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.
Applying lipstick to the snow queen. Outside of vintage Christmas postcards, gnomes making snowmen are rare enough. Lipsticked snow queens are even rarer. From Union College's 1949 yearbook.
To understand what's going on in imagery like this, see How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook. From The Cornhusker Yearbook of the University of Nebraska, 1916.
California in the 30s -- it feels worlds and lifetimes away. And didn't students look older in those days? "If we grow up too fast we grow old too soon" (The Country Gentleman, 1912).
The amorphous blob of politics is here very accurately depicted on the chalkboard. While Florida is shown flatteringly thick and long, the peninsula in truth suffers shrinkage from all the surrounding water. From Eastern Kentucky's 1975 yearbook.
I used one of those old school acquaintance finder programs, and these faces came up as probable hits. What's weird is that I do, in fact, know two of them! From Salem's 1978 yearbook.
"If it's all masks anyway, why don't you put some up around you that will make you feel safe?" (Diana Paxson, The Paradise Tree, 1987). From Susquehanna's 2007 yearbook. See How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.