aRoseBy

linguistic dip into big store cons

Maurer was a linguistics professor. He was studying the language of the underworld: thieves, prostitutes, and con men, who had their own language, so if ordinary people overheard them, they would not be understood. In doing his research, he heard stories about confidence games, and wrote about them in the book.

It's really interesting in a couple of ways.

1. The schemes that con men used can be elaborate and very creative.

2. The random bits of sociology - This is early 20th century, so towns were more isolated. I think this let the perpetrators more easily leave town in a hurry and disappear, to try it again somewhere else. Doing the con frequently involved paying off the local police, which you can only do in a medium to small town. Maurer mentions that the con games never worked on Chinese people. The most advanced communication technology was the telegraph (at least for the story which ended up in "The Big Sting") which could be manipulated to the benefit of the con men.

Yes, fascinating.

How are your lungs doing?

My grandpa lived until his 80s, which I think is pretty good for a coal miner who chain-smoked.

My uncle delivered propane to farms. His truck was rigged to run off propane.

I figure he could have traveled around the planet a couple times.

All the best luck to you, man.

Here's something I've always wondered about: How are international money exchange rates established? Is it just a mutual agreement that, say, one US dollar is worth NN Chinese Yuan, or is there some impartial, automatic method to establish value?