The Art of the Toss

I'm going to be picking a bone with Harper's in the next day or two, so I'll preemptively make up for it by pointing out that the December issue includes a strong piece by Mattathias Schwartz about The Golden Touch Craps team, a group that offers (expensive) two-day courses on "Golden Touch betting systems, Golden Touch visualization techniques, and, most important, the Golden Touch 'controlled throw,' a method of retaining influence over the dice after they leave the hand."

The author takes part in a course and unsurprisingly determines that this enterprise -- what's the politically correct term? -- lacks validity. But in colorfully describing the characters involved, and delving into some deeper gambling history, Schwartz makes it a fun ride.

The piece also includes these separate passages, which are great in context and might be even better out of context:

He dabbled in hypnosis and séances. He investigated a horse named Lady Wonder that could reportedly read minds and predict the outcomes of boxing matches.

"If you shoot at the sky long enough a duck will fly by, and then you will be a great duck hunter."