Finally, someone has exposed the Order of the Occult Hand

Chicago Tribune
“For more than two generations in newsrooms around the world, a meaningless, funny and telltale turn of phrase has spread like a cough in a classroom,” writes James Janega. “It involves eight words that defy definition — ‘It was as if an occult hand had …’” It means nothing, but the phrase “has been slyly and widely put to use [by a few journalists] for most of the past 40 years, intentionally, all over the world.” CURRENT STATUS: “The hand still exists, but users of the phrase say it has been crippled by the arthritis of journalism scandals, safe now to wave only once in a while.”
> Earlier: Occult Hand org is good because it has no committees (Poynter)