I can’t help you with this one; I found it loose, among miscellaneous ephemera, at a flea market. Who is this smirking urchin? Is he really a good example for the little ones? Why do I suspect that this caddy business is a front for something shadier? (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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(We conclude here a short story by Paul Vibert, translated by Doug Skinner.) I can repeat the celebrated procedure of the rats’ father, a prosthetic graft, and so join together two elephants, or two whales; then, when the graft has taken, all I need do is cut a small incision for communication; and as I […]

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(We present here the second part of a short story by Paul Vibert, translated by Doug Skinner. Please read the first part for your greater enjoyment.) Obviously, there can be no question of a spacious apartment, but simply a small lodging, warm and convenient. It could be relocated at will; and man would thus solve […]

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(We have a serial for you this week: a short story by Paul Vibert, carved into three portions, so you won’t get sick by eating it all at once. I know almost nothing about Vibert, except that he wrote stories in the 1890’s, often based on scientific fantasy. His curious tales can sometimes be found […]

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“Parejas del Mundo” was published by Naipes Heraclio Fournier, Vitoria, Spain. Animals and people of different lands are to be paired; our cheery seal will soon meet an Eskimo. Is that a spear, Señor Esquimal? I suspect this pair will not become amigos. (Posted by Doug Skinner, with thanks to Gail Freund)

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Several years ago, an unusual character was leaving packets of his outpourings around Manhattan. He was apparently never discovered by the Outsider Art establishment; so I did a slide show about him, which I showed in a number of places around New York. It was also picked up by a website called “Word,” which is […]

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Translation is the ullage of literature. It’s never too respectable, although many fine writers have done it. Baudelaire probably improved Poe. I regret that Tristan Tzara never finished his version of Marlowe’s Faustus. It is, alas, impossible: you just can’t move meaning from one tongue to another; lexical fields are loose fits, syntax won’t transpose. […]

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Whitman released this detective game, “Who Is the Thief?”, in 1966. The players were instructed to pair suspects and witnesses, including this jaunty bum, to find the jewel thief. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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Our seemingly interminable presidential campaign rattles on. Perhaps you’ve noticed. But don’t fret: I won’t add to the gab about the candidates. I would only like to remark that millions of dollars are collected and spent in the process. We often worry about the source of those millions, and take pains that no one udder […]

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Slatter’s Court was once a motor court on the old Lincoln Highway, serving travellers who passed through Davis, California and needed a place to rest their weary heads. Along its winding lanes, a handful of well-ensconced mobile homes and trailers are nestled among tiny clapboard and stucco cottages (which range from a single room to […]

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