Spot the Ball

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

There are two balls.

Here's how the trick works:

The magician (the man) displays a red ball, then places it in the palm of the woman who has been called up from the audience.  He instructs the woman to squeeze the ball as hard as she can; he then wraps his right hand around hers and says the magic words.

The magician then takes his hand away, shows that it is empty, and asks the woman to open hers.  To the astonishment of the woman and all assembled, the ball has vanished!

This is the moment that has been captured in the painting.

In a second, the magician will remove his hat and pull out what appears to be the same ball as before, but it's a duplicate.  While fussing with the woman in the preamble, he palmed the ball.  He then dropped it down his sleeve as he raised his arm, just before he opened his hand to show that it is empty.

So to sum up, there is one ball in the man's hat and one in his sleeve, near the elbow.

[Swatopluk]

Ah, that classical method of getting a fast police escort in a traffic jam. Putting the ball under your dress and pretend to be pregnant.
The Husband (a certain Mr.Arnolfini) tries to prevent the dog from discovering the fraud by going for the ball that was taken from it.


Vereschagin, Apotheosis of soccer hooliganism

[goat starer]

Aha! the old "hide the ball under a big pile of skulls because nobody will look there" trick, with the added "surround it with loads of crows because most people don't like habging around crows long enough to look for a ball."VERY clever!

Gotta go so somebody else stick up a picture!

[beagle]

I've heard of sticking the odd Memento Mori in a picture, but that really is laying it on with a trowel.
My own guess is that it shows all that was left after a particularly vicious scrum in the 2001 Varsity match at Twickenham; the ball, as Goat said, is still under there somewhere.

On a similar theme, Spot the ball here (clue: England are bowling).

[Griffin NoName]

This is in fact a pseudo-pop-art representation of the top of one of the wooden dining chairs in The Woodentops Best Parlour. Spot the dog is under the table, which is out of view due to the camera angle, with the ball wrapped in a yellow duster.

[goat starer]

If England are bowling the ball will not be in shot as it will be a wide.

I wonder where that ball could be? Have you tried under the disciple?

[Swatopluk]

I smell lots of meatballs there (although not flying yet). But I think the discussion about the presence of the lady could change that in a short amount of time. And the moderator in the center looks rather to meek to keep the two fractions under control.


Two contestants at the Uruk Rodeo Festival

[beagle]

Rats, Swato beat me to it...

Wrongly attributed for many centuries to Andy Warhol, Leonardo's "Afternoon Tea" has lost a fair amount of detail. This is largely due to using the wrong pigments on the wrong type of plaster in a building in an earthquake zone in an area prone to frequent invasion. Not only the ball, but the penguin and the midget are now lost to us. Experts believe the ball was near the area bearing the inscription "Killroy was here".


In Swato's, the bloke on the left is annoyed that the bloke on the right won't give back the tennis ball he threw for his Griffiny/Minotaury/Sphinxy pet to catch.
Leading historians frequently cite the incident as one of the early causes of the Crimean war.
The ball rolled off to the right, and lay forgotten for several millenia in the ensuing confusion.

[goat starer]

Babylonian Polo! my favorite kind. the guy behind was going for goal riding on that Hippogryff type thingy in the middle when the suffragette protestor in a laughable fake beard ran onto the pitch and grabbed his steed by its preposterous ears (breaking her own arms in the process!). this caused the chap to miscue his shot and fall off the back of the animal. In this image he is remounting and will shortly be attempting to play his next shot from the balls current location underneath the ladys left foot.

Please spot the ball in one of the earliest and bloodiest football hooligan incidents betwen the English and the French depicted here in the Bayeaux tapestry

[beagle]

You have to fast forward a bit through the tapestry to find it. It got such a wellying that it went into solar orbit and became known (somewhat prematurely) as Halley's Comet:



Meanwhile, as Blue Peter introduces the new head of the BBC, where is the ball?

[Swatopluk]

If you look at the first rider closely, you can see that he is not holding a spear but a handfull of ball bearings that he is going to throw at the pedestrians in front of him. He and some of the people behind him have magnetic shields where they can stick the reserve balls and/or catch those thrown by the opposition.

Drat, beaten to it too.

But the magnetic holdings for throwing ball bearings are clearly visible here too.


The chips are down

[goat starer]

I believe he was on just before Blue Peter with his starring role in think of a number!



find the ball in W F Yeames 'whan did you last see your father'

[goat starer]

do swatopluks one. we can come bachk to the father

[Swatopluk]

Lots of balls in the abakus the man in the right background holds.
And most of the men have the balls taken from the (now) crying girl hidden under their hats.


And here again our furry friends

[goat starer]

the whole thing is balls! dogs playing poker? you are having a laugh!

but if I were to guess I would say that toffee nosed lassie-a-like probably confiscated any balls to stop the plebs playing football and loose their hard earned dosh from t'mill to him!

spot the ball in ancient egypt