Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 August 26

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August 26

Three card Monty

What do the scammers do to make sure the person never wins? Switch the winning card with another while moving around the cards so the winning card isn't there at all during the time of picking and then switch the winner back in when showing the loser "where" the winning card was, all by sleight of hand? 75.75.42.89 (talk) 02:13, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

The winning card is always there, just not where the mark thinks it is. See Three-card_Monte#How_it_is_done. RudolfRed (talk) 04:05, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Generally, the winning card and one of the two losing cards are held in one hand, with the other losing card in the other. When the scammer throws the cards, he can make it seem like he's throwing the winning card while actually throwing the losing card. It's also common for one of the shills working with the scammer to bend the corner (or otherwise mark) the winning card while the scammer isn't looking: the scammer then uses sleight of hand to transfer the mark from the winning card to a losing card. If you're curious, John_Scarne has several books about gambling which describe Three-Card Monte. I also recommend "Gambling Scams," by Darwin_Ortiz, which is a fascinating discussion of cheating at all types of games of chance (you'll never go to a carnival again). OldTimeNESter (talk) 14:59, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

80s/90s artsy movie?

I'm remembering the last moments of an artsy movie (seen on Bravo, maybe?) from the 80s or 90s...I saw it sometime between 1994-97.

Sorry to be so vague, but one of the last scenes is of a rather ridiculous situation in which someone has turned an oil railcar into a submarine. They had been working on it for some time and the other characters didn't think it was going to work. The "submarine" dives and it's clear it's working. This is the memory prompting me to ask if anyone else remembers this scene & movie.

The mood I remember was quite artsy. --Shandon (talk) 04:32, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking for a Spiderman comic

Which issue has the story in it when Spiderman is upset because of something and would really like to vent his anger through some crime-fighting but on that night everybody is nice with him and he can't find a criminal. Finally, he decides to call up he's editor in the middle of the night, and he yells at him for waking him up. It ends with him sitting in a chair, smiling, listening to the phone. 79.134.238.136 (talk) 13:28, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Animal Crossing New Leaf (US version)

When you leave a villagers house in ACNL for the 3DS I have noticed a few different reactions. Some villagers will smile and wave, some bow, and others seem indifferent to you leaving. Is there any correlation between the way a villager acknowledges you leaving and your friend status with them? i.e. How close they are to giving you their picture? Or is it just random and related to their personality type? 63.95.64.254 (talk) 14:58, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking for a film (series)

I've seen it in the 90's. I think it might have been a little series with 4-5 episodes, but all relatively long. The plot was that a bunch of scientist opened a gateway to another universe, everything was yellow and slimy there. This malevolent world eventually spread into our universe and it infected people and at one point it was threatning to get into a river or some kind of a water supply system. At the end of the series, the laboratory got surrounded by a layer of that foreign stuff, and some of the characters even ventured into this another world. 79.134.238.136 (talk) 21:39, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Invasion: Earth (TV series) Well crafted, but dark, with an inconclusive ending 2.5 out of 4 stars. μηδείς (talk) 17:45, 27 August 2013 (UTC)