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P R E C U R S O R

L X I V

This is PRECURSOR LXIV and is published in May 1998. PRECURSOR is edited by William P. Miesel and is published by unikom magik. The editorial offices are at 2215 Myrtle Street, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16502-2643.

PRECURSOR will be published more than three times a year, and it will be sold for $21.00 (U.S.) for three issues. Outside the United States, Canada, and Mexico, three issues are sent Air Mail for $25.00 (U.S.).

"Quine's Keeper - Finder" by Tom Craven is a seemingly impossible discovery of a selected card that uses Tom's favorite move, "Quine's Keeper."

Back in 1980, I had a trick entitled "Down The River" in THE CREATIVE CARD MAGIC OF WILLIAM P. MIESEL. Briefly, this is a transposition, a double-faced card and the regular card matching the underside of the double-facer are forced. After a "turnover switch," a spectator is given the face down regular card and the double-facer is torn into quarters and given to a second spectator. The two cards now change places. Gary Ward was recently laid up with an operation and reread this effect and thought, "Why not restore the torn card for the climax."

"The Delayed Restoration" is his handling of the restoration; a couple of suggestions from me, and then a final word from him.

"Compressed Poker" by Phil Goldstein is the discovery of a selected card in the guise of a psychic poker demonstration. Phil thinks that this is a very simple notion that has possibilities for further exploration.

There was a different effect in Peter Duffie's EFFORTLESS CARD MAGIC that struck my fancy and that effect is "An Unexpected Prediction." In Peter's routine the cards are handled throughout face up and the card that was predicted was on the face. Even though Peter says that the prediction card on the face passes unnoticed, it does not seem aesthetically pleasing to me.

In my "Totally Unexpected Prediction," the predicted prediction remains in a totally obscure position in the packet.

Michael DeMarco's "Resourceful Card Shark" is a very entertaining Poker Deal that is quite simple if you are able to perform a couple of Faro Shuffles.

"Deal Spiel" by Marty Kane consists of interesting discoveries of selected cards using techniques that have been more or less forgotten over the past several years; namely, Karl Fulves' "Riffle Shuffle Control" and Gene Finnell's "Free Cut Principle."

Harry G. Franke's "Tracking A Selection Through The Wilderness" is another "Australian Deal" trick in which a selected card is added to Mel Stover's "Twomula" from Ibidem, #21.

Mel said this principle was discovered by mathematician Nathan Mendelsohn who had previously published it in the American Mathematical Monthly in January 1950.

Way back in PRECURSOR XIII, Tom Craven contributed an idea entitled "Lots Of

Lots" that made use of the lot numbers printed on the Ace of Spades in decks manufactured by the U. S. Playing Card Company. David Drake has utilized these lot numbers as one of the outs in a "Subtle Ace Prediction." If you buy your decks like I do, by the dozen, you will have no trouble getting the necessary Aces of Spades. Remove the Ace of Spades from two decks of the dozen that you most recently acquired and then one from a previous dozen. The first two Aces will have the same lot number while the third one will be different.

Tom Hubbard's "Cutting In" is a routine that has gone through quite an evolution.

Nick Trost published his "Weight Guess" in The New Tops, Vol. 6, #2, February 1966. Two years later Mike Rogers published his version, "Weighing The Cards" in his lecture Notes, Rogers Returns. Then in 1979, Tom Hubbard's "Trost, Rogers And Us" appeared in The New Tops, Vol. 19, #'s 8 & 9. Al 1 of these routines can also be found in THE CARD MAGIC OF NICK TROST. I have also made an addition of my own to the conclusion of "Cutting In." It might be of interest to know that Bob King also had a version called "Weight Guess Plus" involving a selected card which can be found in PRECURSOR XXVII. Some twenty-five years ago, Ed Eckl had a couple of gag props; one was a "Beginner's Folding Coin" which, I believe, was a nickel that he cut in half and put back together with a small hinge on the back, and the other coin was a normal folding Philippine coin that he called his "Original Manila Folder." At the time, Ed had no trick to use these coins in, but they always elicited a few laughs or groans when he showed them to magicians. I finally talked him into combining the two coins in one and working up a routine. Even if you don't make up the coin and just read about it, you should get a few laughs and maybe an idea or two.

William P. Miesel March 18, 1998

We're looking forward to a new look for PRECURSOR next issue; that is, if I can learn WORD97. I'll certainly miss WordPerfect, which seems so easy to use. Oh, yes, I had a lot of trouble switching from WordStar, but that was imperative, since my employer made the decision for me. And I was getting paid to learn the new program!

A couple of new computers, both "Gateway Gerties", will help in getting PRECURSOR into the mails. William is already ahead of me in using WORD97, but I hope to catch up whilst preparing the camera-ready material for PRECURSOR LXV. PRECURSOR began on an Apple-II Plus (Apple Annie, to me) with a full 48K of memory! Then came El lie (a Leading Edge dual-5 1/4" floppie disk machine), and then Ellie-2 came along. She had a 5 1/4" floppie as well as a 3 1/2" diskette capability. Now, it will be Gateway Gertie who will be responsible for getting the magazine into publication. ... Wish us luck, please.

Ed Eckl

QUINE'S KEEPER - FINDER This is the discovery of what is apparently a freely selected card using "Quine's Keeper."

1. The card that is second from the top must be a known card and remembered.

This arrangement can be gotten in any number of ways. a. The second card from the back can be just glimpsed beforehand but a spectator shuffle will foil this. b. In taking the deck back from the spectator after a shuffle, hold the deck at an angle and glimpse the face card and then double undercut the bottom two cards to the top, bringing the glimpsed card second from the back. c. After glimpsing the face card while taking the deck back after the spectator shuffle, hold it in readiness for an overhand shuffle. Obtain a right thumb break above the two cards on the face of the deck. Shuffle off, holding back these two cards on the face so they will fall last, bringing the noted peeked card second from the back. d. A combination overhand shuffle followed by a riffle shuffle will bring the glimpsed face to second from the back.

2. Now, perform "Quine's Keeper" as follows: Cut of approximately the top one-third of the deck and Straddle Faro it into the bottom two-thirds of the deck.

3. Start to push the small packet into the larger packet, but keep your fingers away from the front of the deck so that the cards meshed between the cards in the small packet will out-jog from the front of the deck due to the "Plunger Principle."

4. Just as the meshed cards are starting to jog out from the front of the deck, the right forefinger pulls down on the back of the out-jogged block. This is shown in Figure #1 with the left hand at the inner end of the deck eliminated for clarity.

5. As the out-jogged block is being pulled down, catch a peek of the face card of the upper block and remember it. After getting the peek, finish pushing the