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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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Here's another type of ghost in the scanning machine, presented in honor of Gordon Meyer. This image recalls the double-exposure spirit photography of the 19th century. This particular ghost materialized in the Google Books scan of Wilfred Montressor: or, The Secret Order of the Seven: A Romance of Life in the New York Metropolis (1865). We're especially tickled by the ghost of the huge letter Y. |
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Imagine a game of "What's My Line," in which either a cherub or an imp whispers into a blindfolded panelist's ear.
Are the whispered words pictured on the right of an angelic or a diabolical nature?
Answer: Diabolical. "Riches, luxury, power can be yours—soft beds and dainty foods. You can be great in the greatness that the world can see, famous with the fame your own ears will hear. Work for the world, and the world will pay you promptly; the wages the gods give are long delayed." —Jerome K. Jerome, Diary of a Pilgrimage, 2001, p. 194. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir of George Edmund Street.
In this haunting, the ghost appears twice, once in a gray shadow and once in a blue mist.
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 "Don't take this the wrong way or try to read into it, but I wouldn't waste your time trying to figure me out." — T.A. Halukennah, What the Mirror Sees
--- June writes:
This isn't encouraging me in my writing of your unauthorized biography.
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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“Just keep up a brave heart, and your ship will come sailing in.” —Tim Kantor
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 "The surprising truth is, heavy creams don't always moisturize well enough to help dry skin recuperate overnight." — Working Woman (1989)
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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"Does history record any case in which the majority was right?" — Robert Heinlein"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." — Mark Twain"When the majority is buying, you should consider selling." — Greg Tanghe |
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I dreamed that a misplaced question mark obfuscated the entire meaning of Shakespeare's Hamlet. (My typographical error dream was no doubt triggered by Fredericka Beardsley Gilchrist's The True Story of Hamlet and Ophelia.) (Thanks, FutilityCloset.) --- June asks: To be or not to be: that is the question?
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.
“In Statuary Hall, filled with sculptures of prominent statesmen of the past, the luminous ghost of John Quincy Adams has been seen by Capitol staff.” —Historic Haunted America
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| Hindpsych: Erstwhile Conjectures by the Sometime Augur of Yore |
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| Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? |
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Ce n'est pas une page blanche.
Ironically, this not-quite blank page appears in a book on Buddhist philosophy.
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Pat Gull writes:
Ironic is it not? I suppose it all depends from which way you look at it.
Prof. Oddfellow responds:
From the Buddhist "less is more" perspective, the page should have been left truly blank, without the message stating the obvious and in the process marring the original blankness.
Ina Knowles writes:
I disagree Prof. Oddfellow. Only those in the industry would understand the intent of such a page. As more and more books are sold to the public such devices are appropriate and required.
Off topic. I do hope local bookstores sort the sales war with the Internet shops. They may be in for a rather humiliating revenue quarter but then again they if they are in the book selling business; expect competition from all directions.
Kelly Nilges writes:
Brilliant twist on René Magritte's "The Treachery of Images", Prof. Oddfellow!
Jonathan Caws-Elwitt illuminates:
Re. "less is more": Perhaps the idea was that making the blank page slightly less blank in effect makes it blanker?
June writes:
This is clearly a reference to the STRANGERS WITH CANDY episode, "The Blank Page," in which Jerri learns that reading and writing can be dangerous.
Prof. Oddfellow writes:
Jonathan, that's exquisitely brilliant!
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Imagine a game of "What's My Line," in which either a cherub or an imp whispers into a blindfolded panelist's ear.
Are the whispered words pictured on the right of an angelic or a diabolical nature?
Answer: Angelic. "And the angel whispered thus . . . 'Arise, and be with us.'” —Samuel Kennedy Cowan, "My Choice,” The Murmur of the Shells, 1879, p. 45. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir of William Ellery Channing.
This intriguing ghost portrait both mirrors and brings color to the halo of the original.
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 “Your heart is very loyal; when you navigate so well, your ship will come to a good harbor.” —Guillaume de Lorris
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
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Is our One-Letter Words: A Dictionary a sham? Australian secondhand book dealers Huc & Gabet discovered our tome amid Latin and Yiddish dictionaries (we approve), then asked a bookseller and a scientist (who had never seen our book) if such a dictionary must be a sham. Here's the full report. We sure do hope their puzzling definition of "dictionary" doesn't reach the ears of Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, since he read the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover, for enjoyment! (Who'd've thunk it?) But seriously, we're glad all the recent natural disasters in Australia haven't distracted from the really important issues. --- Mike responds: As I understand the argument in this review, a key premise is that a "proper" dictionary must contain the definitions for any word entry on a single page (or perhaps some number of pages fewer than eight -- as Huc & Gabet phrased their objection to One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, "to get a meaning you need to read 8 pages of text"). If one searches for the word "set" on dictionary.com, one finds that the word has over 100 definitions. So by extension, H&G would be forced to admit that either (1) dictionary.com is not a dictionary, or (2) the word "set" is not a word. I'm frankly dumbfounded by the logic in this review.
June writes: I am feeling completely shammed by the illustrated dictionary on my shelf. Where could something like this lead? On some pages there are only three illustrations, and no definitions at all, merely labels. I doubt its very existence.
Allan elucidates: dic·tion·ar·y [dik-shuh-ner-ee] –noun, plural -ar·ies.
