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Word: alibis (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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Dembroski describes a still more colorful character, the "alibi agent," a concessionaire who specializes in usually rigged games called alibis. That name comes from the agent's ready explanation for the mark's inevitable failures. "You threw that one too high," he may say, thus persuading the mark that he can easily do better if he keeps playing. (One example of an alibi is the six-cat, in which a mark tries to knock a row of canvas cats off a shelf with a baseball-but fails because a mechanical device keeps the cats in place.) According...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Behavior: The Carnie and the Mark | 5/28/1973 | See Source »

...Celluloid? A photograph of Sarris which appeared sometimes on Voice ads showed a rough looking character with a pugnacious glare, decorating a dingy sidewalk with a middle aged version of the James Dean slouch. He was the perfect role model for misfits who used suspicion of general culture to alibi for their own lack of discipline. In Confessions of a Cultist in 1970. Sarris admitted that he had inadvertently modeled a career out of escapism. And while he moved he attracted hordes willing to follow him to the paradisial loges of the Paramount...

Author: By Michael Sragow, | Title: Decline and Fall of a Film-Watcher | 11/22/1972 | See Source »

...really believed Hollywood to produce much "popular art" that serious aggravation over inadequate nominations--once a favorite space-filling ploy of earnest local columnists--has virtually ceased. And, as it's doubtful that Oscars add much today to a picture's gross, even "industry-followers" are left without an alibi...

Author: By Michael Sragow, | Title: "Oscar Wiles" | 4/13/1972 | See Source »

After explaining the season's losses, Harrison reiterated that he doesn't criticize other people or alibi...

Author: By Douglas E. Schoen, | Title: Harrison and the Basketball Team: Just What Happened This Season | 4/11/1972 | See Source »

...this version of that era is. The free-speech battle in San Diego becomes a minor skirmish. A group called the Over-alls Brigade pops in two years early for no discernable reason. By weaving Joe's first love back into the film, Widerberg states as fact the unconfirmable alibi Hill gave at the murder trial. And because the scenes of labor upheaval lack conviction, the trial fails to gain credibility as a politically repressive...

Author: By Alan Heppel, | Title: Joe Hill | 12/16/1971 | See Source »

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