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, 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.
Our Tic Tac Toe generator builds stories out of the one-letter words X and O. Here's an example, from a photo we spotted at the Frog Blog. The letters can be translated as follows:
INSTRUCTIONS: In
alternate turns, complete a row, column, or diagonal with three X’s or
O’s. Each X and O has a discrete unit of meaning, as detailed in the Dictionary of One-Letter Words.
Choose and write a letter meaning alongside each X and O placed in the
grid; don’t repeat a letter meaning within the same game. Number each turn on the grid, to establish the linear progression of the story. When the game is finished, use the sequence of key words to construct your story, adding connecting phrases as necessary.
![The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine](/weblog/images/covers/ghost-scanning-machine.png)
