The Hustler

The Hustler

I read "The Hustler" over about a 3-day period this week at work.  The boss was on vacation and there wasn't shit to do anyway. Hardly ever is.  Anyway, that's about the 3rd or 4th time I've read it.  There are some big differences between the book and the movie, as is usually the case, the main one here being that <spoiler alert> Sarah doesn't die.

I skimmed over it again today with a pen and pad beside me.  I did my best Evelyn Wood speed reading job on it because I wanted to see how many times the word "hustle" and all its derivatives appeared.  The book has 214 pages and some form of the word "hustle" appears 72 times.  So that averages out to about, what, once every...?  Hey you're the math genius, you tell me.  On page 160 it appears 4 times: hustle; hustling; hustlers; hustled. 

Now your job is to explain why. 

My daughter came into the room today and asked me why I was reading with a pad and pen next to me. When I told her I was counting how many times the word "hustle" appeared in the novel she said, "You have no life."  I told her to shut the hell up and go hustle us up some grub.  I actually meant to say go rustle us up some grub, but I'm sure you can see how I made that small slip.

I once read something about the inordinate number of times the word "green" appears in the book, "Deliverance," but I can't remember how many or why that was. Or how many times Ned Beatty acted like a sow instead of a boar in that one scene.  Or why the thing about a shark, it's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. . . .

Maybe I'll run that down tomorrow.

This scene not in movie -- but should be