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An illustration from an 1895 issue of The Idler magazine. The caption reads: "Swear that for fourteen days you will drink nothing but cocoa."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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We all know that the opera isn't over until the fat lady sings, but did you know that in Scotland, the bagpipes aren't over until the corgi cries? Proof comes from Life Magazine, 1917.
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Wikipedia strives for an "encyclopedic tone," but what does such a tone sound like? Giovanni Vlacancich knows. He patented a method of "assigning each letter in an alphabet a musical note, converting words in a message into the musical notes and then using the musical notes to communicate the message to another human being." When played all together, the alphabetic notes of Wikipedia's encyclopedic tone sound like ... well, one hates to use the word cacophony.
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I dreamed of a ten-cent emotion in a fifty-dollar frame.
From Life magazine, 1912.
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An illustration from a 1922 issue of Scribner's magazine. The caption reads: "The Ghost Trees"
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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"Figs and filberts": a new expression via Jonathan Caws-Elwitt. For example: "Let's get down to figs and filberts." "I don't know my figs from my filberts." "It's time to separate the figs from the filberts." "Don't make a fig out of a filbert."
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From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook. "Every soul is alone. Alone with that secret bestower of torture and pleasure, the horned snail behind the pigsty!" —John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
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Cups and balls: an illustration from a 1901 issue of The Idler magazine.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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"A message from the dead." A detail of a comic strip from Life, 1920.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Here's a precursor to Ronette Pulaski of Twin Peaks. (Fans of the series will recognize the scene in question.) The illustration appears about a century earlier, in Henley I. Arden's Elizabeth or Cloud and Sunshine (1891).
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An illustration from a 1908 issue of Wide World magazine. The caption reads: "They saw the towering rock, in obedience to the white man's order, rise high into the air."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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"Lamia": an illustration from a 1900 issue of The Idler magazine and a precursor to the spooky portraits hanging in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
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An illustration from a 1905 issue of Wide World magazine. The caption reads: "I was soon enveloped in the fiery tongues of flame."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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From Cartoons magazine, 1916.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Before Arrested Development introduced us to the fictional self-help book The Man Inside Me (2004), there was The Man Inside (1914). "For there's a man inside me, and only when he's finally out, can I walk free of pain." —Dr. Tobias Fünke
Recreation of The Man Inside Me cover by VIsraWratS.
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An illustration from a 1904 issue of Metropolitan magazine. The caption reads: "'Through him! Pass through him! Come out! Come to me!' I cried."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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I dreamed again I was allowed to marry another semicolon. Our wedding
was conducted by San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren, who
kept saying, "I am not trying to be petty here, but it is a big deal
... That semicolon is a big deal."
Later that night, I dreamed that I discussed my marriage with Rick
Boyer, who said: "Like punctuation marks, milestones break up, to a
degree, the continuity of daily experience. And like those little
black marks, they add dimensions to the text of our lives, extra
meaning that otherwise we would fail to read. Nate's upcoming
wedding day, like a speed bump, to some degree sneaked up on us despite
the fact that we've been looking forward to it. What is it about
weddings, anyway? You have one marked on the calendar for perhaps
a year or two; yet, two weeks before the event all is madness and
pandemonium as both families scramble to get ready. ... Our coming 'big
day' reminds me that milestones - those punctuation marks of life - are
liberally dispersed for all and that life is not one uninterrupted
stream but a book with a beginning and an end. It has sentences
and paragraphs, set apart by punctuation marks, that add up to chapters
which sometimes we don't recognize as such until looking back later
over the nearly completed manuscript."
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"The end." A detail of a comic strip from Life, 1920.
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Even though modern eyes might consider the young lady's skirt to be quite long (in the image below), she's wearing the "short skirt now in vogue," making her vulnerable to casting a disreputable shadow. We generally love that one might be scandalized by one's shadow. A true character must cast a fascinating shadow, one way or another. Note that the tricky "witching hour" here is sunset and not midnight. Jeff shares: After careful analysis of the photograph, I note the following:
1) The trollop's ankles cast the shadow of a wading bird, thus creating the overwhelming sensation of familiarity in the average seaside lothario.
2) The upper portion of the trollop's shadow appears to have a bun in the oven, creating, in the average seaside lothario, the overwhelming desire for family.
3) Neither the lustful dandy nor the translucent salt behind him have shadows of their own, therefore they cannot be true characters. I blame Photoshop.
4) Upon closer inspection, the cad sneaking up the stairs is Puss 'n Boots, not Jack Sparrow.
5) The trollop's right hand is not a hand at all. It is a pincer, leading me to suspect that she is either Crab Woman or Lobster Girl. If the former, she may be harboring a crab cake in the oven instead. If the latter, she has simply lost her mittens.
6) She and the approaching cat in the hat are merely going out for seafood and a movie. It's 1868 after all.
From Punch, 1868. The caption reads, "Young ladies who affect the short skirt now in vogue, are respectfully cautioned against the witching hour of sunset!"
