The Genii Forum

Jonathan Townsend

@Joe, that would be George Bernard Shaw, supposedly. Other opinion has it that when there's advertising space sold they need copy to foll some pages. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ObT51-hj1HUJ:https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-04-01-0503310488-story.html+&cd...

Jonathan Townsend

@Bill, do later editions follow the kerning of the first or the copyright application?

Jonathan Townsend

Honest question follows this paragraph*. Agreed if absolutely certain about the author being the same and singular person as Gardner met. However, we have an unreliable text by an unreliable printer and reports from an unreliable prankster author/reporter. "Erdnase, S. W." is the name in t...

Jonathan Townsend

Richard Kaufman wrote:It's not Hoffmann!

What brings you to that opinion?

Jonathan Townsend

Interesting question. There's some information and photos in Galloway's books and the booklet on the rope trick.

Jonathan Townsend

Gregg, Vernon left NY before we got started - before Tannen's at 1540 Broadway... so what we heard from back in the 1970s was at second hand.

Jonathan Townsend

Is there something like the google search for phonetically related phrases? https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph works for words but how about 'sounds like' - transliterations or mondegreens?

Jonathan Townsend

PavelTheGreat wrote:
Roger M. wrote:This is a complex mystery due to all the sources of fact and speculation. So I make an assumption that Smith and Erdnase met at Smith's office

Which sources of fact beyond the printer, the book, and the artist do you believe to be relevant?

Jonathan Townsend

@Bob, that reads like a Jinx Switch ( Card College vol 1 p 240 / Jack Merlin "Hop off the Bottom" ? )

Jonathan Townsend

Performer, thanks, great to see what works in the world.
Any opinion of Gary Kurtz's handling of the sleight?

Jonathan Townsend

A text may speak to us and we may come to imagine things about the author. Such imaginings are an "effect" whose "method" is studied elsewhere. But behind that effect, as with the Wizard in Oz, there was a person who brought those words to the print shop in Chicago. How strange t...

Jonathan Townsend

Unfortunately "earthy complexion" has been used to describe colors including yellow and darker hues. In fiction it might work to have a character disguised by colored makeup on his nose, though that's not yet established as relevant or useful in this search for an author.

Jonathan Townsend

PavelTheGreat wrote:And let us not forget the phrase "earthy complexion" which no doubt dates to this period.

Also England 1765. Please stop.

Jonathan Townsend

In German, "Erde" translates as "(planet) earth" and as "top soil" or "mold", but it's not a synonym for "dirt". (That would indeed be "Schmutz" or "Dreck".) At least not in today's German. I'm not sure about 100 years ago, but i...

Jonathan Townsend

? erd as in 'erd (herd or heard) but not "herr n osey"? A mondegreen?
Agreed that E. S. Andrews could be a name reversed.
But about the lettering and not the pictures... tall or short... the table but not the hands in proportion to the cards... mysteries.

Jonathan Townsend

Good that he gets called to do shows. Opportunity? -> Tonight the part of the rabbit will be played by...

Jonathan Townsend

If it was a collaborative effort I think it would be far more likely that the secret would be out by now. To the printers it was just another book that didn't sell too well. They had other concerns. Not so long after... https://books.google.com/books?id=ng8hAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA5-PA73&lpg=RA5-PA73...

Jonathan Townsend

Smith recalled meeting a guy claiming to be a former card shark writing an expose, with specific recall of meeting once and in a cold hotel room. Smith mentions a folding card tabletop as about two feet square. Smith claimed to recognize the lettering but not the drawings.

Jonathan Townsend

A name, perhaps but still pareidolia.

Jonathan Townsend

Language gets passed by word of mouth and often changes orthography and accent along the way.
Try this name for sound: "Herr N. Osey"

Jonathan Townsend

We can be sure of the card when face up. Turn it face down and things get interesting. Another magician likened it to watching a cat chase after the red dot projected by a laser pointer.

Jonathan Townsend

MagicbyAlfred wrote:...Now, if you don't mind my asking, What attracts you to magic?

Several aspects. Here are a few: Perceptions presented on the slant. The facts slowed down by trickery until the very process of cognition becomes visible. Experimental metaphysics. Three card monte as epistemology.

Jonathan Townsend

I think you mistake "absence of evidence" for "evidence of absence". Again, there would be no evidence for slang in print at this period (especially for obscure phrase, little used), because writing was formal. There were undoubtedly many words in common use that were never reco...

Jonathan Townsend

How's the card finish? The decks I have from back then are thicker cards, poor finish, and from later on the size changed.

Jonathan Townsend

Sound of hoofbeats at the print shop So back at the printer's they say "hey your book needs an author". "How about Andrews?" "Nah, he didn't want to be associated with the thing" - "so we use S. W. Erdnase". Sound of laughter. The typesetter reminds them that ...

Jonathan Townsend

We have Barton Whaley on the matter. And the Smith / Gardner letters. Listen to him. Look at some of his writing and then listen to how he makes claims.

Jonathan Townsend

We aren't disputing facts. There was a printer in Chicago. Dai Vernon liked the book. Smith recalled some of the illustrations. * ...

and then things got chesty with claims and justifications.

Jonathan Townsend

Yes, that would be a lot of work for one book.

Jonathan Townsend

Carlo, folks, how do you distinguish writing of that time from specific authorship?

The editor of The Sphinx plays American and writes his own Sharps and Flats in first person... then offers the Modern Magicians Handbook?

Jonathan Townsend

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6778672

Volunteer 1 hears "five of clubs" while volunteer 2 hears "seven of diamonds".

Jonathan Townsend

... Instead of learning cold reading lines, learn the actual meanings of the tarot... ?? Meaning as in how to use an oracle or meaning as in standard script for card readings - aka Chinese room ? Eyes open or eyes shut. Auspices or affirmations. Please choose wisely. Apropos or appropriation? :D

Jonathan Townsend

Christopher1979 wrote:Media manipulation is at the root of a lot of things

Media manipulation ...aka sleight of hand.

Jonathan Townsend

We interrupt our normal wanderings for this tranderivational search string; ...starting a search for meaning rather than being provocative. We don't find many decks with suits (minor arcana) of taxes, tumors, promises and medication, or major arcana depicting instant messages, elections, letters... ...

Jonathan Townsend

@Performer; how to proceed, open eye or shut eye?

Jonathan Townsend

Anyone have the recent bicycle faro deck? Suitable for this project? https://playingcarddecks.com/products/f ... ying-cards

Jonathan Townsend

performer wrote:...will to some degree or other dissuade offenders from copying...

Short answer: NO.
Longer answer: To some degree it would slow down some and likewise encourage others who are clever, while for the most part it would just inconvenience your good customers.

Jonathan Townsend

Given that the book will include selections from the author's magic notebooks, annotations and variations the author made on EATCT, and photos and other writings of the author, it sounds like this must someone who left a fairly extensive paper trail. I wonder if this is a magician who is known and ...

Jonathan Townsend

A little early in the year but - sure,

Jonathan Townsend

Roger Klause's routine?

Jonathan Townsend

There are better ways of managing your brand. But copyrighting the play/vignette you perform is a good idea. Here's some more for folks who like to read: http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/777340/T ... +From+2018

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