Memoirs of a New York Denizen: Never Underestimate The Sneakiness, Sir

I work fairly closely with a guy named Dan, who has a habit of leaving his wallet on his desk. Today it fell, and upon picking it up, I noticed that besides his assorted credit cards and such there was just a single $20 bill. He had quickly run to the bathroom at the time, so I replaced the wallet to its place on his desk and walked away.

Two hours later, I stopped by, and in mid-conversation made an off-handed comment that I have this trick where I can guess the amount of money in someone's wallet merely by weighing it.

Incredulously, he hands me his wallet. I held it in my right hand, bouncing it up and down. I switched it to my left hand. Then back to the right hand. Then in both hands.

This ritual went on for about 20-30 seconds, and as I gave the wallet back to Dan, I confidently announce, "Twenty dollars!" Dan hesitated. He knew I was right, and he was clearly not prepared for such a low-ball guess. Then he shit himself.

Stuttering and stammering, he begged me to tell him how I just did that. I told him it's something I've been able to do all my life, just like Alex P. Keaton can hear the sound of change hitting the floor and can tell you what the coins are. This cracked Dan up, and thus achieved my goal of distracting him with my clever wit long enough for him to forget about how I just tricked him.

But this is why I like Dan. He got the reference immediately.

Here's some other interesting trivia about the hit series, Family Ties, thanks to IMDB:

It was never revealed what the "P." in Alex P. Keaton stood for.

Michael J. Fox added the "P." in Alex P. Keaton as an ad-lib in his audition, the writers loved it and kept it. Michael J. Fox almost didn't get the role of Alex - due to the fact that NBC exec Brandon Tartikoff didn't find it believable that Meredith Baxter Birney and Michael Gross would have a son that was so short.

According to Michael J. Fox's last "Spin City" (1996) episode, Alex P. Keaton became a Junior Congressman from Ohio.

One year before playing Michael J. Fox's father in Back to the Future, Crispin Glover played Alex P. Keaton's friend in the episode Birthday Boy.

Tom Hanks played Elise Keaton's brother Ned.

Throughout the series' run, exterior establishment shots of the Keaton home were never used in any of the episodes, which is very unusual for a family sitcom. The vast majority of all scenes were played out in the kitchen.