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 ‘smiling’

Yearbook Weirdness – March 10, 2028 (permalink)

"Smiles that won't wear off."  From Kansas State Agricultural College's 1913 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage yearbook #yearbook #smiling #smile #vintage men #men #1910s
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Old News – February 12, 2026 (permalink)

"They smile all the while because they must."  From The Australian Women's Weekly, 1937.
> read more from Old News . . .
#smiling #vintage headline
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Yearbook Weirdness – February 14, 2023 (permalink)

From Biola University's 1982 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage yearbook #smiling #self portrait #vintage man #smiling man #1980s
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Yearbook Weirdness – October 23, 2022 (permalink)

From Birmingham-Southern's 1929 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage yearbook #yearbook #smiling #smile #1920s
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Rhetorical Answers, Questioned – August 31, 2022 (permalink)

From Northeastern's 1927 yearbook.
> read more from Rhetorical Answers, Questioned . . .
#vintage illustration #big mouth #vintage yearbook #yearbook #smiling #wink
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 31, 2022 (permalink)

"What is there to smile about now?"  From Chatterbox, 1918.
[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 #optimism #smiling #pessimism
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Images Moving Through Time – May 15, 2020 (permalink)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click to see another expression. From Elmhurst's 1937 yearbook.

From Elmhurst's 1937 yearbook
> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#vintage yearbook #yearbook #smiling #1930s #happy and sad #vintage man #man #gif
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 7, 2019 (permalink)

From Jugend, 1910.
[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 #hybrid #smiling #illustration #art #ad
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 9, 2018 (permalink)

Reblog if life has cut you right through but you might as well smile because what else is there left to do?  From Le Journal Amusant, 1921.
[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 #sword #optimism #smiling #impaled #smiling through
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Restoring the Lost Sense – February 8, 2018 (permalink)

"I'm sorry I smiled."  From Pearson's, 1910.
[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 #etiquette #smiling #apology #illustration #don't smile
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Restoring the Lost Sense – May 11, 2016 (permalink)

How many muscles does it take to smile?  From The Book of Ballads by Bon Gaultier, 1849.
[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 #cherub #smiling #illustration #art
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 10, 2015 (permalink)

We made an animated gif of these smiles and frowns from Crickety Cricket, written and illustrated by Douglas Moffat, 1897.

 

[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 #animated gif #smiling #frowning #illustration
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Only Funny If ... – September 18, 2015 (permalink)

From The Philosophy of Laughter and Smiling by George Vasey, 1875.

> read more from Only Funny If ... . . .
#vintage book cover #book design #book cover #book #philosophy #smiling #faces #laughter #vintage book design #facial expressions #1870s
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Neither Saint- Nor Sophist-Led – June 25, 2011 (permalink)

"You have to be able to laugh at anything and everything.  The statues of the Buddha all smile, and not without reason, whilst the Christian saints are all bathed in tears.  If people would smile more often, there would probably be fewer wars."
—Gustav Meyrink, The Green Face
> read more from Neither Saint- Nor Sophist-Led . . .
#saint #smiling #laughter #buddha #gustav meyrink
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