ERDNASE

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Brad Henderson
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Brad Henderson » December 4th, 2017, 11:33 pm

jkeyes1000 wrote:
observer wrote:
Brad Henderson wrote:<>but to your point, i have created at least two pieces which featured or were based on gorillas. one was a take off of an ernie kovacs bit <>
seems like chris is on a wild goose chase again



1) The Nairobi Trio?

2), excuse me, but that's "rrrild roose rase" ...


I think Mr. Henderson is inadvertently supporting his opponent's argument (again). All he demonstrates is that his interest in gorillas is greater than that of most of humanity. I have no books about primates in my collection, and this is the only time in my life I have written about them.


you have made MY point. chris's claim
is that a book indicated interest in a subject and that means the man could possible be an expert in that subject.

well, one would think an expert would have studied more than one book on the topic and i'm not sure how many card cheating and magic books gallway has. for some reason chris makes it sound like he had many

did he?

if he isn't worried about having his name in a book on the subject one should expect there to be many books on the subject - card cheating, not gambling in general

where there?

but thing is, even though i have done all these things, i don't have an interest in gorillas per se. i have an interest in 1) books on unusual subjects 2) haunted houses - love the gorilla room and 3) was friends with a man who did a version of the nairobi trio and i tracked down the original

so to conclude that the presence of 1 book indicates i'm a gorilla trainer
would be inaccurate.

to me, one book - with a name in it - assuming the author wanted to avoid discovery discounts the candidate

this is when chris makes up an imaginary scenario and then calls me names.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 5th, 2017, 12:08 am

lybrary wrote:
Leonard Hevia wrote:
lybrary wrote:But if you add it to the magic and gambling books Gallaway had in his library it supports the notion that he was interested in that subject.


Chris--are you trying to sneak that by again? There is no evidence that Gallaway owned more than one magic book--The Expert.

The statement - "Edward Gallaway had magic and gambling books." - is both factually and grammatically correct. . . Please stop your silly and incorrect comments.


It's not the way you are currently phrasing it - "Edward Gallaway had magic and gambling books" -- that is so egregiously wrong. What you are saying now is only highly misleading. It's versions like this one -- "Add to this that Gallaway had magic books in his library. I don't know anybody who has magic books in their library but can't perform a couple of tricks."

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 5th, 2017, 1:25 am

lybrary wrote:I am not the only one to note that the high quality of Erdnase's writing requires practice. You don't just wake up one day and write like Erdnase. You need a good amount of writing experience to achieve that level.


If you looked at John Grisham at the end of 1989 believing the above, you'd have to conclude that his novel "A Time to Kill" must not be any good, since he hadn't written anything before it. But you'd be wrong. The inexperienced writer of the book went on to sell 2 million copies of his book.

See also, Tom Clancy (first book, Hunt for Red October, also 2 million + copies sold)

Some people are just naturally good writers, and don't require extensive practice to get good enough to be published.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby performer » December 5th, 2017, 9:40 am

I think this is true. People that read a lot tend to be good writers although I concede not in every case. It does come naturally to some people. I think Harry Lorayne's first book on memory became an immediate best seller. Of course in many cases people get to learn a bit about writing when they go to school.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby lybrary » December 5th, 2017, 1:25 pm

Bill Mullins wrote:If you looked at John Grisham at the end of 1989 believing the above, you'd have to conclude that his novel "A Time to Kill" must not be any good, since he hadn't written anything before it. But you'd be wrong.

So let's look at Grisham. From his Wikipedia page we learn: "...his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college..." He then got a college education, studied law, practiced law, and even was an elected representative in the Mississippi House of Representatives. All of this education and work requires extensive reading and writing (thesis, papers, essays, opinions, new law proposals, ...)

Bill Mullins wrote:See also, Tom Clancy (first book, Hunt for Red October, also 2 million + copies sold)

From his Wikipedia page: "...private Catholic Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland, from which he graduated in 1965. He then attended Loyola College (now Loyola University) in Baltimore, graduating in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in English literature." Again a multiyear higher education. And he studied English literature! Lots of reading and writing. He then worked for insurance companies. Depending on what he did there this could again include lots of reading and writing.

None of these examples are counter examples. Both had lots of writing experience before they wrote their first novel. From E.S. Andrews we know nothing of that sorts.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 5th, 2017, 2:18 pm

So you've changed your opinion from "A person can't write well unless he's written a lot before" to "A person can't write well unless he's written or edited a lot before" to "A person can't write well unless he's written or edited or read a lot before."

