One of the problems with the Daily Diplomat is that I sometimes see the suggestion ahead of time, because comments are sent to my inbox. “Ravenous” was a suggestion that I’d seen in advance, and I probably pondered it a little too heavily to get a good, clean, 10-minute piece of writing out of it.

So, when I fired up the web browser just now and began, I told myself, “You may not talk about the best meal you have ever eaten.” (It was at Cafe Espanol in NYC, and that’s all I will say about that.)

Putting limits on myself immediately brought to mind playing pool in my friend Jason’s basement in high school. We were not awesome pool players by any means, though Jason could kick anyone else’s ass in our small group of friends. This seemed fair, by all accounts, since he was the one whose house had the pool table. He could practice whenever; we had to wait for him to invite us over.

I was a modest pool player. I depended a lot on luck, as I still do, and I missed really easy shots all the time, as I still do. But I was still leagues better than Becky, who hated playing me because, as anyone will tell you, I am an asshole when competitive situations arise. I didn’t even mean to be competitive. After just a few games, we began having to add restrictions, such as I could only shoot behind the back or I would have to balance myself on the table before the shot. (This was not good for the table; thankfully, Jason either didn’t notice or didn’t care.)

So, I played a fair number of games totally behind the back, and she would beat me about as often as I would beat her, but I did get to where I could make a shot or two behind the back. That skill has come in handy throughout the years in bars and pool halls, because people always jeer a little bit when I swing the stick around to make a backhanded shot that most people would make shooting normally. I’m really not showing off when I do this, it’s just that there are some shots I’ll feel more confident with when I’m shooting behind the back. And, as I said, I’m still not awesome, so I miss most of them anyways, which is right in line with my normal game.

Thanks to Porter Mason for today’s suggestion, which I used only by way of tangent. But hey, that’s how it works.