From wamyers@peach.ucs.indiana.edu Wed Feb 22 01:22:47 GMT 1995 Article: 17575 of rec.juggling Newsgroups: rec.juggling Path: news.hal.COM!olivea!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!csusac!zimmer!nic-nac.CSU.net!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!wamyers@peach.ucs.indiana.edu From: "Ward A. Myers" Subject: Re: Columns Message-ID: <1995Feb15.170757.3174@news.cs.indiana.edu> Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University References: <3h93k3$mno@news.hal.COM> <1995Feb13.110224.23102@leeds.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 17:07:51 -0500 Lines: 29 In article , Simon Tatham wrote: [stuff about site-swaps mercifully deleted] >I'm not too clear on the difference myself, but the people I've spoken too seem to agree (in general) that both tricks involve the three balls staying in >the same horizontal positions, and just moving up and down. The difference >seems to be that in the Boston Mess the hands cross alternately >left-over-right and right-over-left, whereas in Pistons it's allowable to do >whichever is easiest (left-over-right for me) all the time. This may be >over-specific though, and there may be no difference. Anyone else? Well, according to Charlie Dancey's Encyclopedia of Ball Juggling, the Boston Mess has two mirror versions(hands cross left-over-right and right-over-left). Pistons is juggling four balls in async columns. The effect is really quite nice, if you have them rise and fall in order.(it looks rather like a wave) I can do both of these, but I'm having trouble switching continuously between the two versions of Boston Mess. Any advice? As an aside, I heartily recommend Dancey's book. It focuses primarily on 3,4, and 5 ball tricks(which for right now is more than enough to keep me busy). I got my copy from Serious Juggling(Ben). BTW, I'm not affiliated with either of the above--just a pleased juggler. ----Ward .sig thinks that fumes from organic lab have just made a normal cascade seem like Boston Mess.