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.
Most poems are fashioned with pencils or ink, but the finer ones are oil painted. Unless this title is likening poems to sardines in oil, as opposed to sardines in mustard. (We prefer our sardine poems in mustard.) From Poems In Oil by Will Ferrell, 1919.
"A book to amuse the frivolous, pique the curious, confound the materialist, shock the orthodox, and give Wisdom to the Understanding." From Rosicrvcian Symbology by George Winslow Plummer, 1916.
Lots of fun anthropomorphized monocle business here, including a glass wafer nearly slipping on a banana peel, and a patch of crystal giving austere glances and objecting to being bored. Also, don't miss the unusual word "zeroatic" to describe an ice-cold greeting. From Interviews with a Monocle by Leopold Jordan, 1902.
"Your fortune cookie said 'The wheel is turning. This is the dark time. What must you gain from the night?" From The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman.