering of the table to cover her body.
• In 1765 A.D., the first billiard room was built in England. Played there was One-Pocket, which was a table with one pocket and four balls.
• The term "pool room" now means a place where billiards is played, but in the 19th century a pool room was a betting parlor for horse racing. Billiards / pool tables were installed so patrons could pass the time between races. The game of billiards and the pool room became connected in the public's mind. Today, the two terms are used interchangeably.
• Pool is one of the safest sports in the world (unless you get smacked in the face with the cue ball, that's never fun!).
• What is billiard cloth made of? Amazingly, the main component of billiard cloth has remained unchanged for over 400 years. Wool was used in the 1500's, and remains the fabric of choice today. It has, of course, undergone some perfecting (and some wool/nylon blends are also produced).
• The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiard room. In Jefferson's day, billiards was illegal in Virginia (what a scandal!)
• Billiards was the first sport to have a world championship (1873).
• The first coin-operated billiard table was patented in 1903. The cost of a game on the first pay-for-play table: one penny.
• Before the invention of celluloid and other new-age plastics, billiard balls were made out of ivory. The elephants can thank their present existence on the invention of plastics. Because billiard balls had to be cut from the dead center of a tusk, the average tusk yielded only 3 to 4 balls.
• Captain Mingaud, the inventor of the leather cue tip, was imprisoned for political reasons during the French Revolution. With the help of a fellow prisoner, he was able to have a billiard table installed in his cell. It was during his incarceration that be became obsessed with the game, that he devised and perfected his invention. His obsession became so intense, that at the end of his prison term, he actually asked for a longer sentence so that he could complete his study of the game. (Talk about dedication!)
• The world's largest billiard hall was built during billiards Golden Age. The Recreation, a mammoth seven-story health spa, was a bustling Detroit business in the 1920's. It featured 103 tables, 88 bowling lanes, 20 barber chairs, three manicuring stands, 14 cigar stands, a lunch counter on each floor, a restaurant that could seat 300, and an exhibition room with theater seating, that could accommodate 250 spectators. (Now that sounds like a great place to go for Family Night!)
• Charles Goodyear the inventor of vulcanized rubber, which revolutionized billiard cushions and countless other industries died a virtual pauper. His company failed, he was imprisoned for debt, and he profited little from his breakthrough invention.
• The Hustler was based on a novel by Walter Tevis. The novel, however, was based on a short story he had earlier submitted to Playboy. Before "The Hustler" was released, the Philco TV Theater aired an episode called "Goodbye, Johnny", which bore an uncanny resemblance to the Playboy short story. In it, Cliff Robertson portrayed the cocky young hustler, making Robertson not Newman the original "Fast Eddie" Felson.
• Marquetry the art of making pictures or designs with thin slices of wood, shell or other materials has long enhanced the beauty of tables and cues. The art form is hardly a recent development. It has been practiced in Egypt and the Orient for more than 3,000 years.
• Throughout most of the 1800's, the chalk used on the new leather cue tips was carbonate of lime, better known as blackboard chalk.
• The Church has long been a part of billiard history. From its earliest days, the game was often denounced as a sinful, dangerous, morally corrupt activity. In 15th century France, billiards play was forbidden, by the Church, as well as the King. In early American history, actual laws were passed (thanks to religious influences), outlawing the game in many parts of the land.
• Until almost 1920, American billiards was dominated by the carom games. Pool was a dead, or dying sport. When the first championship pool tournament was held in 1878, the winner, and the event itself, all but went unnoticed.
• The first 18.2 Balkline Championship was held in Paris, in 1913. It will probably be the only world championship in history ever decided by the courts. After six days of play, three contestants were tied for the first place. When a tie-breaking playoff was suggested, Maurice Vignaux, the French champion and notorious whiner when things weren't going his way, scoffed at the suggestion. He insisted the title should be awarded based on the highest overall average (which he, of course, had at the time). Vignaux refused to continue, and the matter wound up in the French courts. (Which of course awarded Vignaux, their countryman, the title after a delay of more than two months? I guess the squeaky wheel does get greased!).
• No one knows exactly who, when or where the first billiard table was built. The earliest documented record of a billiard table was made in 1470. In an inventory of the possessions of King Louis XI of France, his table was said to have contained the following: a bed of stone, a cloth covering, and a hole in the middle of the playing field, into which balls could be driven.
• What billiards game shares its name with British military slang for a lowly first-year cadet? Snooker. The military slang usage is confirmed by a quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary dated 1872, shortly before the game appeared in the mid- 1870's. Another quotation suggests that the original name was "Snooker's Pool."
• Which US president installed the first pool table in the White House and had an alligator as a pet? John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator which he kept in the East Room of the White House and also had the first pool table installed in the White House.
• At times, including during the Civil War, billiard results received wider coverage than war news. Players were so renowned that cigarette cards were issued featuring them.

and as always have a chilled day from the Viking