Thanks for this thread, Jackie. i have never heard of either game, but tonight, coming home, i drove down a side street in Flushing, (Queens)and passed 'the New York International ping pong club', 'the four seasons Billard club', 'Click, the internation internet cafe'... and the 'Carom Cafe'..
until this thread, i wouldn't have thought twice about the Carom Cafe, and would have just thought it to be place or family name...

Queens (one of NY boroughs) is about 100 square miles, and is one of the most ethnically diverse places in the world.

Flushing, just one subway stop (less than a mile) away from Shea Stadium, is home to NY's new little asia-- not 'china town', but a hugh multi ethnic community from all over asia, chinese, japanese, korean, filipeno, and all of the indian subcontinent... Flushing is home to NY's only hindu temple (and it is beautiful!-- i went to a wedding there) and several buddist temples.

It is sometimes overwhelming, but it is nice that the world has come to my doorstep. NY's "outer boroughs" are sometimes seen as less desirable, and more provincial than manhattan, but queens is really cosmopolitan, (even if it is only the plebians of all the world.)


my other obsession