1. a book containing a selection of the words of a language, usually arranged alphabetically, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflected forms, etc., expressed in either the same or another language; lexicon; glossary: a dictionary of English; a Japanese-English dictionary, one letter words.
Hmmmm!
June adds: "Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a book in a year. Some people lift cars, too. Some people enter week-long sled-dog races, go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, fly planes through the Arc de Triomphe. Some people feel no pain in childbirth. Some people eat cars. There is no call to take human extremes as norms." —Annie Dillard (The Writing Life)
And some people observe and comment upon what others do. Each of us does what he can do.
Jeff writes: I have unraveled the mystery.
I believe this "Robin" is, in fact, a precocious two-month-old who recently became aware of his fingers, and is now happily engaged in "reviewing" every book on his father's shelf.
Strangely, he is able to construct quasi-coherent sentences, but hasn't yet acquired the ability to read.
His mother is a "scientist."
 Prof. Oddfellow asks a potentially trick question: can you find the sham? He holds a copy of his dictionary of one-letter words and Robert E. Neale's This is Not a Book. |
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Biography of Ephraim McDowell.
“Something like a ghostly reproduction of him.” —Ignacio Padilla, Antipodes
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Here's a game of "What am I?" Your clues: - I am an arrogant slap in the face from across the room.
- I am an ethereal corset trapping everyone in the same unnatural shape.
- I am a lazy and inelegant concession to fashionable ego.
- I am too often a substitute for true allure and style.
- I am an opaque shell concealing everything—revealing nothing.
- I am a childish masque hiding the timid and unimaginative.
What am I? Answer: Perfume (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.) These clues are courtesy of Christopher Brosius. |
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Here's a detail of St. Eugene, Patron of Normal Cell Division. See the complete image here.
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| Who is your favorite imaginary saint? Do share! |
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I dreamed of a self-possessed apostrophe—a ghost haunting itself. (Inspired by Gary Barwin.)
Illustration by Prof. Oddfellow |
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Imagine a game of "What's My Line," in which either a cherub or an imp whispers into a blindfolded panelist's ear.
Are the whispered words pictured on the right of an angelic or a diabolical nature?
Answer: Diabolical. "You’re beginning to see, aren’t you? the demon whispered in her mind." —Scott Ciencin, The Vampire Odyssey, 1992, p. 318. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from A Memoir of Honoré de Balzac.
“We term sleep a death; and yet it is waking that kills us.” —Sir Thomas Browne
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The first page of the maps section in Polybius' Histories was intentionally left blank. (We approve!) |
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 “The big problem is knowing when an incoming call is awaiting your boat.” —Yachting
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"The surprising truth is that the early days of the digital age will appear almost pre-literate to future historians." — Micrographics Newsletter (1995)
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"Everything occurs immediately even if it takes a while to happen." — Geof Huth |
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"With all the mad things destiny leaves lying around, it's a surprise your head doesn't sometimes explode, or something like that!" —Gustav Meyrink, The Green Face |
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Avoid ampersands and thorns, suggests The American Archivist (Vol. 28, 1965, p. 363).
Geof Huth writes:
Craig, now you're reading my professional literature too? (Though I've written but one book review for The American Archivist.)
Prof. Oddfellow responds:
Geof, you have indeed developed my interest in archivia. (I'd ask you if that was a word, but I can already guess your answer.) By the way, with fresh eyes I see that I should have done a "flip horizontal" on the thorn. |
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| * A manual for typographers published in 1917 acknowledged that there are many beautiful forms of the ampersand, yet it forbade their use in "ordinary book work." Extraordinary books are another matter. Our lavishly illustrated Ampersand opus explores the history and pictography of the most common coordinating conjunction. |
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Autobiography of Amos Kendall.
Kendall’s striped aura is courtesy of Google’s scanning machine.
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
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Printed collections of Forgotten Wisdom diagrams are available: Volume I from Mindful Greetings and Volumes II, III and IV from Amazon. Selected posters are also available via Zazzle. |
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Imagine a game of "What's My Line," in which either a cherub or an imp whispers into a blindfolded panelist's ear.
Are the whispered words pictured on the right of an angelic or a diabolical nature?
Answer: Angelic. "An angel whispered in his young ear, 'Never mind the newspapers.'” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1911, p. 508. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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"As unlikely as it sounds, there is some version of etiquette for virtually any scenario." —Vickie Lexom --- June writes: I know I am trying to stop texting to the person to whom I am speaking before our conversation ends.
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Fugitive Writings.
“The translucent ghost is becoming shabby.” —Penelope Shuttle, The Mirror of the Giant
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 “So we sit on the wharf and peek between the fog, hoping to glimpse a little red steamboat.” —Joshua Clark
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Here's a charming reference to a one-letter word in Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight: The "why's" of his behaviour were as many X's. |
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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| Puzzles and Games :: Which is Funnier |
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 Which is funnier: January or August?Clue: This is according to humorist David Sedaris. Answer: August. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.) Citation: David Sedaris, Holidays on Ice (2009)
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from The Life of Edwin Forrest.
“He grew a mustache, and was in every way prepared to take his departure.” —The Reformatory Press
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
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Printed collections of Forgotten Wisdom diagrams are available: Volume I from Mindful Greetings and Volumes II, III and IV from Amazon. Selected posters are also available via Zazzle. |
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Original Content Copyright © 2013 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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![The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine](/weblog/images/covers/ghost-scanning-machine.png)
