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.
Before bad Photoshopping, folks pasted in crying babies whose heads are impossibly smaller than kittens'. But as a general rule, a basket of kittens does go with just about any photo, in the proper proportion, of course. From Die Bühne, 1926.
"The imaginary horse isn't real, but your idea of it is real" (Marietta McCarty, Little Big Minds, 2006). Photo as scanned by the Costică Acsinte Archive.
This was entitled "2 Women" by the Boston Public Library, but our analysis finds that it's a single ghost that is bilocating. Photo by Leslie Jones, date uncertain.
Rune stone, Lejsta, Rasbo, Uppland, Sweden, 1926. Courtesy of Swedish National Heritage. The inscription says: "Vigdjärv and Jorund and Sigbjörn had the stone raised in memory of Svartung, their father."
"They watch with loving and gracious eyes as you flail about, because they, too, have fallen, flailed, and found new life on the other side" (Jenny Simmons, The Road to Becoming). Our photo is courtesy of the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives.
Rune stone, Kungshållet, Kjula, Södermanland, Sweden, 1929. Courtesy of Swedish National Heritage. "Elias Wessén and Harald Faith-Ell are filling the runes with paint. Their car on the road. The inscription says: 'Alrik, Sigrid's son, raised the stone in memory of his father Spjut, who had been in the west, broken down and fought in townships. He knew all the journey's fortresses.'"
"The difference between a waving arm and signaling to a friend depends upon the possession, by an agent, of a reason to wave one's arm in that manner, namely, the desire to signal to a friend" (Handbook of International Relations). Photo courtesy of the San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives.
"For when the frost comes, all will be safe till Spring" (R. H. Budd, The Complete Practical Farmer, 1835). Photo courtesy of the Costică Acsinte Archive.