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.
Though printed in black and white, great literature is bursting with vibrant colour. In these rebus-style puzzles, color words and parts of words have been replaced with colored boxes. Try to guess the exact hue of each. Roll your mouse over the colored boxes to reveal the missing words. Click the colored boxes to learn more about each hue. Special thanks to Paul Dean for his colorful research.
You already know that "A yellow time always ends a green time" (Dusan Teodorovic & Milan Janic, Transportation Engineering). This photograph may be used as a tool for accessing a yellow time. From Worcester Polytechnic's 1967 yearbook.
You've heard of rose-colored glasses. Here's the opposite. However, the phrase "the world is already rose-colored" is a Googlwhack. From Lustige Blätter, 1903.
Do you know the mysterious colors and strange melodies of serpent enchantment? If you don't know, now you know. From Whittier's Legends of New England.
How nifty: the eras of history and characters of empires understood as colors of a rainbow. From The Western Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, 1836.
Here's a marvelous explanation of the Irish "seven devils" as speculative superstition refracted by a mental prism into differently colored devils across the nations of the earth. From Holland-Tide or Irish Popular Tales by Gerald Griffin, 1927. Favorite phrases: "If one were disposed to be fancifully metaphysical upon the subject ..." -- yes, one would be so disposed! Ireland as a "step-daughter" island. And the zinger: "But what has this to do with the story? In order to answer that question, the story must be told."
He says he's not ready yet because "This wretched rouge has too much vermillion in it, and I can't make it harmonize with my eyes." From The Sketch, 1893.