Origin of the Poolroom

Back in the day before state run lotteries - local bookies would run numbers games and these tickets for the "pool" were often sold in a "poolroom". The numbers would be drawn once or twice a day and in order to fill the time between drawings - the operators at many locations put in billiards tables. Billiards was changed or Americanized by adding pockets and creating the game pocket billiards which we now know simply as pool.

Origin of the Poolroom

Back in the day before state run lotteries - local bookies would run numbers games and these tickets for the "pool" were often sold in a "poolroom". The numbers would be drawn once or twice a day and in order to fill the time between drawings - the operators at many locations put in billiards tables. Billiards was changed or Americanized by adding pockets and creating the game pocket billiards which we now know simply as pool.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I didn't win last night's lottery but if I did I had planned to purchase the mortgage on any home for any player from the 1978 Yankees or the 1986 Mets. God help them if they would have missed a payment... Happy 84th birthday to NHL legend Gordie Howe. In his honor here's Ilya Kovalchuk's Gordie Howe hat-trick from this past February... My mind works differently than others. Proof is this morning I found myself wondering if Marcus Camby was this generation's Caldwell Jones or if he's the black Alvin Adams... Jack Johnson was born on this day in 1878. For my money - Johnson is the greatest heavyweight champion of all-time. I think Johnson in his prime would destroy Ali or Tyson. Joe Louis? That would be a great fight... I've said it before but Keith Olbermann really stopped being taken seriously after Ben Affleck's devastating spot-on impression of him on SNL. He's been a joke ever since... On this day in 1917 the US took possession of the US Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies) after paying Denmark $25 million. Talk about great deals - that $25 million would be worth just $486 million in today's dollars (less than last night's lottery total)... If I owned a minor league baseball team - I'd publicly offer Keith Olbermann the job of public announcer just for the free PR the offer would generate...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

Some lottery history including interesting quote from Thomas Jefferson

Some very cool tables - if you replaced the picnic table one with the wine bottles with beer bottles then that would be my favorite

This 2006 back page from the New York Post makes you wonder if they were trying to tell you something about Carl Pavano without actually telling you something about Carl Pavano

The 25 Greatest Anchorman GIF's - BTW Anchorman II should be called Tits McGee - The Reckoning 

Speaking of Tits McGee - today was National Cleavage Day

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Smaller males make females moan more! Seriously - it's science!

- Michigan couple (and others) games the Massachusetts state lottery. Really putting math skills to work!

- The science of feminine hygiene, and why the vagina should not smell like flowers. Interesting picture of chestnuts as well.

- Men Robbed ATM Using Dunkin' Donuts Cards. The security holes in the new digital economy are pretty scary.

- This is funny but I can definitely see where it wouldn't be if you were a person fooled by it. Not exactly the best way to say "Merry Christmas"

- 5 Artists Reportedly Held at Gunpoint by Phil Spector

Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code

Fascinating look at a potential flaw in some scratch ticket games and how a geological statistician living in Toronto figured it out. It does not seem like he's the only one to figure out the flaw:

Consider a series of reports by the Massachusetts state auditor. The reports describe a long list of troubling findings, such as the fact that one person cashed in 1,588 winning tickets between 2002 and 2004 for a grand total of $2.84 million.

You wonder if the lucky winner was a MIT grad or Whitey Bulger. Interesting stuff.