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.
You knew it was unlucky to walk under ladders, but if you're a sheet ghost then it's actually lucky. From the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's 1969 yearbook. See Of Feeding & Caring For Sheet Ghosts.
A sign in the window: "Baby wanted." That's much more concise than the famous six-word story popularly attributed to Hemingway, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." From There Really Is a Father Christmas by Douglas Flintan, 1938.
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Death—seem ever to hover on the horizon. Surely it does not look like a world that is a protégé of a loving, powerful God." From Together, 1960.
"And don't run round the fairy ring in the wrong direction -- Wid[d]ershins -- the opposte way to the sun. It is ever so dangerous! Don't forget this." From Puck's Broom by E. Gordon Browne and illustrated by Kathleen I. Nixon, 1923.
"Why waters laugh and shout when winds blow." From Around an Iroquois Story Fire by Mabel Powers (Yehsennohwehs) and illustrated by R. Emmett Owen, 1923.