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.
And yet in recorded history no person has ever smiled upon noticing that a clown has snuck up from behind. From West Virginia Wesleyan's 1926 yearbook.
The mystery deepens! You've seen our strange research into the eerily glowing trees that spread through old yearbooks. We finally encountered a yearbook that acknowledges the bizarre phenomenon: "Light takes the trees ... But who can tell us how?" From Salve Regina's 1969 yearbook.
The stress of being on television can make a person blink a staggering 176 times a minute. But as proven here, one blinks only on television, not off of it. It's a weird phenomenon. From Washington College's 1974 yearbook.
UPDATED. Interesting how often the people in old yearbooks all look alike, given clothing and hairstyle trends ... even fads like taking your own chair everywhere you go. The fad endured through the 1980s. From Manhattanville's 1944 yearbook (top) and Swarthmore's 1980 yearbook (bottom).