"Never forget that you learn to climb mountains by climbing."
—Frank C. McClelland, Office Training and Standards (1919)

"Or by taking the stairs."
—Prof. Oddfellow

"I had been dreaming a crowded dream full of unfamiliar characters—people I hadn't had time, or whom it hadn't seemed necessary, to name or even make distinct from one another.  It was a mob, practically, but its intent was unclear.  For what purpose had they congregated?" —Rebecca Wolff, The Beginners (2011)

This depiction of a crowded dream is from Punch, 1893.

"I'd say you've earned it, quite surprisingly."
—Zoraida Cordova, Vicious Deep (2012)

"Men!  They all the same, if they're not doing it, they're talking about it."  A still from Dear Ladies, series one.

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him ... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.  Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation.  By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating." —Pearl S. Buck

"Write a novel about a young child who refuses to believe his mother (his only living parent) is his mother, because he refuses to believe he was born.  Maybe he's the Buddha or maybe he's just an idiot.  Maybe it's the same difference." —William Keckler

"Whether or not it's really happening, the brain sends the same signal, and the identical biochemical reaction fires off."
—Peter Meyers & Shann Nix, As We Speak: How to Make Your Point and Have It Stick (2011)

"The key is to remember that there are really more people in the room than you can see."

Who is speaking: a psychic or a trial lawyer?

Answer: Daniel Small, Preparing Witnesses: A Practical Guide for Lawyers and their Clients (2004), p. 47 (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

"The Grand Transformation!"  An illustration from an 1889 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from a 1902 issue of Punch magazine.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

An illustration from an 1889 issue of Punch magazine.

"Blood tells—always remember that—blood tells."
—Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Note the hidden faces in the branches and rocks in this illustration from an 1884 issue of Puck magazine.

"I should like to know how they began all these big businesses, and on how little or how much money, and how the partners met each other.  Where did Fortnum pick up Mason? for example.  There ought to be a book about it."
—E. V. Lucas, Down the Sky (1930)

"The Unseen World."  An illustration from an 1880 issue of Punch magazine.

Someone should write a book about a person who gets stuck as a go-between in what is an escalating fight to the death.  He is only the messenger or message-bearer but eventually has to start introducing dangerous people and delivering things between estates like disguised poison.  Eventually, he doesn't even know what innocence is anymore and what is complicity.  And all he signed on to do was let people speak.
—William Keckler

An illustration from an 1892 issue of Punch magazine.

Here's a precursor to mad cow disease, from all the way back in an 1880 issue of Puck.

"Everything was coming up black Peruvian roses."  From the classic sitcom Bewitched.

An illustration from a 1902 issue of Punch magazine.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

"The Knavina of Hearts."  An illustration from an 1880 issue of Punch magazine.

"Animalistic music arouses animalistic instincts." —Devorah Heshelis, The Moon's Lost Light (2006)

This illustration of sight reading animalistic music appears in Punch, 1889.

About 28 years before Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, Endora was combining the same two holidays in Bewitched.  The subtitle reads: "'Twas the Night Before Halloween."

An illustration from a 1902 issue of Punch magazine.

We're delighted to see our photo of the 600-year-old Yamashiro Pagoda (the oldest structure in America) illustrating a Tahoe Trader article about the value of the Yen.

Why does Prof. Oddfellow so often rag Big Science, and why does he so often back zero?  Here's a quotation (first posted to our Spotted in the Wild blog) that explains all:

"You should be aware that science, dealing only with the general, leaves out of consideration the individual cases that contradict the enormous majority.  Occasionally the heart is on the right side of the body, but you would not on that account ever put your stethoscope in any other than the usual spot.  It is possible that under certain conditions the law of gravity does not apply, yet you will conduct your life under the conviction that it does so invariably.  Now, there are some of us who choose to deal only with these exceptions to the common run.  The dull man who plays at Monte Carlo puts his money on the colours, and generally black or red turns up; but now and then zero appears, and he loses.  But we, who have backed zero all the time, win many times our stake.  Here and there you will find men whose imagination raises them above the humdrum of mankind.  They are willing to lose their all if only they have chance of a great prize.  Is it nothing not only to know the future, as did the prophets of old, but by making it to force the very gates of the unknown?" —William Somerset Maugham, The Magician

An illustration from an 1870 issue of Beecher's magazine.  The caption reads: "Cartwright calling up the Devil."

