Mulch Goes Capitalistic

Mulch Reviews Snake Oil!

Well, it had to happen. With soooo many people making cold hard cash online, I decided, to infest my blog with the crass sickness known as capitalism.

What's that you say? Mulch gone capitalistic?

Well yes. I am going to review some items that I have used and enjoyed/hated. With my review I will post links where you too can purchase said item if it interests you. I do this as a service and because sooo many people are making cold hard cash selling absolute crap on the net, I might as well give you my opinion on things I use everyday. If you want the item, cool, use my link to buy them and reward me for my time telling you how wonderful/shitty said object is.

In the interest of disclosure, links on reviews most likely will pay me cold hard cash if you buy. Adwords didn't like the pics of the dead from Katrina posted so they banned me, so I might as well try to turn all my faithful readers into cash with some reviews. Rest assured, I won't promote shit to make a sale. I don't have to tell you I may make some cash off my reviews.

Plenty of websites on the net pretend they are impartial reviews, then praise every item that crosses their path as absolute brilliance to entice YOU to make a sale and make them a little bit of cash.

I have too much integrity to do that, so I will post links that can make me some cash for the item I review, and I will let you know right off the bat that I make money off the sale. I will review the product based on my opinion only, not whether this item will make me cash. So take my reviews at face value (or better yet don't, a critical mind is hard to find these days) and I hope you trust I will call the crap by the true name and not present it as shiny brown happy gold.

If it sucks, I'll tell you. If you buy anyway, use my link and reward me for writing about it. If it's wonderful, I will encourage you to buy it, and buy it from my link so I make some cash. If you don't trust me, use google and search the item and find it elsewhere. If I give it a thumbs up, I want you to use my link to buy it as much as I do if I call it complete bullshit. Got it?

Well 1st off, I signed up for the Amazon affiliate program because 1) they are the oldest affiliate program on the net and 2) I ordered the book from it because my lame local stores didn't stock it. Fair enough, but right now I am going to stop my review and try to get the picture of the damn book to work. Way to go, you were the 1st, you think you could get it right! My mistake, lemme make the link work, I will be right back (otherwise, whats the point?)

OK, as for my review of Snake Oil: Life's Calculations, Misdirections, And Manipulations, I must admit this book is fascinating. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I learned at least 1 new trick to mess with my friends minds (Face Up 5 Card Draw). I tore through this book like I have never savored a book before.

That being said, the book cannot be given an A. Or a B. The best I could give it is an incomplete. I say incomplete, because Jim either doesn't have the the type of mind that can explain things fully or left out details to protect industry secrets.

In other words, things were NOT explained well enough for me. Many of his instructions were confusing and when I tried to replicate the scam/trick I was not able to get the results promised. This becomes really alarming when you realize some of the tricks Jim teaches involve very VERY VERY dangerous stunts such as a car driving over a human!

Yes, Mr. Rose gave his disclaimer that this was indeed a very dangerous "trick," but his explanation left me so confused and bewildered that I am 90% sure I would be crushed by said car trying to replicate his "con."

Unfortunately, most "tricks" in the book leave me unsure of whether I will meet success or kill someone/get my lights punched out. If I took every item in this book as fiction, I would give this book a solid B because I read it in one sitting and couldn't put it down. But since this book was laid out as an instruction manual on how to con/fool people with some tricks and sleight of hand, I would say it failed miserably as even the tricks I would like to try I would be concerned because his instructions were far less than explicit and complete as I would need to wager my cash/body attempting to replicate.

But, like I said, the "Face Up" Poker trick is good enough to win you enough money back in bar bets to more than pay for the book, but anything else should be taken for more as a history/hmmm publication than an instruction book. That being said although there is some history, there are not enough facts to make it feel like an historical record, although I guess with the subject matter, there is more sizzle than steak anyway as the promotion and marketing of the devices were far more important than getting the facts straight, hence the facts were often clouded to promote the "feats" and the "legend" of the original performers.

Although I enjoyed the book immensely as a good read and possible chronicle of a time long gone, if you want to fuck with your friends in 1st class fashion, try to get ahold of the long out of print Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends from Penn & Teller.

I'll give Snake Oil: Life's Calculations, Misdirections, And Manipulations a C, because I enjoyed the read and couldn't put the book down, but I had to take many points away because I couldn't duplicate most tricks. Jim Rose has a good style, but it needs to be developed and supervised.

He either needs to give detailed explicit instructions to duplicate his feats per scientific method or make it a history book with some tangible facts. He ends up somewhere in the middle, so I give him an average C rating despite enjoying the book as I did.

If you read or have read this book, feel free to chime in =)