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.
"Your fortune cookie said 'The wheel is turning. This is the dark time. What must you gain from the night?" From The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman.
At first glance, we thought she was dropping a head into the flames, as per the sort of weirdness one encounters in old yearbooks. From MacMurray College's 1963 yearbook.
"He sometimes toyed with the fancy that the genii had awakened him with the express purpose of showing him the beauty of the desert night, a beauty baffling description, and which alone, it seemed to him, was worth the journey hither." From This Labyrinthine Life, A Tale of the Arizona Desert by George Alexander Fischer, 1907.
"It's a shame to spoil the beautiful darkness. It's sad that I love the darkness so much and I never knew it. Maybe that's why I'm feeling so much better. Now that I know it's dark outside." From Dark Shadows episode 232.