[WikiEN-l] Exposure of magic on Wikipedia

[Daniel P. B. Smith]

> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:25:35 +0000
> From: "David Gerard" <dgerard at gmail.com>
> Indeed. "As a Freemason, I am honour-bound to remove these secrets
> from your pages!" "What a coincidence - as an admin, I am honour-bound
> to block you, and your eternal sockpuppets returning to make the
> precise same edit. Idiot."

The mention of Freemasonry brought to mind three of my favorite  
books, William Poundstone's "Big Secrets," "Bigger Secrets," and  
"Biggest Secrets," which attempt to expose things like the  
ingredients of Coca-Cola, the truth about subliminal messages, and,  
incidentally, a number of stage illusions by prominent magicians.

What makes these books so wonderful is that he, himself, keeps no  
secrets. He explains precisely how he got his information, and is  
quite honest and judicious in explaining their limits and reliability.

In "Big Secrets," he has a chapter about the Freemasons, including  
the secret handshake, secret password, secret word, secret cipher,  
and initiation rites. However did he learn them?

He "ran across a Chicago firm that works by mail order. The Geo.  
Lauterer Corporation publishes an illustrated catalog of lodge  
gear.... We obtained a sampling of titles."

It's reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Red-headed  
League," in which Holmes astonishes a visitor by saying to Watson  
that "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual  
labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason. that he has been  
in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing  
lately, I can deduce nothing else."

When Wilson asks how he knew about the freemasonry, Holmes says "I  
won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that,  
especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you use  
an arc-and-compass breastpin."

As for the magicians, Poundstone learned a number of their "secrets"  
by ordering plans from mail-order magic-supply houses.