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 After a moment of silence, it was Miles who announced in a clear and firm voice, "The cards you have put down there all happen to be black—your 'red' is the nine of diamonds, the curse of Scotland, and it's right here," reaching to lift the sharper's hat, and to remove from atop his head, and exhibit, the card at issue.

* * * * * * * * * *

Miles ability to bust this scam and find the red card will probably be explained in a few sentences after this one. For now, let's get to the bottom of this "curse of Scotland" business!

"the nine of diamonds, the curse of Scotland"
Turns out there are various reasons why the nine of diamonds might be called the curse of Scotland and none of them seem definitive. If you want to see the various suppositions, just check out the curse of Scotland Wikipedia page. Because now I have other things to talk about!
    Like the nine of diamonds nickname which people know but can't definitively explain, some of the other nicknames for cards and/or card pairings can't be explained. One of the nicknames for a hand consisting of a 2 and a 3 in the hole in Texas Hold 'em is called a "Little Pete." The Wikipedia page claims there is no explanation. I'm sure there was, at one time, an explanation. But now people are just using that nickname because, I guess, everybody else keeps using it? Or maybe it doesn't get used anymore because nobody knows why it should make sense (which I hope is the case because come on people! If you don't know why something is a thing, maybe stop making it a thing?). Also no explanation: two queens being called "Calamity Jane," although like the curse of Scotland, theories exist. Also also no explanation: a king and a jack being called a "Tucson Monster." I have a theory about that one! It's probably somebody shitting all over Tucson, as in "This hand might not be great to play in New York but you'd win every time in Tucson!"
    No explanation is given for a pair of queen being nicknamed "bitches" because, well, we all understand how terrible men are.
    Most of the nicknames have some explanation even if they're unsatisfying or simply dumb. It's as if every sports commentator, at some point, had to come up with a cutesy nickname for a set of cards to try to make their career. I bet some of these poker commentators have sat up all night brainstorming different ways they could refer to Texas Hold 'em hole cards. And even though dozens of these nicknames are referenced in the Wikipedia for playing-card nicknames, I doubt even ten percent of them see regular use, at least based on the ones I generally hear. I'm sure a lot of them are regional. Like who actually ever called a set of nines "Hitler" aside from a bunch of ancient vets sitting around the VFW back in the 90s or 00s?
    I will give it up for some of the more imaginative ones that are appropriately vulgar for a low brow game of poker like "The Bachelor's Hand" which is an off-suit jack and king (jack-king-off. Ha ha! Clever!).
    A cousin to the nine of diamonds being the curse of Scotland is the two of spades which is the curse of Mexico. While the curse of Scotland has many different possibilities for the nickname, the curse of Mexico remains unknown. At least to me and my miniscule amount of research into the subject!
    I'm going to spend more time on reading card nicknames than I've already spent on reading Against the Day if I don't just force myself to stop!

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 Three cards lay face-down before them.

* * * * * * * * * *

I guess it doesn't matter if the game is a scam or not; it's not like the dealer asked them to place any kind of a bet.

I wonder if there's any subtext I'm missing in this line. I bet there's something I'm not getting in the overall scene. Maybe after it plays out a bit, I'll have something to say even though it'll be too late by then and all of these posts will already have been made. And then I'll look like a dumb-dumb who can't even parse the simplest themes and motifs in Pynchon's book.

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 "O.K.! maybe it's your lucky night, just tell us where that red is, now."

* * * * * * * * * *

"O.K.!"
Interesting, to me, at least, that nobody altered the abbreviation of "oll korrect" to "okay" until the 1920s. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, O.K. is the only surviving acronym of "deliberate, jocular misspellings" from a slang fad in Boston and New York in the 1830s. Examples of ones that didn't survive were N.C. for "nuff ced" and K.G. for "no go." This strange twist of language is about as dumb and intriguing as Cockney rhyming slang. But it's nowhere near as deep and inventive. Probably nowhere near as dumb either. Those fucking Cockneys, man.

"maybe it's your lucky night"
It's not. Remember, the game is a scam.

