Tales of tavern championships, summer 2015 edition (part 1)

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 12, 2015

Thursday night. 

I managed to get to S—’s, a Raleigh billiards hall, just on the dot of 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6. I was eager to be on time because of a mistaken impression — a stricture that applied in previous World Tavern Poker seasons but had changed this time around.

You see, this was the circuit’s tavern championship league, and my top-10 ranking at S—’s entitled me to a spot in the 9 p.m. finals. (Qualified players who were ranked lower than 10 had to play their way in through the 7 p.m. semifinals.)

As it turns out, the championship games now have the same 20-minute grace periods as the regular-season games, so I could have been a little less concerned in my rush to get from my childhood home near New York City to Raleigh. Regardless, I arrived at the start.

Blogging: Here’s where I’m at (and here’s what’s coming up)

By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Aug. 12, 2015

So I’ve returned from my big trip. I managed to keep my blogging pace up… almost… mostly by dint of posting three times on Saturday (which was two days after my return).

Just to set the stage for the next few weeks…

While on vacation, I finished reading Margaret Atwood’s moving 2009 post-apocalyptic tale, The Year of the Flood, which I’d actually begun in late March. (I took several long breaks because the novel is full of darkness and foreboding.) I also completed Ariel Djanikian’s excellent 2013 dystopian science fiction novel, The Office of Mercy (which arguably might be better labeled post-apocalyptic). Reviews of these will be forthcoming.