(Roughly) Daily

The folks at Nottage Design have built a pool table using a glass bed with a surface of a new material, Vitrik, which is transparent, but has the rolling characteristics of the traditional pool table surface, felt.

And, while it costs just under $40,000 (AUS), that includes a nifty accessory kit (silver cues and bridge stick, balls, racking triangle, etc.) and delivery…  in Australia.

One can download the brochure here.

As we consider our caroms, we might recall that it was on this date in 1810 the George Gordon, Lord Byron, swam the Hellespont (the four-mile strait in Turkey now called the Dardanelles).  Byron, 22 at the time and on an extended Grand Tour, was emulating the (legendary) Greek hero Leander, who supposedly swam the same stretch…

Lord Byron

And continuing on the theme of athletic accomplishment, we might recall that it was on this date, exactly 170 years later, that in 1980, the great Willie McCovey hit his 521st (and final) major league home run– one year to the day after Bobby Bonds followed Willie Mays to become became the second member of the 300-300 Club (300 home runs, 300 stolen bases).  Bobby’s son Barry became the 4th member of the 300-300 Club in 1995 (Andre Dawson “joined” in 1991); then Barry became the only member of the 400-400 Club in 1998, and then the only member of the 500-500 Club (in 2003)…  Willie Mays remains the only member of the 300-300-3000 Club:  300 home runs, 300 stolen bases, and 3,000 hits.

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