"tell us where that red is"
I can tell you where it isn't: on the table in front of the boys!

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 At times there were too many cards to count, at others none at all were visible, seeming to have vanished into some dimension well beyond the third, though this could have been a trick of what light there was.

* * * * * * * * * *

"At times there were too many cards to count"
This probably represents how many choices every person has every second of their lives. We have too many options and are sometimes paralyzed by the enormity of it all. But most often we just make the easiest choices which is probably why, in the end, the "game" represents our "life choices" by only using three cards.

"at others none at all were visible"
At these moments, Jesus was carrying you.

"vanished into some dimension well beyond the third"
That would probably be like the sixth or the seventh because of the modifier "well beyond." But it's also simply a nonsense description of what Miles and Lindsay's eyesight was capable of telling their brains. The cards "seemed to have" done this impossible thing. Everybody knows they weren't actually! Although if they were, it wouldn't be surprising because the boys are living through historic times, especially in the fields of science and engineering and workers' rights!

"could have been a trick of what light there was"
Oh! We're back to the theme of light! Here we see that light is tricky. It can fool the senses, depending on how much or how little exists at any one point in time and space. Remember the words of Thelonious Monk: it's always night or we wouldn't need light. Even if light is a little trickster prankster jerk. It's the best we've got to combat night!

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 The sharper who had addressed them now began to move cards around with bewildering speed.

* * * * * * * * * *

"The sharper"
I know language changes and we have to accept that language changes and nobody should be so strict that they can't change with the times or else you become a piece of shit traditionalist trying to keep the old world extant no matter how much harm it brings to future generations. You all know who I'm talking about. Anyway, "card shark" originated from "card sharp" and has basically taken over completely except for a few didacts (or do I mean pedantic? I suppose a didactic pedant will tell me) willing to make a Supreme Court case over it. Can you imagine not being able to watch the show Card Sharks because you're bristling with anger and frustration over the name the entire time? If you can imagine that, welcome to my world! And I love that game show! But oh boy does it make me angry!
    The other phrase that bothers me is when people say "You've got another thing coming" when it was originally "You've got another think coming." Once again, the change in the phrase has pretty much won out. Using "You've got another think coming" is like spelling "lose" correctly on the Internet; you might technically be in the right but most people are just going to think you're an illiterate looser (it doesn't help that "looser" is an actual word so autocorrect isn't helping anybody!).
    Oh, I just thought of another phrase: "music to soothe the savage breast." We all know that one as "music to soothe the savage beast" and, you know what, we're all better off for that change. Nobody wants to say "breast" in mixed company! So awkward!

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"No, boss, it's an ancient African method of divination, allows you to change your fate."

* * * * * * * * * *

 Oh! Well now doesn't Lindsay look foolish! What a xenophobic jerk to think this guy was running a scam just because he was wearing a pork-pie hat and maybe some other reasons! If at any point you thought I was jumping to that conclusion myself, just realize that I'm a Grandmaster Book Reader and I was just channeling Lindsay's thoughts and attitudes! With all the other crazy, non-accurate stuff going on (Waziri teaching waylaying methods; Tungus sexing up reindeer; Tarahumara pretending to do drugs), I should have realized this guy wasn't just trying to pull a scam with his folding table and cards; he's doing a right proper ancient African divination ritual! Of course! I would totally bet five dollars on that! And to think, I would have passed up such an opportunity because I thought this honest man was pulling some sort of scam! I've got to stop being so cynical!

"allows you to change your fate"
Interesting. This man's philosophical view of life must be that there is no free will and our courses are entirely pre-determined. Predestination, if you will. So he might say that there are those of us who are already saved (the Elect) and the rest of us who are already damned (the Preterites). But say there were a ritual, perhaps discovered in Africa with European playing cards, that could change God's predetermined fate for you! Wouldn't you take this chance?! Wouldn't you bet five bucks to try to win ten and also a seat in Heaven?!

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 "If I didn't know better, I'd say that was one of those monte games," murmured Lindsay, politely suppressing his disapproval.

