The Genii Forum

Mechanics.

(Also, couple of apostrophe related typos you may wish to address: it's Tiger Woods' rather than Tiger Wood's, and Pros rather than Pro's)

According to Strunk and White’s Elements of Style it should be Tiger Woods’s.

The possessive apostrophe after the s is for plural nouns, and there is only a single Tiger Woods.

Love me some Strunk and White. Neither of them would have considered an Erdnase grip.

Brad I don't think Strunk and White applies to Ian's version of English. It's their damned language. I don't know the U.K. style standards for pluralizations. England and the U.S.; two countries separated by a common language.

I couldn't care less what grip anyone uses. I simply never learned or used an Erdnase grip. I have found Jason England's instructions the singularly most effective tools for getting better at seconds and bottoms.

Here's a tip I figured out myself, for seconds. For you aficionados, it may be well-known. A modicum of sticky stuff, violin rosin blended/thinned with mineral spirits is a godsend for old guys with dry skin. The Octopalm preparation is equally wonderful. It will restore the ability to do seconds that faded as you aged. If you always had problems, try a (Insanely small amount) on both hands' thumb and fingers where they touch the card's upper-right corner. Tried this about 10 years ago, it's magic. Get some sticky stuff and Jason England's videos. Take the shrink wrap off the DVD. Put them in your DVD player and WATCH and listen.

Practice.

Or you could be Jason Ladanye. That's probably easier.

Elements of Style remains my go-to reference on appearing a little less under-educated. I'm not certain if it applies across the pond, for Ian's crew. I suspect it does not. My bottom deal is still awful. Strunk and White are having zero effect on that. Dead zero.

KG

Apostrophes trip up most people.
It's always been St. James's Theatre in London.
Shall we graduate to its and it's?

Yes, but Mechanics, Mechanic's, or Mechanics' Grip? And should it be upper or lower case?

I'm not sure, but perhaps Mr. Kaufman was referring to St. James's Theatre which opened in 1835, and was closed and demolished in 1957
http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/StJamesTheatre.htm

The upstart St. James Theatre opened in 2012 in a different location.

(I notice that the first sentence of the last paragraph of the text from the last link posted by Longtimelurker
(https://www.boxoffice.co.uk/venues/7975 ... eatre.aspx)
reads: "St James’s Theatre offers something a little different than the usually West End experience and it is here that some brand new productions can be seen before they land on a bigger stage in Theatreland.") Boxoffice.co.uk seems to be uncertain whether the addition of an apostrophe s is needed or not.)

Fred’s

Joneseymagic wrote:Fred’s

Wrong thread. This thread is about apostrophes.

More grip‘s please, and back on topic‘s!

Ignoring all the sarky replies, at least Jason did edit the post.

#MyWorkIsDone #StampOutLazyWriting

Assuming we're talking about possessive nouns and similar, where I come from proper nouns should always be "s's" as in Woods's. Or Beatles's or Ernie Els’s, or Dai Rees’s.

And let’s not forget the Z-Factor

Sadowitz' is a total wrong 'un. Should be Sadowitz's, but too often isn't. Same applies to:
Sarfraz Nawaz, Tamariz, Poz,, Boz La Paz, Patrick Moraz and that magnificent Victorian Music Hall dancer, Vera Cruz.

In what bit of scribbling I do, I escape the problem by turning the sentence on its head a bit and offering something after the following:

"do you study every putt Tiger Woods makes to see if his fingers are in the exact same place on the putter?"
Or: Tiger Woods used the Erdnase Grip on his last drive, now he’s putting, he’s using the Master Grip.
As for practice/practise, where I live, general practitioners practise in a general practice.

Regarding Grips….

Jason Ladanye is correct. I’m sure he’ll be happy hear that. Variations in dealing grips and technique don’t matter in the realm occupied by magicians. Same applies to shuffling. When I overhand shuffle

I use the Mechanic’s Grip. I call it that because it’s the accepted term. It looks no different to a thousand and one other Mechanic’s Grips and it isn’t. Apart from the fact that it’s me holding the cards, which makes it my grip.

I travelled the avenues and alleyways trying to find a grip that would allow me to deal bottoms and seconds. From Fred Robinson in whichever volume of Ganson’s “Routined Manipulations” to Erdnase, “Expert Card Technique” and beyond.

I began to find a workable method when I fell over the Le Paul book. First and second finger encircling the short outer end of the pack. But it wasn’t entirely comfortable. I could get at the bottom card, though.

I then acquired a copy of “An Evening With Charlie Miller.” At the front is a photograph of Miller with cards in hand, forefinger curled around the sort outer end. I moved my second finger to the side of the pack and it felt comfortable. Prior to experimenting with the Le Paul grip, it hadn’t. I continued from there. It’s my own method, but as noted, looks like a thousand and one others.

From this grip I can deal seconds and bottoms, and best of all tops, with no variation worth mentioning. There is some slight shifting of gears during the deals; there has to be. The dealt cards are coming from slightly different positions.

I don’t consider that I “get away” with anything. I’m just dealing the cards in a demonstration. There’s a uniformity of action(s) that might not stand forensic analysis, but who knows? I’ve never been at work in such conditions. The hands are in motion, cards are dealt, what should be happening appears to be happening.

And here we are.

In the “real world” (yawn) every card game is different. Clearly there are strictly formulated “house rules” in casinos, number one being that the customer shall not prosper. But even they vary. And away from these clinically well-ordered money machines, things are always different.

Jeebers, still going. Since we're all here:

Rule 1c. Some writers and editors add only an apostrophe to all nouns ending in s. And some add an apostrophe + s to every proper noun, be it Hastings's or Jones's.

One method, common in newspapers and magazines, is to add an apostrophe + s ('s) to common nouns ending in s, but only a stand-alone apostrophe to proper nouns ending in s.

Examples:
the class's hours
Mr. Jones' golf clubs
the canvas's size
Texas' weather

Care must be taken to place the apostrophe outside the word in question. For instance, if talking about a pen belonging to Mr. Hastings, many people would wrongly write Mr. Hasting's pen (his name is not Mr. Hasting).

Correct: Mr. Hastings' pen

Another widely used technique is to write the word as we would speak it. For example, since most people saying "Mr. Hastings' pen" would not pronounce an added s, we would write Mr. Hastings' pen with no added s. But most people would pronounce an added s in "Jones's," so we'd write it as we say it: Mr. Jones's golf clubs. This method explains the punctuation of for goodness' sake.

From https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp