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Haunted Muir Woods National Monument By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective Halo Paranormal Investigations - HPI International. Paranormal Hotline: (916) 203-7503 - 4 Advice & Investigations Stinson Beach on a Rainy Day by Deanna Jaxine Stinson Stinson Beach and Muir Woods National Monument Video Random Photos - Stinson Beach & Muir Woods 4/9/2016: Today me and my wife Deanna Jaxine Stinson explored Stinson Beach and Muir Woods National Monument. I have already talked about Haunted Stinson Beach - you can see that previous article here: If you enjoy collecting seashells, you will find some nice sand dollars along the beach. We collected a few seashells for Deanna's smudging wands that she creates. Now to Muir Woods, some of the history will tell you that by the early 20th century, most of these forests had been cut down. Just north of the San Francisco Bay, one valley named Redwood Canyon remained uncut, mainly due to its relative inaccessibility. According to Wikipedia, this was noticed by U.S. Congressman William Kent. He and his wife, Elizabeth Thacher Kent, purchased 611 acres of land from the Tamalpais Land and Water Company for $45,000 with the goal of protecting the redwoods and the mountain above them. In 1907, a water company in nearby Sausalito planned to dam Redwood Creek, thereby flooding the valley. When Kent objected to the plan, the water company threatened to use eminent domain and took him to court to attempt to force the project to move ahead. Kent sidestepped the water company's plot by donating 295 acres of the redwood forest to the federal government, thus bypassing the local courts. On January 9, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the land a National Monument, the first to be created from land donated by a private individual. The original suggested name of the monument was the Kent Monument but Kent insisted the monument be named after naturalist John Muir, whose environmental campaigns helped to establish the National Park system. President Roosevelt agreed." Muir Woods is an excellent place to hike and you can explore Muir Beach, Pirates Cove, etc. If you are a paranormal investigator, then this is the place to be. Here are some of the creepy things that you may find on your hunt. THE DRUMS OF THE GHOSTLY COASTAL MIWOK TRIBE Most people do not realize that Muir Woods is very haunted. Some people have heard drumming late at night and believe that they are hearing the ghostly drumming of the Coastal Miwok tribes that used to inhabit these woods. THE WITCH OF MUIR WOODS Katie Smith, wife to a logger that settled in Muir Woods. Katie's logger husband tried to establish a logging company in Muir Woods. The loggers felt Muir Woods was inaccessible. Katie despised her husband for trying to establish this logging company. Out of money and hungry, Katie waited for a full moon and conducted a ritual and killed her husband with a logging peavey hook. It is said that during a full moon, you will see Katie carrying her logging peavey hook. She is looking for her next victim. THE EVIL WITCH OF MOUNT TAMALPAIS According to legend, there is a ghost of a Miwok maiden that learned magic from her shaman uncle. She cursed another Indian tribe and with her dark magic, the other Indian tribe fell ill and many members of that tribe fell ill and died. When hearing of this news, this evil witch laughed hysterically. LEGEND OF THE SLEEPING MAIDEN According to legend, a Miwok princess fell in love with a Ohlone Prince from Mount Diablo. At the time the Miwoks were at war with the Ohlone tribe and the Chiefs frowned upon the relationship of the Miwok Princess and the Ohlone Prince. Conspiracy among the tribes set in motion for the poisoning of the princess and prince. The princess and prince had a secret rendezvoux and as they ate their prepared meal, the meal was poisoned. They died in each other's arms, they looked like they were sleeping. The princess was buried at Mount Tamalpais and the prince was buried at Mount Diablo. Sometimes the spirits of the princess and the prince are seen in Muir Woods wandering around looking for each other. The prince has also been sighted at Mount Diablo. PIRATE'S COVE SPECTER AND THE DANCING HEMPEN JIG PIRATE: Frenchman Hippolyte de Bouchard was a very well known pirate in California and a place that he frequented was Pirate's Cove at Muir Woods. According to legend, he has some treasure buried somewhere at Pirate's Cove and that is why that some people have seen the specter of this pirate as he looks down to the ground, looking for his buried booty. Hippolyte was also known to have raided the Presidio of Monterey in November 20, 1818 and did some raids in Hawaii. Darrell Causman of Half Moon Bay says that one time he was hiking near and around Pirate's Cove and came across a skinny man with torn clothes, scraggly beard and to his surprise was carrying a sword. Around his neck was a hangman's noose. He had a maniacal look upon his face and he sort of did a jig and then vanished. Darrell said he spoke to one of the residents in the area, because he was so startled at what he saw and the resident said that was Hippolyte's first mate and this resident calls him the Dancing Hempen Jig Pirate. Darrell says that he was terrified at what he saw and will never hike in that area during the time of dusk. Also, he states he will always hike with another person, just for security reasons. DAVID CARPENTER - TRAILSIDE KILLER Muir Woods is just plain creepy. When you see how the fog just hangs from the nearby hills and mountains giving the place an eerie feel to it, coming across a slithery banana slug and accidently touching one of these creatures and feeling like you just got slimed. Muir Woods is also the former stalking grounds for David Carpenter - Trailside Killer. David Joseph Carpenter (born May 6, 1930), aka the Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer known for stalking and murdering women on hiking trails near San Francisco, California. Muir Woods was one of his many areas that he frequented. YES AIMS - BIGFOOT IS ALSO SEEN AT MUIR WOODS, SEE LINK: http://squatchable.com/report.asp?id=6449&title=Witness+observed+a+small+creature+climbing+up+a+hillside+near+Mt.Tam%2FMuir+Woods+area Special Note: AIMS stands for: Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings - One of the Bigfoot creatures has a nickname, they call him the MUIR WOODS THUNDER FOOT - because he is known to stomp around in the woods and his stomping is loud. CRASHED UFO AND THE MUIR WOODS HOBGOBLIN On December 2, 2014 around 1:34AM, a strange ship was seen crash landing in the Muir Woods in the San Francisco Bay Area. When civilians began to investigate the figure falling from the sky, they realized they were dealing with something “not of this world”. Without jumping to conclusions and by taking all precautions, the unidentified object was investigated from a distance by curious civilians. “It was huge! It was a giant triangle shape with a completely smooth surface. At first we thought, ‘Maybe it’s a piece from an airplane or a spaceship,’ but as we got closer, we realized that this definitely wasn’t human.” Said one eyewitness who chose not to be identified. TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, GO TO THE LINK BELOW: Mike Swanson of Redding, CA was hiking at Muir Woods in July 2015, with his girlfriend Tyla. They were both startled when they came upon what they first thought was a bear. When they both got a better look, they saw a 10 foot humanoid with gray skin, large belly, yellowish pants, pointed ears, large nose and a large chain around his neck. Mike says that it reminded him of a hobgoblin that he remembers from the game 'Magic'. Paul's Note: I wonder if this is a stranded extraterrestrial that now lives in Muir Woods? A stranded cryptid from the crashed UFO? BELOW ARE HPI UPDATES, NEWS AND GOSSIP! Case Number: 9169125522 – Client lives in an apartment. He has lived in this apartment for 7 months. Recently strange things have been happening, the light switch flips on by itself and things have been tossed around his apartment. He does not know the history of this apartment. THE BIOGRAPHY OF MY MENTOR: Brad Steiger’s current book Real Visitors, Voices from Beyond, and Parallel Dimensions is his 182nd, and the 45th collaboration with his wife Sherry Hansen Steiger. In 1956, Steiger began publishing short stories and articles of mystery and the paranormal in a wide variety of magazines, including Alfred Hitchcock's, The Saint, Fantastic and Fate. From 1970-'73, his weekly newspaper column, The Strange World of Brad Steiger, was carried domestically in over 80 newspapers and overseas from Bombay to Tokyo. Steiger’s first published book-length work was the two volume Monsters, Maidens, and Mayhem: A Pictorial History of Hollywood Film Monsters (1965). The January 2016 issue of UK’s Darkside magazine declares these volumes to be “the first serious books on horror cinema” and names Steiger “Horror’s First Historian.” While Steiger is known primarily for books on the phenomenal, the paranormal, and the spiritual [Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places; Revelation--The Divine Fire; Mysteries of Time and Space,] he has also written a number of biographies [Judy Garland, Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe, and Greta Garbo. In 1977, Steiger's bestselling biography of the silent screen lover Valentino was made into a motion picture by British director Ken Russell, starring Rudolf Nureyev. In 1978, Steiger co-scripted the documentary film Unknown Powers [with Jack Palance as narrator], winner of the Film Advisory Board's Award of Excellence for 1978. Other awards include: 1974: San Francisco, the Genie, for Metaphysical Writer of the Year. 1977: Philadelphia, the Dani, for Services to Humanity. 1987: Inducted into the Hypnosis Hall of Fame. 1996: Lifetime Achievement Award at the National UFO and Unexplained Phenomena Conference. Steiger has been interviewed and featured in articles in The New York Times, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Sentinel, Baltimore News American, Las Vegas Sun, Minneapolis Tribune, Buffalo Evening News, and many others. Steiger’s television appearances include Nightline with Ted Koppel, ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw, This Week [with David Brinkley, Sam Donaldson, and Cokie Roberts], Giants: The Myth and the Mystery [The Learning Channel]. Fangs vs. Fiction [A&E]. He has appeared with Sherry on The Joan Rivers Show, Haunted Hollywood [for HBO], Inside Edition, The Unexplained [A&E] and 22 episodes of the television series Could It Be a Miracle? Since 1963, Steiger has been a regular guest on many radio programs in numerous cities throughout the United States, including those of Art Bell, George Knapp, and George Noory Coast to Coast, Erskine Overnight, The Allan Handelman Show, Dave Schrader Darkness Radio, Jim Harold’s Reviews, and many, many others Sergeant the Bird - Deanna captures him on camera. This bird dug a hole in the ground and would survey the beach from his hole. He observed the other seagulls eating crabs from the beach. He had a buddy bird in another hole next to him. He was shaking from the cold. He watched the other birds with military precision. Note the blue tag on his leg. THE DONNA MCCREARY STORY Good morning Paul... my story seems to begin back when I was a teen. I lived in a big 4 bedroom house, basically by myself. My mother passed away in 1977 when I was 11. She had a massive CVA in our home, and she was basically brain dead when they wheeled her out. My father moved out when I Was 13 to live with his new girlfriend. My sisters came and went. I would often hear the pedal to our piano 'pop' as if being pushed down. I think that last experience was when I was laying in bed, my closet doors were open, I saw a white mist hovering in the air. I froze solid, then I felt this loving ease come over me, I then said "I Know it you mom, I love you and good night". the best nights sleep ever! Moving forward to when I was 21, my husband and I moved into a mobile home on private property in Fontana. We had a black Cocker Spaniel. 'ZEUS' would bark at this macromae owl we had in the back bedroom. But his barking was a combination of growling, salivating, and backing up while barking, as if he wanted to attack. It gave me the creeps. the person who lived in the home before us said the front door would fly open for no reason. After my husband moved out, it started to get weird. I would hear someone call my name yet nobody was there. Things would fly off the counters, food always came up missing. I would let my 4 year old son sleep with me because I was scared. lol we moved out in 1996. In 1996, we moved to San Bernardino in with the soon to be father of my baby. His house was fine except for the kitchen. Again food would come up missing from the pantry only. Going into the pantry was creepy, like someone was watching me at all times. I stayed there until 2001. In 2002, I moved into a crappy neighborhood into an apartment. Within the first month or so, I was laying in bed. I heard a woman crying one night, it was loud so I thought it was my neighbor, I brushed it off. The next night, I heard it again, but this time it was right next to me in bed and crying in my ear. I was petrified! I laid there and prayed for the woman to find peace and happiness. I never heard it again. In 2005, my new husband and I rented a condo in San Bernardino. It was very nice. We had a walk in closet. When I left for work, I would turn off the closet light. One morning I forgot something and went back into my room, closet light on. It creeped me out. from that day on I kept the closet door closed. When I was in the living room, I would always hear noises coming from my bed room and when I was in my bed room, I would hear noises from the living room. In 2009 we bought a house. An odd house built in 1940, this is where I am located now, still in San Bernardino. The selling point of this house was the beautiful wood A Frame ceiling, the fireplace and the nice front porch. The house is shaped oddly, it appears they added on through out the years. I have half an acre, a couple of fruit trees and a basket ball court. I can see most of down town from my front porch, a beautiful view. I live in the 'fire zone' neighborhood, where the fires burned down many homes in 2003. This is where my store continues.... My very first experience in this home was when we just got the keys, we were fixing the home up before we moved in. I was in the bath room in the outside laundry room, home alone around 9 pm. I was changing out the hard ware inside the toilet. I heard this loud bang come from right outside, possibly from the storage room around the corner. It scared me, I stopped what I was doing and went inside and sat on the fireplace until my husband returned. Our plumbing also went south in that time, causing great water damage to the home inside, and 10,500.00 in repairs to the clay pipes outside of the home, I have many large trees out front. All was quiet for many years, or I just didnt notice as we had a houseful of kids. Kids moved on and my husband and I divorced, he moved out on Thanksgiving 2011. In 2012, I met a man and we started dating. I would stay the night at Will's home. Things were creepy there. Were would hear the office chair in the living room but nobody was sitting in it, I was standing in the doorway connecting the kitchen and livingroom and a large white dog ran right passed me then disappeared in thin air, we would hear voices. So we decided for my boyfriend to move in with me. We always slept with the fan on, we could feel the air stop or pause briefly as if someone walked past it, and I could feel and see the corner of my bed go down, as if someone sat on the edge. In May of 2013 we moved out. The house got active now.... I decided to move my bed room around, I needed a change. The very first night of the change, I still didnt have it completely together, something happened that scared me, I can not remember what it was. But the activity continued. One night, I was laying in bed, someone was laying behind me, cuddling me like my friend would, I could feel 'his' breathing in my ear, just like my friend. As I reached behind me to feel for the body, the feeling was gone. This was sometime in February 2014. I would feel and see someone sit on the corner of my bed...I would look, say good night and turn over. My friend and I were very close. I knew him for over 15 years. He was a scardy cat to what I told him what was happening in the home. He suddenly died of cardiac arrest at the age of 29 in his home on May 5th, 2014. Im still not over it but trying to move on. One night, after his passing, I was laying in bed, mostly awake but trying to sleep. I was picked up, carried to the other side of the room, gently placed against a night stand on the floor. I was scared. I could feel his body against mine. I asked "who are you"? and he said very clearly "If I tell you I have to take you", I then responded with "you cant, I have grand daughters to be here for". It was quiet. I sat there for a few more moments then I said "please hold me". Then I felt him hold me tight for about 5 seconds or so then he let go. A few seconds passed then I got up and got into bed. I thought it may have been a dream, but I was wide awake. I decided to change my bed room back to the way it was shortly after. All was pretty quiet for a few months then it came back 10 fold. I got a new room mate in May of 2014. He has experienced many things through out his life, and many things here in my home. He occupies a spare room I have, he is very quiet. One night, I was in my room, I saw a reflection of a tall white man in my kitchen window, I could not see the whole face, only part of a side profile. The man was tall, white, dark hair wearing a black short sleeved T-shirt. I walked into the kitchen to talk to him, then it was gone. On July 4th, I was in Lucerne Valley, I had a tarot card reading. The woman didn't know me at all. The first thing she said to me was "there is a young man who can no longer be in your life (Michael, my companion that passed away). She was spot on on everything she told me. At home, my room mate was here, sitting at the dining room table at the same time I was having my reading. He said he was eating his taco's, he saw a reflection of a man wearing jeans and barefoot walk past the stove and dishwasher, then he passed out at the table for a couple of hours, like he had no energy. I found this all out the next day. Since that day, so much has happened. My room mate got a couple of pictures of shadows in his bedroom mirror of a man, he feels like he is being stared at, my cupboard that holds my pot lids empties out but only when he is home alone. This one night in particular, I came home really drunk. When I woke up the next morning, I saw 'remnants" of sexual activity on my black sheets, and I just washed them the night before. I asked my son if anyone was here, he said no. I was truly puzzled. My 'area' burned. I got up and laid on the couch to watch American Horror Story with my son. I saw a tall shadow walk past the front door, I felt a hand push down hard on my stomach. I then came to my room and my son left. Shortly after, I heard a loud commotion in the living room like there was a physical fight going on. It lasted about 5 seconds. By the time I could get up and look, it had stopped and nothing was out of place. I was still puzzled about the white substance that was on my sheets and face that morning. It was dried on my face by my mouth. It was sweet tasting, and tasted like semen. I asked my room mate if he was in my room, he said no. We still joke about it to this day. I ended up contacting a friend of mine and he, his daughter and I had a seance in my room. Turns out, there is an old, lost, angry and sad soul in my home. Someone sexually molested me, and I do not know who it was. The second time it happened, a few months later, I was feeling uneasy so I had my son stay in my room. I was woke up by my body being moved up and down, I was laying on my right side, like someone was having their way with me from behind. I looked behind me, I saw nothing, my son was sound asleep. I said sternly "you have a lot of nerve F****** me with my son in my room"... Again... I had that burning feeling. Some time after that, I was in the shower, I felt a burning feeling on both sides of my hips. It bothered me so I had my son take a picture of my backside. I had two scratches on each side that were bleeding a little. I was scared. It burned until I got to my destination 30 miles away. I then contacted a paranormal team where they came with an echovox. From that session, we learned that there were bad spirits here. My companion was here and spoke to us. He supposedly got rid of the bad. It was said that a man named Scott and Pete are the ones that took advantage of me that first night. Many people have experienced their butt being touched here. The night during the session, I was bending over talking into the echovox, I felt my butt being touched. I asked "who just touched my butt"? and A few people said "Pete did it". I had another session with a full on team here with cameras and echovox. Apparently there is a Ouija board buried under my basketball court, a Wiccan said she closed it. During that session, we heard voices, a woman was punched and a few times glowing red eyes were captured on camera. Unfortunately I no longer have those pictures. The activity seemed to slow down, but only for a short time. I have 'hotspots' in my home... in my shower (a portal), in my kitchen and somewhere in the other bathroom. They said they closed the portals but my shower is still active. The hallway always gave me the creeps, like someone was watching me cook. I still experience many things... the shadows continue, I hear men talking to me (right next to me), things moving or falling, I will look for an item that I ALWAYS place in the same spot not be there, I will get frustrated after 30 minutes of looking and beg the spirits to replace it, then I find it where I left it, the bruises continue, I am grabbed with deep indents left in my left ankle only, the bruises appear in the same spots.. both upper thighs, under both arms. My lights can hold 2 light bulbs, when one goes out, I replace it, a day or two later the same bulb goes out. This is in the kitchen and my bathroom and in the living room only. I still feel someone sit on the edge of my bed, my hair has been 'swatted' and this was witnessed by a friend of mine. He was too afraid to mention it until I said someone just flipped my hair, and he said he saw it. I have become friends with a medium. She said my deceased brother and my mother are here. She told me things she didnt know about me. A picture of a flag keeps falling in my living room, my boys saw it fall one day. I hear many noises in my vanity area, which is right next to my bath room. I can feel when I will have indents on my ankle as my foot will tingle. I have dozens of pictures of what has been left on my body. Not sure if you want me to send then as well, I will have to send them with my phone. My new boyfriend said he was held done in bed one morning, couldnt move or speak.. it scared him but he didnt say that, his look on his face told the story. I feel I have a jealous male spirit here, not sure who it is. I know I have pranksters here. But THANK GOD I am no longer scared. I am not sure if they came with the house, attached thier selves to furniture that was brought in (my ex husband was a mover and he brought home 'new' furniture all the time that came from people he moved) or if they follow me from the hospital I work at. Regardless, they are here and I am learning to live with them. I have ordered them to leave in the name and blood of JESUS.... but they wont go. If there is any other information you would like, please feel free to ask. I do have to admit it is a bit embarrassing to talk of the sexual attacks, but if it will help you, I will tell you what I can. If you would like pictures, let me know, I can send them. I want to thank you for being interested and taking the time to listen to my story. Of course, so much more has happened, but this is just a summary. Everyday something happens, even at work. You may share my story as I am not ashamed. Again, thank you very much for your interest in this matter. Have a great day Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective aka The Demon Warrior Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International) Paranormal Cellular Hotline: For Investigation or Advice: 916 203 7503
