Two good reads from Dyer

Many apologies for the lack of posts on this blog the past couple weeks. I've tried sitting down at the computer to write some posts but they're just not coming as of late. Then along came an email from Jake Dyer, author of "Hustler Days" and, more recently, "The Hustler and the Champ." He writes with news of two pool stories he's written for his newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Thanks for the motivation Jake, a kind of bereavement meal for those of us not in the mood to churn out copy.

The first piece is his recent dispatch from the Derby City Classic in Louisville, in particular the happenings in the "action room" there. The Derby City Classic has a reputation for being the "Woodstock of Pool," and there's lots of color in this story. Tens of thousands of dollars in duffel bags, a sixth-degree bodyguard, all-night games of pool that are still going when the cleaning ladies come to work the next morning. He starts and ends the story talking to Grady Matthews, aka The Professor, whose drawl manages to come out even in his quotes.

The second story is an entirely different subject: the ghost of a pool hustler named U.J. Puckett. The story describes a pool hall in southern Fort Worth called Fast Freddy's that is haunted by Puckett. Many of the regulars swear by the ghost's presence: televisions that get turned on by themselves, pool cues falling to the floor from the wall racks, shadowy human forms caught on surveillance tapes. You couldn't make up a more interesting character. He was born Utley J. Puckett in Prattsvile, Arkansas in 1911. His father was killed in a logging train accident, and he dropped out of high school to work as a professional boxer and later as a Hollywood actor. He learned pool as a kid and by his 30s was holding his own among some of the greatest hustlers in the sport. He died in 1992 and has gone on to haunt Fast Freddy's. Supposedly there's a chair in the pool room near table 19 that Puckett still claims as his own.