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.
"It may surprise you to learn that you are closely related to many of our electronic instruments" (The Story of Tools by James Poling, 1969).
Here's a tip for synthpop musicians seeking to craft an amazing artist statement: trace your lineage to all the great familes: Korg, Roland, Moog, Yamaha. How many times removed are you from the Juno-60 or the Jupiter-4? All joking aside, here's how to discover your unlikeliest heritage: Heirs to the Queen of Hearts: Tracing Magical Genealogy.
Four years before Smokey Bear first cautioned against being a firebug, there was this donkey singing from "The Firefly." From Centenary's 1940 yearbook.