Writing at the table

I've got a big writing project going and sometimes I'll take a few pages of hard copy to the casino, to revise. It takes maybe 20 minutes to do a revision like that, with red pen, and put it away for the day. So I'm revising away, and I screwed up the game a couple times. The dealer had to remind me to put out a blind. And a couple times I was a little slow in acting. Not too bad, but bad enough. I stuffed the papers back in my pocket.


One of the guys I don't know so well asked if I was a school teacher grading papers. Another player who I know well spoke up to say that I was working on a poker article. The new guy perked up, "Really? Cool! What's it about?"


I said, "It's on the importance of paying attention while playing."


Tommy

I like the guys who read at the table. My favorite is the accountant who reads trade journals between hands. I wonder if he deducts his poker losses as fiscal therapy.

I once read " The Decay of Lying" at the poker table.


I won a lot of money.


-Zeno

Interesting. Had I seen the red pen, I would have assumed the user was writing a poker article. Few pros (that's teacher pros) use a red pen nowadays. I prefer a jaunty mauve or a nice extra fine point black. I like mechanical pencils, too, but I keep breaking the point. And forget "correcting" writing at a poker table--it's too hard.


John

Red pens are considered 'politically incorrect' for public school teachers. Red is considered too judgemental.

I teach and have never heard of that PC. I use red ink or pencil like crazy.


RL

John,


Get a .9mm thin lead mechanical pencil with an "F" or "HB" lead to help avoid breaking them.


RL

or get a .9mm handgun... those aren't very PC in public schools either.

I'm a freelance editor, and I do a lot of copyediting. I sometimes bring a manuscript to the poker room so I can work on it while waiting to be seated at a game. But it would never have occurred to me to work on a ms. while actually seated at the table . . . !


(Since the manuscripts I see are often marked up in red by a line editor, I usually use green or purple pencil.)