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 15 posts tagged ‘devolution’

Yearbook Weirdness – September 5, 2029 (permalink)

From Virginia Intermont College's 1915 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #transformation #vintage yearbook #yearbook #evolution #illustration #devolution #1910s
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Telescopic Em Dashes – June 17, 2028 (permalink)

From Southwest Missouri State Teachers College's 1930 yearbook.
*These em dashes are from Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.  Some of our magnifications appear in Forgotten Wisdom Vol. II.
> read more from Telescopic Em Dashes . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #evolution #1930s #illustration #devolution
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 10, 2027 (permalink)

"The Descent of Man."  From Animals and Men No. 06.
[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 #transformation #ape #evolution #illustration #devolution #deevolution #descent of man
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 21, 2027 (permalink)

From Armour Institute of Technology's 1898 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #transformation #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1890s #illustration #devolution #towel
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Yearbook Weirdness – January 16, 2027 (permalink)

From Wake Forest College's 1911 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #transformation #vintage yearbook #yearbook #worm #illustration #devolution #1910s #hookworm
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 6, 2026 (permalink)

From the Daily Mirror, 1905.
[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 #transformation #before and after #1900s #illustration #devolution #making faces
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 16, 2026 (permalink)

From the Daily Mirror, 1905.
[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 #evolution #diet #1900s #illustration #up a tree #devolution
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 27, 2026 (permalink)

From the Daily Mirror, 1905.
[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 #transformation #monkey #evolution #darwinism #before and after #1900s #illustration #devolution #monkey man
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Old News – May 26, 2025 (permalink)

"Says the world is not growing better."  From the Duluth Evening Herald, 1914.
> read more from Old News . . .
#vintage headline #devolution #headline
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Old News – January 24, 2025 (permalink)

"Apes originated from human ancestral stock."  From Animals and Men, no. 11.
> read more from Old News . . .
#ape #evolution #vintage headline #devolution #headline #de-evolution
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 23, 2018 (permalink)

From Krokodil, 1957.
[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 #lion #devolution
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 29, 2018 (permalink)

From Jugend, 1897.
[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 #mirror #skull #monkey #evolution #illustration #devolution #art
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 4, 2018 (permalink)

How true those words are, even today.  "God's country ain't what it used to be."  From The Judge, 1922.
[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 #devolution #the good old days #god's country #ain't what it used to be
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 15, 2014 (permalink)

Conjuring the spirit of devolution: an illustration from a 1907 issue of Punch magazine.
[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 #illustration #devolution #we are all devo
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Precursors – August 12, 2013 (permalink)

The concept of de-evolution is that humankind is regressing, as evidenced by the dysfunction and herd mentality of American society.  The idea was developed in the late 1960s by the founders of the band Devo.  Could they have been inspired by this 1964 episode of Bewitched?

> read more from Precursors . . .
#bewitched #devolution
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