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.
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Abecedarian personal effects of 'a mad genius'
A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 417 posts tagged ‘1870s’

Restoring the Lost Sense – February 2, 2015 (permalink)

From Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69 by Edward Whymper, 1871.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#goat #1870s #mountain goat #alps #night goat #capricorn
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 29, 2014 (permalink)

From Backsheesh! or, Life and Adventures in the Orient by Thomas Wallace Knox, 1875.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #owl #insomnia #up all night #night creature #1870s #illustration #awake in the dark
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 23, 2014 (permalink)

From Life and Death by D. Lambden Flemming, 1873.  

See also this collection of 112 cocktail recipes to be drunk in remembrance of the dead: Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead.


[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #macabre #death #grim reaper #alcoholism #alcohol #1870s #alcohol poisoning #illustration #one for the road
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Do-Re-Midi – November 15, 2014 (permalink)

"The goslings of melody," from The New Hyperion by Edward Strahan, 1875.
> read more from Do-Re-Midi . . .
#vintage illustration #geese #1870s #illustration #goslings
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 14, 2014 (permalink)

From Berlin Under the New Empire by Henry Vizetelly, 1879.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #political cartoon #crushed #1870s #illustration #crushing
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 25, 2014 (permalink)

From A Little Tour in Ireland by S. R. Hole, 1878.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #goat #great beast #1870s #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 20, 2014 (permalink)

Like a stopped clock, she was correct twice a day.  (The caption reads, "She stopped, like a clock.")  This bit of time suspension is from Cornhill, 1875.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #1870s
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Strange Dreams – December 14, 2013 (permalink)

An illustration from The Day of Wonders by M. Sullivan (1879).  The caption reads: "The letters ... tired of lying still."
If you have a strange dream to share, send it along!
> read more from Strange Dreams . . .
#alphabet #dream #fantastical #1870s #letters #language
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 27, 2013 (permalink)

If it's the last dance, let it be with a goat.  From an 1870 issue of London Society Illustrated magazine.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#demon #devil #satan #death #love #goat man #vintage #goat #great beast #dance #lucifer #1870s #illustration #masque #mummer #olde worlde #great god pan #horned god
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Precursors – July 3, 2013 (permalink)

The (seemingly improbable) fourth side of a triangle, identified in this comic panel from Punch (1871), wasn't officially measured until 1993 by the University of Adelaide's B. F. Sherman (Mathematics Magazine, Vol. 66, No. 5).

> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #triangle #1870s #illustration #mathematics
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Strange Dreams – May 11, 2013 (permalink)

An illustration from an 1873 issue of Punch magazine.  The caption reads: "Currant Jelly."

If you have a strange dream to share, send it along!
> read more from Strange Dreams . . .
#vintage illustration #nightmare #rabbit #1870s #illustration #jelly #currants
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Precursors – March 10, 2013 (permalink)

Twenty years before George Vernon Hudson proposed daylight saving time, Father Time advanced the clock in Father Time's Story Book by Kathleen Knox (1873).

> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #father time #1870s #daylight saving time #illustration
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – February 21, 2013 (permalink)

There's something about the lettering styles of the late 60s and early 70s ... no matter whether we're talking about 1860-70 or 1960-70.

"Revolution" lettering by Alan Aldridge.  The Sunday Magazine lettering is, of course, from the early 1870s.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#typography #design #1870s #1970s #seventies #70s
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Staring Into the Depths – December 14, 2012 (permalink)

An illustration from an 1879 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly magazine.  The caption reads: "He grew into a fashion of dropping his pen, or holding it idly in his fingers, and picturing dreamily sketches not written out for mortal ken, but only for his heart's comfort."
[The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Staring Into the Depths . . .
#vintage illustration #1870s #vintage man #man
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – July 23, 2012 (permalink)

Our work on Platonic solids tumbling through time is entitled Astragalomancy.  It's all about how to divine the meanings of 21 discrete dice throws.

Knowledge of ancient Greek divination rituals is unnecessary.  The simple interpretations are clear-cut, based upon specific, indisputable references to history, mathematics, literature, mythology, and arcane sciences from around the world.

Read more about about this work over at Amazon.com.
This illustration of Lady Luck appears in Punch, 1877.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage illustration #dice #gambling #lady luck #1870s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 3, 2012 (permalink)

"A singular optical illusion": an illustration from an 1874 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #optical illusion #1870s #big baby
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Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? – September 2, 2008 (permalink)

Sleep experts have finally determined the cause of shepherd narcolepsy: counting sheep.  From Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes (Routledge, 1877). 
> read more from Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? . . .
#vintage illustration #shepherd #sheep #1870s #little bo peep
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