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 "word conjurer" wizard casting spells from his magic circle by the light of his cauldron surrounded by creatures. Engraving by I. Wood, 1813, courtesy of the Wellcome library.Also very much of interest:The Young Wizard's Hexopedia.
"Feather-covered dirigibles predicted for the future." From Popular Mechanics, 1930. Big Science back then (as now) can't see the forest for the trees. The naiveté would almost be charming, if not for the smugness behind everything in vintage Popular Mechanics. (We daren't look at more modern issues. The white-coat New Inquisition, as Robert Anton Wilson called them, terrifies us.)