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 7,279 posts tagged ‘vintage headline’

Old News – November 19, 2016 (permalink)

You've heard Paris called the "City of Light," but even after the Enlightenment, its streets were impenetrably dark.  "Paris is a city of darkness."  From Popular Mechanics, 1918.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline
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Old News – November 16, 2016 (permalink)

Here's a precursor to I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich a.k.a William Irish.  It's The Bride of a Ghost by Joseph Jones, 1883.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline #old book #headline
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Old News – November 15, 2016 (permalink)

You've heard that carrier pigeons can travel for 10 hours without rest, but did you know how?  From Popular Mechanics, 1918.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage illustration #birds #pigeon #vintage headline #illustration #carrier pigeon #headline
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Old News – November 12, 2016 (permalink)

Fans of David Lynch will recognize this precursor to his character of the Lady in the Radiator.  From Popular Mechanics, 1921.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage illustration #david lynch #fashion #vintage fashion #vintage headline #illustration #lady in the radiator #headline
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Old News – November 11, 2016 (permalink)

Imagine seeing headlines like these, today.  Vestiges of another age.  "City eyesore transformed into Greek theater" (Popular Mechanics, 1917).  "Sunken-garden beauty spot made from ugly gully" (Popular Mechanics, 1920).
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline #back in the day #headline #greek theatre
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Old News – November 7, 2016 (permalink)

The "staycation" isn't a new concept.  Here are Exercises of a Recumbent Vacation by James B. Tomalin, 1861.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline
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Old News – November 6, 2016 (permalink)

Here are some tricky book titles we've encountered in the course of our eccentric research.  Can you do the math?
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline #math
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Old News – September 9, 2016 (permalink)

The headlines at the top of our collage proclaim that Mr. Hogan is a prophet who has a "vivid air dream," yet in the clipping he doesn't remember his first flight and tends to think about his next dessert while piloting.  How can we reconcile this seeming conflict?  "Sometimes the visionary's discernment is blinded by familiarity" (Jackie L. Green, Vanguard of Visions and Dreams, 2012).
> read more from Old News . . .
#newspaper #news #vintage headline #vintage newspaper #headline
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Old News – August 15, 2016 (permalink)

This vintage headline is so old-Hollywood — once a dreamboat makes his entrance, a happy ending is inevitable.
> read more from Old News . . .
#iceland #dreamboat #vintage headline #headline
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Old News – June 25, 2016 (permalink)

"An amazingly rapid development — but gargoyle keeps pace": a headline from the magazine Flyg, Stockholm, July 1934.
> read more from Old News . . .
#gargoyle #weird headline #headline
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Old News – March 18, 2016 (permalink)

We presume that as Sally Field aged, her roles got less interesting, too.  (Shame on the Washington Post headline writer.)
> read more from Old News . . .
#sally field #lady parts #bad headline #terrible headline #headline
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Old News – March 4, 2016 (permalink)

This is a dummy news article, meant to display a typeface.  But why the specific detail that the subject is a janitor?  [Our answer is in black text on black background; highlight it to view.]  
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline
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What's In a Name – February 8, 2016 (permalink)

Forget whether or not an artificially propagated rainbow trout will lead to an empty pot of gold.  Forget whether or not "A rainbow is a rainbow.  A striped perch is a striped perch" (as purported by Monkeyface News).  Celebrate only that a book about rainbow trout was penned by a seagull.

> read more from What's In a Name . . .
#rainbow trout #book title
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Old News – August 24, 2015 (permalink)

As the symmetric property states, if a = b then b = a.  Antichrist the Pope of Rome: or, The Pope of Rome is Antichrist by Thomas Beard, 1625.  The math checks!

> read more from Old News . . .
#pope #antichrist #vintage headline
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Old News – September 23, 2014 (permalink)


> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline #candy #headline
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Old News – February 10, 2013 (permalink)

"The years, like flivvers, rattle past."  A detail of a comic strip from Life, 1920.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage illustration #time passes #vintage headline #illustration #headline
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Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? – January 25, 2013 (permalink)

This 1904 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne is apparently really hot.

> read more from Did You Hear the One I Just Made Up? . . .
#book title
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The Right Word – March 1, 2011 (permalink)

Here's a guessing game. How many pages did a reader make it through Metaphysics of the Supernatural as Illustrated by Decartes before scrawling an expletive in the margin? There are 65 pages, so your guess should be from 1 to 65.

To reveal the bad word in question as well as the correct page number, click the image below.

Metaphysics of the Supernatural as Illustrated by Descartes
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage headline
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Old News – February 4, 2011 (permalink)

Can you guess the second half of this headline from LIFE magazine (Sept. 26, 1969)?

 
Answer: ... and living in Coney Island. (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)
> read more from Old News . . .
#unicorn #vintage headline
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Original Content Copyright © 2026 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.