(When we read a catalogue note to the effect that "in this piece, the blue sardines are moveable," we know that we are treading terra incognita.)

Pelvises Are Useful While Georgia O'Keefe's paintings were starkly enigmatic, she makes them seem very natural in this catalogue note for a 1944 show.

Since he and his wife moved to Tucson, Ariz., in 1970, the catalogue notes, "he has pursued a new interest: the embellishment of firearms."

In 2006, her painting Roots (right) was sold at Sotheby's, whose catalogue notes said:

Explanatory labels and extensive catalogue notes were written by the graduate students, guided by Prof. Martin Eidelberg.

He expanded on a catalogue note about a letter found inside the mask, glued to the inside of the right eye.

(On the other hand, a device described in the Codex Leicester that, the exhibition catalogue notes, "sounds curiously similar to a modern espresso machine," seems entirely original.)

In an issue of Yale's art publication, Eve, is the tortilla ("now disgusting," the catalogue notes).

The Americana listing of stamps "is not an endorsement of their existence," the catalogue notes.

War renders heroes; war tenders fortitude," the catalogue notes, but adds, "Moreover, war offers a modern wardrobe the efficacy of virtue-imbued, tested, sentimental, epic dress.