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 336 posts tagged ‘ornate capital’

Restoring the Lost Sense – September 29, 2023 (permalink)

From Life magazine, 1884.
[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 #ornate capital #letter m #coyote #howling
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Old News – September 10, 2023 (permalink)

"X replaces W in dorm alphabet."  From Kent State's 1955 yearbook.
> read more from Old News . . .
#alphabet #letter w #vintage yearbook #yearbook #letter x #vintage headline #headline
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Yearbook Weirdness – September 10, 2023 (permalink)

From Swarthmore's 1913 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #angel #vintage yearbook #yearbook #letter s #winged woman
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – August 20, 2023 (permalink)

From O, Those Extraordinary Women by Seon Manley and Susan Belcher.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage book #book #letter o
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The Right Word – June 30, 2023 (permalink)

From Southeast Missouri State College's 1977 yearbook.  For a great many surprising definitions of the letter X, see One-Letter Words: A Dictionary.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage yearbook #yearbook #letter x
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Old News – June 9, 2023 (permalink)

Here's one for One-Letter Words: A Dictionary.  An "L" of a UFO.  Via BUFORA Newsfile, 1998.
> read more from Old News . . .
#ufo #vintage headline #headline #letter l
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 8, 2023 (permalink)

From Michigan State Normal College's 1940 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1940s #illustration #letter y #jug
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The Right Word – May 12, 2023 (permalink)

We hope the dictionary of one-letter words is aware of this: Spelling Love with an X by Clare Dunsford. 
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#letter x
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 4, 2023 (permalink)

From the University of Mississippis 1905 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #ornate capital #vintage yearbook #yearbook #bird #letter t
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The Right Word – March 7, 2023 (permalink)

We'll be including the mysterious "Element 'X'" in a future edition of One-Letter Words: A Dictionary.  From Iowa State Teachers College's 1955 yearbook.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #letter x #ad
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The Right Word – March 4, 2023 (permalink)

The Big U says, quoting the final words of Raisa's "You":
"It's you-you-you-you-you, you-you-you, I got nothing to lose."
The Big U is from Wid's Daily, 1919.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #letter u
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – February 23, 2023 (permalink)

This episode of Dark Shadows was brought to us by the letter M.  "The letter 'M' is very strong in this room."  From episode 648.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#letter m #dark shadows
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 9, 2023 (permalink)

From The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray, 1858.
[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 #ornate capital #playing cards #capital c
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 27, 2023 (permalink)

"Zero, zilch."  From Lebanon Valley's 1974 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage yearbook #yearbook #letter z #zero #zilch
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 18, 2023 (permalink)

Today's winged W is from West Virginia Wesleyan's 1912 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #letter w #vintage yearbook #yearbook
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Old News – December 8, 2022 (permalink)

"The T must go."  From Lighted Pathway, 1939.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage illustration #letter t #can #can't #vintage headline #headline
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Yearbook Weirdness – October 6, 2022 (permalink)

From Nebraska Wesleyan University's 1909 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #ornate capital #skull #vintage yearbook #yearbook #pipe smoker #letter n
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The Right Word – August 7, 2022 (permalink)

The Big U says, quoting the last 16 words of dvsn's "You Do":
"You do, you do, you do, you do, you do, you do, you do, you do."
The Big U is from Wid's Daily, 1919.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #letter u
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The Right Word – July 20, 2022 (permalink)

The Big U says, quoting The 6ths' "You You You You You":
"Why it's you you you you you."
Note that the Big U may have misheard the lyrics as including two one-letter words: "Y, it's U, U, U, U, U."
The Big U is from Wid's Daily, 1919.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #letter u
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Yearbook Weirdness – July 11, 2022 (permalink)

T is for eagle ... which recalls Sean Tejaratchi's A is for Zebra.  From North Texas State Normal College's 1922 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #eagle #vintage yearbook #yearbook #letter t #1920s
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