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.
"Oh overflowing cask, you give drink and fill to drunkenness every loving desire. You give joy and illumine all our understanding" (Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380, qtd. in An Anthology of Christian Mysticism by Harvey D. Egan).
The keg/cask/hogshead imps appear in Punch, 1860. The spigot fairy appears in Fairies and Folk of Ireland by William Henry Frost, 1900.
Here's "the genius of the cork," the imp of drunkenness ("angel or devil according to contending moralists") who sits with every solitary drinker, taking not a drop himself but telling stories and singing songs and filling your gaping pockets with ideal gold. (Punch, 1842). This should also be of interest:How to Believe in Your Elf.
An illustration from a 1907 issue of The Strand magazine. The caption reads: "If you insist on denouncing me, you little know the consequences you will bring upon yourself!"
An illustration from a 1907 issue of The Strand magazine. The caption reads: "It still lingered on the door-mat." This should also be of interest:How to Believe in Your Elf.