Once upon a time, you believed that genes could trump "thousands of hours of deliberate practice." What made you change your mind?

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 5th, 2017, 2:22 pm

This thread has degenerated into nonsense.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Chris Aguilar » December 5th, 2017, 3:28 pm

Richard Kaufman wrote:This thread has degenerated into nonsense.

Yeah, it's been this for quite some time now:

Image

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby lybrary » December 5th, 2017, 3:32 pm

Bill Mullins wrote:So you've changed your opinion from "A person can't write well unless he's written a lot before" to "A person can't write well unless he's written or edited a lot before" to "A person can't write well unless he's written or edited or read a lot before."

As I have demonstrated, all of your supposed counter examples wrote a lot one way or another. All show in their bio some evidence that suggests that they had writing experience before they wrote their debut novel. E.S. Andrews shows none. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Nothing. He can't be Erdnase.

Bill Mullins wrote:Once upon a time, you believed that genes could trump "thousands of hours of deliberate practice." What made you change your mind?

Even the most talented need to practice. It is true that they need less than others whose genetic blueprint is not that favorable, but they all need to practice. We aren't discussing how much writing experience would be necessary to reach Erdnase level. We are talking about 'SOME evidence'. E.S. Andrews has ZERO evidence.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 5th, 2017, 3:41 pm

Okay, I don't want to see a single new post in this thread unless someone has genuinely new information or research of demonstrable value to more than one person to share. Anything else will get deleted.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 9th, 2017, 11:57 am

On p. 75 of most editions, Erdnase lists several games in which his method of stocking can be applied. One of them is "Penuckle", which is a non-standard way of spelling "pinochle".

The OED says about the game: "A card game for two or more players, played with a pack of forty-eight cards consisting of two of each card from nine to ace, the object being to score points for various combinations and to win tricks. Also: the combination of the queen of spades and the jack of diamonds in this game." It gives as variant spellings binocle, peanukle, penuchle, penuckle, pinochle, pinocle. And the first mention of the game that the OED found in print is as follows: "1864 W. B. Dick Amer. Hoyle 127 Bézique is fast becoming popular in the United States.‥ It is known among our German brethren as Peanukle."

If you look in the Chronicling America database of scanned newspapers between 1895 and 1905, you get the following counts for variations in spelling:

pinochle 1587
pinocle 148
penuchle 67
peanukle 21 (all of these appear to be OCR errors in Polish newspapers)
penuckle 20
peanuckle 10
penukle 1 (in a German newspaper)

In the 1909 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, he uses "binocle" as the preferred spelling, and lists "pinochle" and Erdnase's "penuckle" only as variant spellings, suggesting perhaps that Foster did not write Expert.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 9th, 2017, 2:49 pm

Bill Mullins wrote:In the 1909 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, he uses "binocle" as the preferred spelling, and lists "pinochle" and Erdnase's "penuckle" only as variant spellings, suggesting perhaps that Foster did not write Expert.


That's exactly what Foster would have done if he were trying to throw people off the scent.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Brad Jeffers » December 9th, 2017, 2:57 pm

In the 1909 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, he uses "binocle" as the preferred spelling, and lists "pinochle" and Erdnase's "penuckle" only as variant spellings, suggesting perhaps that Foster did not write Expert.
He does not characterize binocle as the preferred spelling, but as the correct spelling.

The preferred spelling, as borne out by your research, is pinochle.

In your search of variant spellings you should have included binocle, which I suspect will rank near the bottom.

I don't think anyone, including Foster, would have used that spelling.

However, why someone would use penuckle in preference to the more common pinochle is interesting and may prove to be yet another clue in the mystery.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 9th, 2017, 3:34 pm

Brad Jeffers wrote: The preferred spelling, as borne out by your research, is pinochle.


For the purposes of his Hoyle book, Foster preferred "binocle". But his references included two books I haven't seen, that muddy the waters about any conclusions that one might make regarding Foster's preferences:
Foster's Complete Pinocle (1906)
Laws of Pinochle. R. F. Foster (1908)

In your search of variant spellings you should have included binocle, which I suspect will rank near the bottom.


Yes. The hit count was only 27, but most of these were not examples of the game (which is why I didn't include the information -- it mostly bad data, moreso than the others. "Binocle" also means opera-glasses. There were also OCR errors, and it was used in foreign language newspapers in which I couldn't determine what was being talked about.)

