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.
A word of warning from a clown: "Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle! Look out, look sharp for Mother Goose; she's in the air, she's everywhere, and I fear she's wandering loose." From Wesleyan College's 1911 yearbook.
An apology for tinkering with the phases of the moon so as to provide sufficiently dramatic lighting for the story. From (the very charming, in the style of golden age British mysteries) A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley, 2011.