* * * * * * * * * *

Look at my smart little man, Lindsay Noseworth! Can't pull the pork-pie hat down over his eyes! Not that he'd wear one, being so into proper uniforms and regulations and totally against anything fun and interesting.

"If I didn't know better"
Hunh. I'm pretty sure, except when having quoted somebody (like Chick with the word "ain't"), Lindsay hasn't used a contraction up until now. Maybe, as a robot or an alien, he's learning to be more human! Or maybe I just stopped paying close attention, seeing as how I've spent three months reading twenty-two pages.

"politely suppressing his disapproval"
I'm glad to see that Lindsay doesn't treat everybody he meets as if they're as incompetent as Darby Suckling.

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"Come over here, boys, first time for free, find the red get a pat on the head, find the black, get nothing back!" cried a cheerful Negro in a "pork-pie" hat, who was standing behind a folding table nearby, setting down and picking up playing cards.

* * * * * * * * * *

 Normally I'd find a picture of the clothing mentioned in the text and post it here but I think everybody knows what a pork-pie hat looks like (and if they don't, they certainly know how to use an online search engine). I used Google to take a look at pork-pie hats and now I know something I probably didn't want to know: hipsters love this thing, don't they? Is it because it goes well with old timey beards and waxed mustaches and hoping that looking dapper can compensate for your boring personality?

Another thing I learned is that Google reads "pork-pie hat" in the search bar and goes, "Oh? You wanted pictures of hats? I have lots and lots of them! I have fedoras and bowlers and straw boating hats and pork-pie hats too! Take your pick!"

At first I typed "Take your pic!" and I guess that would have worked as well.

This Negro is attempting to get the kids to engage in a little Three-card Monte. As we are all Internet denizens here, we all know that this is a game in which it is impossible to win. It's a scam. It's a cheat. It's America at its best! The dealer puts three cards face down and mixes them up. The bettor needs to find the red card, usually the queen of hearts, to win. But the bettor can never find that card due to sleight-of-hand or other shenanigans. And if the bettor somehow accidentally finds the right card, the dealer will employ some other method of cheating, like running away really fast or blackjacking the bettor in the face. It's one of the universe's most stringent and natural of laws: the house always wins.

"find the red get a pat on the head"
I mean, I'd hope that I'd get something better! Like a couple of bucks or something. How about this come along, sir: "Find the black, get nothing back! Find the red, get a dollar instead!" Pretty good, right?! I think I might be a natural at this game!

"cheerful Negro in a "pork-pie" hat"
I bet he had a toothpick between his lips too! And I bet he was handsome! And he probably winked a few times too in a really jolly and charismatic way! Man, I'd play some Three-card Monte with this fellow!

My friend Sal whom I met in elementary school once observed a guy doing Three-card Monte while we were out roaming around somewhere as teenagers. He was really watching the guy and telling us, "Dudes. I can totally beat that guy. I know where the red card is every time!" And we were all, "Sal. It's a scam. You won't win." And he was all, "No, no. I've got this! I can totally beat him!" And then Sal lost like ten bucks and we were all, "See, you stupid idiot!"
    I told you that story to tell you this one: Sal is now a huge Fox News viewer.

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 "This doesn't seem," Lindsay adrift between fascination and disbelief, "quite . . . authentic, somehow."

* * * * * * * * * *

This is Lindsay reacting to the obviously non-Tungus women implying that the boys will find Tungus having sex with reindeer if they enter to see the exhibit. Hopefully for Lindsay's sake (because I'll judge him harshly otherwise), "disgust" lies somewhere between "fascination and disbelief." If it doesn't, it sounds like Lindsay wants to see the Reindeer Show and the only thing holding him back is that it might not be an authentic cultural experience. Although I get that too because I wouldn't walk out of a Tijuana Donkey Show. I also wouldn't walk into one. But if I was in some bar and the DJ suddenly said, "Y ahora, para tu placer . . . ¡una mujer se follará a un burro!", I wouldn't leave. Mostly because I don't speak Spanish and would have no idea what was about to happen. "Did the DJ just say a woman is going to come out and make a burrito?" Then the show would start and I would say, "Oh. Now I understand."