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 14 posts tagged ‘fool’

Restoring the Lost Sense – April 21, 2029 (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 #jester #fool #1940s #illustration #mocking #dward
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 28, 2022 (permalink)

Amazing -- every department at Montana State University had a dean as well as a fool (the various foolish roles all played by the same fool).  From the 1939 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#fool #vintage yearbook #1930s
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Yearbook Weirdness – September 9, 2021 (permalink)

Wise and otherwise.  From Clarion's 1926 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #king #jester #fool #vintage yearbook #yearbook #marotte #tarot #wisdom
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Yearbook Weirdness – October 18, 2019 (permalink)

From Swarthmore's 1932 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #jester #fool #vintage yearbook #yearbook #lightning #tarot #tarot fool
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 11, 2018 (permalink)

From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1879.
[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 #king #jester #fool #faces in things #tongue out #scepter #illustration
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Neither Saint- Nor Sophist-Led – June 30, 2017 (permalink)

"The Bishop of Fools."  From A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1875.
Who is your favorite imaginary saint?  Do share!
> read more from Neither Saint- Nor Sophist-Led . . .
#religion #vintage illustration #fool #marotte #bishop #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 5, 2017 (permalink)

"He found he had been making a great fool of himself."  From The Magic Mirror by William Gilbert and illustrated by John Menzies, 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 #monk #fool #illustration #cloud shapes
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 27, 2016 (permalink)

"Prins Carnaval, Lambert I," date unknown.
[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 . . .
#jester #fool #marotte #face mask #carnival
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 26, 2016 (permalink)

From Memoires Pour Servir À L'histoire De La Fête Des Foux, Qui Se Faisoit Autrefois Dans Plusieurs Eglises by Jean-Bénigne Lucotte Tilliot, 1751.

[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 #woodcut #jester #fool #mooning #as above so below #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 24, 2016 (permalink)

From The Sleeping Beauty by Julia Corner and Charles Perrault, 1861.

[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 #dragon #jester #fool #sleeping beauty #illustration #art
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 21, 2015 (permalink)

The number of fools is infinite, from Memoires Pour Servir À L'histoire De La Fête Des Foux, Qui Se Faisoit Autrefois Dans Plusieurs Eglises by Jean-Bénigne Lucotte Tilliot, 1751.  (See our previous item about the fool's marotte here.)

[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 #jester #fool #marotte #queen of wands #illustration
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Nonsense Dept. – August 10, 2015 (permalink)

Why is a jester associated with a cone?  We find our answer in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Oedipus Tyrannus, in which Swellfoot says, "Sustain the cone of my untroubled brain, / That point, the emblem of a pointless nothing!" (I.i.).

Our illustration is from an advertisement c. 1872.

> read more from Nonsense Dept. . . .
#vintage illustration #jester #fool #clown #cone #percy bysshe shelley #illustration #art
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Restoring the Lost Sense – June 2, 2015 (permalink)

"His name's the Doctor," from The Man in the Moon, 1820.
[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 #jester #fool #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 27, 2014 (permalink)

The Fool in books, from Cassell's Library of English Literature, edited by Henry Morley, 1883.

[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 #woodcut #fool #illustration #bibliophile
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.