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.
"The same reflection is in like manner cherished by the fashionable sort of teachers" (Joseph Browne, The Marrow of Ancient Divinity, 1820). Our photo, exactly as scanned by Miami University Libraries, appears in McGuffey High School's 1933 yearbook.
"Reflections of heavenly bodies are the same distance below the horizon as the originals are abovee [sic]," from Drawing for Beginners by Dorothy Furniss, 1920.
We've been pressured through advertising to achieve spotless dishes and sparkling floors, but back in 1886 one was seriously expected to see one's reflection after ironing a shirt.