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.
Here's a precursor to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion's changing portraits, from The Maid of London Bridge by Somerville Gibney, 1892. The caption reads, "Ah! thou are right, Lucy, it is changing, and growing stern and angry."
Here are some creepy old portraits from Broadstone Hall and Other Poems by William Edward Windus, with illustrations by A. Concanen, 1875. One's canine or skeletal, one's feline, and one's avian or alien. Note also the dimensionality of the portraits — the standing figure looks like he's ready to step right out into the room. And even the drapery at the right is haunted.