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.
Here's Switzerland's Teufelsbrücke ("Devil's Bridge"), the construction of which was attributed to the Devil (who received the first thing to pass the bridge in exchange for his help. The people of the valley sent a dog across to trick him.)
"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.
"The cripple on the bridge gate tower chanting the Song of the Stars," from Old London Bridge by George Herbert Buonaparte Rodwell and illustrated by Alfred Ashley, 1848.