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.
"A ray from the remotest star brings in its heart a secret message to him who can read it," from "A Message from Mars by J. Munroe, in Cassell's, 1895.
"No thoughtful person, looking over yon spangled heaven with astrologic eye, but must see that we are living in peculiar times, and that every returning day is fraught with importance." From The Royal Kalendar by Francis Moore, 1853.
"Beautiful stars! In other days, / the prophets' eyes might read your rays; / and tell of many a strange event, / of warfare, and of warning sent." From The Astrologer of the Nineteeth Century by Merlinus Anglicus Junior, 1825.