"There is ... a fine line between the degree of mystery that stimulates the judgment of the audience members and that which renders the speaker's meaning unintelligible." —Marc Hanvelt, The Politics of Eloquence: David Hume's Polite Rhetoric (2012)

I would love to find a book in a thrift store titled Feet Dangling as a Rewarding and Enriching Hobby.
—William Keckler

Here's a precursor to the Grateful Dead: an illustration from an 1884 issue of Puck magazine. The caption reads: "The Deadhead Ticket."

An illustration from an 1880 issue of Puck magazine. The caption reads: "There is something in the Bible after all!"

The spirit of peace plays a game of dice with the spirit of strife.  An illustration from a 1902 issue of Punch magazine.

Alternate universes each have their own "genuine" Shakespeare.  In one reality, the consensus is that Queen Elizabeth was the historical Shakespeare, but there's a passionate group of scholars who are certain that the real author was Willy (in other words, their underdog is our front runner).  In the universe Prof. Oddfellow calls home, the real Shakespeare is quite obviously Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, whom we've mentioned previously.

An illustration from an 1884 issue of Puck magazine.

[We answered this rhetorical question a few years ago, but the vintage illustration is "new," courtesy of Punch, 1877.]

Q: How many beans make five?

A: It’s something of a trick question.  The answer is "one."  One leguminous pod contains five seeds.

Note that this riddle is a corruption of "How many beans make fava."  Again, the answer is "one," though admittedly it's one very broad bean.

"Uhhh has nothing to do with it," as we learn in the classic sitcom Bewitched.

An illustration from an 1889 issue of Punch magazine.

"The only certainty is that our current scientific models fail. Entirely."
—Brian Clegg, Gravity (2012)

An illustration from an 1880 issue of Punch magazine.

"The only certainty is this: the more tricks you pull out of your bag, the greater the chance that one of them will backfire."  —Char Booth, Reflective Teaching (2011)

The Spirit of Elevation and his shoe shiner.  An illustration from an 1880 issue of Punch magazine.

Q: What need of Siege and Conquest in a Play, / When Love can do the work as well as they?  (Elkanah Settle, Ibrahim, the Illustrious Bassa [1676])

A: What need, indeed!

An illustration from an 1869 issue of Punch magazine.  The caption reads: "Terrific Apparition: Seen during the recent fog at Westminster."

An illustration from a 1917 issue of McClure's magazine.

An illustration from a 1903 issue of Punch magazine.

We're honored that How-To-Geek used our massive panorama view from the Saint Augustine lighthouse to demonstrate how to create a photo planet.  They took our original photo:



and transformed it:

There has always been a fine line between stage magic and occultism.  Here's a poorly-rehearsed stage magician who mangles his magic words and conjures up a demon, from Punch, 1908.  The caption reads, "An unrehearsed effect."

An illustration from a 1920 issue of McClure's magazine.  The caption reads: "The veil is not impenetrable; the link of affection is not broken by death; and through the grave and gate of death there shines a dawn of more than mortal vision."

You can guess where we're going with this one.  What if Alice and the Wonderland caterpillar had found romance?  Arthur's Home Magazine wondered the same thing (not really) in the same year that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published.

An illustration from an 1899 issue of Century Illustrated magazine.  The caption reads: "The demons devouring the sun."

"Selfish or noble — it's always a fine line."
—Nicola Upson, Fear in the Sunlight (a mystery novel set in our favorite haunt, Portmeirion)

An illustration from an 1899 issue of Punch magazine.

In this moment from the classic sitcom Bewitched, Samantha corrects Aunt Clara's previously garbled incantation, changing "abba-dabba-dabba, dabba-dabba-abba" into "aba-daba-daba, daba-daba-uba."

Here's a precursor to a stretch portrait at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion: an illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.  The caption reads: "Death on the Rope."

Is Time linear or cyclical?  An illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.

The West Frisian language is "a fever dream of English in an alternate universe where the Norman Conquest never happened." —Dr. Boli

An illustration from a 1904 issue of McClure's magazine.  The caption reads: "She sat there in her dream."

An illustration from a 1903 issue of Punch magazine.

From our former outpost at Twitter:

An illustration from an 1893 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from an 1847 issue of Punch magazine.