As one might suspect, this expression derives from the game of pool, in particular the version called Eight Ball in which all other balls must be sunk before the "8" Ball. What most folks aren't aware of is that the game has become miniaturized. In ancient times the game was played with mammoth sized balls that were pushed around an arena and deposited in deep wells by trained elephants. The rules back then allowed a player to position one of his slaves directly in the path of the "8" Ball as a semi-effective obstacle. Among the slaves, this was considered an undesirable and hazardous assignment, especially after the outbreak in 1500 B.C. of elephant glaucoma.
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