I always wanted a fortune-telling puppet, like Zoltar in the Funland Arcade on the Rehoboth boardwalk. He lived in a silk-lined box and saw the future for a quarter. I made two such puppets combining bunraku elements (mouth and eye animation) with tarot, but I couldn't figure out how to make a puppet that could deal the cards without me having a hand in it, so to speak.

The trick finally came together on account of ball bearing rings, printable media discs, and (as usual) duct tape. Taking the name of a famous 18th century occult charlatan, Cagliostro uses the spinning wheels of tarot's Major and Minor Arcana to spell doom and weave destiny, and he guarantees every word.

"Because," says the Sultan of Sooth, "everything comes true eventually."