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 1,564 posts tagged ‘book’

The Right Word – July 8, 2019 (permalink)

Not only is this a precursor to How to Be Your Own Cat, but check out that word "metamorphosiological"!  This is the only instance of that word in print that we've found.
From The Woman That Was a Cat, A Metamorphosiological Sketch in One Act by Eugene Scribe, originally presented in 1827.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#cat people #old book #cat woman
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Yearbook Weirdness – July 2, 2019 (permalink)

"The seclusion of the stacks provides a satsifying atmosphere for research." From the Eastern Kentucky State College yearbook of 1966.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#books #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1960s #bookmobile #mobile library #library books #library on wheels #portable library #stacks #trucks #seclusion #bookmobiles
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 20, 2019 (permalink)

Marriage as a giant book.  From Der Guckkasten, 1913.  See The Collected Lost Meanings of Wedlock.
[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 #giant book #marriage #tiny people #1910s
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 20, 2019 (permalink)

From Lustige Blätter, 1916.
[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 #reading #book #peace angel
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 18, 2019 (permalink)

From Le Journal Amusant, 1913.
[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 #book #bookworm #fishing #visual pun #1910s
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 15, 2019 (permalink)

From Southwestern's 1906 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #literature #vintage yearbook #yearbook #book
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 7, 2019 (permalink)

When a book is too heavy.  From Satirikon, 1909.
[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 #tiny man #crushed #big book
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The Right Word – May 28, 2019 (permalink)

"It was a boojum."  From The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll and illustrated Henry Holiday, 1876.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage book #book #lewis carroll #buoy #boojum
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 28, 2019 (permalink)

A pathway of books leads to the castle.  From Eastern Nazarene's 1927 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #castle #books #vintage yearbook #yearbook #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 27, 2019 (permalink)

In the unlikely event you needed proofs of the spirit world, here they are.  From Proofs of the Spirit World by Léon Chevreuil, 1920.
[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 #spirit world #spiritualism #vintage book #book #pig
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Old News – May 23, 2019 (permalink)

Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead by Peter Browne, 1713.  See also this collection of 112 cocktail recipes to be drunk in remembrance of the dead: Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage book #book #vintage headline #a toast #remembrance #headline
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 15, 2019 (permalink)

From Mansfield's 1933 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #wizard #king #vintage yearbook #yearbook #big book #1930s #library
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 5, 2019 (permalink)

From At Fault by Hawley Smart, 1883.
[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 #title page #old book #yellowed paper #at fault #aged paper #vintage paper
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Go Out in a Blaze of Glory – May 4, 2019 (permalink)

Previously, while staying in a Los Angeles hotel casita, we were surprised to find our dictionary of one-letter words sitting atop a Red Letter Teacher's Edition Bible.  
(Is it an ironic pairing of a best-seller with a non-starter?  Or is it a visual joke, like "Alpha[bet] and Omega?)  We recall Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair (with its charming, time-bending solution to the true authorship of the Shakespeare plays) in which a motel drawer features a Gideon Bible, the teachings of Buddha, Thoughts Of St. Zvlkx, and the complete works of the Bard (among other things).
> read more from Go Out in a Blaze of Glory . . .
#bible #dictionary #one-letter words #alpha and omega #ironic pairing
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 3, 2019 (permalink)

"We never sleep."  The cover of The Somnambulist and the Detective, The Murderer and the Fortune Teller by Allan Pinkerton, 1874.
[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 . . .
#insomnia #vintage book #book #eye #old book #vigilance #can't sleep #never sleep #stay awake
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The Right Word – May 1, 2019 (permalink)

Here's an entry from The Dictionary of Ugly Words, a book attributed to us.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#dictionary #gargoyle #ugly word
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 26, 2019 (permalink)

From Maliar, 1906.
[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 #owl #books
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 20, 2019 (permalink)

From Shut, 1907.
[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 #demon #reading #book
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – April 17, 2019 (permalink)

"With its stars of ink the book is a universe in motion which our eyes fix." —Edmond Jabès, "Counter Test" (via Gary Barwin).
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#reading #universe #stars #book #Edmond JabeÌ€s #Edmond Jabe?s #Edmond Jabès
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Go Out in a Blaze of Glory – April 6, 2019 (permalink)

It's been said that avid readers always have books at their fingertips, but the real die-hards have books on their fingertips.  Our champion on the other side of the world just snagged five of our publications.  That one pictured at the bottom left is extraordinarily rare, and we frankly can't imaging how he got it: Armchair Time Travel: How to Alter History, Today.  He also got The Care & Feeding of a Spirit Board, A Snowball's Chance in Hell, If a Chessman Were a Word: A Chess-Calvino Dictionary, and the little-known Six Degrees of Jubilation (a.k.a. Posted Chestnuts).

> read more from Go Out in a Blaze of Glory . . .
#books
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