Bleeding ink and Google's scanning machine combine to form an aptly titled "Pairing."  The illustration is from Peterson's magazine, 1877.

An illustration from an 1895 issue of Life magazine.

We've been keeping one of our latest publications under the radar, lest it fall into the wrong hands.  But we felt safe sharing it with Clint Marsh (of Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop fame).  From his review in The Pamphleteer:

A master of practical esoterica, Prof. Oddfellow (a.k.a. the inimitable Craig Conley) follows in the footsteps of magicians throughout history in tracing his lineage to a potent fabulous ancestor, in this case Elizabeth of York, the mother of Henry VIII and the woman immortalized as the Queen of Hearts in the familiar deck of playing cards we've all seen.  Instead of climbing the family tree back toward Elizabeth, though, Conley begins with her and comes down through history toward himself.  This approach makes perfect sense to anyone bent on establishing a blood connection to a particular figure from the past, and it seems to involve less risk of falling down the wrong genealogical rabbit hole.  ... [Heirs to the Queen of Hearts: Tracing Magical Genealogy is] a wonderful new addition to his teeming brood of bibliomantic offspring.

"Write a novel in which a cryptozoophile kills himself at the end, unable to physically consummate his relationship to his objects of desire." —Stefan, of The Kelayah Objective

"Somebody should write a book someday about the silences in Scripture."
—Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark (2007)

"The Genealogical Ghost":  an illustration from an 1886 issue of Life magazine.

An illustration from a 1916 issue of Green Book magazine.  The caption reads: "His fingers ran about the keyboard and seemed to meet her fingers there as before.  She was at his side, her hands crossing his, his fingers lingering on hers.  He turned to clasp her . . . but his arms found only emptiness."

An illustration from an 1894 issue of Century Illustrated magazine.  The caption reads: "There was a whir, whir, whir."

An illustration from an 1898 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.

An illustration from an 1870 issue of Peterson's magazine.

An illustration from an 1894 issue of Century Illustrated magazine.

"Often the answer is simply: It is not for you to know. This is a hard answer, but sometimes it is the only answer.”

—Tony Woodlief, Somewhere More Holy (2010)

An illustration from a 1908 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "The puzzling black marks on the white pages spoke to us."

We're devastated to report that the piece on "Forecasting Yesterday's Weather" in NewScientist (Sept. 20, 1979) doesn't live up to its fascinating title.  We had so hoped that predicting past atmospheric conditions would be more accurate than predicting future ones, but it would seem that meteorologists can't even correctly describe current conditions.

An illustration from an 1876 issue of Peterson's magazine.  The caption reads: "Oh! Pitiless! Pitiless Moon!"