It is a place outside of place, Eunida answered. Extra-ordinary as opposed to intra-ordinary.

In case you haven't heard of them [the Taipings], I must tell you that they were another of those incredible phenomena that made China the topsy-turvey mess it was, like some fantastic land from Gulliver, where everything was upside down and out of kilter. Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.

The Platine War was fought between August of 1851 and February of 1852.

The spring-driven clock introduced the truly movable timepiece and, with further innovations in miniaturization, the object that came to be called the watch.