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.
A butterfly who says "Howdy, howdy" to a fairy. From Mother Goose Secrets as told by the story gnome to Barbara Webb Bourjaily and illustrated by Joe King, 1925.
Cute that this poem ends with a cat-purr-sounding "myrrh"! From the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' Our Dumb Animals magazine, 1930.
Today's raccoon washing a mouse is from Child-Library Readers, Book Three by William H. Elson and Edna R. Kelly, and illustrated by L. Kate Deal, 1925.
A diploma weighs more than midnight oil, hourglass sand, and library fees? From Indiana State Normal School's 1919 yearbook. See our video about how we got burned by our own degrees, here.