Many folks would say that’s my normal personality status. Fine. I won’t deny it, but still….

Here’s the issue. The words JAM UP. JAM UP? What? What the hell is that. In the pool world if you’re playing good you’re said to be playing JAM UP. JAM UP? What?

The thing about language is words are suppose to conjure up an image. The British and Australians do a much better job than we do in choosing words that make our language come alive but let’s make an effort people.

Here are some simple examples. When you tell someone the wind was blowing really hard, well, you get what was happening. If you say, “Dude, that enchilada sucked!” you get the gist without any further explanation needed. But tell someone outside the pool hardcore that the guy was playing JAM UP and it’s what? Huh?

Don’t even go to the dictionary (like a pool player would know how to use a dictionary). I’ve looked online, off line and books. No reference to JAM UP in this pool context. I even saw a billiards glossary somewhere admitting that they didn’t know where it came from. I’ve asked the hard core pool world personally and they can’t even come up with any sort of credible explanation. To the rest of the world JAM UP would mean something like congestion.

The funniest thing is when someone who is not pool hardcore tries to be pool cool by saying JAM UP. They get to the word and sort of say it but you can see they’re saying to themselves, “Did I just say that. What?”

So people just drop it OK?

It’s not like pool players can’t be descriptive if they put their minds to it. My evidence is one of the crudest descriptions I’ve ever heard. When gambling and some one is losing a lot of money and continuing to play they’re said to have their nose open. Or looking at it another way, “Yeah I really opened his nose up.” Meaning bleeding profusely. As in money. Disgusting but descriptive. JAM UP not so much. What?