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 shape of the phone has changed over the decades, but this ad from Popular Mechanics in 1934 was prescient. The text reads, "More important than any material thing."
"Me drunk on literature is the best me. Hands down. On a good book, time is fluid, point of view ranges from the omniscient to the unreliable, and space is blasted with sensuality. On Lit I fuse with the human experience. I remember, I alter, I trust. Drinking that fine Lit down, I carbonize into the desirous me." —Dan Manzanares
"Indian design to cause sleep aids insomnia victims." From Popular Mechanics, 1931. We re-created the pattern for you to print out and try for yourself (an internet exclusive!).