Cons, Scams, and Flim-Flams with Pretend (ep. 180)

<p>Javier Leiva from <a href="http://www.pretendpodcast.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pretend</a> did a podcast with me!!!! </p> <p>Like what you hear?  Become a <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonfacts.com">patron of the arts</a> for as little as $2 a month!   Or <a href= "https://bookshop.org/books/your-brain-on-facts-things-you-didn-t-know-things-you-thought-you-knew-and-things-you-never-knew-you-never-knew-trivia-quizzes-fun-fa/9781642502534?aid=14459&listref=books-based-on-podcasts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">buy the book</a> or <a href= "https://www.teepublic.com/stores/your-brain-on-facts?ref_id=11890" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some merch</a>.  <a href= "http://www.yourbrainonfacts.com/social" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Hang out</a> with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on <a href= "http://yourbrainonfacts.libsyn.com/content/facebook.com/yourbrainonfacts">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://yourbrainonfacts.libsyn.com/content/twitter.com/moxielabouche">Twitter</a>,  or <a href= "http://yourbrainonfacts.libsyn.com/content/instagram.com/yourbrainonfacts">Instagram.</a></p> <p>We teach each other about:</p> <p>a pig in a poke</p> <p>salting a mine</p> <p>melon drop</p> <p>vanity awards</p> <p>Baltimore stock-broker</p> <p>fake casting agents</p> <p>Plus learn the three most interesting things about me!  (at least, what I can legally make public ;)  )</p> <p> </p> <p>Pig in a Poke (Cat in a bag)<br /> Have you ever heard the expression “a pig in a poke” or “don’t let the cat out of the bag?” You might be surprised at the origins of this cliche.</p> <p>A pig in a poke is a thing that is bought without first being inspected, and thus of unknown authenticity or quality. The idiom is attested in 1555 in the writings of John Haywood: I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke, Thers many a foule pyg in a feyre cloke. A "poke," I should explain, is a bag, so you can’t actually see the pig. How it would work…</p> <p>But the piglet would often turn out to be a bundle of rags or some i