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 may surprise you to learn that the partition functions of each chemical species in a balanced chemical reaction can be used to determine a characteristic property of that reaction: its equilibrium constant. " —Physical Chemistry by David W. Ball
"And these are the little things who assist him in carrying out his bad intentions." From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1879. This should also be of interest:How to Believe in Your Elf.
You've heard that a group of eagles is called a "convocation." A mixed group of national animal symbols is called a "Byzantine system." From Jugend, 1906 and the Daily Mirror,1906.
Here's a precursor to Sudoku, from Jugend, 1912. Can you fill in the rest of the numbers properly? Here's the solution, in black text on a black background [highlight to view]: 438, 951, 276 (reading left to right, top to bottom).
"The giant and the conjurer now knew that their wicked course was at an end." From The Fairy Ring by Kate Douglas Wiggin & Nora Archibald Smith, illustrated by Elizabeth MacKinstry, 1916.