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.
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Abecedarian personal effects of 'a mad genius'
A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 58 posts tagged ‘tombstone’

The Right Word – September 5, 2022 (permalink)

The name Twoodeekederdinhezeedblebbo remains a Googlewhack to this day.  From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 1916 yearbook.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #gravestone
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Yearbook Weirdness – August 13, 2022 (permalink)

The grave of a doctor (er, disease manager) who accidentally took one of his poison prescriptions.  From the Medical College of Virginia's 1914 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #grave #poison #doctor #vintage yearbook #tombstone #the end #epitaph
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 12, 2022 (permalink)

"Death caused by vaccination."  From How to Live 100 Years by Guy Lockwood, 1912.
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #ghost #death #cemetery #graveyard #tombstone #vaccination
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Old News – February 9, 2022 (permalink)

Crossroads burials are traditionally chosen so as to confuse the troubled spirits of suicides, preventing them from finding their way home to haunt their relatives (John Stilhoe, Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845).
The headline reads, "Tombstone at the crossroads."  From The Martlet, 1968.
> read more from Old News . . .
#crossroads #tombstone #vintage headline #headline
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 23, 2022 (permalink)

From the rare (over $900 on Amazon) Ghosts and Spirits of Many Lands by Freya Littledale and illustrated by Stefan Martin.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #cemetery #tombstone #gravestone
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Yearbook Weirdness – October 13, 2021 (permalink)

A gourd-headed grave-digger.  From Swarthmore's 1964 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #gravedigger
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Haunted Clockwork Music – September 27, 2021 (permalink)

255
> read more from Haunted Clockwork Music . . .
#cemetery #prof. oddfellow #tombstone #gravestone #music video #video
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Yearbook Weirdness – March 3, 2021 (permalink)

You've heard of putting a project "to rest," but Elon's 1925 yearbook was formally buried and given a tombstone.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #graveyard #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #vintage men #men
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The Right Word – February 22, 2021 (permalink)

A tombstone-worthy sentence diagram: "If an inscription be put upon my tomb, it may be this."  From Manual and Diagrams to Accompany Metcalf's Grammars, 1901.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#sentence diagram #tombstone #epitaph
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 22, 2020 (permalink)

From Wesleyan College's 1953 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#mask #vintage photo #horror #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #gravestone #costume
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 18, 2020 (permalink)

For a houseguest's third day, make place cards on the dinner table in the form of tombstones.  From Together, 1956.
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #tombstone #place card
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 15, 2020 (permalink)

For fear of a caretaker pulling back the ivy and showing us our own tombstone again, we visit cemeteries only when nobody's around.  From Together, 1957.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #cemetery #graveyard #tombstone
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Yearbook Weirdness – October 24, 2020 (permalink)

Lisping oneself into the great Beyond is surely rarer than being killed by one's own art.  From Mitchell's 1921 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #cemetery #graveyard #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #epitaph
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Images Moving Through Time – September 26, 2020 (permalink)

A wish for you: if you're ever trapped within a mirrored tombstone, may there be a reflective sheet of glass nearby so that you can at least see things unreversed.  From Centenary's 1974 yearbook.
Speaking of weird mirror worlds, see our video about a haunted mirror we acquired at an antiques shop, and our video in which we're trapped within a shattered hall of mirrors.
> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#mirror #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 24, 2020 (permalink)

Win, place, show.  From The Text newspaper (Lowell Technological Institute), 1966.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #cemetery #graveyard #tombstone #graves #win place show
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Yearbook Weirdness – August 4, 2020 (permalink)

From Duke's 1971 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#cemetery #graveyard #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #sleeping #yearbook #tombstone #epitaph
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Images Moving Through Time – January 20, 2020 (permalink)

From Ghost Towns of the West by William Carte, 1971.
> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#cemetery #graveyard #vintage photo #tombstone #gravestone #ghost town
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 15, 2019 (permalink)

Here's where salad is buried.  From Lustige Blätter, 1899.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #cemetery #graveyard #coffin #tombstone
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 14, 2019 (permalink)

"In memory of those ground to death."  From Millikin's 1913 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #death #cemetery #graveyard #skull and crossbones #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone #gravestone #epitaph #ground to death
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 16, 2019 (permalink)

One of the brightest tombstones we've encountered.  From the University of North Carolina Wilmington's 1974 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#cemetery #graveyard #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tombstone
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