|
|
 |
|
"My advice is to turn your back on the sunset and see how its warm glow is magically lighting up the people, objects, and scenes around you." — The Trustees of ReservationsOur illustration is from On Blue Water by Edmondo de Amicis, 1898. The caption reads: "He turned his back on the sunset."
|
|
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
"The Comet and the Glowworm": an illustration from an 1874 issue of The Quiver magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from The Tomahawk (August 31, 1867).
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our illustration could (but doesn't) accompany this line:
"[T]he hazards of scholarship and mortality: he was overwhelmed by the weight of documentation, by his own erudition, by overambition." —Mark Goldie, "Roger Morrice and the History of Puritanism," Religious Identities in Britain, 1660-1832
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
"The Whisper in the Night": an illustration from an 1887 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine.
|
* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
|
|
An illustration from an 1870 issue of The Tomahawk magazine.
|
|
An illustration from an 1889 issue of The Quiver magazine. The caption reads: "The Doctor read with all his eyes."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from a 1907 issue of The Reader magazine. The caption reads: "'Your dope is some wrong,' said the shade. 'Did you ever hear that every person had two minds?'"
J. asks, "How in the world did that 1907 illustrator manage to conjure a shade from some postwar noir/spaghetti western film??"
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
"There is only one key ... and that is all keys in one." — Rupert Hughes, Żal: An International Romance (1905)
|
* The most profound secrets lie not wholly in knowledge, said the poet. They lurk invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning—the seeker's soul. Solitary digging for facts can reward one with great discoveries, but true secrets are not discovered—they are shared, passed on in confidence from one to another. The genuine seeker listens attentively. No secret can be transcribed, save in code, lest it—by definition—cease to be. This Book of Whispers collects and encodes more than one hundred of humankind's most cherished secrets. To be privy to the topics alone is a supreme achievement, as each contains and nurtures the seed of its hidden truth. As possessor and thereby guardian of this knowledge, may you summon the courage to honor its secrets and to bequeath it to one worthy. |
|
|
An illustration from an 1887 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine. The caption reads: "The sexton's ghost.—'He saw something move. It was a tall figure, and it tottered weakly toward the gate on which he leaned."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from a 1900 issue of The Lady's Realm magazine. The caption reads: "It was like a bad dream."
|
| If you have a strange dream to share, send it along! |
|
|
An illustration from The Annals of Psychical Science, vol. 7 (1908). The caption reads: "Giving heed to seducing spirits."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from a 1900 issue of The Lady's Realm magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
A friend made a graph comparing how much folks talk nonstop about bacon to the number of damns the rest of us give about how much any of them like bacon. He noted, "What really makes the bacon thing (and other such things) annoying to me is that by the time they attain 'thing' status, they no longer seem to be about loving whatever it is—it seems to be more of a fetishization and status marker (i.e., the status of someone duly participating in whatever the zeitgeist has determined his/her demographic should participate in). You and I love cheese because, well, we really love cheese—not because the concept of 'cheese' has become a totem or a meme!" Flirting with bacon as a status marker goes back at least to the mid-1800s, as we see in this illustration from The Oxford Thackeray.
|
|
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from an 1887 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine. The caption reads: "Now a weird sight presented itself."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from an 1879 issue of Arthur's Home magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
[For Clint Marsh.] Telling the time by puffing on a dandelion from Arthur's Home Magazine (1863). The caption reads: "The Dandelion Clock."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Write mortal; think witch": advice from the classic sitcom Bewitched.
|
|
The mysterious influence of spring, from The Leisure Hour, 1895.
|
| *Inspired by the world's only accurate meteorological report, "Yesterday's Weather," as seen on Check It Out. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
We're tickled that a photo of our rainbow bookshelves illustrates these sentences in an English lesson: "My bookcase is a mess. I need to sort out my books." |
|
An illustration from an 1887 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
"'Tell me,' she said, imploringly; 'I can bear anything but suspense.'" ( The Quiver, 1886.) She's right! "Suspense kills like nothing else. Suspense is a slow poison that eats into your system and gradually erodes your body, mind, heart and soul" ( N. Sampath Kumar, Love on Velocity Express, 2010).
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 The meaning of life is having needs.
