Recently, a lot of scuttlebutt has been circulating around the net about a major magic discounter that has decided to clean up its act. This discounter has been an outlet for Magic Makers, and has been banned from advertising in several magic publications.

According to the rumors, they have contacted several people of high repute in the magic business to help them with their image. One of the people they have contacted is a fellow whose business has been very badly hurt by them.

If any of you guys read this, please think of the fable of the scorpion and the frog. In case you don't remember it, it goes something like this.

In fact, it goes exactly like this.

A scorpion and a frog were standing on the bank of the river. The frog started to cross the river, when the scorpion called out: "Frog. Please allow me to ride across the river on your back. I cannot swim."

The frog replied, "No. I dare not. You will sting me, and I will surely die."

The scorpion replied, "No, I won't. You will be doing me a favor. I will not sting you."

The frog asked, "Do you promise that you will not sting me?"

The scorpion replied "Yes, I promise."

So the scorpion jumped onto the frog's back and rode across to the opposite bank. Immediately upon getting to dry land, the scorpion stung the frog.

As the frog lay dying, he said to the scorpion: "You promised you wouldn't sting me. I trusted you. I took you safely to dry land. But you stung me anyway."

The scorpion replied, "You should have known better. It's my nature. After all, I am a scorpion."


One of the people

Somehow this post got truncated, so I'll finish it.

One of the people listed as an advisor is a friend of mine in South Texas. He never gave his permission to be listed.

Have they cleaned up their act?

Not yet.

Well, here's an update. I have visited the "scorpion's" web site a few times recently, and many of the knockoffs are gone. Maybe they are not scorpions any more. Soon, a year will have passed. And we shall see what progress they have made.