Though known as the "land of the rising sun," "it's always night in Japan," as we learn from Electro Spectre's song "Night in Japan."  It seems unlikely, yet Electro Spectre is correct.  Sunrise implies darkness.  Photographers know only too well that even as the sun begins to rise, "the sky is bright and the earth is still dark" (Photographing the Landscape: The Art of Seeing, 1997).  Pictured, a Japanese sunrise by Boris Iu.

"For 'I am not surprised,' read 'I am surprised."  A correction from The Electrical Review, 1900.

Here's a precursor to Paris Syndrome (first diagnosed in 1986), in which the filth and rudeness of that city puts romanticist tourists into a state of extreme shock (including anxiety, dizziness, tachycardia, vomiting, and hallucinations).  "So this is Paris!"  From Medical Pickwick, 1922.

An organ that plays color.  From Popular Mechanics, 1924.

"The Bishop of Fools."  From A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1875.

From Loraine and the Little People by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by M. T. Ross, 1915.

"All life was as a sunlit holiday."  From Allegories by Frederic W. Farrar, 1898.

"Testing artificial teeth in a dental laboratory," from The Sketch, 1909.

"A curious position to give a 'smash,'" from "How to Become a Ping Pong Champion" in London Magazine, 1902.

The British Library's Prevention Advisory Centre reminds us that even "lost (hidden)" books are vulnerable to "mould growth in microclimate."  There's a long British tradition of concern with the unseen, going back not only as far as Shakespeare but Chaucer as well.

"It was not a pleasant expedition for a gentleman considerably over fifty."  From English Illustrated, 1895.

Here's an appariton of the letter R frightening an oyster.  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1878.

We're honored by citations of two of the college textbooks we wrote.  Our Human Diversity, A Guide for Understanding is cited in Multicultural Counseling: Context, Theory and Practice, and Competence by Jerry Trusty et al.  Our Diverse Learners in the Classroom is cited in Preparing for College: Practical Advice for Students and Their Families by John J. Rooney & John F. Reardon.

"The phone never rings for Jim."  From Popular Mechanics, 1926.

From The Story of a Secret and the Secret of a Story by Ismay Thorn, 1887.

"I've often heard the moon declare that shooting stars are growing there."  From Beyond the Mountain by Sarah Stokes Halkett and illustrated by Katharine Pyle, 1917.

"Then the Princess left the cave and wandered down to the sea-shore."  From The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde and Other Stories by Mary de Morgan, 1880.

"What it feels like to have revoked," from The Sketch, 1909.

"You don't know how delightful it is to be dead.  I never enjoyed myself so much."  From London Magazine, 1902.

"The simple answer is that you'll continue to do pretty much the same thing you've been doing over the past 5 days." —5 Pounds: The Breakthrough 5-Day Plan to Jump-Start Rapid Weight Loss

"Before him and at his elbows were seven tripods: one burned with a pale blue flame; another orange; another purple."  From Pearson's, 1904.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to reveal another version.

From Jugend, 1897.

"The gentleman who has gone to bed in the grand piano," from The Sketch, 1909.  Previously, we saw this lady sleeping in a grand piano.

Here's a precursor to the fishy tasting coffee in Twin Peaks -- fishy tasting lemonade.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1935.

From Catriona McPherson:

There comes a point when cheerfulness shades into inanity and young Jamesie had found it and set up his stall there.

***

From Jon L. Breen's "The House of the Shrill Whispers":

If we were characters in a novel instead of characters in a short story, I'd discourse with you at appropriate length about the foolishness and absurdity of characters in fiction pretendin' they're real.

***

From Ellery Queen's The Finishing Stroke:

It turned out a huge sprawl of a house, of incredible spread, coming to a giant peak--a two-story-and-attic so broad it looked sat upon.... The whole monster was thickly nested in shrubs, an Ancient Mariner of a house with a Galway beard.

***

[Doing the Math dept.]

"I conclude a [romantic] triangle."

"I'm not helping you with your math, Mr. Queen."

***

["We'll take that as a compliment" dept.]

"December twenty-fifth through the night of January fifth--Christmas through what's officially known as Twelfth Night--that makes a holiday party of twelve days, Ellen."

"What of it?"

"Look around. Twelve people in the party. Doesn't that strike you as interesting?"

"Not in the least," Ellen retorted. "What a peculiar mind you have."

***

Chapter V.... In Which a Summerhouse Sets the Scene for a Winter's Tale....

***

She looked as if she were tryinig to get off her horse and remain in the saddle at the same time.

***

["Using up all the e's" dept.]

Mrs. Brown eeked every time she laid eyes on him.

***

"Aha!" Ellery said. "And oho!"

***

[Exotic Mild Oaths dept.]

"I'll be double-dyed in Danbury."

***

"A whale of a red herring, you might say."

"Believe it or not, boxing is dancing," said Frank Abderholden in 2007.  Here's proof, from Ulk, 1930.

From Mocca, 1936.

"Mary Maillard jumping and skipping, after her thigh bone jumped into its socket."  From Legends and Miracles and Other Curious and Marvellous Stories of Human Nature by James Elimalet Smith, 1837.

"Mahogany crotch weighs 16,800 pounds."  From Popular Mechanics, 1909.

University of Glasgow Alchemists Club, 1935.  Also very much of interest: The Young Wizard's Hexopedia.

"The cubical city unfolded."  From The Apocalypse Unsealed, Being an Esoteric Interpretation of the Initiation of Iôannês ('Apokalypsis 'Iōánnou) Commonly Called the Revelation of [St.] John by James M. Pryse, 1910.

Here's a page of swords with a string of beads on the point of his sword, from The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde and Other Stories by Mary de Morgan, 1880.

"The maniac plunged into the sea of fire," from London Magazine, 1902.

The spirit of a monk in Pearson's, 1904.

"A Japanese hero in the rain taking off his hat to a lady of surpassing beauty," from Once a Week, 1860.

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to add electricity.

"Atlanta discussed my insanity."  From Long Lines magazine, 1921.

We're honored that our research into Roman numerals for One-Letter Words: A Dictionary was cited in Introduction to Computer Data Representation by Peter Fenwick, 2014.

From Mocca, 1935.

Henry from the comics had an Austrian brother, apparently.  This is from 1933, a year after Henry's debut but a year before the comic's syndication.  Could be an homage or purely coincidental.  From Die Muskete.

"Cubist conversation."  From Long Lines magazine, 1921.

"A boy-girl fancy dress costume."  From Popular Mechanics, 1909.

"Nonsensia."  From The Scarlet Letter yearbook (Rutgers, 1918).

"Receiving the magic helmet from the wild witch of the heath."  From The Wild Witch of the Heath, or the Demon of the Glen by Wizard, 1841.

"There passed over the boundless white plain an aged saint with flowing beard, …. and eyes which shone with laughter."  From The Russian Story Book by Richard Wilson, 1916.

"Ever-pointed," from an ad in The Sketch, 1909.

"The spectre of Hawthorn Glen," from The Boy's Own Paper, 1886.

"I'll see, at midnight, what these omens mean; / And call on those prophetic spirits who / Attend on death, and darkness, to reveal / What is to happen."  From Stuart Alexander's Saul, King of Israel, 1843.

A blood-red hand descends from a fissure in the ceiling of a haunted room, from Pearson's, 1904.

From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1881.

From Die Bühne, 1927.