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.
"This may surprise you, but . . . artwork . . . adds life and style to a room without using up valuable square footage." —Libby Langdon's Small Space Solutions(2009)
An illustration from a 1914 issue of Everybody's magazine. The caption reads: "It had draped arms extended, with some cloth or band that looped and tightened at each stride."
"You are the sky. Everything else—it's just the weather." —Pema Chödrön
"This world is made of clouds and of the shadows of clouds. It is made of mental landscapes, porous as air, where men and women are as trees walking, and as reeds shaken by the wind." —John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent
An illustration from an 1899 issue of McClure's magazine. The caption reads: "'It's extraordinary,' Ackerly thought, as he ... listened to the spirits in the violin calling to the king cobra."
An illustration from a 1902 edition of Vaught's Practical Character Reader. The caption reads: "The above illustration shows that two Roman noses are surely too many in one family, especially in husband and wife."