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.
"If Joss has made no appointment for you, you are all right even if your ship blows up or the heavens fall; but if he has, you'll jump into the air or dive into the sea to keep it." From Popular Mechanics, 1918.
This sounds disconcertingly familiar: "I bewailed my fate, and then sunk down exhausted," from The Casquet of Literature, 1895. Illustration by W. H. Overend.
An illustration from a 1920 issue of Munsey's magazine. The caption reads: "Much as I feared old man Fate, he exerted a peculiar fascination over me. Like many another fool, I longed to look into the eyes of the future."
"All complaints about the supposed injustice of fate were silenced by the knowledge that we all follow the road we have chosen." —Gustav Meyrink, The Green Face