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.
From The Creepie-Stool, an unusual "single-poet anthology for chidlren" by Elizabeth Fleming and illustrated by Hugh Chesterman, peppered with Scots words like "stravaiging."
Unusual to see an artist's palette as a saucer. This musical teacup appears 20 years before Disneyland debuted its Mad Tea Party ride. From New Jersey State Teachers College's 1935 yearbook.
Q: Which teacup contains the tempest? (You might wonder if it's the upside down cup, but then you might wonder whether the upside down cup is too obvious.)
A: (Highlight to reveal.) It's the upside down teacup.
Yes, a donkey drinking tea is very nearly a Googlewhack as of this posting (one search result being for a game of Interference in which "donkey drinking tea" breaks down into "black box.") From Taking Tales by William Henry Giles Kingston, 1889.