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.
"They loved, too, the beautiful Iris-spirit, who came in the sun-light, and slept so gorgeously robed upon the soft bosom of the silvery spray." From New Tales from Faëry Land, 1852.
"On the summit of that hill there is an old woman who holds a bird in her bosom." From Serbian Fairy Tales by Elodie L. Mijatovich and illustrated by Sidney Stanley, 1921.
You've no doubt heard the argument that modern art is a racket engineered by art dealers, that the whole thing is a kind of vast and very expensive practical joke. In a letter to Esther Harding (7/8/47), Carl Jung wrote, "I am only prejudiced against all forms of modern art. It is mostly morbid and evil on top [of that]." Our illustration is from Fliegende Blätter, 1931.