With an amazing level of attention down to the smallest detail, where each hair is noticeable on character models, scratches and bruises are apparent, and even the dirt beneath fingernails of characters are recognizable, Call of Duty: Ghosts sets a new bar of visual fidelity and near photorealism without sacrificing any performance, maintaining the hallmark of 60 frames per second-on every platform-to provide that signature Call of Duty smoothness and gameplay. Available first on Xbox One April 3, 2014, the Devastation DLC Pack features four new small to medium-sized multiplayer maps, including a mountaintop Mayan temple, a mangled container ship, a giant excavation digger in South America, and a fully re-imagined version of Infinity Ward's fan-favorite map "Dome" from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - each with their own unique Field Order. There's also the all-new "Ripper" tactical 2-in-1 weapon, and "Episode 2: Mayday" - the gripping second chapter in Extinction's four-part episodic narrative which includes multiple mod-able versions of the Venom-X weapon, and closes with a battle against a monstrous, 100-foot tall Cryptid alien boss, aptly named the Kraken. Additionally, as a special offer available starting today for players on Xbox Live, Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Season Pass owners get instant access to Devastation's all-new "Ripper" weapon, which features the unique ability to quickly convert from Sub Machine-Gun (SMG) to Assault Rifle and back again in the midst of battle, and can be used in all Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer maps. "The Devastation DLC Pack continues the fast-paced, fun and imaginative gameplay that Infinity Ward and Neversoft began with Onslaught," said Daniel Suarez, Vice President of Production, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Ghosts' DLC is much more than just new multiplayer maps. The teams have added new weapons; the next intense continuation in Extinction's four-part, episodic narrative; and another epic, action film character soon to be revealed. Devastation, like Onslaught before it, is a ton of fun, and we can't wait for the community to experience it all." Devastation delivers four distinctive new maps with the fast-paced gameplay Call of Duty fans love, each with their own surprises. - The first map, "Ruins," is located on a Mexican peninsula and set amidst the remnants of a mountaintop Mayan temple, with multiple levels providing verticality for longer-range weapons, and underground pathways perfect for close-quarters encounters. Savvy players that find and complete the unique Field Order will be able to trigger the map's volcano to erupt, and enjoy watching enemy players attempt to take cover as fiery debris fall from the sky. - The map "Collision," is a mangle of debris scattered atop a container ship pinned underneath a crippled bridge in New York. This small map is ideal for run-and-gun tactics. Players that dominate "Collision" and complete the map's specific Field Order will be able take control of a heavily armed aircraft and rain down destruction from above. - "Behemoth" takes the battle aboard a massive excavation platform in South America. Long sight lines open this map up to longer-range weapons, while the compact interiors of the control rooms are ideal for SMG's and Shotguns. Completing "Behemoth's" Field Order will allow players to control an attack helicopter armed with a deadly, armor-piercing Rail Gun as it circles the excavator searching for enemy combatants. - Devastation's fourth map, "Unearthed," drops players into a reimagined version of "Dome," the fan-favorite multiplayer map from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. With a new look and all-new secrets, "Unearthed" is a compact map for all player types, who must navigate an alien artifact dig site in order to unlock the map's Field Order and unleash the power of the Cryptids, as well as locate the map's secret alien weapon. Call of Duty: Ghosts Devastation also arms players with the "Ripper" - a new, tactical 2-in-1 SMG/Assault Rifle that can be used in all of Ghosts' multiplayer maps. The "Ripper" is a highly unique weapon because of its ability to quickly switch back and forth from SMG to Assault Rifle on the fly. A deadly addition to Ghosts' arsenal, the "Ripper" is the ideal companion across a variety of map types and tactics, providing players unprecedented flexibility with medium to short-range capability as an SMG, and medium to long-range as an Assault Rifle. For Extinction fans, "Episode 2: Mayday," highlights the Call of Duty: Ghosts Devastation DLC Pack. Following the dramatic events that took place deep within the Alaskan wilderness at the Nightfall Program research facility, the Quick Reaction Force team now heads onboard a mysterious Chinese research vessel drifting abandoned in the Tasman Sea in the South Pacific Ocean. Players will uncover a much deeper conspiracy as they pursue Captain Archer and discover what has become of Doctor Cross. Armed with multiple mod-able versions of the Venom-X weapon powered with Cryptid technology, players will come up against yet another new alien species referred to as the "Seeder," as well as go head-to-head with a massive, 100-foot tall Cryptid enemy from the depths of the ocean...the "Kraken." Devastation is available a la carte for a suggested retail price of $14.99, or as part of the Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Season Pass, which gives fans access to four epic Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Packs planned to release throughout 2014 at the discounted suggested retail price of $49.99. Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Season Pass holders also get instant access to the Team Leader Digital Pack, which comes with a unique multiplayer character head, weapon camo, reticle, patch, player card and background. More articles about Call of Duty: Ghosts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 And life in New York is certainly interesting for Verity. Between living in a barely-legal sublet, owned by a Sasquatch, to working as a cocktail waitress in a cryptid strip-club, she just manages to squeeze in enough time to prowl the rooftops and watch over the local cryptids. What little time she has left, and it isn't much, is used for her beloved dance competitions. But the delicate balance Verity has managed in her life comes to a screeching halt when she encounters a member of The Covenant. Many generations before Verity was born The Price family split from The Covenant over a difference in how to treat the cryptid community: the Prices believe in living in harmony with them while The Covenant believes they should all be destroyed. And if butting heads with The Covenant isn't enough, there are also rumors of something big, very big, living in the sewers of New York -- and cryptids are disappearing in large numbers. I've been hearing good things about Seanan McGuire for awhile and Discount Armageddon proves that McGuire is a writer that only gets better with each book. When I first read the description for "Discount Armageddon" I wasn't sure about the idea of a heroine who happens to be infatuated with ballroom dance, but it's a idea that works surprisingly well. Verity has an unusual upbringing as someone who grows up in a family of experts on monstrous creatures and is trained to defend herself from childhood. Unlike her siblings, who demonstrate a love of bombs and booby-traps practically from infancy, Verity learns to incorporate her love of dancing into her martial-arts training-- and as a martial artist who has preached for many years that dancing and fighting are very complimentary I heartily approve of this particular plot point. But Verity's dancing is only a small part of a particularly well constructed story. I love the concept of a community of creatures, known as cryptids in this case, that live alongside an oblivious humanity. It's not a new idea but the mythology here is done so well. McGuire takes urban legends, fairy tales and her own creations and melds them into a fresh, fun concoction. And creatures that we think we know, like the Gorgon or the boogeyman, are tweaked just enough to put them into the story as secondary characters and it works. And critiques I have for "Discount Armageddon" are really minor. The main one would be that the initial antagonist in the book, the member of The Covenant that Verity meets, isn't really antagonistic enough. He and Verity have a believable chemistry but I think I would have liked to see a little more of the push-and-pull that comes with that particular story line--the moment when he must challenge his inbred loyalties is a bit anticlimactic because he never appears to fight them that hard. But as a work of light paranormal fiction "Discount Armageddon" is a nearly perfect example of what the genre should be. The world that is constructed here is nicely complex without being overly complicated. The characters, especially Verity, are well developed and convincingly original and there's never that moment where you feel bombarded with names or struggle with remembering who's who. The story moves briskly with lots of humor thrown in but the balance of action is right on the money and McGuire proves adept at making sure the story never gets too busy. Even the romance angle is well integrated and never steals too much from the overall narrative. If you're a fan of urban fantasy that is light on the angst and drama and strong on action and fun, then I can easily recommend "Discount Armageddon." 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.
It’s no secret that Robert Dunn is one of my favorite writers. His book, Behind the Darkness, is one of my all time fave alien books. His latest book, A Living Grave, takes a slight left from horror into mystery. Robert takes a moment to explain how he got there. I urge you to pick up A Living Grave. Like me, I’m sure you’ll be wanting more. THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERY or HOW DID A NICE HORROR-LOVING GUY LIKE ME END UP WRITING A MYSTERY NOVEL by Robert Dunn, Author of A Living Grave How did it happen? There is no easy answer. I suppose it started in elementary school. There were a few of us who fell into the Hardy Boys. It was innocent fun I tell you. Just school kid curiosity. I blame my friend David for taking things further. He was an out and open Sherlock Holmes reader. He handed me the League of Red Headed Gentlemen like it was a normal thing. He dabbled in Ellery Queen and dared me with it. It wasn’t enough. He started mainlining Agatha Christie. David said it was what all the cool kids were doing. It was probably too late for me to help him, but not too late for him to drag me down too. Sure, by then I had found Heinlein and Asimov. Bradbury was my shield. I even had Lovecraft, Poe, and Robert Howard at my back. Clarke and Dick led me to James Herbert to Blatty to Benchley to King. Even before the novels, had a bulwark of Vampirella, The Witching Hour, Tomb of Dracula, Weird War Tales, Eerie and Creepy. I say all that to make the point I was protected. I had options. Still I got dragged into mysteries. I don’t know how. When I started writing the stories were always about weird, gruesome things happening to mostly unprepared and innocent people. I loved seeing what the normal folk did in the face of the terrible. I liked monsters. Every once in a while, though… Just occasionally, an idea would creep in that had no monster and no supernatural thing driving it. Yeah, it was an itch. It was a call. Because you never really get free. I will admit that I kept reading mysteries, but the books changed. The mystery was no longer the thing. It became all about character. Writers like James Lee Burke created people with flaws and motivations beyond the puzzle and set them loose in extraordinary circumstance. I could get my teeth into that. Or maybe I was rationalizing. It didn’t matter. One day I had an idea. As it happens so often with me the thought was of the ending of a book. The climactic scene played out in my head with visions of the people involved and their roles. Something about it kept niggling. I was thinking, working something out, like people do when they have a word on the tip of their tongue. It came to me not suddenly but as an almost missed understanding. I was thinking of characters with reversed roles. My hero was female and the injured person in need of rescue was male. No wonder it was so hard to come to. It was a minor, almost irrelevant difference. Or so an astoundingly enlightened, 21st century man like me thought. Did I mention handsome? Because I’m a terribly attractive older man with silver in his hair. Well—all of that aside—I discovered when I looked around at the characters and the books, a strong female lead character was not exactly the norm. I did a little digging and found that women in mysteries, when they were the main character, usually made the book less gritty. It was like the books didn’t want to get their hands dirty. The biggest and most successful example were the Kay Scarpetta books written by Patricial Cornwell. They are amazing, filled with detail, science, and mystery. The character is smart, brave, and so well put together it makes me wish I dressed in less flannel. She cooks too. The thing is, she is a forensic pathologist and solves mystery with gloves on. I had been reading books about men with war injuries and horror stories who struggled through to face down violence and save the day. The day was always almost always a woman. I wanted to see what would happen when a woman had those experiences and problems with drinking and violence. AND—And I wanted to write a mystery. That was a punch in the gut. But you know what? It worked. And I found out I was not just a horror writer. I was a writer of books with mystery, romance, horror, science, and great people. I stopped worrying about what kind of writer I was and gave in to my addictions. I embraced my influences, all of them, not just the ones I wanted to think were important. Is there a lesson? I don’t know. There are always events and we make our own lessons I guess. I wrote a mystery and I’ll write more. A Living Grave is the first novel in the Katrina Williams series. Book two is about to turn in to the publisher and I will begin the third. When it is all done I hope I will have a following, fans who know me as a mystery writer. That will be a nice cap to the story don’t you think? And I know you’re wondering—what ever happened to David? He didn’t fare as well as I did. Mystery got into my system and I was able to live with it, growing into the vibrant, handsome – if poverty stricken – and struggling writer you know and love. David went to medical school. He has a job and a beautiful wife. I still wish I could help him. Follow along the tour with these hashtags: #ALivingGrave A Living Grave, Synopsis - Print Length: 266 pages - Publisher: Lyrical Underground - Publication Date: September 13, 2016 BODY OF PROOF Katrina Williams left the Army ten years ago disillusioned and damaged. Now a sheriff’s detective at home in the Missouri Ozarks, Katrina is living her life one case at a time—between mandated therapy sessions—until she learns that she’s a suspect in a military investigation with ties to her painful past. The disappearance of a local girl is far from the routine distraction, however. Brutally murdered, the girl’s corpse is found by a bottlegger whose information leads Katrina into a tangled web of teenagers, moonshiners, motorcycle clubs, and a fellow veteran battling illness and his own personal demons. Unraveling each thread will take time Katrina might not have, as the Army investigator turns his searchlight on the devastating incident that ended her military career. Now Katrina will need to dig deep for the truth—before she’s found buried… Robert Dunn was an Army brat born in Alabama and finally settled in Nixa, Missouri. A graduate of Drury College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications/Film he also earned a second major in Philosophy with a minor in Religion and carried an emphasis in Theatre. This course of study left him qualified only to be a televangelist. An award-winning film/video producer and writer, he has written scripts for or directed every kind of production from local 30-second television commercial spots to documentary productions and travelogues. A writer of blognovels and contributor to various fiction websites his work has also included the book length prose poem, Uncle Sam, the collection of short stories, Motorman and Other Stories and novels Behind the Darkness and The Red Highway. Mr. Dunn now resides in Kansas City where he continues to write genre fiction and experiment with mixed media art projects using hand drawn and painted elements combined through digital paint and compositing. Praise for Robert Dunn and A Living Grave “The Red Highway is not one of the best books that I’ve read so far this year, or that I’ve read in a long time…it’s one of the best books that I’ve ever read! It was an incredible read, one that has so many layers that I was completely enthralled with the story. 5+++ stars!” -2 Book Lovers Reviews “This is hardboiled fiction at its best. We’re talking Elmore Leonard territory. A fantastic read and I hope there’s more to come.” –Hunter Shea, Author of Tortures of the Damned and The Dover Demon on A Living Grave “Dunn’s lyrical descriptions of Katrina’s inner struggles and demons read almost like poetry as he weaves an intricate and deadly plot of motorcycle gangs, the MOB, cancer survival, and child abuse into a novel so rife with complex feelings and life-situations, you are compelled to read it slowly, so you don’t miss a nuance of the gut-wrenching emotions he elicits from his characters.” – Peggy Jaeger, Author of The Voices of Angels “Parts of this book moved me to tears while others made me want to cheer out loud at Katrina’s kick-ass-atude. The twists and turns in the story kept me on the edge of my seat until the entirely satisfying ending. I’m so happy that this is just the start of what promises to be a totally addictive series! I highly recommend this phenomenal 5 star read.” -Horror Maiden’s Book Reviews It’s getting chilly outside and I see a smattering of brown crunchy leaves on the ground. That means it’s time to dive headfirst into the pile of books I curate just for the Halloween season, or as I call it, Horrortober. This year’s list may be a bit ambitious, but I think I can do it. That’s along with watching 1 horror movie a day and other decadent things. So, if you’re looking for a hot read when the nights are dark and our spirits colder, pluck one of these off the shelf… THE NIGHT PARADE BY RON MALFI First the birds disappeared. Then the insects took over. Then the madness began . . . They call it Wanderer’s Folly–a disease of delusions, of daydreams and nightmares. A plague threatening to wipe out the human race. After two years of creeping decay, David Arlen woke up one morning thinking that the worst was over. By midnight, he’s bleeding and terrified, his wife is dead, and he’s on the run in a stolen car with his eight-year-old daughter, who may be the key to a cure. Ellie is a special girl. Deep. Insightful. And she knows David is lying to her. Lying about her mother. Lying about what they’re running from. And lying about what he sees when he takes his eyes off the road . . . EAT THE NIGHT BY TIM WAGGONER For Joan Lantz, it starts with a dream of a death-cult’s mass suicide in the jungle of Suriname thirty years ago, followed by the discovery of a hidden basement in her new house, where heavy metal music echoes on humid tropical air. For Kevin Benecke, long-suffering employee of a mysterious organization known simply as Maintenance, it starts with the violent death of his co-worker at the hands of a madman who tells him, The Big Dark is coming for you. Long-dead cult leader and former rock star Mark Maegarr has returned from beyond the grave, and Joan and Kevin have front-row seats to his apocalyptic comeback. Maegarr’s waited decades to finish what he started, and this time no one will stop him from putting on a killer show designed to hasten the universe’s end. LOVECRAFT’S CURSE BY BRIAN LETENDRE A horrific childhood incident cast a shadow over Fela Barton’s life for fourteen years. Now a 20-year-old college student, Fela survived her first semester of living on campus and is finally ready put the past behind her. Until the nightmares start again. Fela’s dreams hold the key to the madness that has plagued her family for generations. But as she searches for answers, a terrible evil gets closer to finding her. Only one person can help Fela now–and he’s been dead for over 70 years. LITTLE SECRETS BY MEGAN HART They’re not alone in the house. With a baby on the way and a brand new house, it seems Ginny and her husband, Sean, are on their way to a fresh start. But strange occurrences and financial strain seem determined to keep Ginny and Sean stuck in the past. Ginny begins to believe the house may be haunted…or that her husband might be trying to trick her into thinking so. As Ginny researches the house’s former owner and the tragedy that happened there, it becomes clearer than ever that something is in the house with them. The question is, who…or what…is it? CHELSEA AVENUE BY ARMAND ROSAMILIA On July 8th 1987, in Long Branch, New Jersey, The Haunted House Pier and Murphy’s Law club fires destroyed not only local landmarks, but everything Manny Santiago found dear. And it isn’t over. The entity responsible for killing Manny’s family and wreaking devastation in the small seaside community has reappeared. Again. As it has every year since. And is growing in power. Every July 8th it returns, as survivors of the fires, including Manny, are mysteriously led back to the now-vacant seaside lot on Chelsea Avenue, where the entity intends to finish what it started in 1987 once and for all. TAR BY IAIN ROB WRIGHT How do you go on living when you’re already dead? The world has ended, yet a few places still cling to life, dragging out their final, dwindling moments until the last second. The United Kingdom is one of those places still left alive, but it is only a matter of time before it too is wiped from the face of the earth. The Tar is coming, covering every inch of the globe. There is no escape. It means the clock is ticking for Finn, who needs to find the monster that murdered his sister. The world might be over, but vengeance never dies. By bestselling author, Iain Rob Wright, comes an apocalypse like no other. Follow a broken brother’s vengeance as he seeks to kill a man who is already dead. You all may have heard of Adam Howe. He’s the dude who won Stephen King’s On Writing contest. Not only is he one hell of a writer (approved by the Pope of Terror himself), he’s also screamingly funny. It’s an honor to have him on the blog and chain for you Hellions to enjoy! Your latest book, Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet, contains 3 novellas that got my motor humming the moment I read the synopsis. As a guy who wrote a novella about skunk apes, please tell me your inspiration for the tale, Damn Dirty Apes (and now I can’t get Charlton Heston’s voice out of my head). I’d read about the ‘furry’ subculture – people cosplaying as animals – and the sub-subculture of ‘furry’ pornography. Who are we to judge, right? So my starting point for Damn Dirty Apes was the image of a bunch of rednecks making a ‘furry’ fuck flick in the backwoods when the leading man, wearing a ‘provocative’ baboon costume, is abducted as a mate by a randy skunk ape. An overused trope, I know, but I hoped I could breathe fresh life into it. From there, I imagined a misfit posse – including a ‘heroic’ strip club bouncer in the Jack Burton mould, a wannabe porn starlet, the porn shoot’s director (also the town drunk), and a self-proclaimed skunk ape hunter – embarking on safari to rescue their friend from the beast. I saw the piece as a redneck Jaws; the style would be somewhere between 80s action/adventure and Looney Tunes. I chose a skunk ape as my ‘monster,’ as opposed to the more familiar Bigfoot or Sasquatch, because it fit my Southern redneck locale, and I felt that skunk apes had been woefully underused in creature fiction. Of course, I was soon to discover why this is. While researching skunk apes, I stumbled across an article in the Fortean Times relating to notorious hominologist, the late Gerard Hauser, author of the seminal work, ‘Among the Skunk Apes of the North American South: One Man’s Journey of Self-Discovery,’ and Hauser’s doomed final expedition in the Arkansan sticks, in which a amateur cryptozoologist lost his life when he stepped into a hominid snare. In Hauser, I’d discovered a real-life Captain Ahab on whom to base my skunk ape hunter character, Jameson T. Salisbury. On completing the story, I thought it might make a refreshing change from the norm to request an endorsement from a more unusual source than a fellow author, and contacted Mr. Lambert Pogue, General Secretary for the Society of the Preservation of the North American Skunk Ape. Unfortunately, Mr. Pogue failed to see the humour in the story, and objected to my fictional skunk ape hunter, Jameson T. Salisbury, whom he recognized as a caricature of his late friend and colleague, Gerard Hauser. Mr. Pogue proceeded to rally a small army of cryptozoologists in the Bigfoot, Sasquatch and Skunk Ape fields – typically sworn enemies, as you know – who besieged my publisher with angry calls for my head, and demanded the book be embargoed. Fortunately, I was able to placate Mr. Pogue with a groveling apology and a modest donation to the S.P.N.A.S.A. The embargo was lifted, and Mr. Pogue even kindly provided the somewhat terse disclaimer that opens the story, Damn Dirty Apes. As the author of Swamp Monster Massacre, I imagine you’ve had your own dealings with Mr. Pogue and the Society for the Preservation of the North American Skunk Ape. Of course, I’ll understand if you don’t wish to discuss such matters on a public forum, and risk reigniting hostilities with them. I only wish I’d known you before making my damn-fool approach to the S.P.N.A.S.A. You could have warned me to leave well enough alone! I would strongly advise other authors to carefully consider the repercussions before writing skunk ape literature. To paraphrase Pet Sematary, “Sometimes ‘squatch is better.” I have to ask, as a winner of Stephen King’s On Writing contest, how did it feel to get the gold ring? And since then, have you had any communication with our Overlord and Master? I’ll give your American readers some background on this. To promote the release of On Writing, King’s UK publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, and The Guardian newspaper, ran a short story contest that was open to entrants worldwide, with the exception of the States. (I don’t know why you guys were excluded.) The brief was to write a ‘Stephen King-style’ short story, with the winning story to be chosen by King, and published in the first-edition paperback of On Writing. (The story has since been republished in the Kindle version.) The winner would also be granted an audience with The King. Not too shabby, right? Now, this was way back around 2000, a rocky period in my life. I’d recently dropped out of university, my girlfriend had dumped me, I was out of work, and living back home with my folks – not a happy guy. I was seriously doubting my abilities as a writer, and for the first time, considered quitting. Then I won the contest. Like so many other genre writers, King’s voice was the first I really connected with, so for this Constant Reader, having my work validated by King – not to mention being published in his book, meeting the man – was beyond a dream come true; for me, it didn’t get any bigger or better. For the rest of my writing career, I might achieve more, but I’ll be hard pressed to top that moment, and the elation (and relief) I felt. Of course, I was young and dumb enough to believe I’d ‘arrived.’ Which wasn’t the case. It was many years before I was published again. But I’ve never thought about quitting again, no matter how times I’ve been kicked in the heart by this writing lark. Looking back, I think ‘someone’ was looking out for me; that I won the contest just to keep me in The Game; a guardian angel who knew that, one day, I would reward the world with a skunk ape noir novella. You’re welcome. I haven’t seen or spoken to King since. When I met him, he did give me his contact details, but can you believe it, I lost ‘em! Probably just as well. Within a few years of getting my ‘break,’ I developed a drinking problem that quickly spiraled down into full-blown alcoholism. Chances are I’d have embarrassed myself by writing a heartfelt ‘Dear Steve’ letter. I’m happy to say I’ve got my shit together now. It’d be great to speak to him again, if only to let him know he picked a good horse, and that I’m doing OK. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb assuming you’re a B-movie fan. What are some of your favorites? And what movie script do you wish you’d written? I’m a film fiend in general, but yeah, I’ve got a soft spot for late 20th century B-movies. Not that cynical Sharknado shit churned out today by the likes of SyFy and the Asylum. My go-to periods are 70s crime, 80s action, 70s/80s horror. I like to think I write B-movie plots with A-list intentions. Steven Spielberg once said, after making Duel and Jaws, he was worried about being typed as a director of “truck and shark” pictures. I’d be happy to be typed as a “truck and shark” writer. (I’ve yet to write my truck and shark books; maybe I’ll just combine the two, SHARK TRUCKER, write it on a cocktail napkin and sell it to SyFy.) It’s hard to pick a favourite screenplay. Screenplays are an ever-evolving medium, and the text rarely matches what makes it to the screen. As much as Jaws is one of my favourite films, for instance, it ain’t my favourite script. In my early teens, I reviewed scripts for a UK-based mail order company supplying produced screenplays to colleges, writers, film geeks and the like. The first screenwriter I really connected with was Shane Black, who penned Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and a whole other bunch of B-classics. He’s one of the rare few screenwriters whose text often DOES make it intact to the screen. Black remains a big influence on my style. I also dig David Webb Peoples’s work, especially Unforgiven. If you can find it, you should check out his 1987 draft for the unproduced Sgt. Rock movie that Joel Silver had lined up for Schwarzenegger. Would’ve made a helluva movie. It’d be cool to be able to say, “I wrote Roadhouse.” You could carve the line “A polar bear fell on me” on my headstone. Say you were banned from writing horror. What genre would you hop over to and why? And remember, Bigfoot erotica is on the table. Who’s to say I don’t already write Bigfoot erotica under a pseudonym? Clearly you’ve never read my 50 Shades of ‘Squatch series? If I was banned from writing horror – and it’s definitely possible, the horror community seems unusually prickly and conformist right now – I guess I’d just sidestep into crime. A life of crime, I mean; pays better than writing. I don’t consider myself strictly a horror writer. Or even a crime writer, for that matter. The writer whose philosophy I most admire is the Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale. Joe resists genre labels and categorizes himself as a writer of ‘Lansdale’ fiction. That’s my aim: To write my own stuff and be my own man, and hope that readers join me on the ride. As you were working to get the ol’ writing career started, what’s the one piece of advice you wish you’d ignored? I never had a mentor, so any writing advice came from reading interviews with writers I admired, and of course, On Writing, which is the writers’ bible. After winning the contest, I landed an agent and embarked on a ‘career’ as a screenwriter, with so-so success – I had a few original features optioned, scraped a few bucks rewriting/doctoring/butchering other writers’ work, but nothing I wrote ever made it to the screen. The agent was forever pushing me to follow market trends, which is impossible; by the time you’ve written to trend, the market’s moved on. As the screenwriter William Goldman said, “Nobody knows anything.” When I met Stephen King, and told him I planned to be a screenwriter, he made a jack-off gesture, and advised me to “write a fucking novel.” That was advice I should have taken. I’m still yet to write my fucking novel – I really dig the novella format – but I’m working on it. What’s coming up next and what is the best way for folks to follow you and your wild imagination? I’m putting the finishing touches to Tijuana Donkey Showdown, the sequel to Damn Dirty Apes, which continues the misadventures (prolongs the misery) of my boxer turned bouncer and hapless hero, Reggie Levine. No skunk apes in this one – lesson learned, I’m not fucking with the S.P.N.A.S.A. again – although (spoiler alert!) the chupacabra makes an appearance, as does Nicolas Cage, in an explosive cameo. I’m also collaborating on a horror/crime project with Adam Cesare, which we’re pitching as Michael Mann’s Public Enemies meets John Carpenter’s The Thing. Hopefully we can have that one ready to rock early next year. Beyond that, my partner and I are expecting our first child in July so I’ll be off the grid for a while. Assuming I survive the experience, and don’t reinvent myself as a children’s author, I’ll be back in ’17 with some new twisted shit. Follow along this tour with the hashtags: #DieDogorEattheHatchet #DieDog #AdamHowe #OnWriting #HookofaBook Tune into all the stops on the tour at the publicity page: https://hookofabook.wordpress.com/die-dog-or-eat-the-hatchetadam-howe-publicity-page/ Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet, Synopsis - Publication Date: Nov. 2, 2015 - Publisher: Comet Press - Publication Length: 250 pages From Adam Howe, winner of Stephen King’s “On Writing” short story contest, comes three original novellas of hardboiled crime, graphic horror and pitch-black gallows humor. DAMN DIRTY APES Washed-up prizefighter Reggie Levine is eking a living as a strip club bouncer when he’s offered an unlikely shot at redemption. The Bigelow Skunk Ape – a mythical creature said to haunt the local woods – has kidnapped the high school football mascot, Boogaloo Baboon. Now it’s up to Reggie to lead a misfit posse including a plucky stripper, the town drunk, and legend-in-his-own-mind skunk ape hunter Jameson T. Salisbury. Their mission: Slay the beast and rescue their friend. But not everything is as it seems, and as our heroes venture deeper into the heart of darkness, they will discover worse things waiting in the woods than just the Bigelow Skunk Ape. The story the Society for the Preservation of the North American Skunk Ape tried to ban; Damn Dirty Apes mixes Roadhouse with Jaws with Sons of Anarchy, to create a rollicking romp of 80s-style action/adventure, creature horror and pitch-black comedy. DIE DOG OR EAT THE HATCHET Escaped mental patient Terrence Hingle, the butcher of five sorority sisters at the Kappa Pi Massacre, kidnaps timid diner waitress Tilly Mulvehill and bolts for the border. Forcing his hostage to drive him out of town, it’s just a question of time before Tilly becomes the next victim in Hingle’s latest killing spree. But when they stop for gas at a rural filling station operated by deranged twin brothers, Dwayne and Dwight Ritter, the tables are turned on Hingle, and for Tilly the night becomes a hellish cat-and-mouse ordeal of terror and depravity. The meat in a maniac sandwich, Tilly is forced against her nature to make a stand and fight for survival. Because sometimes the only choice you have is to do or die…to Die Dog Or Eat The Hatchet. Prohibition-era 1930s… After an affair with the wrong man’s wife, seedy piano player Smitty Three Fingers flees the city and finds himself tinkling the ivories at a Louisiana honky-tonk owned by vicious bootlegger Horace Croker and his trophy wife, Grace. Folks come to The Grinnin’ Gator for the liquor and burlesque girls, but they keep coming back for Big George, the giant alligator Croker keeps in the pond out back. Croker is rumored to have fed ex-wives and enemies to his pet, so when Smitty and Grace embark on a torrid affair…what could possibly go wrong? Inspired by true events, Gator Bait mixes hardboiled crime (James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice) with creature horror (Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive) to create a riveting tale of suspense. Listen to this sample reading from the book over at YouTube from the folks at Manor House: Adam Howe writes the twisted fiction your mother warned you about. A British writer of fiction and screenplays, he lives in Greater London with his partner and their hellhound, Gino. Writing as Garrett Addams, his short story Jumper was chosen by Stephen King as the winner of the On Writing contest, and published in the paperback/Kindle editions of SK’s book; he was also granted an audience with The King, where they mostly discussed slow vs. fast zombies. His fiction has appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Thuglit, The Horror Library, Mythic Delirium, Plan B Magazine, and One Buck Horror. He is the author of two collections, Black Cat Mojo and Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet, plus the eBook single, Gator Bait. Future works include Tijuana Donkey Showdown, One Tough Bastard, and a crime/horror collaboration with Adam Tribesmen Cesare. Find him on Twitter at @Adam_G_Howe. Praise for Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet “It’s an explicit, hard-hitting, twisted funhouse ride into pulpish horror wrapped loosely in a tattered skein of irreverent, jet black humor. In short, it’s a freakin’ blast.” –Walt Hicks, author of Dirge of the Forgotten “With Die Dog Or Eat the Hatchet, Adam Howe hasn’t written one of my favorite books of the year, he’s actually written three of my favorites. Stories that are tight, toned, and genre-confounding. Horror fans and crime fans are going to come to blows over who gets to claim Howe as one of their own, but they’re both going to be wrong because Howe’s his own thing.” – Adam Cesare, author of Tribesmen and Mercy House “The recipe for Adam Howe’s DIE DOG OR EAT THE HATCHET is: Two parts Joe Lansdale, One part Justified, and a heavy dose of WTF. The result is a swampy cocktail darker than any backwoods hayride, stronger than the meanest Sasquatch, and crazier than anything you’ll find chicken-fried at your local state fair.”—Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “Adam Howe proves with the three stories in this book that he can basically write anything. And write it very well indeed. To summarise: A three novella collection that you absolutely must have in your collection. I give this one the highest possible recommendation that I can.” -Nev, Confessions of a Reviewer “Adam Howe’s “Die Dog or Eat the Hatchet,” is equal parts terror and fun, his dark comedic voice dances through each of the works in this collection to create engaging stories filled with bars, dames, rabid dogs, and an ape with one hell of a right hook.”(Nathan Crazybear/Splatterpunk Zine) “Once again this author has sucked me into the darkness of his stories and unleashed the twisted, disgusting and stomach churning madness that I come to expect. In fact, I would have been very disappointed if this book was not even more mind-blowing than Black Cat Mojo. And he did not disappoint. Hats off to Mr Howe for creating this magnificent novella of pure horror. I would definitely recommend this to readers of horror and make sure you buckle up as you will be in for the most twisted ride of your life!” -Crime Book Junkie “I’m pretty certain that whatever genre you like to read, be it pulp, noir, horror, anything really, you will find something to enjoy here. It’s fast paced, action packed and brilliantly written. Comet Press has got a diamond on their hands! 5 stars” -Adrian Shotbolt Barnes and Noble Want to Feature Adam Howe? If you would like a copy of the book for review or to conduct an interview with Adam Howe, please contact Erin Al-Mehairi, Publicist, at Hook of a Book Media: [email protected]. As a lover of all things cryptid, I’m naturally fascinated by the strange and mysterious Chupacabra. Is it an unknown animal, alien, government experiment gone wrong? Well, to help us all out, I’ve turned to one of my buds, Raegan Butcher, who has just written an excellent monster novel, FURY OF THE CHUPACABRAS. To write the book, he dove into the deep end of the chupacabra pool.I can’t think of anyone better to teach us a thing or two about the dreaded goat sucker! So lock your doors and windows, settle in to a comfy chair and read on if you dare… What is it? The name, coined by Puerto Rican comedian Silverio Perez, means “goatsucker” in Spanish, and comes from the animal’s reported habit of drinking the blood of livestock—especially goats. The first reports of this mysterious creature came from Puerto Rico in 1995 when eight sheep were discovered dead, with three puncture wounds in the chest, and completely drained of blood. At first, a Satanic cult was suspected, but soon the first eyewitness reports appeared, which described a creature – some sort of lizard-like beast, about the size of a small bear, with sharp, glowing quills on its back and large, round eyes. The beast was said to be able to hop like a kangaroo, suck blood like a bat, and was reported to emit a strange, piercing cry. As a youngster growing up in the 1970s, I was enthralled by the numerous Bigfoot sightings that occurred in my home state of Washington and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The idea that some unknown animal could be lurking on the edge of civilization tickled my imagination in all the right ways. Because of my love of horror and sci fi, I have always been fascinated by monsters, and the chupacabra sounded right up my alley. Doing a bit of research, I discovered some cases from the past that were eerily similar to the infamous goatsucker. In New Orleans there is a popular lover’s lane known as “Grunch Road”, named as such after several reports of a lizard-like beast haunting the vicinity and frightening horny teenagers appeared in the local press in the 1940s and ‘50s. And then there is a case which sounds almost exactly like a chupacabra: the dreaded “Vampire of Moca”. This unknown fiend kicked off its killing spree in February 1975, in Barrio Rocha, a sector of the town of Moca, in Puerto Rico, where it took the lives of a number of animals in a grisly manner never seen before. Fifteen cows, three goats, two geese and a pig were found dead with bizarre perforations on their hides. Autopsies showed that the animals had been bled dry, as if consumed by some predator. After six months, and the deaths of over 150 farm animals, the mysterious “Vampire of Moca” vanished into history and obscurity. Or did it? Almost exactly twenty years later, the chupacabra appeared, and the Puerto Rican press once again began to report sightings of a strange beast that preyed upon livestock. Some people on the island believe that chupacabras are a genetic bio-experiment which escaped from a secret laboratory (The US military has had a large presence across Puerto Rico since the 1930’s, with bases on the island used as Research and Development facilities for a number of classified projects). Others speculate that the creature is an escaped pet of alien visitors that wandered off while its master was visiting Earth. How’s that for a far-out theory? The chupacabra does have a slight resemblance to the Grey aliens, which could mean that they are somehow genetically related, a wonderfully tantalizing theory. For reasons too complicated to explain here (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21972578-stone-hotel ) I ended up in prison from June 1996 to March 2003 for armed robbery (yeah, I was a crazy sumbitch, back then). As you might imagine, I had a lot of time on my hands. I was already a writer when I went down, so I tried to use my excess of time wisely and write as much as I could during those seven years. I’d always wanted to write something about the chupacabra, as they seemed heaven sent, as far as “rule of cool” goes: some kind of lizard monster that drinks blood? As a creature-feature fan from earliest childhood, I was all over it. But I couldn’t get a handle on how to shape the story. At first I thought of that great old British sci-fi movie Island Of Terror, and I remembered the first scene with the constable finding a body with its bones sucked out. Maybe I could set my chupacabra story on a small island off the coast of Mexico…first scene would be some guy finding his livestock drained of blood…and we go from there? Hmmm. I put the idea in the back of my mind and went on with my life, such as it was. Years passed. Then, one day in 2002, while I was walking the yard with another inmate (who, for legal reasons, shall remain nameless) it all clicked into place. This nameless inmate was telling me a story of almost getting busted at the Mexican border with a car full of illegal weapons and the anecdote was told with such flair that I immediately saw it as a scene in my chupacabra book. Two brothers, Americans, one of them an ex-soldier (as was the nameless inmate) smuggling guns into Mexico, and they get attacked by chupacabras. Story starts out with the tense scene at the border and we go from there. I wrote it as a screenplay first and, like I always do, I finished it, put it away, forgot about it, and moved on to the next thing. Flash forward ten years. I was now a free man, with a few poetry books under my belt, (http://www.amazon.com/Raegan-Butcher/e/B00BO6QI3M/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1) and I wanted to work on my prose skills. I rummaged around in my papers and found the chupacabra script. I had such fun turning it into the novella Attack of the Chupacabras (included in the book Fury of the Chupacabras) http://necropublications.com/collections/raegan-butcher/products/fury-of-the-chupacabras-by-raegan-butcher-trade-paperback that I ended up writing four novels and creating a whole series, which I’ve dubbed the Chupacabra Chronicles. The books started out as simple survival-horror situations but they quickly became a series of action-conspiracy-monster-mystery-adventure-sci-fi-horror books. The Chupacabra Chronicles were written purely for fun. My goal was to keep the reader turning the pages, surprise them, make them gasp; keep them entertained by the developing story. I tried to fill the series with everything I like: action, tension, suspense, dark humor, and all of the most outlandish sci fi and conspiracy tropes I could come up with during my many hours of research on the internet. I am grateful that Necro is crazy enough to publish these chupacabra books, one volume in the continuing saga of the chupacabra chronicles every six months for the next two years, with perhaps more after that. I had an absolute blast writing them. Now the pleasure is all yours. Have fun. It’s no secret that one of my favorite horror writers is Catherine Cavendish. I’m very happy to not only announce that she has a new book, but a fantastic blog post to go with it. OK Hellions, show your support – read the article and buy the book! Keep horror alive (or at the very least, undead)! My new novel – The Devil’s Serenade – mostly takes place in an imposing Gothic style mansion built by Victorian industrialist Nathaniel Hargest. When Maddie Chambers inherits it from her Aunt Charlotte, she soon discovers she has acquired far more than mere bricks and mortar. From the strange appearance of tree roots growing in the cellar to the manifestations, noises and a nostalgic wartime song played again and again, Maddie’s fears grow and intensify. What is going on here – and who, or what, is seemingly hell-bent on driving her insane? Of course, my novel is just that – fiction. But, in real life, there have been numerous reports of houses cursed or possessed by demons. Sometimes these emanate from the ground on which the house was built. Other times, the builder of the house has somehow managed to impart his – or her – evil into the fabric of the place so that it becomes irrevocably woven into the walls. Appearances can certainly be deceptive too. Take Renvyle House Hotel, situated in the glorious wilderness of Connemara in Ireland. The surrounding scenery is stunning and yet, amid all this beauty, lie tales of ghouls, ghosts and such an array of phenomena that this has to be one of the most haunted areas of Ireland. In 1883, a family by the name of Blake first opened Renvyle as a country house. Many famous people stayed there – Winston Churchill being just one. Then, in 1917, a Dublin surgeon and poet, Dr. Oliver St John Gogarty – bought the house. By this time, the house was gaining something of a reputation for the mysterious hauntings experienced by guests and servants alike. In particular, one of the upstairs rooms proved especially troublesome and servants refused to stay in there. They reported a dark and disturbing presence and, on one occasion, something pushed a large, heavy chest against the door. Gogarty himself wasn’t immune. Late one night, the sound of footsteps outside his room woke him up. He lit a candle, opened the door and stepped out into the dark corridor. Suddenly, with no apparent breeze to cause it, the flame was extinguished. At the same time, a wave of exhaustion spread over Gogarty. His arms and legs felt heavy, as if he had been exercising hard. He was never able to explain this. The Irish poet, W.B. Yeats stayed there with his wife, a renowned medium called Georgie. The three of them decided to hold a seance during which Georgie Yeats used automatic writing to attempt to communicate with any spirits present in the house. Their efforts met with success and a spirit pronounced itself unhappy with having people stay at the house. Georgie Yeats asked the spirit to reveal itself and she described what she saw. Over by the fireplace, in a misty vapour, stood a red-haired boy, according to the medium. He was pale and wore an anguished expression. W.B. Yeats reported more unusual and inexplicable occurrences during his time at Renvyle. He said he saw sheets being pulled off beds by unseen hands. Other guests were dragged from their slumbers. Doors opened by themselves and terrible groans echoed through the house. Female guests were terrified when they saw faces watching them as they undressed. Renvyle House has seen its fair share of violence and turmoil and was destroyed by the IRA in the 1920s. It was then rebuilt and is now a four star luxury, family-run hotel. It has won awards and is noted for the high standards of its hospitality and cuisine. It appears though that the spirits have stayed fixed to the land and have transferred themselves into the current hotel. Guests still report their sheets being tugged and female guests have caught glimpses of a man’s face watching them in the mirror as they apply their make-up. Maybe this is the spirit of a man who allegedly took his own life by strangling himself with his own bare hands. Quite a feat in itself! Whatever the cause of the phenomena, Renvyle House Hotel certainly seems to have absorbed more than merely the beauty of its surroundings. Beneath the surface, supernatural forces appear to continue their work… Now, to give you a taste of The Devil’s Serenade, here’s the blurb: Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember… “Madeleine Chambers of Hargest House” has a certain grandeur to it. But as Maddie enters the Gothic mansion she inherited from her aunt, she wonders if its walls remember what she’s blocked out of the summer she turned sixteen. She’s barely settled in before a series of bizarre events drive her to question her sanity. Aunt Charlotte’s favorite song shouldn’t echo down the halls. The roots of a faraway willow shouldn’t reach into the cellar. And there definitely shouldn’t be a child skipping from room to room. As the barriers in her mind begin to crumble, Maddie recalls the long-ago summer she looked into the face of evil. Now, she faces something worse. The mansion’s long-dead builder, who has unfinished business—and a demon that hungers for her very soul. Here’s an extract: A large flashlight rested on the bottom stair and I switched it on, shining it into the dark corners. There wasn’t a lot to see. A few broken bits of furniture, old fashioned kitchen chairs, some of which looked vaguely familiar, jam jars, crates that may once have held bottles of beer. The beam caught the clump of gnarled and twisted roots that intertwined with each other, like Medusa’s snakes. I edged closer to it, my heart thumping more than it should. It was only a tree, for heaven’s sake! The nearest one was probably the willow. Surely, that was too far away? I knew little about trees, but I was pretty certain their roots couldn’t extend that far. I examined the growth from every angle in that silent cellar. The roots were definitely spreading along the floor and, judging by the thickness and appearance of them, had been there for many years. Gray, like thick woody tendrils, they reached around six feet along and possibly four feet across at their widest point. I bent down. Close up, the smell that arose from them was cloyingly sweet. Sickeningly so. I put one hand over my nose, rested the flashlight on the steps and reached out with the fingers of my free hand to touch the nearest root. It wriggled against my palm. I cried out, staggered backward and fell against the stairs. The flashlight clattered to the floor and went out. Only the overhead bulb provided any light, and it didn’t reach this darkest corner. Something rustled. I struggled to my feet, grabbed the torch and ran up the stairs. I slammed the door shut and locked it, leaned against it and tried to slow down my breathing. A marathon runner couldn’t have panted more. I tapped the flashlight and it flickered into life, seemingly none the worse for its accident. I switched it off and set it on the floor by the cellar door. Whoever came to fix those roots was going to need it. You can find The Devil’s Serenade here: And other online retailers About the author: Following a varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance, Cat is now the full-time author of a number of paranormal, ghostly and Gothic horror novels, novellas and short stories. She was the 2013 joint winner of the Samhain Gothic Horror Anthology Competition, with Linden Manor, which features in the anthology What Waits in the Shadows. Other titles include: The Pendle Curse, Saving Grace Devine, Dark Avenging Angel, The Second Wife, Miss Abigail’s Room, The Demons of Cambian Street, The Devil Inside Her, Cold Revenge and In My Lady’s Chamber. You can connect with Cat here:
Episode 609 – Mysterious Universe Plus+ China’s dedicated Yeren hunter heads up our headlines as we hear of his 3 decades in the footprints of the illusive red haired Cryptid. Hopefully the man lends a hand to the new Yeren film being filmed in Hubei province this year. We also look at a new Wood Devil sighting in Sierra Nevada, alien drones in South America, and how, according to Thai Buddhists, Steve Jobs has re-incarnated as a ‘Supreme Deity of Design’. Read on for show notes, video, and music. This episode is exclusive to Plus+ members. To find out how to join, click HERE. New $2.4M Yeren Movie Begins Shooting in China this October One Man’s Inspiring Story about China’s Bigfoot Big cat mystery deepens as zoo keeper claims a new panther sighting in Mt Macedon Birds hold ‘funerals’ for dead Thai Group Says Steve Jobs Reincarnated as Warrior-Philosopher ‘Penelope’ – Sierra Nevada Mountains Sierra Nevada Penelope Monster THE WOOD DEVILS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Creepy Camping Stories Machines From Elsewhere: Robots and UFOs Bents Basin Wallacia, New South Wales, Australia The Glenburn-Paisley Poltergeist Hack: Hearing Voices 8-Year Old Boy Finds Piece of Whale Vomit Worth $63,000 Culprate – Two via Salacious Sound Bwana – Baby Let Me Finish (Saine Remix) via Upside Sounds Spies On Bikes – Catahoula via smokeDONTsmoke Roger Gravel – Un Habit En La Bmol via Waves at Night KOAN Sound – Sly Fox via Why FuKK When You Can Dance
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Even Our Currency Is Cool Kickass Currency of the Day: The Canadian Mint has issued two new 25-cent coins featuring mythical creatures said to haunt Canada’s lakes: the serpentine Memphré (above) and the cat-like Mishepishu (after the jump). Memphré has a dragon-like head and a serpent’s body, and it’s been sighted as many as eight times a year in Lake Memphremagog (say that 10 times fast) since 1816. Mishepishu is a lynx-like cat that, according to Ojibwe legend, swims Lake Superior and has shapeshifting abilities. Both of the cryptid-bearing quarters were illustrated by Emily Damstra, and they’re available from the mint for $24.95 CAD a piece. Are Niue’s Star Wars coins now only the second-coolest currency on the planet? But were is a coin for Loup Garou, Ogopogo and the Wendigo? Posted by crue at 9:23 PM
4 Alleged Bigfoot Sightings (With Videos!) from January 2015 Image: Screencaps from the following Bigfoot sighting videos. January was a big month for Bigfoot, or so it would seem. Last month, we saw at least ... Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Forest People in Tennessee I could possibly get on board with a bigfoot, however implausible, as some sort of ape. Now, tribes of people who live in the woods and scare grizzly. Man recounts sighting of Bigfoot in Scotland A man from Fife has broken a ten-year silence by revealing his encounter with a mysterious hominid. While sightings of Bigfoot in the UK remain Is Bigfoot In Britain Mysterious Figure Lurking In Lincolnshire Woods Is Claimed To Be Mystery Beast Could these startling pictures be evidence that Bigfoot is lurking in the British countryside? The eerie image appears to show a large shadowy figure ... (Possible) Bigfoot tormenting penned dogs. (The Blinky footage.) Interesting, in the comparison when she goes behind the trees, you will notice three white places where a branch has broken or been trimmed off, she . Something Is Knocking In The Woods; Could It Be Bigfoot? Could it be bigfoot? The Texas Cryptid Hunter takes a look at "'Drumming' Chimps and the Wood Knocking Connection." Thwok! Thwok! The sound of
\|\|This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)\| Lori Petty in March 2010 October 14, 1963 \| Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. Lori Petty (born October 14, 1963) is an American actress. Her best known roles include playing Tyler Endicott in the 1991 film Point Break, Kit Keller in A League of Their Own (1992), and the title role in Tank Girl in 1995. Petty also guest-starred in the second season, and became a recurring character in the third and fourth seasons of the Netflix Original Series Orange Is the New Black as Lolly Whitehill. Lori also appeared on the television series Prison Break in the last episode in season four. Additionally, Lori Petty appears in the second season of Gotham briefly. Petty, the oldest of three children, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the daughter of a Pentecostal minister. She graduated from North High School in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1981, and worked for several years in Omaha, Nebraska, as a graphic designer before pursuing acting. Petty first came to notice for playing the surfer who taught Keanu Reeves how to surf in the 1991 action thriller Point Break. Prior to that, she got her break starring with Richard Grieco in Fox's Booker. In 1992, Petty was featured in what became her best-known role, A League of Their Own, opposite Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna. Petty played the title role in the film adaptation of the British cult comic book Tank Girl in 1995. Her other films include Free Willy, The Poker House, and In the Army Now. She also co-starred in the television series Lush Life with her friend Karyn Parsons, but it was canceled after five episodes. She joined the cast of Brimstone as the owner of Stone's hotel. Petty is also known for providing the voice of the supervillain Livewire on the Warner Bros. series Superman: The Animated Series, and The New Batman Adventures. Although she was originally cast as Lt. Lenina Huxley in Demolition Man, disagreements over the character's direction led producer Joel Silver to recast the role with Sandra Bullock. Petty played the role of "Daddy", an alpha female inmate in Prison Break: The Final Break. Petty narrated the first three books of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series -- One for the Money, Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly. C.J. Critt read the unabridged version for Recorded Books. Lori Petty read the abridgments for Simon & Schuster. \|1988\|\|...They Haven't Seen This...\|\|The Girl\|\|Short film\| \|1991\|\|Point Break\|\|Tyler Endicott\| \|1992\|\|League of Their Own, AA League of Their Own\|\|Kit Keller\| \|1993\|\|Free Willy\|\|Rae Lindley\| \|1994\|\|Glass Shield, TheThe Glass Shield\|\|Deputy Deborah Fields\| \|1994\|\|In the Army Now\|\|Christine Jones\| \|1995\|\|Tank Girl\|\|Rebecca Buck/Tank Girl\| \|1998\|\|Relax...It's Just Sex\|\|Robin Moon\| \|1999\|\|Arrangement, TheThe Arrangement\|\|Candy\| \|2003\|\|Prey for Rock & Roll\|\|Faith\| \|2006\|\|Cryptid\|\|Dr. Lean Carlin\| \|2008\|\|The Poker House\|\|Director\| \|2009\|\|Prison Break: The Final Break\|\|Daddy\|\|Video\| \|2010\|\|Chasing 3000\|\|Deputy Fryman\| \|2014\|\|Happy Fists Claudia\|\|Brenda\| \|1986\|\|Twilight Zone, TheThe Twilight Zone\|\|Lori Pendleton\|\|Episode: "The Library"\| \|1987\|\|Stingray\|\|Lisa Perlman\|\|Episode: "Bring Me the Hand That Hit Me"\| \|1987\|\|Bates Motel\|\|Willie\|\|TV film\| \|1987\|\|Line, TheThe Line\|\|Jo Lanier\|\|TV film\| \|1987\|\|Head of the Class\|\|Molly\|\|Episodes: "Child of the 60's", "That'll Be the Day"\| \|1988\|\|Thorns, TheThe Thorns\|\|Cricket\|\|Regular role (12 episodes)\| \|1988\|\|Miami Vice\|\|Carol\|\|Episode: "Love at First Sight"\| \|1988\|\|Freddy's Nightmares\|\|Chris Ketchum\|\|Episode: "Killer Instinct"\| \|1989\|\|Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder\|\|Cassie\|\|TV film\| \|1989\|\|Alien Nation\|\|Sal\|\|Episode: "Fifteen with Wanda"\| \|1989-1990\|\|Booker\|\|Suzanne Dunne\|\|Recurring role (10 episodes)\| \|1990\|\|Grand\|\|Medea\|\|Episode: "A Boy and His Dad"\| \|1996\|\|Lush Life\|\|Georgia 'George' Sanders\|\|(7 episodes)\| \|1997\|\|Profiler\|\|Robin Poole / Marjorie Brand\|\|Episodes: "Venom: Parts 1 & 2"\| \|1997\|\|Superman: The Animated Series\|\|Livewire / Leslie Willis (voice)\|\|Episodes: "Livewire", "Double Dose"\| \|1998\|\|New Batman Adventures, TheThe New Batman Adventures\|\|Livewire / Leslie Willis (voice)\|\|Episode: "Girls' Nite Out"\| \|1998-1999\|\|Brimstone\|\|Maxine\|\|Recurring role (7 episodes)\| \|1999\|\|Star Trek: Voyager\|\|Noss\|\|Episode: "Gravity"\| \|2000\|\|Hunger, TheThe Hunger\|\|Lisette\|\|Episode: "Double"\| \|2001\|\|Beast, TheThe Beast\|\|Rita\|\|Episode: "The Delivery"\| \|2001\|\|Parkers, TheThe Parkers\|\|Show Host\|\|Episode: "Family Ties and Lies"\| \|2002\|\|ER\|\|Shane\|\|Episode: "Orion in the Sky"\| \|2002\|\|Superman: Shadow of Apokolips\|\|Livewire (voice)\|\|Video game\| \|2003\|\|NYPD Blue\|\|Joyce Bradovich\|\|Episode: "I Kid You Not"\| \|2004\|\|Line of Fire\|\|Laurie McBride\|\|Episode: "Mother & Child Reunion"\| \|2004\|\|Karate Dog, TheThe Karate Dog\|\|COLAR (voice)\|\|TV film\| \|2005\|\|CSI: NY\|\|Maddy\|\|Episode: "Corporate Warriors"\| \|2006\|\|Masters of Horror\|\|Judith\|\|Episode: "Fair-Haired Child"\| \|2008-2009\|\|House\|\|Janice Burke\|\|Episodes: "Let Them Eat Cake," "Joy to the World," "Painless"\| \|2009\|\|Prison Break\|\|Daddy\|\|Episodes: "Free", "The Old Ball and Chain"\| \|2009\|\|Cleaner, TheThe Cleaner\|\|Sunshine\|\|Episodes: "Split Ends", "The Things We Didn't Plan"\| \|2014–present\|\|Orange Is the New Black\|\|Lolly Whitehill\|\|Guest star (season 2) Recurring (season 3) Recurring (season 4) \|2016\|\|Gotham\|\|Jeri\|\|Episode "Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness"\| - Albright-Hanna, Adam (October 21, 2013). "Lori Petty - If This Is What 50 Looks Like, Aging Is Hot - Purple Clover". Purple Clover. Whalerock Industries. Retrieved December 1, 2015. - Lori Petty - Yahoo! TV - Durso, Joseph. "ON HORSE RACING; New Campaign Takes the Low Road," The New York Times, Tuesday, August 18, 1998. - "Go Baby/Lady," a 20-second commercial created by Merkley Newman Harty and released on Wednesday, April 1, 1998 as part of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's "Go, Baby, Go" advertising campaign. - Rosen, Lisa (June 19, 2008). "Lori Petty's hard look". LA Times. Retrieved June 10, 2014. - Chicago Tribune, Sandy Bauers, Knight Ridder, August 08, 2002 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-08-08/features/0208080114_1_stephanie-plum-read-books - "Lori Petty gets 5 years probation in DUI case". Today. msnbc.com. Associated Press. September 4, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2011. - "Lori Petty Arrested For DUI, Hitting Skateboarder". Huffington Post. thehuffingtonpost.com. TMZ Staff. May 25, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2015. - "Actress Lori Petty Arrested for DUI: LAPD". nbcwashington.com. NBC Washington. January 7, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
DAW, $7.99 ISBN 978-0-7564-0713-1 In this world, spooks and humans co-exist with, of course, most humans being unaware of the existence of these spooks. I know, I’ve just described pretty much every urban fantasy series in the market at the moment. Still, Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series looks like it’s going more along the humor-and-some-violence route instead of the angst-angst-angst one, and it’s refreshingly free from werewolf boyfriends, vampire beaus, and Most Powerful and Special Queen of the Universe stuff. Of course, there’s no guarantee some time down the series that a werewolf pack lord or a vampire king won’t be parachuted in, or that the heroine won’t discover that she is carrying the magical blood of some goddess and she’s destined to bear the God Damned Baby Savior of the Universe, but I’d like to keep my hopes up and be optimistic when it comes to getting into urban fantasy series new to me. In Discount Armageddon, we meet Verity Price. She’s “a Price girl”, part of the infamous family that broke ranks from the Covenant of St George. The Covenant was formed a long, long time ago to protect the safety of humans from spooks, and somehow their agenda had evolved to “kill all spooks, no exceptions”. Verity’s great-great-grandparents disagreed with this agenda and decamped. However, you don’t just leave the Covenant, they dump you, and usually bad things happen to you when they decide to do that. Since then, the Price family lay low. They hone their skills to protect themselves, and they also carry out a modified version of the Covenant agenda – they protect humans against cryptids, as spooks are called here, that meant to harm them, but they also protect cryptids that only want to exist peacefully with humans. Verity is stationed in Manhattan, mostly to keep an eye on things, but also to pursue a career in dance despite the family rule that forbids any of them from getting press attention and hence attracting the attention of the Covenant folks, who are still holding a grudge. Like most people, she finds herself waiting tables more often than not. Aside from an occasional ghoul showing up to munch on people, life isn’t too exciting. That is, until a Covenant guy shows up in town, and when one shows up, the rest tend to do so later… usually to perform a brutally efficient cleansing of the town of all cryptids. And then female cryptids start disappearing, and this guy, Dominic De Luca, has the perfect alibi (his tongue is down Verity’s throat in a perfectly non-carnivorous manner). Verity knows that there is something else – or maybe some things – clearly out and about in town looking to start trouble. I find the setting pretty fun. Sure, it’s another one where every spook from every popular legend and folklore (and some not-so-popular ones as well) tossed in to create a campy and kitschy world with manic and self-aware ridiculous overtones. But the author’s treatment of these elements manages to keep things fresh and interesting. Or maybe it’s just me. There is something about spooks playing waitresses and strippers in a club run by a boogeyman that appeals to the Tales from the Crypt fan in me – the whole thing is so cheerfully camp and absurd that I just have to love it. The plot is interesting, both as an introduction to this world and to what kind of mayhem that people can get up in this place. Verity and Dominic can sometimes do silly things, but I’m okay with this because those two know how to shoot, hack, and pulverize their way out of any trouble they find themselves in. Verity and Dominic have some pretty amusing moments together. Unlike most urban fantasy lead male characters, Dominic is human, so there is no annoying “I feel horny for you, it’s the mate bond, and I will now howl at the moon and stalk you while readers pant and wish that they are in your shoes as I am obviously the hottest dynamite in this series, and you will read to the end of this series because all you will care about is my constant and vigorous shagging of the heroine” nonsense that tends to sink many urban fantasy series out there into a “I’m the most powerful snowflake queen of the universe and I get humped by the most powerful alpha werewolf in the universe so together, we are legion” mess. What, me, a disenchanted reader of Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels books? How can you tell? Is it my “Beast Lords can choke on my asparagus” T-shirt? Anyway, where was I? Right now, Verity and Dominic seem to be on a somewhat equal playing field with the bad guys, so things are pretty fun. He messes up, so can she, so can the villains, and there is a genuine sense of suspense here, as if the good guys are really in danger and they can die. Also, the two darlings have an opposites attract thing going on pretty entertainingly here. He’s more methodical, but hilariously archaic in his perceptions of male-female and human-cryptid relationships, although he doesn’t at the same time become xenophobic or turn into an alpha male brute; she’s more on the impulsive side, but she’s also the one carrying the Greenpeace card when it comes to cryptids. I also like how these two don’t rush into a serious relationship by the end of the book. I like it when people take it slow and build things up across a few books. There are some occasional moments that have me scratching my head, though. While I do appreciate the author letting these two do their thing without having the suspense ruined by an army of loyal savage werebeasts providing back-up muscle, I find it hard to believe that Verity’s family would consent to let her do her thing without sending back-up. The threat she faces is considerable – a potential genocide is looming, and cryptids are being wiped out by who knows what. And these people decide that it’s more important to go hunt basilisks elsewhere? And that her brother is willing to let her do things alone and let him know by email only if she’s in real trouble? It’s not like these Price people hate one another, so I don’t know what is going on here. The author’s effort to keep the rest of the Price folks out of the picture feels forced indeed. Also, while I do appreciate some good lines here, the author has Verity cracking out the sarcasm so often, even during moments when some degree of sobriety would be more appropriate, that the poor dear comes off like a doll whose “ON!” mode can’t be switched off. Sure, funny lines can lighten up things, and the hilarious juxtaposition of flippant one-liners with dangerous moments never get old. But have the heroine just keep cranking the lines out and I soon think that the heroine is either hiding some serious psychological damage or is just a plain old-fashioned sociopath, or maybe the author is just overdoing her best impression of Joss Whedon. Since Verity doesn’t seem to be crazy or nursing some kind of bad trauma in her past, I can’t help but to think that the author is overdoing it. Anyway, Discount Armageddon is a fun and easy read, all things considered, and it takes me away into an entertaining new world for a few hours. Right now, I’m staying on this train and I’m very interested to see what it’d take me. Oh, and some points are deducted for not having any Vincent in Verity’s family. This is the right setting to make that kind of homage without coming off as too cheesy. Latest posts by Mrs Giggles (see all) - A Man’s Man by Terry Lawrence - January 17, 2017 - Four Weddings and a Sixpence by Julia Quinn, Elizabeth Boyle, Laura Lee Guhrke, and Stefanie Sloane - January 16, 2017 - When a Marquess Loves a Woman by Vivienne Lorret - January 15, 2017
Sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that inhabits low lying woodland in the South West of England and can often be found there foraging for berries and inspiration. An illustrator and designer Sasquatch has years of industry experience under his belt. Past clients range from Rolls-Royce all the way through to Newquays Run to the Sun festival. It's all about the client. Whether you're looking for an illustration, a new brand and all the bits that go with it, or web design, we make the whole process as straight forward and enjoyable as possible. We take an organic, holistic approach, really getting down to the nitty gritty of each clients wants and needs. After an initial forage for info and with a belly full of ideas, Sasquatch will work closely with you to ensure mutually befitting results. Áreas de especialización
Posted by: Karl Shuker on December 23rd, 2016 On 7 April 2013, Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Franciscan Friar (Monk) of the Irish Province who has long been interested in cryptozoology, posted on my ‘Journal of Cryptozoology’ Facebook group’s page a colour photograph that he had snapped a few days earlier, depicting a very eyecatching wooden statuette, and which I have included here by kind permission of Brother Richard. He also included the following details about it: “Found this African carving in a collection held by the Rosminian Missionary Fathers in Glencomeragh House, Clonmel [in County Tipperary] Ireland. No provenance or date other than sometime this century [sic – he meant the 1900s] probably from west Africa. Intriguing?” It is indeed, as it portrays a scaly long-necked, sturdy quadrupedally-bodied, long-tailed creature bearing more than a passing resemblance to eyewitness descriptions of the sauropod dinosaur-like cryptid known as the mokele-mbembe in the Congo and by other names elsewhere in tropical Africa. Yet until I documented it in my newly-published mega-book Still In Search Of Prehistoric Survivors, it had never been formally included within the cryptozoological literature. (c) Brother Richard Hendrick Equally intriguing, however, is the nature and possible identity of the smaller scaly beast alongside it. Could this be its young, or is it something totally different that is confronting the long-necked mystery beast? My name is Dr Karl P.N. Shuker. I am a zoologist (BSc & PhD), media consultant, and the author of 25 books and hundreds of articles, specialising in cryptozoology and animal mythology. I have a BSc (Honours) degree in pure zoology from the University of Leeds (U.K.), and a PhD in zoology and comparative physiology from the University of Birmingham (U.K.). I have acted jointly as consultant and major contributor to three multi-author volumes on cryptozoology and other mysterious phenomena. I am the Life Sciences Consultant to The Guinness Book of Records/Guinness World Records (Guinness: London, 1997-present day), and was consultant to Monsters (Lorenz Books: London, 2001), as well as a contributor to Mysteries of the Deep (Llewellyn: St Paul, 1998), Guinness Amazing Future (Guinness: London, 1999), The Earth (Channel 4 Books: London, 2000), and Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained (Chambers: London, 2007). I appear regularly on television & radio, was a consultant for the Discovery TV series Into the Unknown, and a question setter for the BBC's quiz show Mastermind. I am a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a Member of the Society of Authors, and the Cryptozoology Consultant for the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ). I have written articles for numerous publications, including Fortean Times, The X Factor, Paranormal Magazine, FATE, Strange Magazine, Prediction, Beyond, Uri Geller's Encounters, Phenomena, Alien Encounters, Wild About Animals, All About Cats, All About Dogs, Cat World, etc. In 2005, I was honoured by the naming of a new species of loriciferan invertebrate after me - Pliciloricus shukeri.
