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.
An illustration from an 1894 issue of Century Illustrated magazine. The caption reads: "XMAS" This will also be of interest:The Collected Lost Meanings of Christmas.
The old ways are increasingly forgotten. How many of us today invite the honored hare (known reverently as "kuotochitsi" in Huastecan Nahua society) to decorate the tree? From Primary Education, 1911.
Thrift for empty-handed hunters -- a rabbit or a partridge for five Francs (about a dollar's worth today, though experts in extinct currency inflation may correct us). From Le Charivari, 1891.