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.
Revealed -- why it's difficult to get dandelions out of the yard. From Loraine and the Little People of Spring by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by Ella Dolbear Lee, 1918.
This ad is actually saying that making a long distance call is the same as straining your eyes to read in an overly dark room back home. From Together magazine, 1968.
"We all need to find whatever tool or process works best for us" (Mary Manin Morrissey, Building Your Field of Dreams). From Purdue University's 1986 yearbook.