Hello cryptid lovers! MEETING IN SESSION. Okay kids, I am a big nerd for cryptozoology of every kind: legendary creatures, undiscovered oceanic animals…I love them all, especially the furry little lobster of 2006. Where is my garlic butter? Anyway, I find it an amusing coincidence that lately the news has been filled with strange creature sightings week after week. I have also noticed in the recent few years there seems to be more reports of giant squid and other large oceanic animal sightings. This sort of thing personally freaks me out because of a certain apocalyptic giant octopus dream I had in 1998, which some of you know I am obsessed with. MAWR! Back to recent events, sadly, the “Montauk Monster” was fake, but what about its creepy comrades that have been making waves across computer screens in the past week? This video of the Chupacabra sighting in Texas shows what looks like a dog running from the camera. When it turns its head to the left, you can make out what seems to be a long snout. CHUPACABRA? Or just a mangy mutt? And then there’s the Bigfoot that a couple of dudes in Georgia found. Supposedly they have this homeboy kicking it in a freezer waiting for an autopsy. I don’t know about all that. Bigfoot is like the Holy Grail in Cryptozoology. It’s probably someone’s old Harry and the Hendersons Halloweeners costume. Aww. And of course we have to ask, why does it seem that more and more people are obsessing over mythical creature sightings moreso than ever before? Were these things actually always there and the somewhat sudden major interest in them is only highlighted because of our expedited access to information? Or is it just that in these modern times we want escapism more than ever to help us deal with all of the lame shit going on in the world? F U gas prices, let’s go ride a unicorn! Am I trying to get too deep for a Friday? Let us go back to talking about boners and shoes. Your hot cup of nerd stew, to get your monster-hunting weekend rockin’: Bobby “Boris” Pickett – “Monster Mash”
The bright sunshine and clear blue skies were slightly dampened today by the quite awful smell of burning plastic! Basically in Loughborough a rather large plastic recycling centre had caught fire, shuting a major road and casting a huge black pail of smoke into the sky which you could see from miles away! Plus it wasn't just the smell you had to put up with. We kept getting bits of "ash" or rather little bits of fire blackened plastic drop out of the sky. Which I'll admit in the grand scheme of things it wasn't a massive problem but it was still somewhat annoying. Also when I had to go into Loughborough due to road closures, I literally had to go the long way round. I.e to the other side of Loughborough and then come back in. Which made the trip three times longer then it was usually and I was only going for a new bulb for one of my indicators on the car. But c'est la vie I guess. Anyway, I'm back to work tomorrow and I'm going to be on lates which should be interesting. Cryptid Clash: Ban-Manush vs. Buru 1 day ago
Feral Pride Author:Cynthia Leitich Smith The Feral series by New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith culminates in an explosive finale. — Anti-shifter sentiment is at an all-time high when Kayla's transormation to werecat is captured on video and uploaded for the world to see. Suddenly, she becomes a symbol of the werebeast threat and―along with fellow cat Yoshi, l... more »ion-possum Clyde, and human Aimee―a hunted fugitive. Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed weresnake has kidnapped the governor of Texas and hit the airwaves with a message of war. In realiation, werepeople are targeted by law enforcement, threatened with a shift-suppressing vaccine, terrorized by corporate conspiracy, and enslaved by a top-secret, intelligent Cryptid species. Can Clyde rally his inner lion king to lead his friends―new and old―into battle against ruthless, media-savvy foes? A rousing blend of suspense, romance, humor, and high action for avid paranormal fans.
My daughter, a collector of cryptids, maven of mythology, and avid aficionada of all manner of animals, recently shared a wonderful book with me. We were away from home at the time, visiting relatives in another city. Making the most of her journey, my little scholar paid a visit to the Washington Memorial Library, a branch of the Macon/Bibb County Public Library system. Having long ago traversed the mythology sections in libraries near our home and exhausting their tomes of mythological lore, she spent a happy Friday afternoon and Saturday morning searching Washington Memorial’s collection for books for new literature about fanciful animals. Her earnest bookshelf browsing uncovered an excellent find. “Look at what I found,” she said, excitedly handing me a volume by writer and illustrator Keith DuQuette, “I really like this book!” After taking in the striking cover of a phantasmagorical cross between a cow and a rooster (a cooster) and reading the first few pages, I could see why she was so elated. Cock-a-Doodle-Mooo! is a treat to devour! Setting the tone for young readers, the author reminds his audience that the blending of beasts is a time-honored tradition. He also wisely adds that anyone can create a variety of varmints. But that’s only the beginning. DuQuette launches into a most fanciful demonstration by introducing the world to a conglomeration of contemporary chimeras. In addition to the comical descriptions of his new bevvy of beasts in witty rhymes, the author also serves up a heaping helping of intriguing illustrations. It’s a pleasure to see the books as much as it is to read it aloud. For example, readers will discover the meandering Mouscodile who, we are told, is… Not your average timid mouse, he’s moving freely through the house. Sassy, bold and getting fat, he skipped the cheese and ate the cat! Other blended beasts like Squoodles and Firefligeons engender a welcome dose of humor and wonder. With charming and alarming creatures, students of all ages will want to grab Cock-a-Doodle-Mooo! and find a comfortable spot for reading. The delightful denizens of DuQuette’s imagination are great catalysts for creativity. Introduce the book to your pupils and ask, “What if?” - the beasts described in ancient myths and legends were real? How could proper science account for the description of a mythical beast’s anatomy, diet, and habits? (Note: this idea was explored in Discovery‘s fantasy-made-real production, Dragons). - we wanted to combine the characteristics of two more living things into an organism? What ground rules might we need to establish? Could we justify a desire to do such a thing on legal, moral, or scientific grounds? Why or why not? - animals described in Cock-a-Doodle-Mooo! and other, similar works did come into existence? What kind of habitat would they need? How big would their population become? What would limit their success is proliferating? Are there any real organisms that seem impossible but manage to survive anyway? Books like Cock-a-Doodle-Mooo! are a great springboard for creativity. They inspire new ideas and suffuse young minds with the power of possibility. When combined with a little technology, fanciful works of literature also tend to engage students. For example, after reading DuQuette’s book, learners will be thrilled to visit SwitchZoo. It’s a site where students have an entertaining opportunity to mix and match animals. - If cryptids are your cup of tea, check in with Cartoon Network’s Secret Saturdays Cryptid Lab where visitors can create a cryptid. - One of the best tools for generating hypothetical hybrids is Spore’s Creature Creator. This mesmerizing game allows players to establish all manner of bizarre critters and follow them as they create emerging civilizations. - For those who want to indulge in creepy creatures offline, consider reading Michael Berenstain‘s absolutely captivating Creature Catalog. Though this book is out of print it is well worth tracking down and purchasing! The artwork and prose are sure to capture the attention of readers of all ages.
Panther sightings have residents freaked, experts skeptical Published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, The Times-Picayune By Follow In the New Orleans area, panther hysteria is at fever pitch.resident Randy Davis was sitting at home in his equipment room late Saturday night when on his surveillance monitor he noticed a large cat walk across his asphalt driveway. On closer inspection, Davis thinks the image is that of a black panther.With residents reporting near daily sightings, you'd think we were under attack.Truth is, the myth of the black panther in Louisiana - and throughout the United States - has a long phantom existence, according to physiologists and biologists.Maria Davidson, the large carnivore program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, calmly explained that the only black panthers in existence are black jaguars found in South America and black leopards that live in Asia and Africa.The North American black panther generally falls under the term "cryptid," a creature whose existence has been suggested but is not recognized by the scientific community and has been deemed highly unlikely. Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster fall under that category.They also have been called "phantom cats," "alien big cats" (ABCs), and in certain circles, the sightings have been dubbed "panther paranoia." Last weekend, two panther sightings were reported, one in St. Tammany Parish and one in Plaquemines Parish. A few days earlier, a man in St. Bernard Parish said he and his wife saw one sitting a block from their garage, staring at them calmly, before darting into nearby woods Read rest(long article) and see pics here: Swamp Screamer: At Large with the Florida Panther
In January 2017, Inside the Goblin Universe is coming to Paranormal UK Radio. The show will be hosted by Ronald L Murphy, Jr. and my friend Colin Schneider. Currently they are recording some episodes that with various researchers, including Jonathan Downes and Timothy Renner. Colin recently asked me to be on it as well, so we will be recording an episode sometime. When there is more info on that, I will post it on this blog. About the hosts: "Ron had been called the 'crypto guru' due to his research into the field of cryptozoology, but it is not only strange and hidden creatures that fascinate him. Holding degrees in literature, religious studies, and history, he examines the world of paranormal phenomena from multidisciplinary angles and applies scientific analysis in his examination into his scrutiny of the mysterious. He is currently exploring the possible connections to infrasound and pheromones to accounts given by experiencers. From a psychological approach, Ron applies Jungian philosophical ideas into his research as he attempts to uncover the underlying archetype behind the enigmas of the world. He has traveled from Florida to Maine in the United States and throughout Great Britain in his continuos quest to uncover that which remains hidden. He has written extensively on the motifs of the wild man, mermaids, werewolves, ghosts, and vampires. Ron also has a keen interest in the theoretical shadow realm of the faerie, that goblin universe which seems to be the impetus from which the paranormal emerges, viewing the figure of the fairie as forms on which archetypes are fashioned. Ron is looking forward to taking this journey into the unknown with you." "Colin is one of the youngest active researchers in the United States. He has been involved in cryptozoology and ufology since he was 13. Colin first got interested in the pursuit of the unknown after he visited the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. A frequent attendee of conferences about the unexplained, Colin has given lectures at numerous events. He has been published in magazines such as Cryptid Culture Magazine and Animals & Men. Colin also is the Ohio representative for the Centre for Fortean Zoology and runs the blog the Crypto-Kid." More info can be found on Colin's blog and PA UK radio.
ITP's biggest tire ever ITP has released its all-new Cryptid tire, an aggressive and purpose-built mud tire for ATVs and Side-by-Sides. “Named after the mythical swamp monster, the Cryptid is built with a bevy of innovative features to help mud-riding enthusiasts conquer the deepest and nastiest muck,” ITP says in a release. The Cryptid features a chevron-style tread pattern, designed to deliver what ITP calls “unparalleled forward traction.” Lug height is graduated, starting at 1.5 inches at center, growing to 2.0 inches at the tire’s shoulder. “The resulting paddle-like shoulder configuration provides maximum side bite for climbing in and out of the mud without compromising ride comfort on trails and hard pack,” says ITP. ITP engineers also equipped the Cryptid tread with grooved center lugs, which are designed to channel away mud and debris, as well as enhance predictability in deeply rutted areas. “The Cryptid is loaded with mud-mastering attributes to give consumers a leg up on both muddy terrain and the competition,” says Rhett Turpin, head of ITP Sales. “We’re using a super-durable rubber compound and computer-aided tread design to offer the most complete, all-around mud tire on the market today.” Turpin says ITP chose a 6-ply rated carcass for added durability. As well, Turpin notes that “the Cryptid uses a proprietary rubber compound to protect against abrasions, chips and cuts.” The Cryptid boasts the largest (by both height and width) footprint of any previous ITP mud tire, according to Turpin. The new tire is available in four sizes, including the massive 36-inch diameter Cryptid version that fits a 17-inch wheel. “We are excited to launch the new, confidence-inspiring Cryptid mud tire. Its unsurpassed fit-and-finish, made in the USA stamp, aggressive styling and engineered competence will not only help owner’s vehicles stand out in a crowd, it will also help them remain confident that they will make it through any mud scenario they dare to try,” says Turpin. The new ITP Cryptid mud tire is scheduled to arrive to distributors in March of 2016. MSRP ranges from $215 to $295 per tire. ITP Cryptid Tire Sizes (diameter x width-wheel size; in inches) - 30 x 10-14 - 32 x 10-15 - 34 x 10-17 - 36 x 10-17
Each day this week, I will be presenting a cryptid monster you might not have heard of during this "What the Freak Is It?" week on Ghost Hunting Theories. At the end of my presentation on the information regarding the creature, I will give you a flash horror short story based on the beast. The Monkey Man of Delhi reports were born in 2001 in Delhi, India. Descriptions varied wildly from a 4-foot tall being to an 8-foot tall one. It was said to be covered in dark hair and to leap from building to building. Some reported a helmet. Others reported red glowing eyes, metal claws, and 3 buttons on his chest. Some citizens were supposedly accosted by this creature and scratches, and a few fell when they panicked and ran, falling off buildings or down stairs. It was believed to have is origins in mass panic. Terror On the Rooftop The worker painted the tar along a seam where the rain leaked in. With coming monsoon season, his business was on the rise. Exhausted but pleased by productive day, he stood back up and rubbed his low back. Amir squinted against the setting sun, able to view much of the crowded city as it blotted out the dying light like dark silhouettes of a marching army. He wiped the sweat from his brow, when he felt the tingling sensation of someone watching him. He spun around, his dark eyes scanning the roof top until he caught sight of something dark by the doorway. When it moved towards him, Amir stepped back, his eyes focusing on the orange light of sunset awash on the dark hair covering the small being's body. Muscular and sure on its feet, it stepped towards him, not 20 feet away. Amir trembled and his mind locked up. What should he do? What was this thing? Was it a prank? "Who are you?" His voice faltered as he realized halfway through saying it that this was not a person in a costume. The creature's red eyes blinked and the light emanating from them was unreal, lighting a horrible ape-like face that appeared angry and determined as it walked even closer. "Stay back!" He threw up his hands. "Stay back, I want nothing to do with you. Just let me leave." The creature stopped as if considering his words and then leaped all at once with one giant sprint towards him, bringing with it a rush of animal stench and a snarl. Amir turned and ran, his toe catching the edge of the building just as he somersalted head first to the street below. For a collection of my short stories, check out "Don't Go There! A Flash Horror Anthology" where every story is timed so you know how long it'll take to read depending on your time constraints and the variety of many dozens of short stories cover the gamut of every horror subject possible with a special features section in the end that has short nonfiction stories of me being alone in places no one wants to be alone in. This is available in paperback on Amazon, Kindle and Nook (link above).
