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.
Here's George du Maurier's illustration of Darwinism from Punch, 1878. "Without use, an organ dwindles; with use it increases. For instance, the organ of a grinder who, in the struggle for existence, relies entirely on his instrument, is invariably larger than that of the grinder who, in addition uses a monkey. Most of our readers must have noticed this."
"Dirty Vlas the organ-grinder demonstrating that people who spit or crack sunflower-seeds spread tuberculosis and are therefore enemies of the people's health. Colour lithograph by T. Pashkov, 192?"
There aren't very many imaginary organ-griders in the literature. The caption here reads, "Do you not perceive an Italian organ-grinder over there?" (English Illustrated, 1900). In 1886, "Tom went to the window, called out to an imaginary organ grinder, pitched a copper, and ordered him to be off with his hideous music" (John Robertson, One of the People). In 2007, one Harrison Forbes blogged about traveling with an imaginary organ grinder's monkey named Ivan.