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.
It's been said that "Fresh language blows a cool breeze through the reader" (Roy Peter Clark, Writing Tools). And the reader's not the only one. From Dong Zhi Wu Yan Jiu Fa, c. 1825.
"Wellingtonia or mammoth tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) towering above surrounding forest and person at its base." Coloured lithograph after W. P. Blake, c. 1857.
You've heard that money doesn't grow on trees. We learn the surprising reason why in Where the Money Grows by Garet Garrett, 1911. On Wall Street there is a "hoodoo tree" whose evil shadow deprives one of the money-making gift.
From Community English by Mildred Flagg, 1921. The text on the tree reads, "Japanese reading and writing books are odd[ly] printed. Read from right to left. First page is at back. Lines run up and down. Address is backward. Words are painted with brushes."