The great mad painter and pulp writer, Richard Shaver, was convinced that the sun had become poisonous, and had repolarized our brains, so that we think backwards.  We mistake beauty for ugliness, and evil for good.  That’s why we act the way we do.

I suspect he was wrong about the sun; but he may have been right about our brains.  We prefer fanaticism to tolerance, ignorance to education, meanness to generosity, order to chaos, prudishness to frankness, falsehood to honesty.  We poison our air and water, and decimate other species, because we prize money over survival.  We even prefer bad food to good, and would rather stuff ourselves with the most appalling crap than tuck into a salad.

Of course, these are all truisms.  That means they’re true.  And?  We can be cynical about our situation, or we can try to improve it.  Maybe we can do both.

There is, then, a reason to be contrarian.  It’s not just willful; it’s an attempt to repolarize our brains.  If everything were dandy, it would be pointless.  But everything is not very dandy, and paradox may help turn us around.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“TwinKins” (“An original card game for boys and girls”) was published by the Arrco Playing Card Co.  Again, there is no date.  Players score points by pairing boys and girls from the same country.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

We’re happy to report that the Ullage Group now owns a functional 1932 Violet Ray Generator.  One of your founders (Doug) and charter member Dr. Mamie Caton bought the device at an antique store in upstate New York.  We tested it before purchase; the spectacle of four clueless adults trying to work a potentially broken and/or dangerous electroshock machine struck me as a chilling indictment of American education.  That stuff on the glass electrode has been cleaned off, and it seems to be working.  It’s now in the hands of your other founder (Anthony), and may appear in future events.

Speaking of which, our next event is slated for May 18, at Jalopy.  It will be called “Microlithomania,” and will focus on unusual stones smaller than megaliths.  More details will follow.

The series of children’s card games will continue indefinitely; we plan to post a fresh specimen every Friday.  We hope to showcase those with imaginative and arresting graphics; feedback is welcome.

We’ve also acquired a large collection of stereoscopic slides from the early 1950s.  Doug and charter member Lisa Hirschfield found them at a Manhattan flea market, and immediately saw their ullagistic possibilities.  There are about 300 of them; the subjects include middle-aged couples standing in front of buildings, children on lawns scowling at adults, formally dressed diners enjoying fruit cups, and other precious documents of daily life.  They will soon be examined by stereoscopic specialists Greg Dinkins and Anthony Matt.

A DVD of the puppet shows and videos Doug did with Michael Smith in the ’90s has been released by 2nd Cannons.  You can now learn how to mix Doug and Mike’s signature cocktail, the Gibsonetto, while lounging at home in your underwear.  Human progress is slow, but heartening. 

(Posted by Doug Skinner)     

Your third selection comes from a curious game called “Golden Egg.”  There is no date, price, copyright, or publisher; all we are told is that it was made in Hong Kong.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Blasphemy is a wacky bit of homo sapiana; it requires a deft two-step of belief and disbelief.  Without belief, there’s no point to it; without disbelief, no taste for it.  This bittersweet combo is well-suited to the Italian palate.

Few languages, apparently, are as fertile in blasphemy.  One of the preferred formulas is the yoking of a sacred term to a scabrous: Porco Madonna (pig Madonna), Dio boia (God hangman).  Sometimes the recipe is more rococo: Dio Faust links God to the archetypical Satanist.

In 1965, a blasphemy contest was held in Florence.  The first prize was awarded to the elegant expression Dio Dio — for this assumes that the first Dio is sacred, and the second nasty.

Neither religion nor blasphemy floats my personal boat — unmoored as it is in the unchartable waters of indifference.  But the richness and economy of Dio Dio are pure pleasure.  How much more meaning and humanity can be packed into six letters?

(I refer the reader to volumes 1 and 2 of “Maledicta,” edited by Reinhold Aman; and to “Florentine Locutions,” by Kevin Beary, 1984.)

(Posted by Doug Skinner) 

We started this as a sort of Fortean Society, as you may have gathered from the occasional remark.  Since there’s some confusion over the term, we might as well clarify matters.

First off, both founders (Doug Skinner and Anthony Matt) have been active in various Fortean groups — loosely defined as groups that bandy about topics that might have interested Charles Fort.  Anthony has written for the “Fortean Times,” and is working on a documentary about Fort and Forteans.  Doug, being older, had a head start; he was a member of John Keel’s disreputable NY Fortean Society (see above), and has written and lectured on a bouquet of topics.  We also do other things, thank you; it’s not the brainstem of either of us.

The word “Fortean” was coined by Ben Hecht, who proclaimed himself the first one.  For him, it simply meant that he liked reading Fort.  Some citizens, especially those pseudo-skeptics hooked on debunkery, take it as a synonym for “believer”; and deride all Forteans as saucerheads and Sasquatch trackers.  Fair enough — some are, and vice versa.  Some Baptists play baseball, if you get my drift.  Fort himself is best defined as a Pyrrhonist (that is, a deep-dyed doubter, in the style of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho).  Anthony is interested in hoaxes and stereo photography.  Doug goes gaga for methodology, and for the literature and history of heterodoxy.

The founder of the original Fortean Society, Tiffany Thayer, defined himself as a Pyrrhonist, anarchist, and atheist; and devoted the organization to “dissension from all dogma.”  We like his spirit, but see several reasons not to turn his anti-dogmatism into dogma.

We hope that clears things up; and we love you all, sort of.  How are you doing with that ullage?

(Doug’s “Fortean Times” article on Thayer has been posted here, if you’re interested.)

(Posted by Doug Skinner) 

Fort fans will be intrigued to hear that a new biography of Charles Fort, by Jim Steinmeyer, is due out soon.  I’ve just read an advance copy, and urge you to keep an eye out for it.  Steinmeyer has scoured the archives, and come up with much fresh material; Fort’s delightful letters alone are worth the trip. 

Fort’s reputation has always been a many checkered thing; I’m curious how this affectionate and scholarly account will be received.

(Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, by Jim Steinmeyer, will be published in May 2008 by Tarcher/Penguin.)

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

We have another one for you: this comes from “Farve-Firkort,” a game from Denmark.  No date or publisher is given.  I think the name means “Four-card in color”; any Danish speakers please chime in with corrections.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Somewhere in the ullage of our culture floats that odd artifact, the card.  Cardboard rectangles are used for many things: postcards, business cards, gaming cards, fortune-telling cards, trading cards.

One of the most ephemeral is the children’s card game.  The games themselves are usually simple time-wasters, cheap toys to divert a bored kid for an hour or so.  But the artwork is often relaxed and charming, anonymous hackwork done far below the radar.

And so we start here a series of children’s card games.  This first specimen is from “Highway Travel,” an undated deck from Built-Rite.  It can be played either by matching the images with things seen on a car ride, or as a variation of “Old Maid.”

(Posted by Doug Skinner) 

Here is a link to our new flickr page with 3D photos from our first event, “Five Sides of a Machine.” The photos can be viewed with standard red and cyan 3D glasses.

Stereoscopic photography by Mick Andreano.

(Posted by Anthony Matt)