what the heck's inside that darn thing? how does it know?

Many years ago a buncha little kids from my apartment complex invaded my living room and found my Magic 8-Ball. They'd never seen a Magic 8-Ball before. I explained that you could ask it any question that could be answered Yes or No, and it would answer, or maybe say that it wasn't sure.

They spent about an hour passing that thing around asking it a gazillion questions until I finally threw them out. They were astonished, amazed, mystified, mesmerized, hypnotized, flabberghasted. Clearly my Magic 8-Ball had just changed all their lives forever.

(Hopefully when they got home, somebody with some brains slapped them around silly and they get over it. But if that didn't happen, those kids have all grown up, bought their own Magic 8-Ball, and are still standing around asking it Yes-No questions.)

You don't have one? Gee, that's a shame. Well, do you have a computer? If you have a computer, you can go to this very excellent virtual 2D verisimilitude of an actual physical 3D Magic 8-Ball.

So here's an unsolved question about the Magic 8-Ball: How many Questions do you have to ask before you're absolutely certain that it's given you every one of its Answers? (No Pizza for this. Vleeptron doesn't give Pizza away for Questions of this caliber.)

Elsewhere on the Web there are Sarcastic and Goofy Magic 8-Balls, and apparently there's one that has Homer Simpson stuck inside.

But for me, there is only the one, the only, the Original Magic 8-Ball. (Tyco, still for sale, pretty cheap, Mattel owns Tyco now.)