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.
This is as good an explanation of the Santa Ana winds as we've encountered: "Listen, please. Ā The wind. Ā Maybe that means that the top is open. Ā Maybe it means that the keeper isn't up there anymore. Ā Maybe it means that it's grown tired of its plaything. Ā Maybe it even means that it's left our world." āThe Bubble (1966)
An illustration from Lavengro by Augustine Birrell (1896). The caption reads: "There's the wind on the heath, brother; if I could only feel that, I would gladly live for ever."