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.
"Death came at wedding. Unbidden guest invests the nuptials of Chicago people." From the Duluth Evening Herald, 1903. See The Collected Lost Meanings of Wedlock.
"Wotan rites in marriage. The ceremonial of sun, water, fire and forest was followed. There was also a complicated ritual involving clay dummies and the mingling of the blood of the contracting parties by punctures in the arm." From the Bombay Sunday Chronicle, 1939. See The Collected Lost Meanings of Wedlock.
How mistletoe transforms into the spider of matrimony. From Caricature, the Wit & Humor of a Nation In Picture, Song and Story, 1914. See The Collected Lost Meanings of Wedlock.