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.
The caption says, "Xmas tree," but "you must not take things too literally" (Ulric De Lazie, Dreams Within Dreams, 1864). So if it isn't literally a Christmas tree, the photo suddenly becomes rather more intriguing. See The Collected Lost Meanings of Christmas.
The caption questions whether or not this is a snowman, but we have solved this quarter-century mystery. It is a snowman! From the Medium II newspaper (Mississauga), 1993.
We're sometimes asked what our teachers must have been like. From Tulane's 1988 yearbook. See this remarkable guide to practial magick you can do with a pencil and paper: The Pencil Witch.
The secret of why this photograph can facilitate time travel lies in what the Japanese call "komorebi" (木漏れ日) — the sunlight filtering through tree leaves. From the Toronto yearbook of 1949.