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.
"Which, pushed by the wind-god, takes them home." From The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun by Ernest Vincent Wright and illustrated by Cora M. Norman, 1896.
And yet in recorded history no person has ever smiled upon noticing that a clown has snuck up from behind. From West Virginia Wesleyan's 1926 yearbook.
Someone should write a self-help book entitled Finding Your Inner Ampersand. (Thanks, JCE.) Speaking of ampersands, this is very unusual: the little-known, incredibly unlikely, yet fully documented history of the Ampersand.