In our urbex exploration of a ruined wizard's manor, we found in a locked library a strange book and a secret of How to Be Your Own Cat.

George Parker, author of The Little Book of Creativity, writes:

I carry this book everywhere. On my iPad, sure, but I still carry it around and read from it every once in a while. To get that whack against the side of my head and wake up from the sometimes numbing and increasingly one-dimensional world of news, politics and chores. Great to see some of it animated with nice visuals and a great voice over! Thanks.

Our planet's spokeswizard, Cyril the Sorcerer, honored us with an invitation to formulate a magical coin.  We jumped at the prospect of alchemical metallurgy, but this wizard added the twist that he wished to work with precious woods, not metals.  He sought something less silver than sylvan.  For his coin design, I was inspired by the wizard's remarkable eyeglasses.  They have marvelous loops at the ends of the ear pieces.  I overlapped those loops, like linking rings, to form a third eye of wizardly wisdom.  The lens pieces are emblazoned with the two heavenly luminaries most associated with our planet.  The coin's other side depicts an open hand reaching for a star, surrounded by Cyril's teaching that "the magic is in your hand."  What a privilege to be a part of our planetary spokeswizard's enchantment!

While we knew that Chronos is annually wedded to the spirit of the year, we didn't realize that he keeps the old ones in a closet.  From Lustige Blätter, 1900.

Still true to this day -- while others are out drinking, snowmen and Pierrot bury the old year.  From Le Rire, 1911.

"Contrary to popular belief, there are no set stages for grieving the loss of a loved one. If you've heard a lot about the stages of grief, this may surprise you." —Chapel of the Chimes

Because water bends all the rules of science ("Water: The Weirdest Liquid On the Planet"), we used the mysteries of crystallization to uncover the deepest secret of the Easter Island monoliths.  What we saw in the carved Polynesian ice cube froze our blood!

Every snowflake holographically contains a snowman.  From Taylor University's Gem yearbook, 1956.

We learned the truth of this at the top of Mt. Habrich, British Columbia [Google Street View gives a sense of the place]:

Time passes unevenly in the mountains, free of all calendars; things seem to happen either at once, or never.

—Tim Powers, Declare

Instead of a "Page 3" topless glamour model like in the British tabloids, this page three features a psychedelic visualization of a mathematical equation, created in HyperCard.  News we can believe in!  From The Connector newspaper (University of Lowell), Feb. 14, 1991.  We made a giant version of the graphic for you to zoom in upon and get lost in.

Mother Nature makes snow via a can of chloro-flurry-carbons.  From The Daily Universe, 1963.

"This may surprise you: God is not against you having money." —Larry Huch

"This may surprise you, but there is no scientific study that supports the notion all happiness goes up in a puff of smoke the day after your 40th birthday." —Desperate Houselife

Here's how everybody, when blindfolded, draws a pig wrong in exactly the same way.  From The Idler, 1894.

The winsome Jonathan notes: "Blindfolded pig drawing has come a long way in the past 125 years. Evidence attached!"

It's only partially true that coins and flags have two sides.  Viewed from below, for example, a flag is like the shell of the lightning whelk (the predatory marine mollusk with the spiral carapace).  From Worcester Polytechnic's 1968 yearbook.

[For Adam.]

Have you ever drunk a cocktail whose recipe was dictated by a ghost?  There are 112 spooky drink recipes that were communicated from the Other Side via a Ouija board, collected into Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead.  The text on the book's dedication page reads: "This book is dedicated to the presence that inspired it, without whose dictation it would not have been begun, and to whose preternatural knowledge of spirits it owes whatever merit it may possess."

Our friend Gordon asked us to pose this question to the spirit voices in the ethers: “Is there any hope that we can reverse climate change?”  Our video records the answer we received via the Spirit Box radio (as seen on the Travel Channel show "Ghost Adventures").

In this phantasmagorical preface, playing cards turn into dogs and cats.  From Barks and Purrs by Colette Willy, 1913.

You've heard of the Fountain of Youth, but in the Nordland district of Norway, rejuvenation isn't in the water but rather in the air.  We learn this in Tales of Every-Day Life in Sweden by Fredrika Bremer, 1843