An illustration from a 1906 issue of Pall Mall magazine.  The caption reads: "'Oh, don't!' she cried.  'Don't get any bigger.  I can't bear it.'"

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

Pre-dating the hilarious comedy series "Childrens Hospital" [sic], about a clown doctor who heals through the power of laughter, here's an illustration from an 1891 issue of The Strand magazine.  The text reads: "'Doctor,' said the clown to the physician, 'do not be jealous, but it seems to me that my tomfooleries have done more good than your prescriptions.'"  The caption reads, 'Thank you, Slap-Bang."

This bold, all-caps typo in Amanda Owen's The Power of Receiving disturbs us not because the apostrophe is upside down, and not because "don'r" isn't a word, but because "don'r" is pronounced "Donner," as in the snowbound American pioneers who didn't limit themselves to non-human meat.

(Dedicated to the ever-beguiling Martha Brockenbrough.)

"This may come as a surprise, but there is no one right way to get organized." —Donna Smallin, Organizing Plain and Simple

Before the "photobomb" phenomenon, in which a third party unexpectedly steps in and ruins a photo, there was the "etch-plosion," in which an engraving was spoiled by an attention-hungry figure in the background.  Consider, for example, this etched illustration from an 1869 issue of Harper's magazine.

 

Which word is funnier: moist or supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?

Clue: This is according to feminist/humour academic Gina Barreca.

Answer: ..............moist................ (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)

Citation: Gene Weingarten & Gina Barreca, I'm with Stupid (2006)

"The Fall did not begin with eating the apple, that is base superstition.  It was hanging pictures in houses that did it!  Scarcely has the plasterer made the wall sheer and smooth than the Devil appears in the guise of an 'artist' and paints you a 'hole' in it with a view into the distance.  From there it's only one step to the bottomless pit where you're hanging in full fish and soup on the dining-room wall yourself next to Isidor the Handsome or some other crowned idiot with a pear-shaped head and a Cro-Magnon jaw, watching yourself eat."
—Gustav Meyrink, The Green Face

The lure of the North Pole: an illustration from a 1906 issue of Pall Mall magazine.

"And thus we arrive at the surprising truth that true art is truer than fact."
—James Wideman Lee, The Geography of Genius (1920)

"The simple answer is that fashion changed.”

—Alistair Fox, The English Renaissance (1997)

An illustration from an 1863 issue of Harper's magazine.

Dedicated to June.

Why begin "astonish" with a double S?  Interestingly, the word derives from the Latin tonāre, "to thunder," and the double S glyph of pre-Columbian Mexico is a symbol of clouds, rain, and water.

"Hey, like Aretha, says: R-e-s-p-e-c-t.  Something something means to me or however the other lyrics go."
—Christopher John Farley, My Favorite War