I’m so confused!
Cool!
I mean, yeah, congratulations; but the, uh, laterality is: what did I see at that second performance? Per the question upthread about “elements,” you could’ve asked me how he did any of those other tricks on Night Two, and I would’ve said I didn’t know — and, again, he didn’t actually perform the ‘color’ trick on Night Two. So: what did I see?
Did he do something you recognized as setup for the color trick on Night Two, and then he just didn’t do it after the audience member named the “wrong” color? But somehow managed to switch gears in a way where it wouldn’t be obvious that something hadn’t gone according to plan, unless you already knew where the color trick was going?
That’s it!
When he did the setup for the color trick on Night Two, and didn’t get the expected color, he casually played it off as a getting-to-know-you question, uh-huh, okay, fascinating, most people don’t pick that color, you’re a very unusual thinker, but now we’re simpatico, and so now you and I are ready to engage in the psychological experiment I brought you up here for. And the balled-up piece of paper was treated like an afterthought: as if it were simply and only a thing tossed into the audience to get a random participant — which, after all, is all it was, that night.
But on the first night, he got the desired color, and so he acted like it was tossed out as an integral part of a pick-a-color prediction trick. On the second, he didn’t, and just performed one trick fewer.
The out was acting like he was still getting ready to start some other trick entirely.
(And, to bring this all the way back around: I kicked this off by saying that figuring it out was not based on me seeing him perform that trick at the second performance. Which is to say: it was based on me seeing him not perform that trick at the second performance. But if I’d said it like that, it would’ve presumably given the whole thing away right then.)
That’s pretty much what I was asking. Sort of like when a magician cuts the deck and asks the audience participant to ‘choose one or the other’ (NOT ‘which one do you think has your card in it?’). If the mark chooses the one with the selected card in it, fine; if not, the magician says something like “All right, we’ll just put that aside” and works with the ‘loaded’ one.
-“BB”-
But — in your scenario — the parallel would be: on the first night, the guy successfully does Trick #1, and successfully does Trick #2, and successfully does that Choose One Or The Other trick as Trick #3 by working with the loaded pile of cards on the left when they pick the cards on the left, and then he successfully does a completely unrelated Trick #4 with a floating coin or something, and eventually does Trick #10 to end the show. And I took you to be saying: on the second night, he does #1 and #2 and then says Choose One Or The Other and they pick the pile on the right, and he says “all right, we’ll just put that aside,” and then he does Trick #3 with the loaded pile on the left, and then he does an unrelated Trick #4 with a floating coin, and eventually does Trick #10. And anyone asked about either performance will say he did a card trick.
Instead, say he does Trick #1 and Trick #2 and then cuts the deck and says Choose One Or The Other — and the participant from the audience picks the cards on the right — and the magician puts that pile aside, and also puts aside the ‘loaded’ pile aside, and says “and now, for my next trick, watch me float this coin into the air! How’s that for a third trick? Pretty cool, huh?” And then he wraps up things up after doing his ninth trick of the evening, and anyone asked will say he didn’t do a card trick that night.
I took that to be different enough from “and works with the ‘loaded’ one” to be a separate phenomenon; it’s not that he keeps trying to work Trick #3 with one pile of cards or another, but that he acts like he never intended to do a card trick at all: that he moves on to the ‘coin’ trick (a) after succeeding with Trick #3 or (b) by acting like he still hasn’t started his third trick yet, and, uh, pay no attention to the cards on the right or the cards on the left.
While we wait for someone to post a good puzzle, here is from my real life that should be easy::
You do my laundry for me (for some reason). You notice that all of my shirts have multiple tiny/small holes on the back of them. Why do they have these holes?
Are all your shirts white?
Are you a porcupine?
Stiff hair on your back?
Are the holes in a recognizable pattern?
Is the pattern the same on all the shirts?
And how much are you paying me to do your laundry?
Actually none are.
No, though I wish.
Nope (not that there is anything wrong with that)
No pattern, just random holes. All shirts have similar random holes.
Treefiddy
Do you have a habit of lying on your back on a bed of nails?
Do you have cats?
(Though on mine the holes tend to be on the front and on the top of the shoulders. But maybe your cats like to climb up your back.)
No cats currently and cats from my past are blameless.
Nope!
Were the holes bored by moths?
Do you have your shirts laundered/dry cleaned or do you use a washing machine and do it yourself?
If the first, are the holes caused by the tags they staple to shirts for identification?