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.
"Your weight is 120 lbs. Your height is 5'2". You will have a good day. And if you don't mind, earthling, you're stepping on my toe." From the [Thornton] Courier, 1973.
Not quite so alien: the vintage weight scale we acquired that was literally overflowing with pennies: video.
You knew that previous generations weren't as overweight, but they had one weird trick for not actually weighing anything. From Flora Macdonald's 1925 yearbook.