Not us.

Beijing and Denver are both still basking in the glow of international attention from those two events, respectively, but the event coming to Durham in the next couple of weeks is something that all men and some women can relate to.

Pool.

That's right. Pool. With a capital P, and that rhymes with D, and that stands for Durham.

The Women's Professional Billiards Association tournament will be here Sept. 10 through Sept. 14 at the American Tobacco campus. Millions of people will be able to see the tournament on ESPN2 and hear our name and possibly want to visit.

That would suit Reyn Bowman of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau. Bowman said he hasn't estimated the financial impact the tour could have on the city -- those women, their groupies and their cameramen have to eat and sleep somewhere, right? -- but the tournament, tied in with other autumnal events in the area next month, will give Triangle residents lots of options.

"We're tying it in with El Greco (the art exhibit at Duke's Nasher Museum), the Bull Durham Blues Fest and Centerfest," he said.

Even though the WPBA tournament will be televised on a national sports network, there is some debate over whether pool is actually a sport. Who was it who said "if you can smoke a cigarette and drink a beer while you're doing it -- it probably isn't a sport"?

The one exception? Softball.

That doesn't mean pool lacks spectator appeal. On the contrary, if you're anything like me, you have misspent hours at a time in smoky old poolrooms watching fat guys scratch in inappropriate places, spit on the floor and plop their bellies over the table before cueing up.

Nick Leider, a writer for Billiards Digest magazine in Chicago, explained the distinction between pool and billiards: "Billiards is the universal tag for all cue sports ... and pool is what you more specifically think of in the pool halls," he said. "They're usually used interchangeably."

Women in the pool hall were a novelty until recently. Even now, when I go by the Green Room on Broad Street two or three times a month to lose money to my buddy Nick -- as invariably happens when we shoot -- there are few women around. Those who do show up are usually accompanying their dudes or playing the jukebox or darts.

Yet, the television ratings for women's pool tend to exceed those for men. Leider said that's partly due to the women's billiard association being better organized than the men's.

There may be some truth to that, but there's also some truth -- not the "politically correct truth," but the truth nonetheless -- that men watch women play because many of the professional women pool shooters are babes who, when chalking up their cue, look way better than their male counterparts.

They seem to realize that looking good -- when it comes to attracting viewers -- is only slightly less important than playing well.

Leider agreed. Women's pool, he told me, "is definitely more entertaining. They certainly keep an eye on marketing."

Part of that marketing includes colorful nicknames that even casual viewers can remember: the Duchess of Doom, the Black Widow and Texas Tornado.

Yikes! That sounds like the lineup of of my last few exes.

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