(The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.) See the explanation at Futility Closet.
|
|
An illustration from an 1885 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine. The caption reads: "Everything about her seemed to swing into space."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
Top illustration: "Please turn you head away. Don't look—don't!" ( The Quiver, 1886). Bottom illustration: "The rejected alms." ( The Letters of Charles Dickens, 1893.) We find an explanation in Frank Crane's Just Human (1915): "Most so-called charity is evil. It is bad both ways. It deceives the giver by a false salve to his conscience. ... The gift is also a curse to the recipient. It destroys self-respect. Both takers and givers of charity are debased."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a precursor to Prof. Henry Higgins and flower girl Eliza Doolittle of Pygmalion (1912), from an advertisement in A Lawful Crime by Edward Kent, 1899. The illustration is by Phil May. |
|
An illustration from The Sociable Ghost by Olive Harper (1903). The caption reads: "With a smile of ineffable sweetness she vanished."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
[For Jeff Hawkins.]
|
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. |
|
|
"Forget it, forget it!": an illustration from The Sociable Ghost by Olive Harper (1903).
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
A precursor to 1958's hula hoop, from a 1900 issue of The Lady's Realm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
It's a Retroactive Lifetime Goal* for us to have captured in a single photograph the look and feel of California environmental quality. Thanks, Los Angeles Conservancy, for featuring our wide-angle view of Los Feliz as your masthead. |
|
Conjuring the spirit of devolution: an illustration from a 1907 issue of Punch magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from an 1867 issue of Punch magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
Here's what we might call a precursoral opposite. In The Shining (1980), countless variations of the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" cover hundreds of typewritten pages, revealing that Jack Torrance is disturbed. In a 1908 issue of The Windsor Magazine, the blankness of a page reveals that someone is disturbed. The caption reads, "'You have been disturbed!' she cried sorrowfully, as she took in the blankness of the page." |
|
"The red letters of the calendar seemed to glow before Lottie's eyes" ( The Quiver, 1886). But how? We explained all a few years ago in this helpful diagram.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
Why is this judge condemning a chair to "the chair" (as it were)? Well, illegal furniture can include "settees, sofas, chairs and beds" ( Splam! Successful Property Letting and Management, 2008). Our illustration appears in The Windsor Magazine, 1908.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
An illustration from The Deer Smellers of Haunted Mountain by John J. Meyer (1921). The caption reads: "Hunting for apartments and vacant perfect worlds in the space deeps of the universe."
Suydamandgomorrah notes: "I've heard the space deeps of the universe are the new Bushwick."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
Hundreds of years before the phenomenon of walking while texting, folks were glued to windows, insensible to the wonders around them. We find proof in Arthur's Home Magazine, 1876. The caption reads: "She stood leaning against a window, but not seeing the beauty that lay stretched before her."
|
|
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
| This Terrible Problem That Is the Sea |
(permalink) |
|
|
|
Frank Herbert suggests that when we are ashore, we seem to forget about the menace of the sea because the subconscious masks it ( The Dragon in the Sea, 1956).
|
,( ,( ,( ,( ,( ,( ,( ,(
`-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' ` "The sea is a cruel mistress. Yet again the sea has behaved unconscionably. It's time to address this terrible problem that is the sea." —Captain Neddie, from the hilarious BBC series Broken News |
|
|
Here's an owl border we salvaged and restored from an 1860 issue of Arthur's Home Magazine. For re-sizing convenience, we created an EPS version for downloading. |
|
From Fairy Tales, written and illustrated by Alfred Crowquill, 1857.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a precursor to the "unfollow" and "unfriend" phenomenon of social media, from Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War by Rochard Doddridge Blackmore, 1888. The caption reads, "I am not at all happy at losing dear friends." |
|
A phrenology patient is inspired to check for bumps on his dog's head in this illustration from Arthur's Home Magazine, 1861. The subspecialty of veterinary phrenology was rare but not unknown. The strange history of an elephant phrenology is told in Jan Bondeson's The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
An illustration from a 1917 issue of Saturday Evening Post magazine. The caption reads: "Wilberforce Shadd thrilled at the touch of the magic paper."
