polka dots

[Robert Kelly]

Considering that poker work (19th/20th Century Britain, at least) means
making decorative patterns on pale wood with a hot poker --we used to have
the equivalent with a little electric wand much used in the 1940's, for an
art we called 'woodburning'  - there used to be workshops in it --- I
would argue for polka as a playful packaging of poker, and the dots the
easy repetitive pattern of a woodburning tip.   So I'd check the databases
for poker-work and its variants.  I dont think Poker the game has much to
do with it, since the dots in question are round -- just what you'd get if
you poked a hot tip against a pale wood.

RK


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Robert Kelly
The Writing Program
MSC 12611
Bard College
Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson NY 12504
Voice Mail: 845-758-7205
kelly at bard.edu