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.
"The non-conformist scientific hand." The caption doesn't identify this as the hand of a non-conforming, scientific person but rather suggests that the hand itself is a non-conforming scientist. From New Discoveries in Palmistry by Joseph Bryant Hargett, 1901.
"Back of hand and shrivelled apple." From "Photographer of a Model Moon, James Nasmyth, 1808-1890" by Terry Crosswhite, in Northlight #7 (Arizona State University).
"The eccentric hand intellectual." The caption doesn't say this is the hand of an eccentric and intellectual person but rather that the hand itself is eccentric and intellectual. Therefore, the illustration is transformed into a talisman, akin to the Hand of Fatima. From New Discoveries in Palmistry by Joseph Bryant Hargett, 1901.