What Did Lovecraft See?

Here are several newspaper clippings of the Providence Journal November 1916. It was an ordinary month, with a car show, movies, burlesque, war news, and more.

It would be as if Edward Lee, Brian Keene, or Ray Garton picked up yesterday's newspaper. And like those writers, Lovecraft glanced through the news and views of the day, and then set it aside, drank coffee, and ... imagined the fantastic.

How does this happen? What makes the ordinary seem extraordinary through the eyes of the weird writer?