the wig thief check it: you are lusting after a designer periwig from this season’s hot new lineup of outlandish hairpieces but your daddy’s not about to drop £20 on “another frivolous head merkin” and your current wig is soooo last year (plus it still reeks of pickle brine from the time that you and phillip played “hide the sauerbraten” instead of attending your younger cousin’s harpsichord concert). WHAT DO YOU DO, HOTSHOT? what you do is get your gang back together and run one of the oldest wig scams in the book, the boy on a butcher’s tray wig scam. here’s the play × play. A boy was carried covered over in a butcher’s tray by a tall man, and the wig was twisted off in a moment by the boy. The bewildered owner looked all round for it, when an accomplice impeded his progress under the pretence of assisting him while the tray-bearer made off. there is even a poem about this scam. from trivia: Nor is the flaxen wig with safety wornHigh on the shoulders in a basket borneLurks the sly boy, whose hand, to rapine bred,Plucks off the curling honours of thy head. if you need me, i will be in harvard square looking for an agile young accomplice that i can conceal under a blanket on a platter of meat. __ source: at the sign of the barber’s pole, by william andrews (1904). more period scams you and your gang can run: •the mouldingborde gambit (if you are patient, you can turn a little dough into a lot of “dough”)•the panel game (you will need access to a prostitute)

the wig thief

check it: you are lusting after a designer periwig from this season’s hot new lineup of outlandish hairpieces but your daddy’s not about to drop £20 on “another frivolous head merkin” and your current wig is soooo last year (plus it still reeks of pickle brine from the time that you and phillip played “hide the sauerbraten” instead of attending your younger cousin’s harpsichord concert). WHAT DO YOU DO, HOTSHOT?

what you do is get your gang back together and run one of the oldest wig scams in the book, the boy on a butcher’s tray wig scam. here’s the play × play.

A boy was carried covered over in a butcher’s tray by a tall man, and the wig was twisted off in a moment by the boy. The bewildered owner looked all round for it, when an accomplice impeded his progress under the pretence of assisting him while the tray-bearer made off.

there is even a poem about this scam. from trivia:

Nor is the flaxen wig with safety worn
High on the shoulders in a basket borne
Lurks the sly boy, whose hand, to rapine bred,
Plucks off the curling honours of thy head.

if you need me, i will be in harvard square looking for an agile young accomplice that i can conceal under a blanket on a platter of meat.

__

source: at the sign of the barber’s pole, by william andrews (1904).

more period scams you and your gang can run:

•the mouldingborde gambit (if you are patient, you can turn a little dough into a lot of “dough”)
•the panel game (you will need access to a prostitute)

October 21, 2010
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