I don't think anyone, including Foster, would have used that spelling.

????
Foster did use that spelling in his Hoyle book, to the exclusion of other spellings that are far more prevalent otherwise.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Brad Jeffers » December 9th, 2017, 4:46 pm

Yes, he would, and did, use it in the Hoyle book as would be expected.

But in other contexts, I think he would probably use the more common and familiar 'Pinochle'.

I don't see why he would ever use 'Penuckle', unless of course ...
observer wrote:That's exactly what Foster would have done if he were trying to throw people off the scent.
In which case, he is so diabolically clever, that we will never figure out who he is!

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 10th, 2017, 12:35 am

If you were unfamiliar with a word other than hearing it spoken, "penuckle" is a result that's not out of the question.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 10th, 2017, 4:39 am

Hi All,

Another game that Erdnase mentions (page 75), namely “Coon Can,” may raise issues similar to those presented by Pinochle.

From what Foster says in his 1897 Foster’s Complete Hoyle, that work contains the game’s “first complete description,” though that was under the name “Conquian” (without calling the game by any other name, as far as I noticed).

Normally (not always) it was played with a 40-card pack, though the make-up of the pack tended to be different in the US from what it was in Mexico. Apparently at that time it was primarily a two-person game, and (consistent with what Erdnase says) the cards were dealt two at a time.

Later, Foster wrote Cooncan, a separate volume published in 1913. The game has a somewhat complex history, and Foster there describes multiple versions. The cards are dealt one at a time, or two at a time, depending on the nature of the specific version.

The foregoing is based on a rather quick examination of the two Foster books mentioned, on Google books.

Short version of this post:

In any event, I have not seen Foster refer to the game as “Coon Can,” and Foster's non-use of that name again tends to support the idea that Foster did not write the Erdnase book.

And Richard, good point re “penuckle.” (That same idea occurred to me as well!)

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby jkeyes1000 » December 10th, 2017, 11:05 am

Sorry if I'm missing something, but is there any reason to believe that BOTH Foster and "Erdnase" published their works without submitting them to an editor?

Even if a writer hired soneone to type his ms. (and to correct spelling and grammatical errors), this might account for the variations.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Kaufman » December 10th, 2017, 1:13 pm

Thanks, Tom!
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Stephen Burton » December 11th, 2017, 3:57 pm

Richard Hatch recently got in touch with me about an essay I wrote in 1989, Thoughts on the Identity of Erdnase.
It was originally published on The Magicon, a pre-Web magician's forum on CompuServe. I looked at the title page as a type of puzzle and put together an observation on the graphically longest line on the page, Ruse and Subterfuge. The permutations are contained in the following graphic.
Image
http://www.houstonmagicbirthday.com/images/ruseand.jpg

The E and the S are referenced backward with the words, "ruse and" changing to E.S. Andrews and finally to S.W. Erdnase.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 11th, 2017, 4:39 pm

Stephen Burton wrote:Richard Hatch recently got in touch with me about an essay I wrote in 1989, Thoughts on the Identity of Erdnase.
It was originally published on The Magicon, a pre-Web magician's forum on CompuServe. I looked at the title page as a type of puzzle and put together an observation on the graphically longest line on the page, Ruse and Subterfuge. The permutations are contained in the following graphic.
Image
http://www.houstonmagicbirthday.com/images/ruseand.jpg

The E and the S are referenced backward with the words, "ruse and" changing to E.S. Andrews and finally to S.W. Erdnase.


Although "Andruse" seems an excessively rare surname, "Andrus" is a possibility. As in Jerry, of course, and there are others around.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 12th, 2017, 6:33 pm

Hi All,

Concerning Steve Burton’s post above, one of the interesting things about the theory was that it appeared in 1989, and no matter how you calculate it, that is more than a year before the appearance of The Man Who Was Erdnase. And it is a rather clever theory.

Dick Hatch alluded to this matter in a post back in 2003. However, I think Dick "reversed" something there. (Specifically, I did not notice the thing about the E and the S, which Steve deals with in his post.)

Anyway, the whole thing may be a weird coincidence (of which there are many in the Erdnase field), or it may be that the author's name is E.S. Andrews and that he hid his real name on the title page in the manner Steve discusses.

The following are among the key things (to me) in this regard:

(a) The title-page title is somewhat weird to start out with, and seems to invite people to work on interpretations such as this.

(b) The "and Ruse" part is good, and I suspect that TMWWE might have mentioned that, if the authors had known about it.

