|
|
|
|
|
Charles Fort explains his eerily marvelous theory that ours is a ghostly realm—that when spirits die they become human beings: My suspicion is that we've got everything reversed; or that all things that have the sanction of scientists, or that are in agreement with their myths, are ghosts: and that things called 'ghosts,' are, because they are not in agreement with the spooks of science, the more nearly real things. I now suspect that the spiritualists are reversedly right—that there is a ghost-world—but that it is our existence—that when spirits die they become human beings. I now have a theory that once upon a time, we were real and alive, but departed into this state that we call 'existence'—that we have carried over with us from the real existence, from which we died, the ideas of Truth, and of axioms and principles and generalizations—ideas that really meant something when we were really alive, but that, of course, now, in our phantom-existence—which is demonstrable by any X-ray photograph of any of us—can have only phantom-meaning—so then our never-ending, but always frustrated, search for our lost reality. We come up chimera and mystification, but persistently have beliefs, as retentions from an experience in which there were things to believe in. I'd not say that all of us are directly ghosts: most of us may be the descendants of the departed from a real existence, who, in our spook-world, pseudo-propagated. ( Wild Talents, 1932) |
|
| Puzzles and Games :: Which is Funnier |
(permalink) |
|
|
|
 What’s funnier than death?
Clue: This is according to a novel entitled A Stranger in My Grave
Answer: Nothing. “There's nothing funnier than death, really, especially if you have an advanced sense of humor.” (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
Citation: Margaret Millar, A Stranger in My Grave (1960), p. 11
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do blurbs sell books? With a blurb like this one, how could Prof. Oddfellow refuse? "An amazing, glittering, glowing, Proustian, Conradian, Borgesian, diamond-faceted, language-studded, myth-drowned dream!" — Cynthia Ozick, describing this book(That's Prof. Oddfellow's catnip mouse enjoying the Swiss cheese on the dust jacket. Thanks in a roundabout way to Hilary's mom for the tip!) |
|
 “Your ship will come in! We’ll celebrate tonight.” —Edward Michel-Bird
|
|
|
|
|
|
We're honored to have captured the spirit of Brentwood for DGuides' resource on the greater Los Angeles area. Our photo shows the hilltop Getty Museum from the Angeleno Hotel. |
|
From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:
|
|
|
|
|
|
 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 . . . GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip. Suddenly, a shot rang out.
|
|
WANING GIBBOUS (PRESENT PERFECT)"The moonlight punctuating the wave crests." —Maxine Masterfield, Painting the Spirit of Nature (1996)
|
|
| Puzzles and Games :: Which is Funnier |
(permalink) |
|
|
|
Which word is funnier: smudge or spot?
Clue: This is according to the book Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain
Answer: Smudge, as it is “funny sounding.” (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
Citation: Christopher Hart, Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain (1998), p. 107
|
|
|
|
|
|
"So difficult, isn't it, to draw hard-and-fast lines between what one rationally believes, and what one trusts is true, and what seems to admit of more than one explanation." — E. F. Benson, Trouble For Lucia
|
|
INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the puzzle image below to reveal one possible solution.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Omegaword suggests using amperbangs in the names of law firms as a testament that two heads are bigger than one.
We celebrate Omegaword's invention of the amperbang and now realize we've seen amperbang facial expressions, as when someone nods enthusiastically, eyebrows raised, to prod us to reveal a seemingly inevitable and yet elusive punch line.
---
Jeff writes:
Ha! I know the facial expression well, having experienced that "amperbang moment" once or twice (i.e. too many times) myself.
|
|
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 FIRST MEN IN THE MOON by Herbert George Wells As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that suddenly, a shot rang out.
|
|
| Puzzles and Games :: Letter Grids |
(permalink) |
|
|
|
This puzzle grid contains several big words. Can you find them?
• 7-letter words: 11
• 8-letter words: 4
• 9-letter words: 1
All letters in the word must touch (in any direction), and no square may be reused.
Click to display solutions
|
| 7-letter words: |
• dummies
• kaliums
• kalmias
• limiest
• limulus
• mussily |
• slimily
• stimuli
• summits
• tummies
• umlauts |
| 8-letter words: |
• slimiest
• stimulus |
• sweatily
• swimmily |
| 9-letter words: |
| • slummiest |
|
|
Page 4165 of 4337
Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
|
