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.
"All the arts by God forbidden, all the knowledge hid in darkness, I reveal!" From The Devil's Case by Robert Williams Buchanan, 1896.Speaking of which, what exactly are a snowball's chances in hell? See A Snowball's Chance in Hell.
An illustration from The Encyclopedia of Death and Life in the Spirit World by J. R. Francis, vol. 2 (1906). The caption reads: "The evil personage who is supposed to prompt the deeply religious to deeds of torture."
An illustration from Hypnotism: Its Facts, Theories and Related Phenomena by Carl Sextus (1893). The caption reads: "In ecstacy—believing themselves flying through the air on broomsticks and having communications with Satan."