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An illustration from an 1892 issue of The Idler magazine. The caption reads: "Baby Smithson loved me."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Here's a precursor to filmmaker John Waters "jumping the shark." By the time audiences and auteurs settled into the ’80s, America’s look back in affection at the ’50s had begun to show its age. (When Fonzie jumped the shark in an episode of "Happy Days,” his daredevil stunt soon became shorthand for that precise moment in time when a beloved piece of pop culture begins to overstay its welcome). That didn’t stop "Pope of Trash” John Waters from mining the world of downscale greasers for 1990’s "Cry-Baby.” —Scott Stiffler
Our precursor appears in Frederick Upham Adams' The Kidnapped Millionaires: A Tale of Wall Street and the Tropics (1901).
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If you ever open a bottle and hear a hissing sound, stand back. This snaky letter S is from Sunday magazine, 1875.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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"Always remember that there are many — thousands, millions! — of ways of expressing love. And remember that your partner has the right to express his/her love in ways that may not be what you want or expect." — Gregory J. P. Godek, 1001 Ways to Be Romantic (1999)
Photo by Sara Harper-Hudson.
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A valentine from a 1903 issue of Life magazine.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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The caption reads, "From whence the owner vanishes into the immeasurable Hades of all the forgotten crustaceans of the world. — John Cowper Powys, Porius.)
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Printed collections of Forgotten Wisdom diagrams are available: Volume I from Mindful Greetings and Volumes II, III and IV from Amazon. Selected posters are also available via Zazzle. |
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On the magical quality of philosophical phrases: "They have something, a sort of magic — I don't know what — that makes like rich and exciting to me. . . . I think we're thrilled by the weight of history that lies behind each one of these phrases. It isn't just the world itself, or just its immediate meaning. It's a long, trailing margin of human sensations, life by life, century by century, that gives us this peculiar thrill. . . . I know they're absurd, these phrases . . . Words like 'pluralism' and 'dualism' and 'monism.' But what they make me think of is just a particular class of vague, delicious, physical sensations! And it's the idea of there having been feelings like these, in far-off, long-buried human nerves, that pleases. . . . It makes life seem so thick and rich and complicated." — John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
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"So it's 2 pm and you've got the dreaded 2 o'clock feeling." —The Grave Radio
This illustration of the dreaded 2 o'clock feeling is from Cartoons magazine, 1916.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought |
(permalink) |
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There's so much to love in this first page of William De Morgan's When Ghost Meets Ghost (1914). The first chapter is very rightly numbered zero. Shouldn't all ghost stories begin with chapter zero? The chapter summary is playfully honest about what it amounts to, and it mentions a "somewhere that is now nowhere." In the first paragraph, there's a withering mention of several young ladies having "lost their individuality." The third paragraph exposes a great truth: a story can do without accuracy.
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Staring into the depths: an illustration from a 1915 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. The caption reads: "What had she seen beyond the candle-flame? It is the strange that invests visions with poignancy."
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[The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Here's a form of cartoon swearing ("maledicta") from Metropolitan Magazine, 1911 — perhaps an exclamation of "Dingbat!" without the use of any dingbats. The caption says it's a verb, and the "ding" part of "dingbat" probably traces back to the obsolete meaning "to deal a heavy blow."
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From Samuel Orchart Beeton's Book of Jokes and Jests: Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, was tormented by the conspiracies incessantly formed against his throne and person. One day a man presented himself at a public levee, and told the monarch that he knew of a means by which the monarch might discover any conspiracy against him, and that for a certain sum of money he would reveal it to him. Dionysius promised to give him what he asked, upon which the man, taking him aside, said to him, "I possess no such secret, but if you tell your subjects that I have revealed to you one that is infallible, no one will henceforth dare to conspire against you." Dionysius thought the advice excellent, adopted it, paid the money, and lived tranquilly thereafter.
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An illustration from a 1905 issue of Metropolitan magazine.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Pleasantries about the weather need not be dispassionate, as we see in the caption to this illustration from Windsor magazine, 1908.
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*Inspired by the world's only accurate meteorological report, "Yesterday's Weather," as seen on Check It Out. |
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A naked I under the naked eye. From Life magazine, 1911.
My dream was concupiscent.
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An illustration from a 1907 issue of Metropolitan magazine. The caption reads: "Bill and the preacher rose rigidly in unison and huddled terror-stricken together."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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An illustration from a 1906 issue of Metropolitan magazine. The caption reads: "The gods of the North were dancing beyond their walls of eternal ice."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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My dream was cloudy.
An illustration from The Canadian Magazine, 1897. The caption reads, "He was punctuating his sentences, deliberately, with clouds of tobacco smoke."
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Unencumbered by linear time, recording artist Ken Clinger adapted and covered a song we wrote 14 years ago, " Legend of the Map." Interestingly*, all references to Esperanto have been erased! *Given that the song is about Esperanto, and given that Ken Clinger is a student of Esperanto.
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An illustration from a 1904 issue of Metropolitan magazine. The caption reads: "He laughed when he saw me."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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 "The answer is simple. Perhaps the answer is much simpler that you would believe. You must practice.” —Alex Nekritin, Naked Forex (2012)
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"I am four hundred and three years of old to-day." From Metropolitan Magazine, 1904.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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An illustration from a 1905 issue of Metropolitan magazine.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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An illustration from an 1897 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. The caption reads: "They rise upon me tattered and dog-bitten."
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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An illustration from a 1914 issue of Metropolitan magazine.
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[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost
sense of immediacy. We follow the founder of the Theater of
Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then
flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free. The images
we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.] |
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Original Content Copyright © 2019 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.
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