‘Found footage’ films are like soufflés: anyone can have a go at making one (the ingredients are widely available), but very few come out the way they’re supposed to. They’re generally considered to be an ‘entry level’ choice for filmmakers, so when you hear of one being made by an established filmmaker – such as Barry Levinson’s The Bay – it tends to make you sit up and take notice. Of course, how you approach the idea of a Bobcat Goldthwait’s own entry into the almost innumerable examples of the subgenre depends on two things: whether or not you’ve been keeping up with his career since he played Zed in the Police Academy sequels; and how you feel about the films he wrote and directed, such as Shakes the Clown, Sleeping Dogs Lie, World’s Greatest Dad and God Bless America. Full disclosure: I’m a huge fan of Bobcat’s films – I gave the scalpel-sharp satireGod Bless America five stars – so I figured if he was trying his hand at a found footage film, he would pull it off with a sly, knowing intelligence, and a comprehensive understanding of the conventions of the form. I was right. Willow Creek begins like many other found footage films: with a camera test, as Jim (Bryce Johnson) and his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) venture into the forested wilderness around Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River about 25 road miles north-west of Orleans, California, a middle-of-nowhere wilderness made famous in 1967 by the Patterson-Gimlin film, which purportedly captured the cryptozoological beast known as ‘Bigfoot’ on shaky 16mm film. Like Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) in How I Met Your Mother, Jim is the big Bigfoot fan, hoping to retrace Patterson and Gimlin’s footsteps and capture the big hairy biped on his own state-of-the-art video camera. Kelly is his reluctant companion, but after taking in a bit of local colour, she gamely accompanies the excitable Jim into the wilds of Bluff Creek. Now, as the subject of a horror film, Bigfoot is a risky prospect: unless you approach it in the “go big or go home” style of Troll Hunter, it’s going to take a lot to establish any kind of credibility for the existence of an enormous hairy biped living out in the wilds of northern California, as elusive and apocryphal as our own Loch Ness Monster. Yet Goldthwait sets out his stall with considerable skill, slowly convincing us that there may be something to this age-old mystery after all. (His subversion of horror film conventions is also sound, as Kelly notes early on that the local absence of cellphone reception is like “the beginning of every horror movie.”) Further found footage conventions are checked off one by one: first, an interview with a sceptic, another with a self-proclaimed expert, and then others with people who claim to have had first-hand encounters; there’s even a threatening local who insists they turn back – although this could be more to do with a nearby marijuana farm or meth lab than a cryptid ape- or hominid-like creature roaming the forests. Pressing on, Jim and Kelly find a place to set up camp, zipping themselves into a tent as they spend their first night in the deep, dark forest. It is here, roughly half way into the film’s 80-minute running time, that Goldthwait demonstrates a latent mastery of the horror genre, with an extended, almost unbearably tense scene in which Jim and Kelly cower, lit by their camera light, listening to things going bump in the night. It’s a brilliant scene, made more terrifying by the locked-off camera POV, which puts the viewer right inside the tent with the hapless couple, the superb sound design making us flinch and wince at every crack of a twig, guttural growl or animal howl. As someone not normally prone to being genuinely scared in a cinema (onlyThe Descent and [REC] had me mewing like a frightened child), I found myself shrinking myself further and further into my seat until it was almost fully folded – with me inside. If you like your horror films to be genuinely frightening, rather than unsettling or disquieting, I strongly suggest you see it in a cinema – with as few other people as possible. Found footage films are sometimes like watching a football match for the best part of ninety minutes, hoping for a late goal – which doesn’t always come. Goldthwait’s film is better than most, giving us amiable characters, an engaging scenario, and a midsection which elicits genuine terror, and even if Goldthwait’s reach ultimately exceeds his grasp, Willow Creek stands head and shoulders above most of its peers – not unlike ol’ Bigfoot himself. David Hughes (@DavidHughesTwit)
It's been raining just a little bit. Actually saying a little bit is like saying water is a little bit wet. Quite literally it has not stopped raining apart from a 5 minute or so period. Which meant Grumpy and Owen have got very wet today. Twice! Whilst out on his walk. I also got very simply by moving between the car, the minibus and then into the office. Plus with the wind it's been a very cold, wet and generally all round yucky day. Which is apparently the technical term for it. Or so I'm told. Still despite the bad weather the important thing is tomorrow I get to go and see the new Avengers movie. Mind you I'm refusing to call it "avengers assemble". What marketing genius thought of that idea? Because if you know about the avengers you know the significance of "avengers assemble" so you don't need that as a clue to what the film is about and if you don't know about them then the title is going to mean nothing asides from being a bit of a mouthful. Cryptid Clash: Ban-Manush vs. Buru 1 day ago
New Mexico Pursuit It's the Alibi Trivia Challenge! Well, it's not so much a challenge. And you don't win anything ... except a sense of accomplishment at having acquired or relearned important information about the state in which you reside. Answers can be found at www.alibi.com. 1) What is New Mexico's population, rounded up to the nearest million? 2) New Mexico is the fifth-largest, yet most sparsely populated state. What percentage of its landmass is public? 3) New Mexico shares a border with old Mexico, but can you name the five states with which we share a border? 4) What is the ruthless moniker of New Mexico's state fish, a type of trout? 5) The official state insect is an even crueler wasp. What is it? 6) What is our state's boring- 7) Ancient Pueblo, or Anasazi, culture emerged in approximately 1200 B.C. and declined around 1200 A.D. It was also behind the creation of what stunning and mystifying northwest New Mexico site? 8) Which conquistador was the first to explore New Mexico a century before pilgrims made their way to New England, propelling other Spanish explorers to the area with stories of "Seven Cities of Gold"? 9) The ancient trading route that became known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro in the 16th century was a 2,000-mile royal road stretching to Santa Fe from what city? 10) Which controversial conquistador was responsible for the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico in 1598? 11) During the 17th century, the pueblo people reacted to religious and cultural oppression by the Spanish with what historical event? 12) When in the 18th century was El Bosque de Doña Luisa established as Villa de Albuquerque? 13) New Mexico became a state in 1912, making it the _____th state. 14) The state song is "__ ___ New Mexico," while the our city's song should be Jim Glaser's nasally 1985 hit, "__ ___ of Albuquerque." 15) With sightings in San Juan, Taos, Colfax and other counties, what hairy hominoid is the state's unofficial cryptid? 16) In 1947, either an alien craft or a top-secret balloon crashed on a ranch near Roswell. Which was it? 17) The production of potash is counted as a major industry in the state. What the hell is potash? 18) Before Truth or Consequences took its name on a game show in 1950, what was the spa town originally called? 19) U.S. Route 666, or "The Devil's Highway," is now known by what non-evil digits? 20) Everyone knows New Mexico is the "Land of Enchantment," but besides this and "The Land of the Delight Makers," what are some other state nicknames (feel free to come up with your own)?
- Footage of the Murray River Bunyip surfaces - 2011 - Year of the Big Cat? - New species of jellyfish discovered Book charts NZ Moa's survival - Cryptid quiz tests your mettle - Bongo's Pilliga Yowie hoax - Brown's Bunyip - A Christmas Tale (1883) - Humans tipped megafauna over the edge - Santa escaped Yowie - with a tale to tell! - Breaking news: Santa abducted by yowie! - From the archives: Tasmanian Tiger prints found (1... - Catching Asian mystery pigs with cameras - New species of giant monitor lizard discovered - The adventures of Tim Tyler and 'Fang' the black p... - Dead Panther Pt II Keep up the good work guys.
OMFG!!!! That’s the name of this line, but it gets censored on some message forums. Oh, you silly people with your wacky shenanigans. But anyway, the Outlandish Mini Figures Series 4 has finally arrived! October Toys is continuing this toy line, and… well, OMFG 1 and 2 came out before Life In Plastic was a thing, so you really only got to see Series 3 from here. In short, the line is: 1. Totally crowdfunded, with fan-voted designs and designers. It was on Kickstarted back in 2011, before Kickstarter was a really big thing. 2. Stylistically based on MUSCLE and other similar mini figure lines. 3. Occasionally includes extras from OTMFG, a sidekick series (OTMFGs have been coming out since Series 2, but 3 and 4 actually came wth them if you preordered on the Kickstarter). 4. Series 1 was met with huge acclaim, Series 2 was met with a middling response, Series 3 got lots of praise, and now we are on Series 4. The figures are the same type of plastic as Series 1 and 3 (technically so was 2, but the consistency and color felt a little different. Darker and glossier), though there is one notable difference – on average, Series 4 figures are smaller than the ones that came before. The difference isn’t huge, and it certainly isn’t a game-breaker, but these guys are closer to typical MUSCLE size than their brethren. Theme is another interesting thing. Series 1 was pretty varied. Stroll was a cute mascot type, Multiskull was an amazing sculpting showcase, Phantom Outhouse was a funny gag character, Crawdad Kid was a surreal piece of art, and King Castor was a big walking castle. Series 2 seemed to fall back on more “cutesy” designs, with Shirtle, Cry-Borg, and Grimm Gourd seeming more like a “kid’s” line (not necessarily an insult), Cuddlehard as the OMFG logo, and Puke Knight as a removale two-piece figure. Series 3 relied heavily on puns, but with an added monster connection. Pugnacious and Fruit Punch were puns, TenCan was somewhere between pun and monster, Doctor Decay was pure monster, and Barbariannaut was like an ’80s kid’s fantasy. The Zombie Glyos figure included was an awesome bonus, and pushed it toward the monster level. So, what about Series 4? OMFG Series 4 is very, very monster-themed. Let’s take a look! First up is Fossil Freak, designed by Michael Stearns and sculpted by George Gaspar (Gaspar owns October Toys, and seems to handle sculpting duties if the original designer does not sculpt their creation). It’s a hulking, half-decayed dinosaur chimera, and although I do like the figure, I have to admit that it’s pretty hard to photograph well. Now, I want to point out that none of these figures re bad, and in fact Seris 4 is a really strong offering as a whole, but Fossil Freak is probably my least favorite of the set. Something about his hulking form just did not translate as well to his reduced size. The bighead dinosaur monster is still pretty cool, but he doesn’t personally rock my world. Still, the design isn’t anything to sneeze at, especially his tiny human arm or his massive exposed brain. Designed and sculpted by Billy Parker, Wooly Wisp is a little reminiscent of Stroll from Series 1 – in a way, he looks like the mascot for a company (which Stroll is). Of all the figures, Wooly Wisp would benefit most from some paint, particularly on his beady eyes. He has kind of a Bigfoot vibe going on, especially since he’s doing the Cryptid Walk, but some of the finer detail can get lost in his hairy sculpt. Of all the figures in Series 4, Wooly Wisp is most like a MUSCLE in size and composition, and it’s easy to see how he won those votes. People have wanted a female OMFG figure for a while now, but one never really won out – I honestly expected the snake and scorpion girls from the first few sets to win, but it never happened. However, The Siren, designed by Corwin Webb and sculpted by george Gaspar, made it in. At first glance, she’s a pretty traditional mermaid, topless but with no nipples, and some pretty decent tail sculpting and posing (she is posed almost exactly like Monster In My Pocket’s Triton figure, in fact). But then you notice that she is carrying a full pirate ship in one hand, which is impressively detailed for this scale – look at that Jolly Roger! Siren has a potentially fragile point on that ship, but she is an impressive piece of tiny sculpting work. Tree Witched, sculpted by designed by MudMarox and sculpted by GormTransMonster, is the biggest figure in the set – he’s the size of a typical OMFG figure from Series 1-3! An impressively detailed sculpt, he immediately draws comparisons to Multiskull from 1, Grimm Gourd from 2, and Doctor Decay from 3. Honestly, Multiskull is still the most amazingly-sculpted figure in this line, but th4 two stand well together. Grimm Gourd had a problem of looking more like an onion than a pumpkin, and Doctor Decay was a little flat. Tree Wiched is not – it’s a very dynamic sculpt with all sorts of awesome little Halloweeny details. This tree monster was done incredibly well. Bullseye, sculpted by Tom Khayos and Ana Bruja-Khayos – wait, no, that’s Raging Nerdgasm, hah – is quite literally a bull’s eye. Sort of. He’s this set’s resident “weirdo,” and is quite awesome. That eye is well-sculpted and full of personality (it reminds me of a specific Far Side cartoon), and his bullish parts could easily stand in for demon or alien parts if you want. Bullseye’s non-standard design is a great addition to OMFG, and this figure feels like he could fit into any of the sets so far. And finally, we have our bonus OTMFG figure. Brainwave, designed by Joe Whiteford and George Gaspar, will eventually be available on October Toys, but for now is a Kickstarter bonus only. Concerning OTMFG, the Zombie Pheyden came with OMFG, whereas Deadbeet, Retro Robot, et. al. are completely on their own, though thye do fit into OMFG pretty well. Brainwave counts because of the simultaneous release. As a walking, talking brain-monster, Brainwave is petty unique. He’s got a spinal cord tail, skull jaws, cartoon sneakers and gloves, alien antennae, and mad scientist goggles. His sculpt is really detailed, with some impressive brain and bone work, and is just filled with personality. This guy is a great little bonus – and since he isn’t inextricably tied to Glyos, he also stands well as a little monster on his own! So, how are they overall? OMFG Series 4 does not disappoint. It takes some interesting new steps and branches out pretty well while still remaining clearly part of the original line. And that thing about everything being a monster is true – one could easily see these figures as random encounters in a SNES RPG game. That’s a good part of their charm, though, as OMFG makes toys that honestly are like nothing else on the shelf, even with their clear MUSCLE theme.
When researching the Dogman phenomenon one frequently comes across other phenomena that seem to at the very least relate to similar creatures. Are they connected? Who can say? There are those that hold a firm belief that neither phenomenon has anything to do with the others. There are those who believe they are intimately connected, and others who are more or less on the fence. I’m not saying anything for sure at this point because how can you really say anything for certain about a creature observed occasionally and usually only for a few seconds at a time? You can’t claim for sure that a Dogman is a Dogman at all times. You may want to though, as in our culture the concept of shape shifting has been pretty much eradicated from our mind by the holy science, but that would be a mistake. I’m NOT saying Dogmen are transformed humans, I just think we can’t discount that they are a shape shifting something. Take thunder. Back in the good old days of the Norsemen, thunder was thought to be created by the wild rockstar-like god Thor banging his hammer into things. Eventually science came up with a perhaps more plausible explanation involving electrical discharges. What we call shape shifting now may one day be able to be explained in a scientific way, but as of right now we have no idea how it works (if it does) and therefore ascribe it all kinds of occult qualities, or flat out deny it. I’ve said it a thousand times it feels like- science has not peaked. It hasn’t learned everything there is to know, not by a long shot. For example, we still have no clue what dark energy is, even though it is 68.3% of the makeup of the universe. Let’s look at a few phenomena that may or may not have something to do with Dogmen. Continue reading Adjacent Phenomena Today I’m going to talk about Dogman for a change 😛 About how Dogman has a big BUT. Not butt- but. When I grew up I heard about werewolves from somewhere, and it began. I believe I might have been 5-6 when I first started reading everything. Facts and fiction, anything. Granted, during the first few years it was hard to get my hands on anything substantial, but it got better. I’m a Scorpio, I don’t do anything by halves, and I’m lucky enough to have a brain that very rarely forgets anything I read. One thing lead to another and there’s barely anything within the world of THE STRANGE that I haven’t studied at one time or another. Continue reading Dogman has a big BUT …is Latin and means “From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord”. It was allegedly a litany of despair, a prayer said by every medieval church and monastery at the time of the viking raids. This particular prayer has not been verified in exactly those words in any 9th century texts though, however an antiphony for churches dedicated to St. Vaast or St. Medard comes pretty close: Summa pia gratia nostra conservando corpora et cutodita, de gente fera Normannica nos libera, quae nostra vastat, Deus, regna. This means “Our supreme and holy Grace, protecting us and ours, deliver us, God, from the savage race of Northmen which lays waste our realms”. Brute force alone does not make you successful for 300 years. Vikings were also skilled, clever. They navigated across the sea all the way to America, they also went east, to Constantinople and many other places. I would assume that in certain ways times have changed very little. A thousand years ago attention was surely given to the wrong-doers, as it is now. Vikings were travelers, explorers and merchants, but some were rogues and caused a heck of a lot of havoc and mayhem wherever they went. Naturally these rogue vikings were the ones people remembered. But for vikings to have accomplished all that they did in their relatively short time, things other than brute force must have been utilized. What things? Continue reading A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine So many creatures are reported by so many different individuals of the human population, but most sightings seem to be of something resembling a Bigfoot, a Dogman etc. This post is not going to talk about what we see though. It’s time to talk about what we don’t see. We have a tendency in this field to connect the modern cryptozoological sightings to ancient mythological creatures. In the world of Dogman you often hear of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis being mentioned as some sort of reminder that these creatures have been around for a long time. That’s all good and well, there might be a connection there. Sometimes though I feel I must take on the role of the devil’s advocate in order to get to the core of a matter. That core in this case is what we don’t see. If Anubis was a Dogman, what happened to whatever races the other ancient Egyptian gods belonged to? What happened to the race of Horus? Where are all the Hawkmen? (Not counting the ones in Flash Gordon…) Where is the race of Sobek, the Crocodilemen? Where are the descendants of Thoth, the Ibis Storkmen? If we go to other mythologies we might ask why so few sightings of harpies are reported today. Were are all the sirens? Where are the minotaurs? Not to mention the Unicorns. My point is this, that if we should consider some mythological beings, mustn’t we consider all? Continue reading What we don’t see After posting The Skinwalker/ Fleshgait Connection parts 1 and 2, strange things began to happen here. It started with just a feeling that something wasn’t right. Something was in the air. And it wasn’t good. Then I heard noises. Whenever I went to bed I could hear something scratching outside around my bedroom window. I got up several times and sneaked to the window, yanked it open and looked outside. I wanted it to be a bird. It was nothing. Not one time. In fact, all the birds that normally hang around behind my house were gone for those few days this went on. I felt under attack in a weird way. Like something was seizing me up, figuring out who I was, observing. It felt intrusive, uncomfortable. I’m not much for New Age stuff but some of it, like smudging, I do every now and then when things get a bit too close for comfort. Sweden suffers from a distinct lack of cedar trees, which is commonly used in these practices, but I use bark of juniper because I feel it works for me. So I smudged, halfheartedly the first time. The feeling remained. The second night I smudged my derriere off. I guess I performed my own little ceremony, praying and smudging, wafting smoke into every nook and cranny of my home. I also sprinkled the ashes on the windowsill and outside. This time it worked. I felt much calmer, safer, and there were no more scratching outside my window after that. A few days later I was talking to a friend of mine. I had told him about the weirdness and that it had stopped. Then he told me about a strange thing that happened to him. He’s a trucker, and on the night the feeling went away he had hit a deer. But it was an unusual deer, he said. Something was off about the eyes. They didn’t reflect. And it stopped in the middle of the road, didn’t cross like normal deer. So, what do we make of this? Is it just a coincidence? Did the feeling go away because I burned the juniper or because he killed the source of it… He has been around. If something was indeed watching it would have seen him. But yes, most likely he just happened to hit a regular deer. And it happened to be the same night as I was smudging up everything around me. What scratched my window though I will probably never know… “I have Native American heritage, but since no one in my family was Navajo and never registered with the tribe, I didn’t have a full on Native American up bringing. My grandmother was Cherokee. Half and half German. I grew up with a lot of lore, but my mother never talked about skinwalkers. And yes, something like a skinwalker exists in almost every tribe. When it came out she just called them cannibals. So she had some inkling what they were. So there we were. Living on this ranch two miles from paved roads, 24 miles from the Interstate and 34 miles from civilization. My friend told me to burn sage. At the time I was a Christian and was pretty faithful. I was unsure about this so I prayed. Prayer would make the things back off, but it didn’t make them leave. It was like they would just regroup and then come again from another angle. I talked to my mother about burning sage and she looked at me point blank and told me her mother used to do that and that it was okay to do it. So on a whim I bought a smudge stick and I prayed and I burned the sage and I asked for help. Continue reading The Skinwalker/ Fleshgait connection, part 2 I’m going to tell you an amazing story. It’s the story of a woman from Colorado, I will call her Tina, and it’s absolutely shocking. It’s about Skinwalkers in Colorado and it tells a horrifying tale of what these creatures can really do. I have previously addressed the concept of Dogmen and how I believe they are connected to Fleshgait sightings. The Fleshgait is a creature I wrote about in A White Wight, New Cryptid on the Block, Masterless Tulpas and also in Windigo. I do believe, especially now after hearing what Tina had to tell me, that there definitely is a connection. However, I believe there is a difference between Dogman and Skinwalker. Though I’m quite convinced far more sightings of Dogman are actually of Skinwalkers than I previously thought. Tina, believes that the Dogmen with “dead eyes” are in fact Skinwalkers, but the ones with living eyes are a different creature. It’s important to note that skinwalking wasn’t always evil, and it still isn’t necessarily that in every case. In the olden days Skinwalkers worked for the tribe’s benefit. In animal form they could sneak in or around enemy camps, finding out their plans, strategy etc. They could also use their ability to go into animal form to follow and get close to prey animals. Then something happened, and I do believe White Man is responsible for that through his treatment of the Native population. The people who were once free, who only took from nature what they needed and who were always certain to give back, were shoved around, raped and murdered, stuffed into reservations, forced to adopt the White Man’s way without being privileged to the White Man’s rights. What did White Man think was going to happen? And why is he still doing it? The feelings of injustice, of no hope, no future festered and grew. The once proud Native American would have to be inhumanely strong to avoid being caught in a web of the lowest human thoughts and feelings- bitterness, resentment, jealousy, greed… Many have gone under and turned to the dark side… Continue reading The Skinwalker/ Fleshgait connection, part 1
