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.
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Abecedarian personal effects of 'a mad genius'
A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 2,531 posts tagged ‘vintage ad’

Restoring the Lost Sense – February 27, 2016 (permalink)

You're right — it's now illegal to use owls to hypnotize mustard shoppers.  Interestingly, we can credit this change not to consumers' rights activists but to raptor welfare initiatives.  This die cut trade card for Colburn's Phila. Mustard dates to ca. 1885.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #owl #hypnotism #mustard #illustration #ad
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This May Surprise You – February 23, 2016 (permalink)

Barrels of whiskey and moonshine are traditionally labeled with X's (one X being weakest and three X's being strongest, as we learn in One-Letter Words: A Dictionary).  But lesser-known is that coffee used to be roasted to a XXXX strength.  Our vintage coffee ad is from c. 1890.  The four X's on the vintage Coca Cola postcard below are, we think, unrelated.
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage ad #coffee #vintage coffee #letter x #xxxx #whiskey barrel #ad
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This May Surprise You – February 21, 2016 (permalink)

How fast does light travel?  It barrels along, as we learn in More Light by U.S. Gutta Percha Paint Company, 1921.

> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage ad #sunlight #barrel #ad
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This May Surprise You – February 15, 2016 (permalink)

Once upon a time, the melting of icebergs was a sign of progress.
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #north pole #iceberg #global warming #melting icecap #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 13, 2016 (permalink)

We learned in Curb Your Enthusiasm that "on no planet is a shoe caddy a good gift."  That includes planets that are shoes themselves, such as this one discovered c. 1890.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #cherub #shoe planet #curb your enthusiasm #weird ad #illustration #shoes #ad
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Precursors – February 12, 2016 (permalink)

Here's a precursor to anthropologist Amber Case saying our technology is changing us into cyborgs.  Circa 1890.
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #pocket watch #robot #technology #trade card #cyborg #illustration #ad
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Precursors – February 11, 2016 (permalink)

Here's a precursor to these lines from Baby Doll: "You're fine-fibered.  Soft and smooth... You make me think of cotton.  No!  No fabric or cloth, not even satin or silk cloth, and no kind of fiber—not even cotton fiber—has the absolute delicacy of your skin."  From 1878.
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #cupid #cotton thread #the lovers #baby doll #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 11, 2016 (permalink)

From The Woman Citizen's Library, 1913.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #witch #magick #witchcraft #broomstick #occult #flying broom #sweeping #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 9, 2016 (permalink)

Here is the coffee spider's web of addiction, from an ad in St. Nicholas magazine, 1902.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #cobweb #addiction #caught in a web #spiderweb #1900s #illustration #art
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This May Surprise You – February 8, 2016 (permalink)

It's been said that "Big Pharma is and has always been the best dog-and-pony show in town" (Dr. Stephen Arlington, "Introductory Comments to the Global Clinical Trials Conference," 2003).  But that is patently false.  It was originally a frog-and-Toddler-Time show.  Our evidence is this trade card from Henry Dalley's "Magical Pain Extractor" ointment, ca. 1850.
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #frog #scythe #animal trick #pain ointment #trade card #baby new year #trained frog #jumping through hoops #illustration #ad
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Yesterday's Weather – February 4, 2016 (permalink)

"No umbrella required."  From an ad in The Summer Tourist by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, 1871.

> read more from Yesterday's Weather . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #rainy day #illustration #no umbrella #raincoat #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 5, 2016 (permalink)

"Coffee wrecks some persons" (and those waves are frothed half-and-half, of course), from St. Nicolas magazine, 1910.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage ad #coffee #lighthouse #caffeine #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 1, 2016 (permalink)

From an 1878 ad for The Aloe Series of richly illustrated, elegantly bound books.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #fairy #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 28, 2015 (permalink)

Here's the imp of being out of paper.  You didn't think paper disappeared on its own, right?  From Wellesley Magazine, 1897.  This should also be of interest: How to Believe in Your Elf.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #demon #imp #gnome #elf #paper #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 20, 2015 (permalink)

"Mixes with anything," from Canadian Grocer, 1908.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #pen and ink #inkwell #illustration #ad
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This May Surprise You – December 18, 2015 (permalink)

We hear of Puritanism's lingering influence in the United States, but as recently as 1948, Illinois dairy farmers were weaning themselves off the wizardry of Druidism.  Here's a headline that "You don't need a Magician" for high milk production.  From the Illinois Agricultural Association Record, 1948.  
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #magician #magic #vintage magician #milk production #illinois agriculture #farm magic #agriculture magic #illustration #ad
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The Right Word – December 14, 2015 (permalink)

We all know the importance of being ___.  From an ad in The Oölogist, 1898.  [For Jonathan Caws-Elwitt, who notes: "Don't believe the hype!  (One might guess that this aggressively understated advertisement was British, but apparently both the Dietz lantern makers and the Oologist periodical were American.)"]
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage ad #bicycle
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The Right Word – December 9, 2015 (permalink)

"You can't make a white plume from a crow's tail" (says an ad in The Oölogist, 1895).  However, black is actually white, and here's the proof:
black = dark
dark = obscure
obscure = hidden
hidden = concealed
concealed = snug
snug = comfortable
comfortable = easy
easy = simple
simple = pure
pure = white
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #crow #black is white #crow's tail #plume #illustration #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 15, 2015 (permalink)

We've been pressured through advertising to achieve spotless dishes and sparkling floors, but back in 1886 one was seriously expected to see one's reflection after ironing a shirt.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage ad #reflection #starch #ironing #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 9, 2015 (permalink)

Shoelaces go through "eyelets," and here's the connection, from an ad in Post Office Edinburgh and Leith Directory, 1846.

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage ad #foot #eye #ad
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