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.
We learn in the BBC series The Mighty Boosh that "there are over seventeen mirrors in the mirror world." We find a precursor in The Century of Louis XIV by Frances Cashel Hoey, 1896.
An illustration from Gentlemen All and Merry Companions by Ralph Wilhelm Bergengren (1922). The caption reads: "There was a long, white flash in the moonlight."
An illustration from The Bachelors Club by Laurel Zangwill (1891). The caption reads: "Again the voice came from the centre of the curling rings, 'I am your father's ghost.'"
The text reads: "If one's portentous shadow precedes, the unknown future into which one advances will dread one's arrival. —John Cowper-Powys, Porius (paraphrased)"
"'I just came out with a dirty joke DVD. I'll have to send you a copy.' The stupid part about me saying this was that it was apropos of nothing." —Gilbert Gottfried, Rubber Balls and Liquor (2011)
An illustration from In the Sweet and Dry by Christopher Morley and Bart Haley (1919), illustrated by Gluyas Williams. The caption reads: "'Hush,' said Quimbleton nervously. 'Someone may be watching us. ... You see I water the flowers with champagne.'"