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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir of John D. Lockwood.
“Ghost images are troublesome if they are sharp.” —The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography
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| I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
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As we noted last year, our 14th great-grandmother, Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, has many distinctions, not the least of which is her likelihood of having written the Shakespeare plays and sonnets. (For compelling evidence, see Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?) We couldn't help noticing that Mary Sidney's facial features bear an uncanny resemblance to the familiar Shakespeare visage. If the animated gif below doesn't animate, see the before-and-after frames. (Thank you, editor-writer-critic Michael Redmond, for exclaiming, " Ah! The truth at last!") |
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
12:30. "The steeple clock marks half past twelve. The sun is high and burning in the sky. It lights houses, palaces, porticos. Their shadows on the ground describe rectangles, squares, and trapezoids of so soft a black that the burned eye likes to refresh itself on them. What light. ... Has such an hour ever come? What matter, since we see it go!”
* January.
† February.
‡ March.
§ April. "At least the twelfth hour came. Solemn. Melancholic.” "And now the sun has stopped, high in the center of the sky. And in everlasting happiness the statue immerses its soul in the contemplation of its shadow.”
|| May.
a June.
b July. "In fact, summer is a malady, it’s all fever and delirium and exhausting perspiration, an unending weariness.”
c August.
d September. "If the fifth hour of the afternoon is that which comes between evening and the second half of the day, the month of September is that which comes between two seasons: summer and autumn. That corresponds, in the case of a sick person, to the moment which precedes convalescence, and that which, naturally, at the same time, marks the end of the malady.”
e October. "Autumn is convalescence.”
f November. "Day is breaking. This is the hour of the enigma. This is also the hour of prehistory. The fancied song, the revelatory song of the last, morning dream of the prophet asleep at the foot of the sacred column, near the cold white simulacrum of a god.”
g December. The beginning of life and health (winter).
(All quotations from Giorgio de Chirico’s Hebdomeros.)
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We're often asked why we blog using the majestic plural (the "royal we"). Truth be told, it's personal. Our 27th great grandfather, King Henry II of England (so charmingly portrayed by Peter O'Toole in the classic film The Lion in Winter) is credited with the first recorded use of the majestic plural. Please don't mistake our pronouns for "the patronizing we" (as in, "Aren't we chipper today?") or "the psychotic we" (as in Gollum's "We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious.") |
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
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 "Words and forms that did not exist at all in standard English some time ago are now becoming accepted into the standard language and may already have become fully accepted. This may surprise you." — Robert Lawrence Trask, Say What you Mean! (2005)
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner.
“The ghost in the machine fights the last battle for the human soul.” —Richard Watson, Cogito, Ergo Sum
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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. "Some demon whispered him, that he had mistaken the road to fortune, and suggested that he had better retreat in time, and endeavor to patch up his hopes by another course of life." —"The Exile,” The American Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1, 1833, p. 242. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
This collage is in honor of Emily Dickinson, our beloved 21st cousin.
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Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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