Dec. 6, 2006: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/greenberg120606.php3But I couldn't just let the Order die. It had become a … tradition So at the next annual editorial writers' convention, I called an after-hours meeting of all those who might be interested in adopting a new secret phrase. It couldn't be just a simple piece of purple-as-a-bruise prose that would leap out of our copy as if written in neon. What we needed was some language bad enough to be spotted by the cognoscenti but likely to get past the casual copyreader. Call it lavender prose.
...
But I'm proud to report that the Order is in business again with, at last count, 11 certified members who've submitted proof that they've actually snuck the magic phrase into a reputable publication, 14 candidates who have yet to submit their documentation, and one honorary member who seems to spin out this kind of prose naturally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Occult_HandThe Order of the Occult Hand is a whimsical secret society of American journalists who have been able to slip the meaningless and telltale phrase "It was as if an occult hand had…" in print as a sort of a game and inside joke.
I propose we, the Bitcoin community, put our collective heads together and crack this son of a bitch, whereupon our reward would be the recognition that it was a quasi-crypto group of sleuths who cracked it.
It's a given that the first use of the unknown phrase was sometime before Dec. 6, 2006, perhaps at least once on Thanksgiving day less than two weeks prior.
I like to believe that one of the members, if not Paul Greenberg himself, opted to pen the unknown phrase on the anniversary of first use of the "occult hand" phrase. On birthdays of leading members or of notables in the printed word space are other dates in which the unknown phrase may have been published.
Are you game? If so, weigh in with whatever insight you have to offer so that others can expand upon it
At the very least, we'll learn some shit we probably wouldn't have if we didn't embark upon this weird-ass quest.
Here's the 2004 exposé:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-07-25/news/0407250346_1_phrase-editorial-page-editor-journalismWe can eliminate "nostalgic windup, even though I could see the curve ball coming" gleaned indirectly from here:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/greenberg1.asp