- Education and Science» - Life Sciences» Kalanaro of Madagascar -- Mythical Beast and Internet Star Madagascar’s interior is as primitive as it gets. Despite a growing human population, and the demand for open land is at its highest, much of the island nation’s interior is devoid of human activity and contact. It is a giant, contiguous rain forest that has remained untouched for many centuries. Thus, it should not be a surprise that something is rumored to lurk in these foreboding regions. And that something has become the stuff of legend, as well as a source of nightmares, for the various tribes that occupied the outer fringes of the forest. Some call them the little men of the forests; others call them demons. In either case, the Kalanoros of Madagascar have proven to be enduring legends, despite the lack of evidence to prove their existence. The Kalanoros have been based mostly on eyewitness accounts from the various tribes in the densely forested northern parts of the island nation. However, in the age of the Internet, this ancient tribal legend has found a whole new group of believers. Cryptozoologists, bloggers, and paranormal investigators have been reporting on the existence of these creatures for nearly a decade. While not exactly a household name as its purported cryptid cousin (Bigfoot), the Kalanoros have been the subject of widely circulated stories on the Internet and an episode of the Sy-Fy Channel show “Destination Truth”. In other words, the Kalanoros have come out of the African jungles and entered the wild world of World Wide Web. Cryptozoology: not quite science The article mentions cryptozoology -- the study of animals that have not been discovered. Usually, legendary or mythical animals such Bigfoot, chupacabra, Loc Ness Monster, and the Yeti are popular subjects. There are no degrees in this field of study and is not generally viewed as genuine scientific discipline. Also, a majority of those who call themselves cryptozoologists do not hold a science-based degree. On the other hand, some of the better known ones may have degrees in biology or in a similar field. This is not to say of myths and legends do not exist or that those who research them are not scientists. Lately, as new parts of the world have been opening up, new species are being discovered. This include Madagascar. Also, many of the large primates were once the realm of legend until they are being discovered as late as the 20th century. Other terms to consider: * Cryptid - an animal that doesn't exist or hasn't been proven to exist, yet. *Cryptozoologist - those who study cryptids. To understand how the Kalanoros went from being mythological creatures to an Internet sensation, one has to look where the legend began. Madagascar is one of the largest islands in the world. It is also one of the least explored and developed regions still in existence. With thick virgin forests, caves, and inaccessible and varying terrain, the island nation boasts a thriving and unhindered wild-life. Also, it was one of the few places where new species of animals and plants are being discovered. The island is also home to a unique primate, the lemurs. These arboreal and nocturnal animals are small and are often heard rather than seen (In fact, they were named the “lemurs” of Roman mythology due to their mysterious looks and foreboding vocalization). Although looking more like raccoons than primates, they have nails instead of claws, may walk on two at times, and use tools. Still, unlike most primates (with the exception of basal primates), some species have large eyes and “wet noses.” The lemurs were first discovered in 17th century. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s and 60s that the primates were being studied. Also, since that time, nearly 100 species have been discovered, some as recently as the 1990s. To make matters more interesting – and something to consider in the case of the Kalanoro – evidence has emerged that some of the earliest and extinct species of lemurs were as large a modern gorilla. This size may have been as far back as 2000 years when human started inhabiting the island. There are some researchers, including cryptozoologists, who believe a large species of lemurs may still exist. Whether there was a connection between the lemurs and Kalanoros is speculation at best. What is known is that the first people to arrive on the island began telling tales of little hairy men living in the jungles. Modern History (or sort of) of Sightings The late 19th century iwas considered the first time when the Kalanoros were brought to the world’s attention (at least, according to several websites). One questionable website, “From-the-Shadows.Blogspot.com”, reported that the Royal Geographical Society supposedly captured one in 1889. It also reported that the creature was “telepathic”. Writer Mark Eveleigh repeated this claim in his article for the website Travel Intelligence.com; however, he stated that someone had reported capturing it to the geological society. However, Eveleigh made his claim in an article entitled: “Mythical Creatures of Madagascar,” that suggested the account may not have happened. Whether true or not, evidence of this events cannot be documented from other sources. Eveleigh also wrote about another sighting: “In 1924, Chase Salmon Osborn described a "kalanoro-sighting" that he assumed ‘must have been a honeymoon couple’ because they were making love by a campfire.” He also reported of a sighting made by his guide, Eloi Razafimandimby. Eveleigh wrote that Eloi had spotted what he described as a “little man, less than a meter tall, with hair all over his body and long fingernails.” This accusation that would be repeated in other websites and forums. Although he was not named on these other sites, Eloi was referred as a “startled guide.” Another blog, ShukerNature.com – created by Dr. Karl Shuker, a freelance zoological and media consultant and cryptozoologist -- stated that G. Herbert Smith wrote an account of the Kalanoro in an 1886 publication of “Antanarivo Annual” (to note: G. Herbert Smith collected superstitions and folklore from the Betsimisiraka, one of several ethnic groups found on the island). Shuker also made another speculation –this one supported by studies made by French paleontologist Charles Lamberton – that the Kalanoro was a possible descendent of the Hadropithecus, a large extinct lemur that once inhabited the island. Still, the evidence for this was (and still is) sketchy, at best. Kalanoro Becomes an Internet Sensation The most significant alleged sighting came from a story circulated on the Internet. The story stated that a U.S. Navy SEAL team came across a group of 13 “chimpanzee-like” creatures attacking another animal in an African jungle far from Madagascar. The story claims that the team was in the midst of doing covert intelligence-gathering work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1997 and 2002. A team member video-taped the attack, and supposedly leaked the story to the public. The story was reported by noted cryptozoologist and Bigfoot hunter, Loren Coleman for the website, Cryptomundo.com. Although it was uncertain this was the very first site to report this account, many other blogs and forms – including one operated by the popular paranormal writer and conspiracy theorist David Ickes – have posted Coleman’s story on their site. The most compelling part of the report was the description given of the creatures. They were described as being bipedal, standing 4.5 to 5 feet tall, and covered with gray hair. Also, the description stated they had “porcupine-like quills running the length of their backs (similar to the Latin American legend, the chupacabras).” Verification of this article was not easy. The article claimed three minutes of video existed; however, the tape supposedly remains classified by the U.S. government to this day due to the sensitive nature of the original mission. Still, the story was enough to garner attention from other media outlets. In 2007, the popular American TV show, Destination Truth included as a segment. The show, which attempted to explore the truth behind mysterious creatures and monsters, didn’t provide enough evidence to dismiss or verify the existence of the Kalanoro So Do They Exist? There is some plausibility to the possible existence of the creatures. They supposedly dwell in an area still unexplored. Also, their size, between 3 to 5 feet tall, suggests they can live in small areas and have plenty of places to hide. Despite the plausibility, the evidence presented so far has been weak. With the exception of a Harry Trumbore illustration of the Kalanoro from Loren Coleman’s book (The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates), there’s no viable or clear picture of them. If anything, the kalanoros will remain a mystery unless hard proof of their existence surfaces. The Kalanoro on TV © 2014 Dean Traylor
\|Burrunjor compared to a human. But is it really that big?\| (Cryptid Wiki/Connor Lachmanec) The burrunjor is said to be a theropod dinosaur similar in appearance to something t-rex-esque, usually said to be around 20-30 feet long. Some say it can be 20 feet in height as well, though I doubt that if it is 20-ish feet long. But are there any known, prehistoric dinosaurs that fit its description from Australia? The answer - yes. Australovenator is the first of Australia's dinosarus we will look at. It lived during the mid-cretaceous period (about 95 mya) and was a member of the megaraptora family of dinosaurs. These were large theropods that are very mysterious. Some scientists think megaraptora are related to the spinosaurs, while others think they are more closely related to tyrannosaurs, or the allosaurs or charcharodontosaurs. \|What Australovenator may have looked like\| Australovenator's remains were first described in 2009, by Scott Hocknull and his colleagues. So far, only one specimen is known from leg, arm, jaw, and rib bones. Hocknull guesses that Australovenator was about 6 1/2 feet tall, and about 20 feet long and weighed 1,000 to 2,000 pounds. He called it "the cheetah of its time." Australovenator had long arms with large claws, and is quite similar in description to the burrunjor. Rapator is the second Australian dinosaur to take a look at. Its remains were found in New South Wales and it is currently known from a single finger bone. That bone, however, is quite similar to finger bones of Australovenator and some think the two may actually be the same species. If they aren't the same species, they are both megaraptorian theropods. However, since only one bone of Rapator is known it is not possible to be certain if the two are the same. Rapator is estimated to be in the same size range as Australovenator, at around 30 feet in length. Again, the corresponds with burrunjor size estimates. \|Estimated size of Rapator compared to a human\| A third theropod dinosaur from Australia has been nicknamed "lightning claw" due to the fact that it was discovered near the town of Lightning Ridge, in New South Wales. Sci News published an article about "lightning claw" in 2015: "A remarkable new species of theropod dinosaur has been unearthed in an underground mine in north-central New South Wales, Australia. "Nicknamed Lightning Claw, the new dinosaur lived roughly 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. "It belongs to a group of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs called Megaraptora (megaraptorid theropods). "The species grew up to 20 feet (6 m) in length. It is the largest and only the second theropod dinosaur in Australia known from more than a single bone. "The partial skeleton, including a foot bone, parts of the hip, ribs, forearm, and a giant clae from the hand, was discovered by miners Rob and Debbie Brogan in an underground mine at the Carter's Rush opal field, 18.6 miles (30 km) southwest of the town of Lightning Ridge, north-central New South Wales. "It was analyzed by a team of paleontologists from Australia and Italy, led by Dr Phil Bell of the University of New England. "'Some of the bones were recognized and manually removed by miners and eventually donated to the Australian Opal Centre in 2005,' Dr Bell and co-authors wrote in a paper published in the journal Gondwanna Research. "'An unknown number of bones were not recognized and presumably destroyed prior to or during excavation of what was almost certainly a more complete skeleton that is currently represented.' "Dr Bell said: 'I immediately recognized this fossil was something new. When I compared it to other Australian and South American dinosaurs, it was clear it was a megaraptorid which is [a] relatively rare group of dinosaurs, mostly known from Argentina.' "The hand claw of the dinosaur would have been 10 inches (25 cm) in length and would have been used like a grappling hook to catch its prey. "'What is fascinating about this discovery is it changes the popular notion that Australian dinosaurs came from ancestors derived from Africa and South America - instead the Lightning Claw appears to be the ancestor of all megaraptorids, meaning this group appeared first in Australia,' Dr Bell said. "'This specimen provides new evidence that Australia played an active role in the evolution and radiation of at least one group of apex theropods. Significantly, the Australian origin of megaraptorid theropods is echoed by eusuchian crocodylomorphs wherein Isisfordia duncani from the earliest latest Lower Cretaceous of Queensland suggests the origin of this clade also has an Australian root,' the scientists said." \|Illustration of what "Lightning Claw" \| may have looked like in life Again we have a megaraptorid theropod that grew to around 20 feet in length. IS BURRUNJOR A MEGARAPTORID? The descriptions of Australovenator, Rapator, and the Lighning Claw are all quite similar to reports of the burrunjor in modern times. Is it possible that it could be a surviving member of one of these species, or at least a type of megaraptorid dinosaur? If it is there at all, it could very well be. But, of course, that's if it is there. And, if it is real, and a dinosaur, possibly a megaraptorid of the same species or related to any of the three examined here, it wouldn't necessarily be the same as it was millions of years ago. As Karl Shuker notes in his book Still in Search of Prehistoric Survivors, any potential prehistoric survivor (not necessarily dinosaurs) wouldn't be the exact same as it was when it was known to be alive, because there would be thousands if not millions of years of evolution between the time it was thought to have gone extinct and the present day. And this also doesn't necessarily mean that the burrunjor and other potential prehistoric survivors have survived to the present day - they could have just survived longer than they were thought to, but are now extinct today. Either way, if the burrunjor is or was a real creature and a prehistoric survivor, I find it likely that it could be a megaraptorid theropod, since the descriptions of the known megaraptorids from Australia seem to closely match its description.
Please join us this Sunday at 7:30 PM EST for the forth installment of Blue Pints. This week we’ll be talking about Sea Grant, how it’s structured, and what it mean for South Carolina marine science that this venerable program is currently on the chopping block. Then, we’ll be switching to some lighter gears and pick up where we left off last week, talking about cryptic (and cryptid) manta rays and other sea monsters with hilariously pragmatic explanations. Tune in this Sunday, at 7:30, on Google+ or catch it streaming on my YouTube Channel. If you want to make sure to catch Blue Pints, follow me or David on twitter or circle me on Google+. We’ll advertise each broadcast across our various social networks, but the one place you’ll be guaranteed to find the link is my Google+ page.
A set of tracks found in New Hampshire has the crypto community stirred up. I found this piece about it on a decent site, Ghost Theory. At least they will print my comments and not make derogatory statements about skeptics. I have a disagreement about their banner declaring a “skeptical look at the unexplained” (psst – maybe read this) because this piece was not really very skeptical – it assumed something spectacular and I do not think it is spectacular. But have a look. With all this apparent cryptid news flooding the interwebs, you may wonder why these stories have been conspicuously absent from GT’s pages? The plain truth is, we don’t believe them. In fact, we have been so disillusioned with all the fakes and hoaxing, that we’ve been bypassing these tall tales altogether. Of course, once in a while you have to break down and give out some rope. That’s not to say in any way that we believe it to be authentic, it’s more a matter of providing a sampling of content that’s been otherwise missing. Today we have the story of Josh and his girlfriend. Two young people, who while out for a day of four wheeling and swimming in Concord, NH, happened upon some tracks in the mud. However, these were not your run-o-the-mill animal tracks; no, these were something entirely different. First, the author is entirely correct. Cryptid news is outrageously stupid these days. Every poorly done and obviously hoaxed clip is placed alongside the next every day for content to feeds ad revenue. The evidence is no better than it was 25 years ago but there is more of it. Adding more crappy evidence to the pile does not make the body of evidence any more convincing. So, my advice is to not bother with the bigfoot evidence sites. But lets take a look at the tracks since some have found them interesting. They appear to be three-toed. Here is the video of the finding: It was remarked how calm the filmer was. The tracks are neatly in the soft mud depression and do appear to be bipedal. But I don’t think the the animal is either bipedal OR three-toed. I think it’s a moose. Check out this picture from Birchlodge blog in Michigan: Looks VERY similar with the third toe offset. They did find a moose associated with this picture. I did flip it vertically (note the ruler numbers) to match with this: This second picture would show prints from the other side of the animal so the left side of the print is offset. Also note that the crypto story assumes the animal is walking away from the camera but if it is a moose with overlapping tracks, it would be walking TOWARDS the camera. I think it matches very well with a moose. And, there are moose in New Hampshire. Is there a three-toed monster? Unlikely. Here is another screen capture that shows the little imprints of dew claws. I don’t buy that they are real claws. The moose interpretation makes far more sense. Thankfully, the first commentator to the Ghost Theory site called “moose”. But then someone said “emu” and they went with that. Emu? Not as likely as a moose. Emus may have escaped but unless someone is missing an emu in this area, a moose is a better choice. And Granite State folks want to chime in about moose and tracks? (Now I’m thinking about ice cream…) Notice how quick the cryptid community jumps on the monster idea INSTEAD of carefully evaluating the evidence. This happens ALL THE TIME. It’s discouraging and frustrating because they crave the mystery instead of the right answer. That’s so backwards in terms of inquiry. It just so happens that at the same time as this article came up, I had a tab open to this article showing another three-toed track. Yes its from Missouri (no moose there) but it also resembles the trackway above. I Big monsters are big business these days. I don’t know how many times I can express how disappointed I am that cryptozoology is such a joke as it is these days. But here is an example of making a question to be answered immediately into a crypto-mystery. It isn’t. It’s a question to be answered, not a mystery to be manufactured.
DAW, Mar 6 2012, $7.99 The Price extended family has been cryptid hunters for generations. However, they eventually rejected the Covenant of St. George that condoned species cleansing. Like the rest of her clan, Verity Price is a cryptozoologist who works to insure safe environments for cryptids and humans. However, though she is passionately dedicated, her first love is ballroom dancing though she wonders where that strand of her DNA comes from. Thus Verity moves from the West Coast to New York to dance for a year. When she prevents a carnivorous ghoul (clearly an oxymoron) from dining on a human, Verity, who works as a waitress for a Dark bogeyman at Dave’s Fish and Strips club, concludes this is why she never has a Saturday night date. As cryptids are being hunted in the city, Dominick DeLuca catches Verity in a rooftop snare. The two enemies agree to team up when lizard people are found in the sewers and rumors abound that a sleeping dragon underneath Manhattan gneiss bedrock is awakening. As October takes a Daye off, Seanan McGuire begins a new urban fantasy starring a Romeo and Juliet couple. The storyline is fun to follow due to the amusing asides from the priceless heroine. With a nod to the classic cantina scene in Star Wars, it is the McGuire Manhattan mythos with the various cryptid species, many introduced at Dave’s club (like the therianthrope bouncer – cute as long as you don’t tango, and the dragon princess - known for making money faster than Wall St. and without a male), that makes for a great read. Harriet Klausner A True Son of Asmodeus By Light Unseen Media, $13.00 In Los Angles, hematologist Dr. Eli Rothenberg mentions to Sheila the ER head nurse that the zoo will end in under an hour, she takes him seriously as his workload comments determine staffing needs. Eli tells her that when he was ten he predicted his dying cousin would recover from meningitis, which happened. His father tried to use his psychic skills at poker but lost his shirt and slapped Eli. He vowed to never use his skill, but Sheila insists subconsciously his ESP talent surfaces. Eli is shocked when his mentor Dr. Andrew Netter arrives on a gurney with an empty sleeping pills bottle taped to his comatose body. That is the impetus for Eli to quit his job and leave his compassionate girlfriend Karen Lodge to accept a fellowship jointly sponsored by the University of Heidelberg, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and the University of Munich. On the trek to London, Eli meets Hasidic Jew Abram Rabinowich of Munich and Schmuel the converted Jew. In London, horrific murders occur while Schmuel visits Eli. He heads to Munich; at the Dachau concentration camp Eli survives evil. Stunned he visits Abram, who introduces him to the Perceptive warriors while malevolence waits for Eli in Auschwitz though six million allies pray for him. This terrific Hasidic religious thriller grips the audience from the first premonition until the last. Fast-paced and filled with action, Eli is a great hero as he goes from denier to skeptic to believer due to the events that his rationale mind wants to reject. Fans will relish Eli’s enlightened run through the darkest evil, which thrives when monsters like Hitler and his gruesome wannabes provide the sustenance. Harriet Klausner Sadie Walker Is Stranded St. Martin’s Griffin, Jan 31 2012, $14.99 The Outbreak Patient Zero was on The Golden Princess that brought the virus to Seattle and from there across North America and the world. Millions died from this plague. As the survivors struggled with so much death and related diseases, the real pandemic begins when the dead rise with a craving for live flesh and many of the living become predators. Wannabe illustrator Sadie Walker, mother to her eight-year-old nephew Shane, resides as normal as they can inside the Citadel a living encampment in Seattle. Her boyfriend Carl arranges for black marketers to abduct Shane as a commodity for sale. She manages to push Carl down the stairs killing him, but leaving her unconscious. The thieves leave with Shane while her friend from before the Outbreak Andrea tells her they must leave as Carl’s buddies tore down a barrier that kept the walking dead outside their stronghold. The two females rescue Shane but remain in peril as Seattle has become a buffet for the undead with the only way off is at sea but most people including Sadie fear water as an un-deadly trap. Sadie Walker Is Stranded is an exciting urban fantasy in which people adjust to the new meaning of survival of the fittest or become fodder for the undead. The title character is super as she struggles with adaptation while her BFF is kick butt and Shane’s childhood innocence is gone. Although unlikely events (even for an undead tale) detract from an otherwise great thriller, readers will enjoy the zombie storm that leaves Sadie, Andrea and Shane stranded with no place to go although two men join their quest for a haven. Harriet Klausner Eyes Like Leaves Charles De Lint Tachyon, Feb 1 2012, $15.95 On the Green Isles, magic has remained in a state of harmony seemingly forever due to the power equilibrium between Lothan the Icelord king of Everwinter and his rival Hafari the Summerlord. However, recently the magic has waned and the balance of nature threatened by Lothan who plans to subjugate the people of the Green Isles to Everwinter after he disposes of his dormant adversary. Puretongue, the great wizard leader of the dhruidery, understands the peril to the land. As time is running out he sends his loyal student Tarn on a mission to gather anyone displaying Hafarl's magick before Lothan finishes his ethnic cleansing of the only viable counter insurgency. Meanwhile as Tarn does his search, the Samarand raiders continue unabated their practice of assaulting and plundering villages. Carrie, lost her family to these vicious marauders, meets Tarn who realizes she is powerfully blessed by warmth of the Summerlord. The pair and Deren the novice stand between Everwinter in the Green Isles. This is the first publication of a quest Celtic mythological fantasy written by Charles de Lint during President Reagan’s first term. The storyline starts very slow as the author sets the locale and the key players in the seasonal civil war. From that snail opening, the plot goes hyperspeed with plenty of action as the bad and the ugly hunt the good and the innocent with genocidal intent. Fans of the author will enjoy this fine tale even without a visit from Jilly Copporcorn or a stop in Newford. Harriet Klausner
The search for Orang Pendek continues… The Center for Fortean Zoology has organized another expedition to Sumatra in search of the famed Orang Pendek, a short, powerful, bipedal hominoid, sightings of which have been reported for centuries by the indigenous people of the Sumatran rain forests. Here is the information given to me by expedition leader and cryptid researcher Adam Davies: “We leave Friday, September 9, 20011 and will return on the 25th of September, late night. I will be leading the expedition, which is entitled The CFZ Sumatra Expedition 2011. There will be two teams to maximise our chances of finding evidence of the creature. Team 1 will be at high altitude, and will make its base camp by the shores of a lake at top of the Gunung Tujuh volcano. It will comprise me, Andy Sanderson, Tim De Friel, Zoologist Richard Freeman and Tracker Dave Archer. This is the area where Dave saw the OP in 2009, when he was with guides Sahar, Donni and myself. Sahar and Donni will again be joining us there. Team 2 will be led by Dr. Chris Clark, and will also include Rebecca Lang and Mike Williams of CFZ Australia, as well as Lisa Maslan and Tracker Jon McGowan. This team will focus on the area between the farmland and the jungle, where there has been a concentration of eyewitness reports from locals, and is also in the vicinity of where Andy and I heard an OP call in 2004. All teams will be using a combination of technology, and local and personal expertise in the field to maximise our chances of getting results! Any evidence we do bring back will of course be rigorously analysed by independent respected academics, who are already on stand by.” Evidence from previous expeditions to Sumatra in search of Orang Pendek have been compelling enough (see DNA Evidence of Mystery Ape!) to warrant yet another expedition in the attempt to find further proof of the creature’s existence. When questioned the possibility of new techniques being employed in the search for Orang Pendek, Mr. Davies was somewhat evasive, saying only that they’ll be doing something “a little different this time around”, but declined to say exactly what this will be. I assume Adam’s reluctance to divulge these details are to avoid tipping off the OP, who I assume is a regular reader of The Paranomalist. As always, I wish the best of luck to Adam and the entire CFZ team and hope they have a safe, productive and fruitful journey. I’ll look forward to hearing more about it upon their return.
