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 zoo that never was. The Gazzit. He has a cap upon his head just where his hairs don't grow; but if he has behind his nose a mouth, I do not know!" From The Children's Newspaper, 1922.
"Don't divide me," begged the Apple. "It is mercy I implore." But the Knife could give no quarter till he'd halved the Apple's core! From The Children's Newspaper, 1928.
"And then methought the universe took flight / In glittering glory to the single goal, / Leaving between the changing dark and light / My little lingering soul." From Ancient Wings by Harindranath Chattopadhyay, 1923.
"The wind was blowing one autumn night when a little girl with a big balloon was carried away quite out of sight and landed the other side of the moon." From St. Nicholas, 1891.
"They will come back, come back again as long as the red earth rolls. God never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls?" (Rudyard Kipling.) From Horizon, 1957.