(c) The "E and S" part is a nice insight, but my present view is that, even though it fits really well, it tends to stretch things a little too far, since I see no real reason for dropping the interior of the word, other than, "Well, it gives you an S and an E." Merely flipping the sequence of "Ruse" and "and" seems more straightforward to me.


In short, the "AND RUSE" weakly supports the name Andrews. The E and the S go on to support "E.S.," but even more weakly.

As Clay Shevlin (and probably others) have said, "artifice," "ruse," and "subterfuge" are largely synonymous, so perhaps there is a theory that explains this redundancy in those three words.

Near the end of the post at this link, Clay goes further and states a theory that makes sense, and which might explain the entire phrase, "Artifice Ruse and Subterfuge." And I think one of David Alexander's theories had to do with the phrase "Andrews Artifice" (derived from the title page).

I actually like Clay's theory a little better than Steve's, largely because it is more comprehensive, but also because it mainly involves flipping the word order. However, to me these things fit more into the "fun and weird" category than they do into the "highly significant" category.

--Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby lybrary » December 12th, 2017, 7:51 pm

A few newsletters ago I built on Steve Burton's 'and Ruse' being interpreted as 'Andrews' theory to suggest that the name fully spelled out was: Edward Subterfuge and Ruse which reduces to:

Edward S. and Ruse
Edward S. Andrews
E. S. Andrews

This was motivated by Edward Gallaway's stage name for the R.R. Donnelley show, which was Bustin Homes, which he derived from his necessity to bust-in of the homes of the various executives to secure their childhood photos. In other words, he took a phrase 'bust in homes' and turned it into a name. One other improvement to Burton's theory is that 'Edward Subterfuge and Ruse' does not require any arbitrary selection of characters to make the initials. They emerge naturally from the phrase.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 13th, 2017, 12:08 am

Brad Jeffers wrote:<>
I don't see why he would ever use 'Penuckle', unless of course ...
observer wrote:That's exactly what Foster would have done if he were trying to throw people off the scent.
In which case, he is so diabolically clever, that we will never figure out who he is!


Well remember that we're talking about someone clever enough to adopt what appears to be a transparently (childishly!) simple backward spelling of his real (?) name,

E. S. Andrews

as his nom de plume.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Stephen Burton » December 13th, 2017, 1:14 am

Tom Sawyer wrote:
The "and Ruse" part is good, and I suspect that TMWWE might have mentioned that, if the authors had known about it.


Both Whaley and Busby did know about it, they were members of the Magicon in 1989. They even mention it in The Man Who Was Erdnase but totally ignore the "E S And Ruse" observation. The authors focused instead on my musing that the ES might stand for Edwin Sachs which I discarded when I noticed the ES being the first and last letters of Subterfuge. I suspect they ignored it because it didn't support the Milton F. Andrews speculation they were pushing so hard.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 13th, 2017, 12:31 pm

lybrary wrote:This was motivated by Edward Gallaway's stage name for the R.R. Donnelley show, which was Bustin Homes, which he derived from his necessity to bust-in of the homes of the various executives to secure their childhood photos. In other words, he took a phrase 'bust in homes' and turned it into a name.


I don't think he needed to break into anyone's house. We've done bulletin boards at work with baby photos of the staff, and everyone involved was happy to bring in their own photo.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 16th, 2017, 7:59 pm

Potter & Potter sold a moderately rough condition 1st edition copy today, for $5k plus bidder's premium.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Hatch » December 20th, 2017, 7:46 pm

Bill Mullins wrote:Potter & Potter sold a moderately rough condition 1st edition copy today, for $5k plus bidder's premium.

And another copy sold on eBay today for less that 1/10 that price! Someone's getting a nice Christmas present (not me, alas!):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/True-first-printing-of-Erdnase-The-Expert-At-The-Card-Table/232599267835

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Leonard Hevia » December 20th, 2017, 8:57 pm

Richard Hatch wrote:
Bill Mullins wrote:Potter & Potter sold a moderately rough condition 1st edition copy today, for $5k plus bidder's premium.

And another copy sold on eBay today for less that 1/10 that price! Someone's getting a nice Christmas present (not me, alas!):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/True-first-printing-of-Erdnase-The-Expert-At-The-Card-Table/232599267835


The eBay copy is apparently in need of some restoration. That could explain the much lower price. The owner of this copy inscribed his name on the front past down. Does that mean he was Erdnase?

