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.
Which came first: the cock fight or the egg throwing contest?
Left, a detail of an illustration of cock fighting in Great Britain. The full image is located here. Right, a detail of a photo of guy getting egg on his face at an egg-throwing contest. The full image and gallery are located here.
As you know, perfume is mostly composed of alcohol. Did you hear that perfume companies are going to begin marketing alcoholic beverages? The first will be called "Estée Lager."
A scene from the The Divine Comedy: Dante and Virgil carried by Phlegyas on his boat. From a stained glass window (19th century) in the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, Italy. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Did you hear that director Terry Gilliam is going to film a sequel to one of his old movies, and that he's going to deliberately ruin the film stock so as to gain special sympathy from the media? The film will be entitled "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen By Proxy."