Prison? Blackjack? McMurphy.

Last night, I went to a Math Monkey employee holiday party.  I had one of those moments where my life and the book from English class converged.  This year, at the party, the boss decided to hire entertainment, a magician! The magician was pretty entertaining, mostly because there was a lady in the crowd that was excited, crazy, and possibly under the influence of quite a bit of alcohol.  After each magic trick she would be so amazed and scream very loudly. Every single time.  For awhile, we thought she was part of the magician's act to make him seem that much better.  But besides this crazy lady, the magician did one trick that made me excited and immediately made me think of McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  The magician began talking about card tricks and decided to let us in on a secret.  He said that this trick was the first trick you learn in prison (I'm a little skeptical about how he knows that) and it helps you win blackjack as the dealer.  If the dealer has a card that he/she wishes to keep, he/she can hold the deck in a certain way and deal out the second highest card in the deck and keep the top card for himself/herself.  This made me think that not only did McMurphy learn this trick in prison before he arrived at the hospital, but he also uses the trick to beat the other patients and win their money!  Thus, he is cheating in blackjack and unfairly taking the other patients' money.  As I sat in between Mary Beth and Thomas and told them of my connection, however and quite unfortunately they did not seem quite as excited as I did.  But, I am over it now.  At least now I know how McMurphy wins blackjack so often.