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 20th, 2017, 9:48 pm

I presume that the gentleman whose name appears on the inside front cover was Jacob Chasnoff.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 27th, 2017, 7:45 pm

Hi All,

I have been thinking a little about “confirmation bias” and the S.W. Erdnase case. The term has been mentioned several times on this thread, and in doing a search, I see (though I had no recollection of it) that a post by me was one of nine or so posts to mention that phrase.

It strikes me as a bit strange that in a thread with more than 5,400 posts, on a subject that has many opportunities for the analysis of potential confirmation-bias, the topic has not been discussed more.

If you want a classic example, it might be the height of M.F. Andrews. If you don’t like him as a candidate, you can say, “He was too tall.” If you do like him, you can say, “He was sorta stooped over because of his health.”

On the other hand, people on both sides of the issue may have made their determination completely free of confirmation bias. This is probably easier to do if you say that he was too tall, because the mere fact that he may have been stooped over does not make him short!

Then again, if you don't really rely on information provided by Smith, you probably don't care one way or another about MFA's height.

And of course the mere fact that confirmation bias is involved does not make a fact useless, or a conclusion based thereon erroneous!

--Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby performer » December 27th, 2017, 8:39 pm

I have a strong suspicion that you are ALL wrong!

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Christopher1979 » December 28th, 2017, 2:06 pm

Leonard Hevia wrote:
Richard Hatch wrote:
Bill Mullins wrote:Potter & Potter sold a moderately rough condition 1st edition copy today, for $5k plus bidder's premium.

And another copy sold on eBay today for less that 1/10 that price! Someone's getting a nice Christmas present (not me, alas!):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/True-first-printing-of-Erdnase-The-Expert-At-The-Card-Table/232599267835


The eBay copy is apparently in need of some restoration. That could explain the much lower price. The owner of this copy inscribed his name on the front past down. Does that mean he was Erdnase?


I actually have a notification that tells me when any EATCT or Erdnase item comes up for sale on ebay. This one slipped through my fingers, even in the condition it was in $450 was ridiculously cheap! Most of the damage looked repairable too.
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 28th, 2017, 3:11 pm

Now, don't get me wrong: I don't believe there is such a thing as "useless knowledge".

That said -- suppose that at some point the identity of "Erdnase" is established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Then what?

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Jack Shalom » December 28th, 2017, 6:32 pm

A new Genii cover story?

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 28th, 2017, 11:04 pm

Jack Shalom wrote:A new Genii cover story?


Mmh. Maybe a paragraph in The Eye. Being unknown is all that whoever he is has going for him. Without that, he's nobody.

It's like the Cubs. Once they served out their 107-year sentence for stealing the 1908 pennant from the Giants and won a World Championship, people stopped talking about them.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Leonard Hevia » December 28th, 2017, 11:39 pm

observer wrote:Being unknown is all that whoever he is has going for him. Without that, he's a nobody.


Ben Earl included a relevant Erdnase quote in the final chapter of his new book. He still has much going for him beyond the mystery of his true identity.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Leonard Hevia » December 28th, 2017, 11:41 pm

Leonard Hevia wrote:
observer wrote:Being unknown is all that whoever he is has going for him. Without that, he's a nobody.


Ben Earl included a relevant Erdnase passage in the final chapter of his new book. He still has much going for him beyond the mystery of his true identity.

observer
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Favorite Magician: Harry Kellar - Charlie Miller - Paul Rosini - Jay Marshall
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby observer » December 29th, 2017, 2:43 am

Leonard Hevia wrote:
observer wrote:Being unknown is all that whoever he is has going for him. Without that, he's a nobody.


Ben Earl included a relevant Erdnase quote in the final chapter of his new book. He still has much going for him beyond the mystery of his true identity.


Fweeet! Ten yard penalty for goalpost moving. This discussion is about the identity of "Erdnase" not about the book somebody wrote under that alias. Also a penalty for adding an unneeded indefinite article to my post, but I decline that one.

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Brad Jeffers
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Brad Jeffers » December 29th, 2017, 4:36 am

observer wrote: This discussion is about the identity of "Erdnase" not about the book somebody wrote under that alias.

Originally it was about the book ...

Guest wrote: I'm ready to resume my study of "The Expert". My question is how does one properly study Erdnase? Should I start with the Legerdemain section or Card Table Artifice?

Are there certain moves that are best studied from other sources? Are there sleights that are too inferior? Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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