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 20 posts tagged ‘surprise’

Restoring the Lost Sense – February 8, 2029 (permalink)

From Phil May's Illustrated Winter Annual, 1894.
[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 #jester #surprise #1890s #illustration #making faces
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Yearbook Weirdness – May 4, 2028 (permalink)

From Birmingham-Southern College's 1924 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 #surprise #1920s #floating hat #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 2, 2028 (permalink)

"I like surprises just for me."  From A Vocabulary Primer Workbook to Accompany Day In and Day Out, 1936. 
[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 #surprise #1930s #flowers #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 14, 2027 (permalink)

"The Tomato Surprise."  From The New Yorker, 1925.  (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 #surprise #1920s #illustration #restaurant #tomato
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Yearbook Weirdness – February 7, 2026 (permalink)

From Wake Forest College's 1939 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage photo #vintage yearbook #surprise #1930s #vintage man #mood
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 11, 2024 (permalink)

From The Mary Frances Knitting and Crocheting Book, or Adventures Among the Knitting People by Jane Eayre Fryer and illustrated by Jane Allen Boyer, 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 #fairy #surprise
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Yearbook Weirdness – July 12, 2024 (permalink)

From Presbyterian College's 1982 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 #surprise #making faces
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – June 10, 2024 (permalink)

"I like my surprises in books, not life."  From Dark Shadows episode 357.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#dark shadows #surprise
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This May Surprise You – July 21, 2023 (permalink)

"The best things happen when you least expect them."  From The Gateway, 1968.
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage ad #surprise #1960s #woman #vintage woman #ad
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Old News – March 8, 2023 (permalink)

"Surprised by people."  From Lighted Pathway, 1988.
> read more from Old News . . .
#surprise #vintage headline #headline
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 9, 2021 (permalink)

Instantaneous surprise.  From Hypnotism by Laura Ensor, 1891.
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #hypnotism #surprise #mustache #vintage man #man
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 26, 2021 (permalink)

You've seen hats that fly off surprised people's heads, and here is revealed how they do it -- by their own volition.  From Nebelspalter, 1932.
[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 #mask #surprise #hat
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Restoring the Lost Sense – December 2, 2020 (permalink)

Surprise and anger.  From Hypnotism by Laura Ensor, 1891.
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #hypnotism #surprise #anger
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Everybody's Doing This Now – February 9, 2020 (permalink)

From Le Journal Amusant, 1905.
> read more from Everybody's Doing This Now . . .
#vintage illustration #surprise #faces #facial expressions #audience #1900s #spectators
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – March 7, 2018 (permalink)

"If the surprisor and the surprisee are mutually astonished, then, indeed, there is a tangle out of which anything may emerge, for two explanations are necessary at the one moment, and two explanations can no more hold the same position in time than two bodies can occupy the same lodgment in space."  From The Demi-gods by James Stephens, 1921.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#surprise
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Restoring the Lost Sense – January 1, 2018 (permalink)

"Frank's surprise."  From London Society, 1881.
[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 #falling #surprise #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 19, 2017 (permalink)

"It's only my Aunt!"  From It's Only My Aunt! by Anne Charlotte Bartholomew Turnbull, 1850.
[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 #surprise #jack in the box #illustration
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This May Surprise You – December 2, 2016 (permalink)

Here's a surprise (date uncertain).
> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#surprise #vintage postcard #sign
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This May Surprise You – September 29, 2015 (permalink)

You know about caryatids, but what exactly they were holding up might be a surprise.  From Canadian Grocer, 1892.


> read more from This May Surprise You . . .
#vintage illustration #caryatids #surprise #illustration
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Everybody's Doing This Now – August 11, 2015 (permalink)

From The 'Loil' Legislature of Alabama by Benjamin Screws, 1868.

> read more from Everybody's Doing This Now . . .
#vintage illustration #surprise #illustration #hands up
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