Disclaimer: This is a fictional piece of work based on a true story and meant as a joke. I take no responsibility for any other interpretation of this timeline.
Second Disclaimer: The disclaimer itself is meant as an inside joke to the people listed in this timeline entry.
Notorious mathematicians Arthur Benjamin and Jennifer Quinn help promote
using innocent math games as a way to con others out of money. Benjamin
was headed for a life of crime after getting kicked out of nursery school,
but he spent years formulating his plans. Around 1996 he realized
he
needed a partner... a partner who knew combinatorics. That's
when he met up with Jennifer Quinn. After discussing some ideas together,
they realized that they needed to take the math community by surprise so
they started out by co-writing innocent articles. Starting with a
paper on chromatic indicies in 1997 and following with a few other papers,
they had everybody else fooled. Then they wrote "Unevening the Odds
of Even Up." An article that tells people to cheat at the card game
"Even Up." The cheating isn't even mathmatical, they actually go so far
as telling readers to "secretly" add cards to the deck. If you see
these two, and they ask to play a card game with you, immediately
report them to the authorities. :)
Author: Eric Libicki
References:
Benjamin, Arthur and Jennifer Quinn, "Unevening the Odds of Even Up,"
Mathematics Magazine, to appear..
Mathematical Association of America, "Art Benjamin-Mathemagician," Math
Horizons, November 1998, p 14-19.
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