Frumples

Frumples are little clay creatures (I have a picture here that's a little blurry but my camera battery just died, so we'll have to make do). They are handmade out of little scraps of clay by (or perhaps for) Paula Knudsen. They have a hole at the top of their head, so that they're strung on cord and easily worn around the neck.

Paula says she easily sells $700 worth of these little guys each day (at $10 a pop) during craft shows and other events which she attends. And you can understand why when you watch her work. Paula has a great gimmick (I've published a picture of her "simple muscle test" to the right):

Paula has a sign outside her booth advertising "Improve your golf swing!" When someone stops by, she tells him to stand with his legs together, hand cupped upward and outward, against his thigh. She then pushes down with all her might and, of course, unbalances him.

Next, Paula hands him a Frumple to hold in his other hand and they repeat the procedure. This time he easily resists being unbalanced.

What has happened?

There are a couple possibilities, and I think both come into play here. First, no one is truly prepared for being unbalanced like that. The second time that it's done, the subject instinctively adjusts himself to counterract the force.

Also, let me tell you about a magic trick where the magician tells a strong man to lift his dainty assistant by the elbows, which he does easily. Then the magician stands in front of the strong man and tells him that (using magic, of course) he won't allow him to do it again. When the strong man tries to lift the petite woman again, he can't! How did that happen?

The woman was closer to the strong man the first time. The second time, she moved only 3-4 inches back from where she was originally. That 3-4 inches is enough to more than double the strength he'd need to lift her up. What seems to be a magic or psychological trick is mere manipulation.

So, if Paula is aware of this particular trick, all she has to do is move an indiscernible 3-4 inches back the second time, and her power is decreased even if she applies the same effort as she had before.

In Paula's defense, she may be so naive that she doesn't realize what she's doing. However, it's also very likely that she does. Here's her story for the masses, as written in her literature:

"The dream: The Queen's son and his buddies were jumping in the living room singing FRUMPLE, FRUMPLE, FRUMPLE. At the far end of the room, swirling fairy dust was playing over and over: "A FRUMPLE is a little friend, made with love and out of clay..." She woke up Oct. 8, 1997 and created the first "FRUMPLE."

The Queen had a car accident in 2004 and hurt her knees. Her massage therapist gave her a pouch to wear. It made her knees work again in a few days. At a gathering she was muscle testing people with her pouch. A man came to her and said "My son can put your FRUMPLES through an acceleration technology to balance and strengthen them, just like the pouch." ...He returned the next day with "EMPOWERED FRUMPLES"..."

I have no idea what he did to "empower" the Frumples. However, whether or not she puts herbs or blessings or magnets in them, it is (sadly) all a gimmick. I tried the same thing with a friend and a nickel, and got the same results.

The age-old lesson to be learned by all of this: "There's a sucker born every minute."