CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
We thought it was a Cole Porter-style compliment: "You're the soup, the salad, and the jelly." Alas, she's talking about a banquet made from a single chicken named Jack. From St. Nicholas, 1914.
A Hindu lamentation for a dead son: "My lion, my arrow, my blood, my body, my soul, my third eye! Gone, gone, gone!" From Hand-book of Bible Manners and Customs by James Midwinter Freeman, 1874
We double checked, and these are indeed the twelve states of existence: afraid, asleep, blindness, stoned, poisoned, insanity, dead, irritation, nausea, paralyzed, disease, and curse. From Wizardry: Crusaders Of The Dark Savant Clue Book.
This is like those "prove you're not a robot" tests in which you have to choose all the Jesuses but none of the churches. From They Like Jesus But Not the Church by Dan Kimball.
"In my opinion, we don't see enough these days of those hilarious 'ten-foot poles' that come from the wings, apparently under their own power, to supply missing props”