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.
If we were to quibble about Drunk: The Definitive Drinker's Dictionary ("O ascetic, go, and don’t quibble with those who drink the dregs," Hafez said), it would be over the fact that the book is in fact a glossary and not a dictionary, though author Paul Dickson, as a consulting editor for Merriam-Webster, would already know that. Having compiled glossaries ourselves, we get the predicament: if every entry has the same definition (in this case, "drunk"), the entries might as well stand unadorned. The illustrations by Brian Rea make the impressive glossary even more charming. Can you guess the entry for this illustration?