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.
"Sound the hugag! Strike the hurdy gurdy!! Proclaim it from the house tops!" The word hugag here is a variant spelling of hewgag, a bugle-like instrument. (Other variants include gewgaw and gugag.) The word can also mean something for which one has no specific name (as per Cassell's Dictionary of Slang). From an ad for A. Kirschbaum, confectioner, Pittsburg, Texas, c. 1880.