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.
You've heard of the Fountain of Youth, but in the Nordland district of Norway, rejuvenation isn't in the water but rather in the air. We learn this in Tales of Every-Day Life in Sweden by Fredrika Bremer, 1843
The Popular Mechanics headline writer put the word magic in quotations, though other headlines about so-called scientific wizardry and miracles don't feature quotation marks. "Indian medicine men still practice 'magic' among Canadian tribes." From Popular Mechanics, 1934.