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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A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 483 posts tagged ‘shadow’

I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – June 29, 2026 (permalink)

"The shadow that isn't your own that follows you?"  From Dark Shadows episode 808.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#shadow #horror #dark shadows
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 19, 2026 (permalink)

From Fort Hays State's 1970 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 17, 2026 (permalink)

The endpapers from The Haunted Attic by Margaret Sutton.
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #staircase #flashlight #endpapers
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 13, 2026 (permalink)

"Grimacer."  From Ellis Stanyon's Magic, 1910.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #hands
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – May 12, 2026 (permalink)

"Every shadow of the night can suddenly come alive and kill her."  From Dark Shadows episode 823.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#shadow #horror #paranoia #dark shadows
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 7, 2026 (permalink)

From Imagine, Adventure Games Magazine, No. 9.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #wizard #occult #cauldron #shadow self
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 31, 2026 (permalink)

Here's why a shadow puppet can do anything but turn around on the stage.  From The Heroes of the Puppet Stage by Madge Anderson, 1923.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #1920s #puppet #illustration #shadow puppet
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 26, 2026 (permalink)

Sideways mirage.  From our review of the Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena by William R. Corliss (1977).
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage diagram #shadow #diagram #mountain #mirage
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 22, 2026 (permalink)

From Ellis Stanyon's Magic, 1910.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #rabbit #hand
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Yearbook Weirdness – February 13, 2026 (permalink)

From Washington State University's 1913 yearbook. 

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #illustration #people who look like animals
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Old News – January 9, 2026 (permalink)

"We want to shift this shadow!"  From The Australian Women's Weekly, 1946.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage illustration #political cartoon #vintage ad #monster #giant #depression #shadow #1940s #vintage headline #illustration #headline #ad
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Old News – December 29, 2025 (permalink)

"A wise man's shadow is better than a brazen man's sword."  From Taylor University's 1950 yearbook.
> read more from Old News . . .
#shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #vintage headline #headline
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Old News – December 25, 2025 (permalink)

"Of many varied shades are the shadows found in social life."  From Taylor University's 1950 yearbook.
> read more from Old News . . .
#shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #vintage headline #headline #social life
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Old News – December 22, 2025 (permalink)

"If you face the sun, the shadows will fall behind you."  From Taylor University's 1950 yearbook.
> read more from Old News . . .
#sun #staring at the sun #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #vintage headline #headline
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Yearbook Weirdness – September 12, 2025 (permalink)

Shadows are not enough, apparently.  From Susquehanna University's 1956 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 21, 2025 (permalink)

"The feeling that she was not alone took possession of her."  From The Whisper On the Stair by Lyon Mearson, 1924.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – August 6, 2025 (permalink)

From the Duluth Herald, 1911.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage illustration #dove #crow #shadow
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Yearbook Weirdness – July 12, 2025 (permalink)

From Indiana University's 1902 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #goose #people who look like animals
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Miscellanies of Mr. Jonathan – July 11, 2025 (permalink)


Jonathan Caws-Elwitt

unearths some literary gems.

From stories about Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia, by Frank Gruber:

***
Buck was so lean that he had to stand twice in order to cast a shadow.
[It seems this is a folkloric witticism, not Gruber's creation, but I'd never heard it before.]
***

[Bonus: a Mr. and Mrs. Lanyard]
> read more from Miscellanies of Mr. Jonathan . . .
#shadow
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 5, 2025 (permalink)

"Despite the distortion, I am more than my blur."  From Franklin College's 1973 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1970s
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