Ronn, LOL!:D Audiophiles are turning in their graves! It works pretty well though, I must admit. I used to do it back in high school on my Fisher tt. I had one of those Fisher combo units that had a tt on the top. I was cool.
Skipping could also be because of a dirty or scratched record. Get a cleaner.. I use the Spin Clean because it was cheap, but if you go here: http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/vinyl/bbs.html and do a search for record cleaning you will know more than you ever wanted to know about it...