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.
As it spans two pages, one might say this is a cracked hall of mirrors. It brings back nightmares from that time we, too, were trapped within a shattered hall of mirrors.
When our new hall of mirrors was delivered, there were cracks … and we had to either process a return or face a shattered infinity. We chose the latter … but weren't prepared for what it actually entailed.
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Ken responds: "The mirror is cracked in an amazingly artistic way! Radiating heavenward, with occasional communication between the rays. Fortunately it wasn't right in the middle, which would have been "conveniently conventional", but not so far to the side, as to not draw attention to itself. Much more interesting and unique than if it had never been cracked. The video made my head swim, but I got a warm feeling from it."
Orson Welles' Lady from Shanghai famously features a shootout in a hall of mirrors. A 1901 issue of Puckshows a gunslinger using his looking-glass reflections as decoys.
