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.
You've heard of "first degree burns," but the "degree" apparently refers to an academic rank, and the burns are caused by the light of wisdom being focused through a giant magnifying glass. From Susquehanna's 1914 yearbook.
If the sun is just right, you can burn a hole through the facts using a giant magnifying glass. From The Business of Life by A. B. ZuTavern and A. E. Bullock and illustrated by Leo Thiele, 1936.
It's now illegal most places to use a giant magnifying glass to create terrifying beams of burning sunlight to smite those who would cut you off in traffic. From Nebelspalter, 1880.
A snail homunculus from Mocca, 1933. See also the braying snail donkey, the weird snail jester, and this woman-headed snail that is a precursor to the Japanese film and manga series Uzumakiby Ito Junji.