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.
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Abecedarian personal effects of 'a mad genius'
A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

A Rose is a ...

November 26, 2016 (permalink)

"A rose is clearly not a rose. 'Rose' is a word standing in for that flowery thing that is out there in the garden.  To say 'a rose is a rose' is already once removed from what a rose really is." —Mark Yakich, Poetry: A Survivor's Guide

"A rose is not a rose," by Aguno.
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September 4, 2016 (permalink)


This just in: Rose is still a rose.
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June 10, 2016 (permalink)

[Insert a "kanga-rose" pun here.]
"A rose is a rose is a rose.  A rose is not intent to actualize itself as a kangaroo." —Charles Edmund Degeneffe and Ruth Torkelson Lynch, "Gestalt Therapy," Counseling Theories and Techniques for Rehabilitation and Mental Health Professionals (2015)
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November 21, 2015 (permalink)


Roses photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk.

"When 'a rose is a rose,' that is one thing, but when 'a rose is a rose is a rose,' that is another." —Hugh J. Silverman, Cultural Semiosis: Tracing the Signifier

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September 11, 2015 (permalink)

"We have entered a Guadalupan city, where a rose is no longer just a rose." —Stephanie Merrim, The Spectacular City, Mexico, and Colonial Hispanic Literary Culture


Roses as symbols of Our Lady of Guadalupe, courtesy of tkkate.

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February 9, 2015 (permalink)

York RoseA rose may be a rose, but humans resist such finality.
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January 31, 2015 (permalink)

Lancaster Rose"A rose may be a rose, but children are not children." —Mary Jane Drummond, Assessing Children's Learning

How so?

Answer: Children are a heterogeneous crowd of unique individuals, onto whom we project our understanding of what it is to be four – or seven – or 11 years old. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
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January 4, 2015 (permalink)

York RoseA rose may be a rose may be a rose; but not this one.
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December 3, 2014 (permalink)

Henry Bouquet as depicted in History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania by George Dallas Albert, 1882.
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November 12, 2014 (permalink)

Lancaster RoseA rose is not just a rose: it is the vibrant depths of the color crimson, the whirl of intricate interlaced patterns, the soft texture of velvet.
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October 23, 2014 (permalink)

Lancaster RoseA rose may be a rose may be a rose, but orgasms also come in a variety of colors and styles.
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October 16, 2014 (permalink)

York RoseA rose is a rose or a nose: A deficit in initial letter identification.
—K. Patterson & B. Wilson, Cognitive Neuropsychology (1990)
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September 21, 2014 (permalink)

York RoseA rose may be a rose may be a rose because a lawyer says that only a rose can solve our problem—therefore we have a rose.
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August 27, 2014 (permalink)

As it turns out, a rose may be a rose, but there are arguments about certain swans.
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August 18, 2014 (permalink)

Lancaster RoseA rose may be a rose may be a rose, but its "loss" can take a variety of strongly divergent forms.
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August 14, 2014 (permalink)

Lancaster RoseA rose may be a rose by any other name, but a mutual fund by a different name or classification can be misleading.
—USA Today, 1995
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August 10, 2014 (permalink)

York RoseA rose may be a rose may be a rose, but not so sludge.
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August 9, 2014 (permalink)

Lancaster RoseA rose may be a rose, but a movie with an inappropriate title may be a loser because of that title.
—Filmmakers, 1978
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March 29, 2014 (permalink)

An illustration from a 1904 issue of The Reader magazine.
#vintage art #love #art
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March 25, 2014 (permalink)

A rose, rather, is the beginning, a form that can be an infusion of metaphors and ideas that are bigger than itself.
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