My new landlord asked if I had found a poolroom. At my lease signing I had told him that my research into neighborhoods included the locations of places to shoot pool. He told me of a place that he had visited, saying that it looked as if “there was a tournament going on.” I went, I saw, I conquered. Well, not conquered: I came in third.
A pool player I know has invited me to be a member of his American Poolplayers Association state tournament team. The APA, with more than 250,000 members, has tournaments in many of the states in which they operate. I am qualified to play in the team tournament by virtue of my membership on an APA team, and on his team by my, ahem, playing skills. It was an honor to have been asked to play on a team last year, and I humbly accepted the invitation for this year. In preparation for the state tournament, I decided to enter an 8-ball tournament that the 10th Street Pub sponsors each Friday. My third place finish was not entirely satisfactory, but I believe that two players whose performance had been superior to mine had beaten me. I pocketed my winnings, and contemplated another tournament for Saturday. Competition with unknown players is, for me, an important way to improve my skills. Then I remembered that Saturday, November 9th was the first day of VonnegutFest, a celebration of Indy’s famous writer, with the first event to be held at Bookmamas. The artist overruled the pool player.
Bride Two is a Vonnegut fan on a major scale. I read her copy of “Palm Sunday” all night when I was stranded with the homeless at the bus terminal at 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. (That story at another time.) When given the opportunity to choose books from my dead friend’s library, I selected everything by Kurt Vonnegut, and gave “Two” all those she did not already have. On Saturday at Bookmamas, there was to be a reading from Breakfast Of Champions, (which I have in my library, but could not locate) and a Kurt Vonnegut look-alike contest.
Kathleen Angelone, Bookmamas’ proprietor, hosted a “breakfast of champions” (sans martinis) and then led the assembled guests into the basement, with two contestants for best Vonnegut look-alike being seated in the first row. The judges for the contest were the “California Vonneguts,” Martin and Mary Jane, and Dan Carpenter, a retired writer for “Notthisnewspaper.”
Mick McGrath, honcho at Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza, was the first to read from Breakfast, followed by Ann Shaver, of the Irvington Historic Landmarks Foundation. After the reading, Dan Carpenter, speaking for the judges, revealed the winner of the look-alike contest. Emma Thompson, who had accessorized her curly brown hair with a small gray mustache pasted above her lips, completed her outfit with a long-sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of pants secured by both a belt and braces; Pall Mall cigarettes peeked from the pocket of the shirt. Carpenter noted that she “had the most to overcome” and she beat out Peter Dean, who made me think that Kurt himself had entered the room. Thompson, an Arsenal Tech graduate, has 5 Vonnegut-themed tattoos on her body, including a quote from “Sirens Of Titan.”
As the attendees broke up, some to continue to other VonnegutFest events, I wrangled an autograph from Dan Carpenter. I’m not sure how he knew about it, but in his book, “Indiana Out Loud,” he wrote to me of a “shared love of language and justice.”
Not a bad day for a pool player.