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 33 posts tagged ‘calligraphy’

Yearbook Weirdness – October 10, 2025 (permalink)

""In the vain pursuit of this and that endeavor and dispute" (Omar Khayyam).  From Oberlin College's 1910 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #omar khayyam
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Yearbook Weirdness – August 3, 2025 (permalink)

"'Tis pleasure, sure, to see one's name in print; a book's a book, although there's nothing in 't" (Byron).  From University of Mary Washington's 1915 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #book #byron
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 9, 2025 (permalink)

"With them the seeds of wisdom did I sow, and with mine own hand wrought to make it grow" (Omar Khayyam).  From Oberlin College's 1910 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #wisdom #omar khayyam
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Yearbook Weirdness – April 2, 2025 (permalink)

"There's music in the sighing of a reed, there's music in the gushing of a rill, there's music in all things, if men had ears; our earth is but an echo of the spheres" (Byron).  From University of Mary Washington's 1915 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#calligraphy #music #vintage yearbook #yearbook #byron
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 5, 2025 (permalink)

From Life on a Medieval Barony by William Stearns Davis, 1923.
[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 #medieval #gothic #calligraphy #thirteenth century #handwriting #illustration
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 2, 2025 (permalink)

"Society is now one polish'd horde, form'd of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored" (Byron).  From University of Mary Washington's 1915 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #byron
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Yearbook Weirdness – September 4, 2024 (permalink)

"As long liveth the merry man, they say, as doth the sorry man, and longer, by a day" (Nicholas Udall, Ralph Roister Doister).  From University of Mary Washington's 1915 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #longevity #yearbook
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Yearbook Weirdness – July 9, 2024 (permalink)

Omar Khayyám, from the endpapers of Wesleyan College's 1935 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #tower #omar khayyam #turret
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 1, 2024 (permalink)

From P's and Q's: A Book on the Art of Letter Arrangement by Sallie B. Tannahill, 1929.
[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 #calligraphy #hand lettering #illustration
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 2, 2024 (permalink)

"Make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold.  Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray; [true] friendship never knows decay" (Joseph Parry).  From University of Mary Washington's 1915 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #advice #friendship
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 1, 2024 (permalink)

""What[!] out of senseless nothing to provoke a conscious something" (Omar Khayyam).  From Oberlin College's 1910 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #marotte #illustration #omar khayyam
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Yearbook Weirdness – April 25, 2024 (permalink)

"In books lies the soul of the whole past time. —Carlyle."  From Barnard College's 1922 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#calligraphy #books #hand lettering #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1920s #thomas carlyle
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Yearbook Weirdness – February 29, 2024 (permalink)

Omar Khayyám, from Wesleyan College's 1935 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#calligraphy #shadow #vintage yearbook #yearbook #omar khayyam
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 29, 2024 (permalink)

"The bird of time has but a little way to flutter and [lo!] the bird is on the wing" (Omar Khayyam).  From Oberlin College's 1910 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #time #vintage yearbook #yearbook #bird #omar khayyam
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – December 15, 2023 (permalink)

Omar Khayyám, from Wesleyan College's 1935 yearbook.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #vintage yearbook #yearbook #omar khayyam
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Your Ship Will Come In – December 13, 2023 (permalink)

From Purdue University's 1927 yearbook.
* Our printed collection of vintage nautical postcards is entitled Your Ship Will Come In and is available from Amazon.com.
> read more from Your Ship Will Come In . . .
#vintage illustration #calligraphy #ship #hand lettering #vintage yearbook #yearbook #illustration #cursed font
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 30, 2023 (permalink)

From Pictures of the Chinese, Drawn by Themselves, by Robert Henry Cobbold, 1860.
[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 #calligraphy #chinese
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No News Is Good News – July 4, 2021 (permalink)

"Break the news to mother."  From Wid's Daily, 1919.
> read more from No News Is Good News . . .
#calligraphy #hand lettering #no news is good news
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The Right Word – March 16, 2021 (permalink)

We're honored that Cyril the Sorcerer calligraphized two lines of ours about speaking magic words: "Speak your words of magic with all the weight of saying 'I love you' to someone for the very first time. ... Speak the word as if you were presenting a lost relic from another time."  Cyril added, "Thanks Prof. Oddfellow aka Craig Conley for your artistry with ink, words and magic."

> read more from The Right Word . . .
#calligraphy #wizardry #magic word
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Go Out in a Blaze of Glory – February 14, 2021 (permalink)

We're honored that Cyril the Sorcerer calligraphized a line of ours about magic words and chocolate: "Delight in the magic word as you speak or sing it, as you might savor a morsel of fine chocolate. —Craig Conley"

> read more from Go Out in a Blaze of Glory . . .
#calligraphy #wizardry #magic #magic words #chocolate
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