It was as if an occult hand had reached out to social media

"It was as if an occult hand had..." is the best name for a very strange, and very mild conspiracy.  A group of journalists tried to work that odd phrase into the occasional news story.  ...and that's about it.

There's a 2004 NPR story about it, where one of the journalists shows his hand:

PAUL GREENBERG: ...It originated when a group of rather bored reporters wondered how they could get some sort of telltale phrase past the copy editors, and they settled on, "as if by an occult hand."

BOB GARFIELD: It has been in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, it's been in the Boston Globe nine times from 1987 to the year 2000.

There's a nice ARG-like sensibility to it, an art hoax flair, at least in this one passage from that interview:

BOB GARFIELD:...Is it that funny a gag that reporters from coast to coast are getting involved in this little conspiracy?

PAUL GREENBERG: I'm not sure if it's a gag, but it's more like a signal, and what it signals to those in the know, such as we are, is that one of our fellows has struck again. And it's also interesting to see with what artistry he has managed to slip in the phrase, because if it's done amateurishly, the phrase will stand out. It will indeed stop the reader or the copy desk.

Social media angle: the second hit on a Google search for the term brings up the Wikipedia entry.  Several others are blogs, as was the first hit when I clicked "I'm feeling lucky."  And now Infocult brings its basilisk-like gaze to bear upon the thing.  We can all play, now!

(image via New York Observer)

Comments

[Jamie B]

Was this post just an elaborate means for slipping in the phrase "brings its basilisk-like gaze to bear upon the thing"?

[Bryan Alexander]

I - we - can do that anytime we like, Jamie B.
(staring)