Illustration: Jean-Baptiste Adolphe LaFosse, c. 1854.

• Writing advice for children: “If you can get inside the creepy, disgusting mind of a monster you will really scare your reader.”
• For more than a century, the Times has seldom passed up an opportunity to discuss the monocle: “Monocles used to be gimmicky … but now people realize they are useful with menus and theater programs.”
• Thirty cult films you must see, including Sharktopus: “the tale of a genetically engineered half shark, half octopus who wreaks havoc at the beach.”
• At last, a quantum leap in airship technology—the new Airlander can stay aloft for three weeks, and is, despite its bulbous bloat, pretty handsome to behold.
• Silence is now a luxury product. “The fiercely defended philosophy of the quiet car is spreading.”