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a precursor to Edward Albee's title Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), from Frank Sullivan in a 1933 issue of The New Yorker. Sullivan refers to reading a page "to the tune of 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?'"
|
|
"I've dreamed a lot. I'm tired now from dreaming but not tired of dreaming. No one tires of dreaming, because to dream is to forget, and forgetting does not weigh on us, it is a dreamless sleep throughout which we remain awake. In dreams I have achieved everything. I've also woken up, but what does that matter? How many countless Caesars I have been!" — Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet |
|
A decade before Stanislavski's "system" and three decades before Strasberg's "method," we find "a modern method" for acting in The Lady's Realm (1901) by the mysterious M. M. M. But mostly we just like the wonky font. |
|
Here's a precursor to the animal print craze of the 1960s Bohemian movement, from Punch, 1867. |
|
The wild wind of March, from Little Wide Awake, 1885.
|
| *Inspired by the world's only accurate meteorological report, "Yesterday's Weather," as seen on Check It Out. |
|
|
"Am I to understand that you have nothing more to say to me?" No news is good news in The Quiver, 1882.
|
|
Steamy romance in 1906: an illustration from a 1906 issue of Puck magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Given our substantial research into esoteric tomes, we're sometimes consulted for strange and unusual magical spells. An award-winning quarterly magazine of art and culture based in New York [name withheld for reasons of discretion] once asked us for a spell to cast over their printing press. Most recently, a winner of two Gertrude Stein Awards in Innovative American Poetry [name withheld in a nod to our lost age of privacy] asked us for no fewer than thirteen different spells:
- A spell which finds and locates the source of (malicious) gossip and renders the "first tongue" of this gossip chain either serpent-like (i.e. forks the tongue) or like that of some other loathsome beast.
- A spell which will allow a refrigerator to enchant the food in it, so that when you eat the food you see the food's history (such as the worker picking the grapes. This would be quite grisly when it came to lunch meat and we realized it had a "family life.")
- A spell which will render water capable of transmitting its memories. When an enemy steps into a tub of "blissful" water, suddenly he or she is overcome with a thousand television stations of water memory, all the way back to the time of the dinosaurs.
- A spell that turns pussy willows back into the cats they once were.
- A spell which allows you to enter into a painting or use a painting, drawing, etc. as an avenue of escape.
- A spell to send snow back upwards into the sky—a reverse snowstorm spell.
- A spell whereby you can have birds carry a message to other birds to so on to other birds in order to reach someone far away.
- A spell which makes someone the reverse of a money magnet, so money is always figuratively (and literally) flying away from him or her.
- A spell to make someone fall in love with his or her own reflection. For example, a teenager cannot concentrate in class but must constantly seek a reflective surface to the point of madness. Good for a stuck up kid in school, beauty queen hex, etc.
- A spell whereby planes flying overhead will drop valuable things into your yard or on your roof, like a form of tribute from airplane.
- A spell to turn pancake batter into quicksand, so when the person eats the finished product, the pancake inside the person slowly causes the person to implode into himself/herself, vanishing throughout the day in a very geometrically weird way.
- A spell on cookies to make them like online cookies; they drop without the eater's consent and glow, leading you to the person you are trailing and to whom you have given the bewitched cookie.
- A spell to make tornados play music. Needles appears within and the tornado is turned into an old school record player even as it grinds away at a landscape.
|
|
| Puzzles and Games :: Letter Grids |
(permalink) |
|
|
|
This puzzle grid contains several big words, including one as blue as the sky. Can you find them?
• 7-letter words: 16
• 8-letter words: 4
• 9-letter words: 2
All letters in the word must touch (in any direction), and no square may be reused.
Click to display solutions
|
| 7-letter words: |
• catenae
• elegant
• elegies
• engages
• ketenes
• masquer
• reneges
• retenes |
• sateens
• senecas
• stacker
• stelene
• tackler
• teenage
• unstack
• unsteel |
| 8-letter words: |
• cerulean
• reengage |
• retackle
• unsteels |
| 9-letter words: |
| • ceruleans |
• reengages |
|
|
|
An illustration from an 1891 issue of Punch magazine.
|
| [Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
|
Page 0 of 3943
Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
|
It's funny "only if we side with the satirist, only if we are not the object of attack."
