Here’s a shock – the Magic Cafe treats their Guests (as Brooks calls them) like C-R-A-P!

Their latest is to tell all of their AOL users to kiss their virtual ass. Yeah, I know AOL is lame, but a lot of people depend on it for their access. All of the problems could be very simply resolved if they allowed “free” email accounts.

Every day, and I mean every day, I advise clients to move to GMail and unhook themselves from their ISP as their Internet email provider. Once they go through the one time pain of changing they are always happier with the service. Using a free account is the most intelligent way to manage your online email.

I find the genesis of this “policy” hilarious. Back when few people could even spell BLOG, there was a brilliant site called The Magic Circle Jerk. If I recall correctly, he started it after Brooks kicked him off for some minor infraction. In a battle of wits, the Cafe proprietors are totally defenseless and he constantly destroyed them. Andy, the proprietor was an absolute scream. I understand that some of his posts can be found in the Internet archives. It would be worth your time to look them up.

Anyway, one of his last assaults was a contest to see who could write the most boring post.What made this so terribly funny was, no one could be as boring as the regular users. Try as they might, nothing stood out. Brooks and Company closed down new admissions – changed the email policy and ran and hid like a bunch of prepubescent school girls. It was one of the funniest pranks ever.

So, on behalf of all of the AOL users I present the Golden Cheeks to our friends at the Cafe.

Personally, I could care less, but it’s time they revisited this arcane and archaic policy – it’s the right thing to do. (Write your own material here – I’m done).

It’s nice to see Scot’s Magical Mystery Tour back on line. Scot says he went through the classic blogger’s funk – is anybody listening? It’s more common among bloggers than carpal tunnel.

I don’t personally know Scot, but he comes across as a nice guy with something to say. (Alright! Who just said, just the opposite of i/m.)

When was the last time you were genuinely fooled by a double lift? I certainly had a lot fewer wrinkles and a lot more hair!

In my last post I was lamenting the fact that magic is no longer a viable hobby for many people and was wondering why. The more I thought about it, I think that we, as a nation, are getting tired of getting punched in the stomach as soon as we get up in the morning and the continuing barrage of bad news throughout the day makes it nigh impossible to have any fun.

The constant pounding of the bad news drums makes escape impossible.

Just think of all the things we face EVERY morning:

KARASH!!	The sound of the value of your house going down and showing no signs of hitting the bottom.
Stuff – Stuff – Steal – Steal – Laugh Ass Off – Steal More – Never Enough……	America’s C.E.O.s trying to find more orifices to stuff the hundreds of millions of dollars they are stealing under the guise of free market forces.
FLUSH – Swirl	The unmistakable sound of your possible retirement / 401(K) going to hell in the Bush economy.
	AH! At last! Something going up. Yeah, the cost of gas, food, utilities etc. I must be wrong – our government says inflation is only 2%.
Dead Silence	That’s the sound of George Bush taking ownership or even acknowledging ANY problems. Terror – Terror – Terror – Sell the fear!
	That’s the sound of the MBAs and CPAs working overtime trying to send your job to India and save the salary. Don’t worry though, the Bush roaring economy (to quote Rush Limbaugh) is producing plenty of jobs. (Yeah! At McDonalds and Walmart!)
	Forget the jobs at McDonalds and Walmart. The illegal aliens got those.
	That’s the sound of your house value going down more since you started reading this post.
	That’s the U.S. $ going down the toilet.
KaChing!	That’s you checking out at Walmart, buying the Vaseline you’ll need as the local and Federal government continue to raise taxes and regulations – seemingly unaware of all of the problems they’ve caused.

In other days we looked forward to some sort of hero – Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln, Lassie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Superman and many others. Today as we stare in the distance, what do we see? Larry, Curly and Hillary! What a mess. What a fucking mess.

No wonder we’re depressed. Meanwhile the Republicans blame the press – any port in a storm I guess.

To Bush and the thief he calls a VP – A tribute from i/m:

I recently attended a magic club banquet banquet. The sad fact was you had to sit at the kiddie table if you were under 60. (Actually, I guess you have to be over 50 to recall the kiddie table!)

At the risk of sounding like some old fart longing for the good old days – I really hate to see the demise of magic as a hobby and a classic art slip into oblivion. I’m told that the Internet has taken the place of personal interaction and that’s sad – especially since we supposedly practice and study an art which is rooted in entertainment.

Why has magic lost its relevance and appeal? When is the last time you saw magic on TV? Chris Angel has as much to do with magic as the Roadrunner.

As far as I can recall, Jason Randall, with his periodic appearances on Letterman, is the only regular magician we see on TV.

Personally, I don’t count Derren Brown – quite an entertainer, but not a magician. Why have Henning, Copperfield, Burton et. al. vanished?

Mike Close put it best on one of his L&L DVDs – people don’t want us to do what we want to do.

I know it is popular to say that people have a low opinion of magic because of the inappropriate actions of some magician. I’ve really begin to question that. Hell, I don’t even think Uncle Harry is doing the 21 card trick! Just think, when was the last time you actually saw a working magician in your every day life – or even a simple trick being performed by anyone? I’ll bet you can’t remember.

Is it 9-1-1? Is it political correctness? Have we just lost our ability to have fun? I wish I knew.

I wish I knew.

Take care………

In a webcast, prestidigitator Penn Jillette talks about a joke he has begun telling in his show. He thinks the thunderous reaction it gets from audiences shows that Hillary no longer has a shot.

The joke goes: “Obama is just creaming Hillary. You know, all these primaries, you know. And Hillary says it’s not fair, because they’re being held in February, and February is Black History Month. And unfortunately for Hillary, there’s no White Bitch Month.”