Give Blood: Play Pinball

[kevin_standlee]

A couple of evenings ago, I walked down to the Frontier Fun Center to play pinball. I've been enjoying playing Medieval Madness, and the machine has been responding by upping the minimum score needed for a free game. (It was 9 million when I first encountered it. It now starts at 12 million.) There are certain shots on the machine that I've learned require putting a bit of "English" on the machine, being careful not to tilt it. At one point, the right flipper felt a bit sticky, and I initially figured that someone had been playing the machine after eating candy. At the end of the ball, I looked more closely, and found that my hand and part of the machine were covered in blood. My blood. I'd nicked my finger on the metal trim of the machine while encouraging the ball to go where I wanted rather than where it was heading, and the cut had been bleeding rather freely, although it did not hurt that I noticed.

I felt fortunate that there were not a bunch of people hanging around the machine waiting to pounce on games left on it. I trotted over to the restroom, washed the blood off my hand and wrapped a paper towel around it, and then went back and cleaned off the affected part of the machine as well. After a while, I could continue playing. Fortunately, no harm was done.

Comments

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the term "put English on"! I thought I would Google rather than asking you, and found a page that describes quite well what it is, though not so clear on the origins of the term.