From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

In a discussion of a poem composed via a Ouija Board, we learned that two mediums took dictation in a red dining room, and then a poet edited the transcripts in an adjoining blue room, "supplementing the uppercase text of the dead with his own lowercase commentary."  We were beguiled by that phrase, "the uppercase text of the dead."  It conjures images of ancient Roman script chiseled into marble.

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Jonathan Caws-Elwitt quips:

Don't miss our extensive interview over at Musings from a Muddy Island, in which we reveal all sorts of hidden, half-hidden, and quarter-hidden secrets, arcane details, and latent possibilities.

One rarely sees the word Bible in its verb form, but here it is painted across a luxury motorhome: "Bible Across America."  We've previously heard of "imbibing across America," in terms of winery tours.  If the motorhome got pulled over for speeding, would the patrolman "throw the book" at them, or vice versa?

"All ancient [writing] systems . . . hold one idea in common: writing is divine, inherently holy, with powers to teach the highest mysteries; writing is the speech of the gods, the ideal form of beauty. The Egyptians were taught writing by Toth, the scribe of the gods, and named their script ‘the divine’; Jehovah engraved the letters with his fingers when he gave the Commandments to the Hebrews; the Assyrian god Nebo revealed the nature of cuneiform to his people; Cangjie, the four-eyed dragon-faced wizard, modeled the Chinese characters after the movements of the stars, the footprints of birds, and other patterns that occurred in nature; and in India the supreme god Brahma himself gave knowledge of letters to men." —John Stevens, Sacred Calligraphy of the East, third edition, 1995.  Via DJMisc.

Two entries from our new edition of Magic Words are featured in this review/editorial about the importance of magic words for people recovering from trauma:

http://dianapagejordan.com/blog/2008/09/once-upon-time.php

Did you know: "Oxygen is an imaginary gas hypothesized in the nineteenth century to account for certain phenomena then not understood. We actually breathe ether."

Or: "Any straight line on the earth’s surface, if extended indefinitely, will eventually pass through Apalachicola."

Or: "The codex, or book with pages bound on one side, was invented as a tool for pressing flowers. An anonymous postclassical herbalist was the first to hit on the idea of writing on the pages."

These and other hilarious fun facts are part of "Dr. Boli's Encyclopedia of Misinformation."

Why is the ampersand located above the "7" on a keyboard?  We couldn't find an answer, so we sleuthed out our own!  See our findings at our guest blog for DJMisc!

Our whimsical research on the ampersand has begun appearing around the Web.  For example:

Here's an ampersand crack in a table's surface.

Here's our proof of how an ampersand can curtail a list.

Here's the difference between an ampersand and quicksand.

Here's how an ampersand is exactly like a wheelchair.

Here's an illumination of the notorious "dangling ampersand."

Simile faces.
Happiness is an allusion.

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Jonathan adds:

It will be hard to make out in this photo, but at this particular bookstore our One-Letter Words: A Dictionary is located snugly between Erotica and Horror.  Perhaps that makes sense: "O" could be a cry of ecstasy or fright!

In the following line, we misread "posts" as "poets":


So we were left imagining the billiard players marveling at the improved atmosphere now that Percy wasn't rhapsodizing over people's balls.  "High as thy balls instruct my Muse to soar," he was wont to say, invoking "The God that in a mood of tender humor limned thy balls of black and red."

We're pleased to debut a new interactive version of our unusual dictionary of chessman meanings.  Roll your mouse over the chessboard for some surprising discoveries.

You heard it at Crystalpunk first:

From our outpost at Blogger:

This wordcloud of our Magic Words blog is courtesy of Gordon Meyer and his lovely assistant Wordle.

A "dangling ampersand," like a dangling shoelace, can affect any of us.  Our whimsical look at the phenomenon appears today at the ever-hilarious SPOGG (Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar).