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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A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 16 posts tagged ‘pennyfarthing’

Restoring the Lost Sense – May 27, 2029 (permalink)

From Current Sauce, 1959.
[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 #vintage ad #bicycle #pennyfarthing #illustration #traffic #1950s #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 3, 2029 (permalink)

"It was like wading through a feather-bed."  From Youth's Companion, 1893.
[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 #bicycle #animal attack #bull #1890s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 2, 2029 (permalink)

From People and Places by Horn, McBroom & Bishop and illustrated by Sperry, Stein & Paus, 1940.
[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 #bicycle #falling #dog #before and after #1940s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 24, 2028 (permalink)

From the New Yorker, 1928.  [Via Jonathan Caws-Elwitt.]
[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 #bicycle #1920s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 9, 2028 (permalink)

From The Children's Newspaper, 1920.
[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 #political cartoon #1920s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 2, 2026 (permalink)

From People and Places by Horn, McBroom & Bishop and illustrated by Sperry, Stein & Paus, 1940.
[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 #bicycle #falling #1940s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Yearbook Weirdness – November 13, 2024 (permalink)

From the United States Naval Academy's 1926 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage ad #bicycle #vintage yearbook #yearbook #1920s #vintage headline #pennyfarthing #illustration #penny farthing #headline #ad
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Yearbook Weirdness – April 1, 2024 (permalink)

From Oberlin College's 1925 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #pennyfarthing
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 23, 2022 (permalink)

Roller skates versus penny-farthing: which do you wager for the win?  From Chicago Normal College's 1927 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #vintage yearbook #yearbook #penny-farthing #race #rollerskates #roller skates #pennyfarthing
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Precursors – August 15, 2019 (permalink)

The so-called "news" that technology changes us was actually fresh back in 1889.  In this panel, the length of a man's legs adapts to the height of his pennyfarthing, and another man's ears have grown bigger due to his use of the telephone.  From Le Charivari, 1889.
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #big ears #technology #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 24, 2016 (permalink)

Here's how Father Time gets around, from Fun magazine, 1864.
[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 #father time #clock #1860s #pennyfarthing #illustration
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Everybody's Doing This Now – November 15, 2014 (permalink)

From Romances of the Wheel by W. J. Coppen, 1880.
> read more from Everybody's Doing This Now . . .
#vintage illustration #cycling #pennyfarthing #illustration #bicycle accident
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 12, 2014 (permalink)

An illustration from Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1887).  The caption reads: "A Quarry of Startled Dears."
[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 #hooded figures #pennyfarthing
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Precursors – September 3, 2014 (permalink)

Here's a precursor to Number Six and the iconic penny farthing of the cult television series The Prisoner.  From Two Trips to the Emerald Isle by 'Faed' (1888).  The caption reads: "Decimal Six."
> read more from Precursors . . .
#vintage illustration #pennyfarthing #the prisoner
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – August 27, 2014 (permalink)

There are several theories concerning why the British Empire failed.  We suggest adding this illustration to the set.   From Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Stevens (1888).
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#vintage illustration #horse #pennyfarthing
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Images Moving Through Time – January 1, 2011 (permalink)

Happy new year!  (This drawing is from Louis Untermeyer's Heavens, 1922.)

> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#vintage illustration #pennyfarthing #illustration #art deco
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Original Content Copyright © 2025 by Craig Conley. All rights reserved.