OddThinking

When I was a kid, I would watch my father, Joe, play poker with his mates. Sometimes, he would bluff with a terrible hand. Sometimes, his bluff would be called, and he would admit, as he revealed his cards, to having fuck all.

Only, perhaps because I was present, he wouldn’t actually say those words. Instead he used an old British military euphemism: Sweet F.A.

This was the only context I ever heard that phrase, so I naturally assumed it was a poker term. I wasn’t sure of the spelling. It sounded like it might be Latin: swede effay or suide effay? It meant a poker hand lower than “Ace High”.

I was much older before it clicked.