is not without a certain appeal, the bottom line is that dealing with receiving,

storing, and shipping large quantities of heavy paper is not my idea of a good time.
Hence, my hedonistic laziness is your gain. I mentioned earlier that having a visual
pattern in the paper is more helpful than having physically textured paper, and
that's true - but it's even better to have both. The best is a combination of a good
visual pattern and what's known in the paper biz as a "felt" texture, which consists
of small, random bumps and ridges not unlike, well, felt. It's the closest thing you
can get to the actual texture of paper that's been peeled apart. It's not identical, but
when combined with the visual pattern, the difference really is unnoticeable. There
are a number of brands out there that fit the bill, but as of this writing the

number of brands out number of brands out number of brands out number of
brands out number of brands out best ones available are: Sundance Felt paper,
made by the Fox River division of the Gilbert Paper Company, in the Navajo White or
Maize colors. Via Felt paper, made by Mohawk Paper, in the Flax or Jute colors. Out
of the hundreds of papers I tried, these two in the colors I've listed are the cream of
the crop. They hide the work well, they practically peel themselves, and they make
great looking cards. The samples you got with this booklet are made from one of
those. IMPORTANT: Whatever kind you get, you'll have to specify the weight you
want it in (which, in paper biz terms, means how thick it the paper is). The weight
you want is "80- pound cover." Note that both parts of that phrase - the "80-pound"
part and the "cover" part - are important. You don't want 80-pound text, which is
regular writing paper, and you don't want 65-pound cover, which is flimsier,
tougher-to-work-with card stock. Now that you know what to get, the tricky part is
finding it. The only place I've found that carries both brands, and will sell them in
quantities from individual sheets to cartons, is a company called Glodan, reachable
on the web at wvvw.glodan.com. You can also order Sundance paper direct from the
manufacturer at: www.gilbertpaper.com/fox/papers/sundance/buy 43 I also had
some luck with The Paper Mill Store (.com), who didn't stock any of the ones I
wanted but offered to order it for a good price, provided I bought a carton (500
sheets). There. Now don't say 1 never gave you nothin'. IF YOU'D RATHER FIGHT
THAN SWITCH 1 realize that many of you reading this will not want to have new
cards made up for this effect, either because you're attached to the design of your
current card, and/or because designing a new one to meet the requirements of the
effect seems like too much trouble. And that's fine. I'm not hurt. No, really. I mean, I
only put three years of sweat and toil into developing this effect, tenderly nurturing

it from its promising but problematic conceptual infancy, onward through a long,
clumsy, awkward adolescence fraught with impractical handlings, elaborate
preparations, imperfect method concealment, and draconian design requirements,
before finally seeing it through to its maturation into the elegant piece of mystery
so lovingly presented to you here. So there's absolutely no reason for me to be
upset if people get this far only to decide not to use it because they can't be
bothered to spend a pleasant evening's work making up a new business card.
Really, it's no problem at all. I'll just be in the corner wailing and gnashing my teeth.
But seriously, there arc a number of options that don't require changing your
current card, for those of you who are unwaveringly intent on riding roughshod over
the creative efforts of one of your fellow [Stop it. - ed.] Right, sorry. Basically, if the
piece of paper you use for the effect is not your business card at all, but rather a
completely separate card that you utilize to demonstrate something interesting and
impossible, then a whole world of choices opens up to you. The easiest and most
obvious one is to use a blank card. Why blank? Well, maybe something about a
blank piece of paper representing infinite possibilities, and/or impossibilities, and
even the gray areas where the two intersect... but that will be for you to work out.
Or the card could bear a pre-printed message that tics in with your presentation something like, "I am impossible," "I can't exist," '"Impossible is only a word," etc.
Another option is to start with a blank card but write something on it that lends
itself to the circumstances. If you're performing for a couple, a nice idea is to have
them write their names in the appropriate spots, and end with them ''joined
together." Or if you're working a corporate event or trade show. I"m sure you can
come up with some word or phrase that would be beneficial to make ''intrinsically
linked" to the company or product you're representing. (Ah, I can smell the
corporate cheese already: "Some people will tell you it's impossible to make 100%
customer satisfaction an integral part of a company's identity, but here at
SchmuckTech, we do the impossible..." I confess I look forward to my effect being
used for such purposes with the same anticipation with which one looks forward to
one's daughter becoming a whore.) Yet another possibility is to have a diagram of
two linked rings printed on the card, and use that picture as a starting point for
discussion. I hope the above provides enough alternative ideas that those of you
who were expecting to use your current card can now be persuaded to put down the
pitchforks and torches. 44 WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION? I'll be the first to admit that as
effects go. Conjunction is an odd bird. It doesn't fit within any of the standard
categories of magic plots - vanishes, appearances, transformations, transpositions,
penetrations, levitations, etc. When I've described the effect to magicians, many of
them have said, "Oh, so you mean it's a one-card link." Well... no. Though the
similarity is obvious, there's a subtle but important difference. In a one-card link, the
rings start out separate and then link together, so the impossible act is the passing
of solid objects through one another - a standa

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rd and easily defined plot. That never happens with Conjunction, as the rings are
linked from the moment they come into existence. So the impossible act becomes
the very creation of an object that should be uncreatable - not exactly a soundbytefriendly premise. So, you may ask yourself, what's it good for then? As with many
things in our field, the answer is, "whatever you choose to make of it." With the
right framing it can be a fine piece to use as an effect within a close-up
performance, be it formal or impromptu or anywhere in between. Personally I tend
to use it more as a thought- and conversation-provoking promotional and marketing
tool - a way to make myself and my business card more memorable and more likely
to be talked about after I'm gone. I've found it's an effective thing to do for someone
whom you're trying to convince to hire you, as it leaves them with a tangible piece
of impossibility that serves as a constant, hard-to-ignore reminder of you. And in a
field where the word "puzzle" has become one of the most derogatory terms in the
lexicon, it can make for a fine one in the best sense of the word; not something to
be solved and defeated, but something with which to challenge people to think
about what is and isn't possible. Truth be told, it's also a great way to win free drinks
from engineers and topologists. Note also that this doesn't have to be performed as
an Effect with a capital E, with all attention focused on it. In a casual environment
you can just grab a card and start fiddling with it, without calling attention to what
you're doing until the appropriate time. It's worth pointing out that when I perform, I
do so as a mentalist, with no "straight" magic included; I deal solely with abilities of
the mind, and I don't ever make things vanish, appear, transpose, levitate, or jump
to the top of the deck. But I do use Conjunction, because although it has nothing to
do with what we think of as the standard mentalism feats (demonstrations of
telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, etc.), it is a fine example of the power of the
human mind to overcome accepted limitations and accomplish things that are
considered impossible. And it helps that unlike most premises and justifications in
mentalism, that happens to be an accurate characterization rather than a line of
unmitigated bullshit. Similar ground has been explored by such mentalists