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 19 posts tagged ‘beauty and the beast’

Restoring the Lost Sense – July 29, 2026 (permalink)

From The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1889.
[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 #monster #fairy tale #beauty and the beast
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 4, 2025 (permalink)

[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 20, 2025 (permalink)

From The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1889.
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 21, 2025 (permalink)

From The Century, 1873.
[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 #grotesque #beauty and the beast
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Yearbook Weirdness – February 27, 2024 (permalink)

From DePau University's 1958 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#ape #vintage photo #vintage yearbook #yearbook #beauty and the beast #costume #1950s
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Precursors – July 18, 2022 (permalink)

Here's a better scan of a precursor to the "Be Our Guest" segment of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, from Poets' Wit and Humor by W. H. Wills and illustrated by Charles Bennett and George H. Thomas, 1860.
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #beauty and the beast #be our guest #illustration #salad bowl
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 27, 2022 (permalink)

From The Book of Fables and Folk Stories by Horace Elisha Scudder, 1919.
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 28, 2020 (permalink)

Beauty and the Beast.  From Europa's Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten, 1916. 
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 1, 2018 (permalink)

From Beauty and the Beast by Gordon Frederick Browne, 1887.
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 21, 2018 (permalink)

From Beauty and the Beast by Gordon Frederick Browne, 1887.
[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 #fairy tale #vintage book #book #beauty and the beast #old book #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 27, 2018 (permalink)

From Beauty and the Beast by Gordon Frederick Browne, 1887.
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 1, 2018 (permalink)

From Fairy Tales by Marion Florence Lansing and illustrated by Charles Copeland, 1907.
[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 #devil #fairy tale #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 3, 2018 (permalink)

From Ulk, 1901.
[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 #sphinx #creature #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 9, 2017 (permalink)

From Die Muskete, 1921.
[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 #demon #witch #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 30, 2017 (permalink)

"It was not for myself that I took the rose."  From Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them by Mrs. Hugh Bell, 1896.
[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 #monster #fairy tale #wolfman #werewolf #beauty and the beast #beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 19, 2016 (permalink)

"Prinsessen lysker trollet" by Theodor Kittelsen, 1900.
[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 #folklore #troll #beauty and the beast #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 18, 2016 (permalink)

From an 1875 retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
[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 #fairy tale #beauty and the beast #illustration #art
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Precursors – April 26, 2016 (permalink)

Here's a precursor to the "Be Our Guest" number in Beauty and the Beast, from The Ohio Farmer, 1908.
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #anthropomorphism #beauty and the beast #be our guest #illustration #art
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Do-Re-Midi – October 22, 2015 (permalink)

"There is dark, and there is light": a musical Yin/Yang from Beauty and the Beast: A Humorous Cantata by Edmund Rogers, 1882.  Note how the sharp and double-sharp symbols offer shimmers of light.

> read more from Do-Re-Midi . . .
#darkness #polarity #yin and yang #dark and light #sheet music #beauty and the beast #two sides of the same coin #light and dark
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.