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.
"If it is true that men only want one thing . . . is it perhaps just to be left to themselves with their soap animals or some other harmless little trifle?" —Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence
Does Barbara Pym's proposition hold water? Professor Oddfellow takes his tiny soap animals (from left to right: alligator, crab, elephant, monkey) into the field. (Dedicated to Martha.)