Lokhotron = Scam?

[Josh Wilson]

According to my Russian collegues, Lokhotron is the Russian name for "the 
shell game."  A person places a small ball under a cup in a line of three 
similar cups and quickly moves the cups around.  The watcher is supposed to 
bet on where which cup the ball is under after the movement stops.  In 
modern usuage, the word has come to mean any sort of scam where the buyer 
thinks he/she is getting one thing and really purchasing another.  Car 
salesmen are especially refered to as "Lokhi," which is doubly interesting 
as in Nordic mythology the god Loki is a trickster god.

Cheers,

JW

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "VANCHU, ANTHONY J. (JSC-AH) (TTI)" <anthony.j.vanchu1 at JSC.NASA.GOV>
To: <SEELANGS at listserv.cuny.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 5:45 PM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Lokhotron = Scam?


> Dear Seelangers,
>
> In working with some of the videos from the website Avtorskoe televidenie
> (http://www.atv.ru), I've come across the word "lokhotron" more than once.
> My sense is that it's the equivalent of the English "scam" (the hits on
> Yandex would seem to bear this out), but I wanted to turn to my fellow
> Seelangtsovy to see if I might be missing something here.
>
> BTW, the ATV site has a lot of very useful material--2-3 minute clips on a
> variety of topics.  Thanks to the list for pointing out this site!
>
> Thanks in advance.  Happy Holidays to all!
>
> Tony Vanchu
>
> Dr. Anthony J. Vanchu
> Director, JSC Language Education Center
> TechTrans International, Inc.
> NASA Johnson Space Center
> Houston, TX
> Phone:  (281) 483-0644
> Fax:  (281) 483-4050
>
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