We're having a Bank Holiday here in the UK this weekend. Whereas in the US your bank holidays are days when bank's don't open because of some other event like President's Day, Columbus Day or Thanksgiving, here in the UK the banks take it upon themselves to give us all a public holiday because we don't have Presidents, only ever see reruns of Columbus (he was the guy in the dirty trench coat who discovered America, right?) or have anything to give thanks for other than we went and lost every country in the Empire.

Bank Holidays are different between the various parts of the UK with some days only available to people in Scotland and some only in England... sometimes months can go by without one and other months you'll find two and happily break out the barbeque. They tend to be on Mondays.

So this weekend we get to enjoy the Snooker World Championships. Something else we have that you Americans don't, which would explain why the "world" championships are being held in cosmopolitain Sheffield. Its difficult to get excited about, its like trying to make a big deal about the baseball "world" series... when only the US and Japan take the game seriously and the Japanese only semi-seriously at that.

Snooker is far more boring than Pool. Pool requires drinking. Snooker requires plaid waistcoats and very stern looks at angles and cueball spin ratios. You could never have made The Color Of Money about Snooker unless you replaced Paul Newman with Leonard Nimoy and Tom Cruise with... Milhouse from The Simpsons or something.

The final takes two days to play itself out, assuming both players are of a high enough caliber, and is the best of 35 games. One player is required to win 18 games over 48 hours... with sessions of four or five games being played with break periods between them.

Amazingly its not always the tallest player who wins. I understand patience may play a big part of it...

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