[PW] English on the Ball

[Hadden, Robert L ERDC-TEC-VA]

	If fiction is OK for your patron, there is a good scene, I believe
from "Flashman at the Charge" by George MacDonald Fraser, where the author
describes cheating at billiards in an 1850s London gentleman's club by
slightly sanding one side of a ball to make it wobble. If this account
doesn't describe putting "English on the ball", it is nevertheless a good
description about cheating at billiards. Other books in the series have
information on cheating at cricket and the setting up a match between a
professional English boxer with a future German prime minister as a drunken
sport.
	The Flashman series about an anti-hero hero is a hoot, and is one of
the few historical fiction novels I have read which also has interesting
footnotes worth reading about salacious incidents, odd-ball characters, and
19th century clothing styles.

R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (GIL)
Topographic Engineering Center
ATTN: CEERD-TO-I (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
Robert.L.Hadden at erdc.usace.army.mil

See some of my writings, both online and on paper, at my author page at:
http://www.librarything.com/author/haddenrobertlee

-----Original Message-----


________________________________

From: project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org on behalf of
UmbraScit at aol.com
Sent: Tue 10/17/2006 12:17 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW] putting english on the ball & bowling Brooklyn

(1) putting english on the ball    The OED online has this:
"1959 Sunday Times 5 Apr. 4/5 The billiard term 'putting on the english',
which Atticus states is current parlance in American bowling circles. The
story
goes that an enterprising gentleman from these shores [England] travelled to
the United States during the latter part of the last century and impressed
the
Americans with a demonstration of the effect of 'side' on pool or billiard
balls. His name was English."   Can anyone give another citation (or
explanation)?

(2)   A second listener (WTCM, AM-580, Traverse City, MI) wants to know the
meaning and origin of "bowling Brooklyn."

Thanks for any leads.