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 93 posts tagged ‘inkblot’

Yearbook Weirdness – September 21, 2019 (permalink)

Not merely an optical illusion -- even atheists might find Jesus in this splatter of ink.  From Mount Olive's 1969 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#religion #vintage illustration #inkblot #vintage yearbook #yearbook #jesus
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 26, 2019 (permalink)

Reblog if you've ever felt like an inkblot in a hat and tie.  This dressed-up inkblot is from Le Pêle-Mêle, 1896.
[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 #inkblot #anthropomorphism #1890s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 23, 2019 (permalink)

If you ever wondered where inkblots come from, they spurt from fountains.  This inkblot fountain from Le Pêle-Mêle, 1896.
[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 #inkblot #silhouette #fountain #1890s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 10, 2019 (permalink)

An inkblot doodle from Lustige Blätter, 1903.
[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 #inkblot #1900s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 23, 2018 (permalink)

"She ended it with a great blot."  From St. Nicholas, 1879.
[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 #inkblot #visual poetry #writing #illustration #asemic #ink blot
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The Right Word – December 26, 2017 (permalink)

From The Judge, 1918.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#inkblot #symbols #shapes
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 11, 2016 (permalink)

Here's how to tell time with ink blots, from Frost and Fire by John Francis Campbell, 1867.  Previously in inkblot finds, we had a bizarre inkblot eye chart, an inkblot personified, and our online inkblot oracle.

[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 #inkblot #weird clock #1860s #illustration #art
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 29, 2015 (permalink)

Thirty-two blue inkblots?  It's the complete works of Shakespeare (volume four), as scanned by the Internet Archive.  And if you're reading into those blots what we're reading into those blots, this is a rich literary collection, indeed!  (Insert your own "Out, damn'd spot!" joke here.)
[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 . . .
#inkblot #weird #shakespeare #book scan
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Yearbook Weirdness – August 18, 2015 (permalink)

An inkblot personified, from an ad in The Lanthorn yearbook of Susquehanna University, 1917.  See our Inkblot Oracle at https://www.oneletterwords.com/inkblot/, as well as How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.

> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #inkblot #vintage yearbook #inkbot #fountain pen #spilled ink #yearbook #illustration #1910s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 28, 2015 (permalink)

Rorschachism begins at a very young age, as we see in 'Round the Hearth, edited by Robert Ellice Mach, 1889.  The caption reads, "A big, black blot."

By the way, the parlor game of Klexographie inspired the famous Rorschach inkblot test, and here's our online widget for using inkblots to answer deep questions.

[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 #inkblot #rorschach #divination #klexographie #illustration #1880s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 29, 2015 (permalink)

From The Choice Works of Thomas Hood, 1881.  The parlor game of Klexographie inspired the famous Rorschach inkblot test, and here's our online widget for using inkblots to answer deep questions.
[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 #inkblot #rorschach #divination #illustration #art #1880s
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – April 18, 2013 (permalink)

Hermann Rorschach was here ... in an index to The Rotarian magazine, 1920.  Granted, we may be reading too much into this.

> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#inkblot #rorschach #1920s
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – September 7, 2008 (permalink)


"Pictograph" artwork by Hannes Gloor and Stefan Jandl.  Via ffffound.
Rorschach inkblots are designed to uncover hidden feelings and emotions.  Here's a fun test:

How would you characterize this inkblot's grin?  (Choose one.)

  • Lustful
  • Smutty
  • Perverted
  • Wicked
  • Predatory
  • Up to no good
  • Antisocial
  • Depraved
  • Guilty
  • Ingratiating
  • Benevolent
  • Kindly
  • Knowing
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#inkblot #list
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.