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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: Angelic. "Some good angel whispered to me, 'Go, and look in the glass.'" —Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1874, p. 335. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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 Is it true, as Momus
suggests, that there are "few tales which would not be improved by the
addition of the phrase 'suddenly, a shot rang out'"? Decide for
yourself as we alter the opening lines of . . . THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Graham Greene A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. Suddenly, a shot rang out.
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From our Magic Words outpost: We're honored to have our insights into "hocus pocus" referenced in Software Studies: A Lexicon, edited by Matthew Fuller. The chapter in question is Marco Deseriis' "Text Virus." |
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
(permalink) |
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~ Classic Sightings ~
Frontispiece from William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.
The implication seems to be this: spirit is a shadow in the material realm, and material is a shadow in the spirit realm. To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.
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While decorative type ornaments are predominantly botanical in nature, punctuation marks betray bestial origins. The ampersand, for example, descends from a snakelike fish. See this most unusual book about ampersands through history: Ampersand.
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 “Yes, your boat awaits you.” —Edna Lyall
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"She stared at the sun, narrowing her eyes until it was just a speck. The speck grew larger and larger, white obliterating dark. Past destroying present." — Sarah McCarty, Tracker's Sin (2010) |
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
(permalink) |
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~ Classic Sightings ~ 
Portrait from Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Allin.
“Upon our darkened eyes / A light more pure than noontide rays shall shine.” —Catherine Grant Furley, “Incompleteness”
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Is it true, as Momus
suggests, that there are "few tales which would not be improved by the
addition of the phrase 'suddenly, a shot rang out'"? Decide for
yourself as we alter the opening lines of . . . CHROMOS by Felipe AlfauThe moment one learns English, complications set in. Suddenly, a shot rings out. --- Jeff writes: This could be the two-sentence life story of so many tortured writers. Of course, simply reversing the order of the sentences avoids those pesky English complications altogether, but then who would be left to torture? It's a bit of a paradox.
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INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
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Our favorite Finnish electronic band, Déclassé, offers a "you do the math" moment: One phone call
thirteen numbers
still a million miles away.
We love the sentiment that working through a lot of digits to make an international call somehow ought to subtract from the distance. The paradox arises from considering space and "long distance minutes" as separate entities. Ultimately, as with Zeno's puzzles, solving the mathematical issues does not solve every issue the paradox raises. |
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| The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine |
(permalink) |
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~ Classic Sightings ~
From William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.
The left image depicts the ghost as it appears in the material realm, while the right image depicts the ghost as it appears in the immaterial realm. And so we learn that ghosts are even more nebulous in the netherworld. To understand this phenomenon, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.
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Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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