Francisque Sarcey (1827-1899) was, for much of his career, the most powerful theatrical critic in Paris. He was the perfect model of the blunt bourgeois, championing common sense, anti-intellectualism, and traditional values. He favored light, commercial fare, and railed against Ibsen and Jarry. He was, predictably, a prime target for young artists. Alphonse Allais took [...]

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There’s one in every crowd.  (Please click to enlarge.) (Posted by Doug Skinner.  The photo is from Master Course in Hypnotism, by Harry Abons, Power Publishers, 1948.)

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If you leave the house without your pants, where will you put your keys? golf without clubs Salt is best enjoyed at room temperature. The beauty of the little lamb Is that it doesn’t give a damn. Nobody ever lost money by finding money. Science still can’t create an ineffective placebo. a globe with Mercator [...]

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I just heard a politician on the radio, saying that the election is not about fundraising, but about the heart and soul of the party. Those aren’t really dioramas They’re just holes in your pajamas ouija scrabble: messages from spirits are awarded points by letter The American diet: Yesterday I saw a man walking down [...]

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The following pictures are taken from the Fretted Instrument News, 1945-1949.  It was the “Official Organ of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists, and Guitarists,” “An Independent Bi-Monthly Devoted to the Advancement and Culture of the Romantic Instruments.”  It was particularly devoted to promoting “Fret Clubs,” amateur or school groups that played light classical selections [...]

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Ask me no questions, I’ll punch you no mouth. the caregiver and the caretaker a musket that shoots musk Not the courage of our convictions, but the courage of our doubts. Minicheckers: the opposite of Charles Fort’s “Supercheckers” — each player has four game pieces a radio flub: the marriage was “uncomplicated,” for “unconsummated” the [...]

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Théophile Gautier’s 1865 novel, La Belle-Jenny, is a boisterous, Romantic tale of conspiracy and intrigue, all of which fails.  Couples are parted; lives are ruined.  Near the end, Arthur Sidney, the character most to blame for all of this, sums up what he’s learned: Aimez quelqu’un ou quelque chose, un homme, un enfant, un chien, [...]

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Don’t sing from the heart; use your lungs. splilt Maybe your snap judgment Was just a crap judgment. Asemic acrostics: Many enthusiasts have found acrostics in Shakespeare and other writers; we can also find acrostics that do not spell out words, giving us a hidden message without linguistic significance. a pen that forms a line [...]

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We have a remarkable ability to see patterns where there are none, to see pictures in clouds, smoke, and rocks.  We’re particularly prone to see faces, perhaps because facial recognition is such an important survival skill. “Images d’Epinal,” an old French firm that provided popular prints for generations, has long published pictures with hidden images, [...]

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People like strange things; and publishers in the ’50s and ’60s were happy to provide an apparently endless string of strange paperbacks.  Some of the following are reprints from Fate magazine; some are from Ace Books’ “Strange Facts” series.  Many seem to have had the same cover design (please click for enlargements).  For less than [...]

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