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.
This curious set of cards appears in Puck magazine, 1878. The symbols (left to right, top to bottom):
Maiden (a love interest)
Gaslight (burned until exceedingly late at night)
Darkness (i.e. the gaslight after being put out) and dreaming
Heart (naive love; woefulness)
Hand sign (a "terrible oath," i.e. a reckless promise)
Hand sign (a second "terrible oath")
Dust (the foot of someone off to parts unknown)
Blank (absence, emptiness)
Clock ("the early and proper hour")
The deck also includes a Gentleman card, but it wasn't printed. The explanation: "We don't give his portrait, 'cause he had red hair and it might hurt the paper."
There are ten firecrackers hidden in this picture (quite difficult to find), but we're technically here for the cluster of imps. From the Duluth Evening Herald, 1903.