Special thanks to Wikipedia, About.com and other internet sources for information used in this publication. ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN - AETHER - In the late 19th century luminiferous aether ("light-bearing aether") was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light. Later theories including special relativity were formulated without the aether concept, and today the aether is considered to be an obsolete scientific theory. The word "aether" stems via Latin from the Greek αἰθήρ, from a root meaning "to kindle/burn/shine", which signified the substance thought in ancient times to fill the upper regions of space, beyond the clouds. ALCHEMY - The Science of turning the baser metals into gold or silver by chemical means. The byproduct, "Quicksilver," was thought to have magical powers. This was a very perfected science in Egyptian times and lasted all the way up into the 14th-16th Century A.D. when some of the alchemy methods were lost due to wars and fires that were amid in those times. ALEX JONES - Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American radio host, political conspiracy theorist, and filmmaker. He is best known for questioning the standard accounts of the September 11th terrorist attacks, his unauthorised filming of the opening ceremony of an annual gathering at the Bohemian Grove, and his regular bulletins on the "New World Order". Jones claims to spend at least 4 to 5 hours a day contemplating how to defeat the "One World Order". ANOMALY - An irregular or unusual event which does not fit a standard rule or law. An anomaly is something which cannot be explained by currently accepted scientific theories. Anything weird, abnormal, strange, odd, or difficult to classify is considered an anomaly. AIR FORCE FLIGHT TEST CENTER - See Area 51. ALIEN AUTOPSY - The term alien autopsy is used within the UFOlogical community to refer to the supposed examination of an extraterrestrial cadaver by government authorities. Belief in alien autopsies is a common element of UFO conspiracy theory. Film footage, purporting to show an alien autopsy, was promoted during the 1990s by Ray Santilli, a London-based video entrepreneur. This footage has since been announced as a hoax (see RAY SANTILLI). ALEISTER CROWLEY - Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced /'krəʊ.li/ i.e. with the first syllable sounding like the bird) was an English occultist, prolific writer, mystic, hedonist, aficionado of chess and mountain climbing, and sexual revolutionary. Crowley himself claimed to be a Freemason, but the legitimacy of his claims have been disputed. Other interests and accomplishments were wide-ranging—he was a chess master, mountain climber, poet, painter, astrologer, drug experimenter, and social critic. He is perhaps best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. Crowley was also an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis. Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was famously dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World." AREA 51 - Currently known as Air Force Flight Test Center, Detachment 3 and also known as Dreamland, Watertown Strip, Paradise Ranch, The Box, Groom Lake) is a remote tract of land in southern Nevada, owned by the United States Air Force, containing an airfield whose primary purpose is the secret development and testing of new military aircraft. It is famed as the subject of many UFO conspiracy theories. ART BELL III - Arthur "Art" W. Bell, III (b. June 17, 1945) is an American broadcaster and author, known primarily as the founder and a longtime host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. He also created and at one time hosted its companion show, Dreamland. Semi-retired from Coast to Coast AM, he returned from his hiatus from hosting the weekend broadcasts but then took another leave while technical problems are worked out. Bell also owns oldies station: KNYE 95.1 FM ("The Kingdom of Nye ... Things That Go Pahrump In The Night") in Pahrump, Nevada. As of October 2006, Bell is the regular weekend host on Coast to Coast AM, broadcasting from Metro Manila in the Philippines. ASTRAL PROJECTION (see Out-of-Body Experience) AUTOMATIC WRITING or AUTOMATIC ART - To freely channel your higher self or another soul's words, music, or art without the interruptive interference of the mind. BARBARA SIMPSON - Barbara Simpson is an American radio talk show host. She is most notable as the host of Coast-to-Coast AM on Saturday nights from about 2000 until about 2003, alternating with George Noory, but has also been a long-time host of her own show on KSFO (AM). She occasionally hosted the show on other nights as well, but has not hosted since 2004 or early 2005. As a substitute for the show's founder and current weekend host, Art Bell. Simpson was known for her conservative political views. As of 2006, she also writes a commentary column entitled "The Babe In The Bunker" for the conservative online news site WorldNetDaily. Currently, Barbara, "The Babe in the Bunker," is on KSFO Saturdays and Sundays with frequent weekday fill-in appearances. She also hosts the Saturday night/Sunday morning Coast to Coast AM -- The Art Bell Program. As a television newsperson, Ms. Simpson anchored The 10 O'clock News on KTVU-Channel 2/Oakland for nine years, winning two Emmys in the process. For two years she anchored the original 2 at Noon show on KTVU and moderated a town hall program for KQED TV/Public Television in San Francisco. As anchor, she helped launch the evening news at KOFY-TV 20/San Francisco. In Los Angeles, Barbara Simpson anchored the 10PM News and did investigative reporting for KTTV-Channel 11. She then moved to KNXT (now KCBS-TV), where she was a field reporter and specialist covering the school busing trial as well as a program host and news anchor. She also guest hosted on GOOD MORNING L.A. for KABC-TV. Her work in LA included radio as well, as a talk show host and specialty reporter for KABC and KFI. Barbara Simpson wrote, produced and hosted daily environmental reports for CBS Network Radio. Her columns on political/social issues have been appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Contra Costa Times, Los Angeles Daily News, San Diego Union Tribune, Arizona Republic and The Indianapolis News. Barbara Simpson also writes a weekly column for World Net Daily.Com which runs every Monday. All of her columns are available in the World Net Daily.Com archive. Among her many professional honors, she won the "Golden Medallion" from the California State Bar for her TV work. She was named "Woman of the Year" in TV by the Northern California Chapter of the American Women in Radio and Television, as well as a Kudo Award for her KSFO talk radio program. She has also been honored by the National Commission on Working Women, the Peninsula Press Club, Oakland Business and Professional Women and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. Barbara Simpson works to make a difference in a variety of arenas. As Public Relations Director for The Cousteau Society, she helped design and coordinate a worldwide petition campaign. In California she handled media for the successful No on 8, No on 224 and No on 185 Initiative Campaigns, was News Bureau Director for the award-winning "Californians Against Utility Company Abuse" campaign and was Media Director for "Californians Against Hidden Taxes." Her company, Blue Shadow Productions, does media consulting for politics, business and the environment. The scope of her experience well equips her for the microphone. From gun control (she is an excellent markswoman) to education (she has taught at Michigan State University), her firm positions are borne of experience and first-hand knowledge. Beast, The - The Number of the Beast is a concept from the Book of Revelation of the Christian New Testament. The Number is 666 in modern texts, although 616 and 665 appear instead in at least one ancient source. The meaning of the most common variant 666 is still debated today. Some scholars contend that the number is a code for the Roman Emperor Nero, a view that is supported by some Roman Catholic theologians. B.E.A.S.T. - See Beast. BERMUDA TRIANGLE - The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a geographical area in the Atlantic Ocean approximately triangular in shape and is famous for its supposed paranormal activities. The Bermuda Triangle's three corners are roughly defined by Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, giving it an area of nearly half a million square miles (1.2 million km²). Paranormal claims include significant numbers of ships and aircraft that have disappeared under highly unusual circumstances and activity where the known laws of physics are violated. It has been suggested that extraterrestrial beings are responsible for some of the disappearances. BETTY AND BARNEY HILL - BIG BANG - BIG BLACK DELTAS - (BBDs) - See Black Triangle. BIGFOOT - Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is believed by some to be an ape-like cryptid and by others to be the product of imagination. Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, bipedal hairy hominoid creature living in remote forested wilderness areas of the United States and of Canada, specifically those in south western Canada, the Great Lakes, the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, the forests of the U.S. Northeast, and the U.S. Southern states. Some think that a Bigfoot, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti. Sightings of similar creatures have allegedly occurred in Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Australia, South America. The majority of scientists reject the likelihood of such a creature's existence, and consider the stories of Bigfoot to be a combination of unsubstantiated folklore and hoax. BLACK TRIANGLE - A kind of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) that have been reportedly observed in the skies since the 1940s (and possibly earlier), to the present day. They have appeared more commonly over cities of the United States, and England, but have been spotted world wide including a mass sighting over St. Petersburg, Russia on February 19, 1997. Since then, hundreds of observers have reported enormous, totally silent, black triangular craft hovering or slowly cruising at low altitudes over cities and highways, usually at night and making no attempt to evade detection. The craft are even described by many observers as having some sort of "running lights", either bright white lights or flashing colored lights. These lights usually appear at each corner point of the triangle. Sometimes a red pulsating light can be seen at the center. These objects are also sometimes known by the names "Big Black Deltas" (BBDs) or "Flying Triangles." BOB LAZAR - Robert Scott Lazar (born 26 January 1959) is a central (and highly controversial) figure in discussions about UFOs. Lazar claims to have worked at area S-4 of the Nevada Test Site (near Area 51) at the special request of Edward Teller. He further claims to have performed reverse engineering on crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft there. The publicity surrounding his revelations is one of the major factors in putting the previously obscure military facility in public awareness. In November 1989 Lazar made a special interview appearance with investigative reporter George Knapp on Las Vegas TV station KLAS to talk about his reported work. He suggested this was in part to share the information in scientific interest, and partly to insure himself against any mysterious sudden demise for exposing what Lazar described as classified information. Opinions are divided as to the reliability of Lazar's claims. Critics argue that he has made unsupported statements, and that Lazar has a weak grasp of the scientific principles he espouses, and that the entire affair is a hoax. Supporters argue that Lazar is the victim of a cover up, and that his claims are accurate and reliable. Lazar has also operated a variety of companies, including scientific supply company United Nuclear and a related venture developing hydrogen powered vehicles. BOHEMIAN GROVE - Bohemian Grove is a 11 km2(2700-acre) campground located at 20601 Bohemian Ave, Monte Rio, California 95462 belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's fine arts club known as the Bohemian Club. Every year (since 1899) Bohemian Grove is the location of a two-week (covering three weekends) encampment, beginning in the middle of July, of some of the most powerful men in the world. On July 15, 2000, Austin, Texas-based journalist and filmmaker Alex Jones and his cameraman, Mike Hanson, became the first people to successfully infiltrate the Grove and make it out with documented evidence. With hidden cameras, Jones and Hanson were able to film the Cremation of Care ritual. The footage was the centerpiece of Jones' documentary, Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. Jones states that a large number of men were in attendance during an "ancient Canaanite, Luciferian, Babylon mystery religion ceremony" involving a 45-foot statue of an owl which he named Moloch. BOX, THE - See Area 51. BUMPER MUSIC - Bumper music is a term used in the radio broadcasting industry. It refers to the short clips of music used to buffer transitions between programming elements, such as when a syndicated program takes a break for local station identification or "goes to commercial." Bumper music was first used heavily by Rush Limbaugh, who pioneered conservative AM talk radio in the United States. Extended news programs aired on non-commercial radio networks such as NPR also use short clips of music between stories and features, but these are known as buttons. CHUPACABRA - The chupacabra is a mythical cryptid said to inhabit parts of the Latin America. It is associated particularly with Puerto Rico (where it was first reported), Mexico, Chile, Brazil and the United States, especially in the latter's Latin American communities and Maine. The name translates literally from the Portuguese and Spanish as "goat-sucker". It comes from the creature's reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Sightings began in Puerto Rico in the early 1990s, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile. Though some argue that the chupacabras may be real creatures, mainstream scientists and experts generally contend that the chupacabra is a legendary creature, or a type of urban legend. CLAIRAUDIENCE - Hearing voices, astral music or discarnate beings. CLAIROLEOFACTOR - To have an extraordinary sense of smell, as if you could smell flowers before they bloom or smell trouble before it occurs or death before it happens. CLAIRSENTIENCE - The ability to clearly feel yours and/or another's emotions and sensations. CLAIRVOYANCE - To have lucid mental perceptions and keen insights about people and life situations and to have clear visual mental images, pictures, to "see" auras and other psychic phenomena. C.L.A.M.P. - The Christian Legion Against Media Pornography, founded and operated by Jonathan Christian Webster, III, also known as "J.C.". See also J.C. COMING GLOBAL SUPERSTORM, THE - The Coming Global Superstorm is a 1999 book by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber which predicts that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects. The 2004 movie, The Day After Tomorrow is based in part on this book. The book posits the following theory: * First, that the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift generates a cordon of warm water around the north pole, which in turn creates a cordon of warm air that holds in a frozen mass of arctic air. * Second, that if the Gulf Stream were to shut down, that barrier would fail, releasing a flood of frozen air into the northern hemisphere, effecting a sudden and drastic temperature shift. The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the gulf stream: that the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world's oceans. Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before. Among their citations is the island city of Nan Madol - the claim is made that its construction, with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials, necessitates a high degree of technical competancy. Since no such society exists in the modern record - or, even, in legend - this society must have been destroyed by dramatic means. While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible, a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth. Strieber and Bell assert that, since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs, that these animals must have been cut down quickly, in otherwise normal conditions, and been preserved so well by quick freezing. This is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event. Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short stories, describing what might transpire today, should a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current occur. These fictional accounts of "current events" as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science-fiction film The Day After Tomorrow and, indeed, some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification. CORAL CASTLE - Coral Castle is a stone structure created by the Latvian-American eccentric, Edward Leedskalnin, north of the city of Homestead, Florida at the intersection of U.S. Route 1 (South Dixie Highway) and Southwest 288th Street (Biscayne Drive). The structure is comprised of numerous megalithic stones (mostly coral), each weighing several tons. The structure is considered mysterious, by some, mainly because it is often said that one man assembled the entire structure. The veracity of this is impossible to prove, however, because Leedskalnin worked at night, hidden from the eyes of observers. This claim has led to numerous theories on the method Leedskalnin used to construct it. Some suggest that he used a form of antigravity device to build the castle since Leedskalnin weighed just 100 lb (45 kg) and seemed too weak to physically build it using ordinary means. Numerous designs have been suggested for this device, some using "harmonic sound waves", some using magnetism, and numerous other proposals. Leedskalnin himself claimed that he knew the "secret" of the ancient Egyptian pyramids, and some allege he used those secrets to assemble the structure. However, it's likely Leedskalnin constructed the Castle using simple traditional means, as pictures exist of him constructing the castle with blocks and tackle. CROSS-SPECIES COMMUNICATION - To have a special rapport and understanding with animals, plants or alien beings. CRYPTIDS - Animals presumed extinct or hypothetical species of animals known from anecdotal evidence and/or other evidence insufficient to prove their existence with certainty. The term "cryptid" was first coined in 1983 by John Wall. Cryptids may also be known as an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (UMA). CRYPTOZOOLOGIST - One who studies or searches for cryptids. CRYPTOZOOLOGY - the study of animals that are rumored to exist, but for which conclusive proof is still missing; the term also includes the study of animals generally considered extinct, but which are still occasionally reported. Those who study or search for such animals are called cryptozoologists, while the hypothetical creatures involved are referred to by some as "cryptids", a term coined by John Wall in 1983. CRYSTAL BALL - A crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball believed to aid clairvoyance. It is sometimes known as a shew stone. The art or process of "seeing" is known as "scrying," whereby images are seen in crystals, or other mediums such as water, and are interpreted as meaningful information. The "information" gleaned then is used to make important decisions in one's life (i.e. love, marriage, finances, travel, business, etc). When the technique of scrying is used with crystals, or any transparent body, it is known as crystallomancy. CRYSTAL GAYLE - Crystal Gayle (born January 9, 1951) is a country music and pop music singer. She is famous for her nearly floor length long hair and was voted one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in 1983. She is also the sister of singer Loretta Lynn and cousin of singer Patty Loveless. Born Brenda Gail Webb in Paintsville, Kentucky, Gayle began performing and recording during the early 1970s. CRYSTALLOMANCY - The art of gazing into a crystal globe, a pool of water, a mirror, or any transparent object. The person may put him/her self into a hypnotic state to see visions or to summon forth spirits or demons. CUFOS - The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) is a privately-funded unidentified flying object (UFO) research group. It was founded in 1973 by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a professor of astronomy at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Hynek was also a top scientific consultant for Project Blue Book, the US Air Force's official study of the UFO mystery from 1948 to 1969. Although Dr. Hynek started out as a skeptic and helped the Air Force to debunk most UFO reports, he gradually became convinced that a small number of UFO cases were not hoaxes or explainable as misidentifications of natural phenomena, and that these reports might represent something extraordinary - even alien visitation from other planets. When the Air Force shut down Project Blue Book in 1969, Dr. Hynek decided to establish his own organization to continue to study UFO reports in a scientific and unbiased manner. Based in Chicago, CUFOS continues to be a small research organization stressing scientific analysis of UFO cases. Its extensive archives include historically valuable files from defunct civilian research groups such as NICAP, one of the most popular and credible UFO research groups of the 1950's and 1960's. Following Dr. Hynek's death in 1986, CUFOS was renamed the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in his honor. The current leader and scientific director of CUFOS is Dr. Mark Rodeghier, who holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Illinois. CYDONIA - Cydonia Mensae is an albedo feature (region) on Mars. It lies in the planet's northern hemisphere in a transitional zone between the heavily-cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the North. Cydonia itself is covered in numerous mesas and may have been a coastal zone if planetologists are correct in believing that the northern plains were once ocean beds. Also see FACE ON MARS, D&M PYRAMID, RICHARD C. HOAGLAND. D&M PYRAMID - A three-sided pyramidal feature located on the Martian Cydonia Mensae. Also see FACE ON MARS, D&M PYRAMID, RICHARD C. HOAGLAND. DAY AFTER TOMORROW, THE - The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 apocalyptic science-fiction film that depicts catastrophic effects of global cooling and boasts high-end special effects, bending the lines between science, reality and science fiction. Worldwide, it is the 37th top grossing film of all time, with total revenue of $542,000,000 in US dollars. The Day After Tomorrow premiered in Mexico City on May 17, 2004 and was released worldwide from May 26 to May 28 except in South Korea and Japan where it was released June 4 and June 5, respectively. The movie was inspired by The Coming Global Superstorm, a book written by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber. There are relativley subtle connections between the book and the film: one being that there is a scene depicting a rescue mission at the New York Public Library. Shortly before and during the release of the movie, members of environmental groups and former Vice President Al Gore distributed pamphlets to movie-goers describing what they believe to be the possible effects of global warming, which generally did not agree with the film; some believe Gore looked too much into the film as what he may have thought to have been "a scientifically accurate movie". During the session of which the film was out in theaters, much criticism arose towards politicians concerning the Kyoto Protocol and climate change, and in the end the movie created quite the political stir. DAY AFTER ROSWELL, THE - DEJÀ VU - Certain events and experiences seem as if you are re-experiencing the event or situation that has happened at another time. As familiar as the experiences are, you cannot recall nor figure out when they happened. DEMONOLOGY - One who studies and practices the art of demonology. An individual who specializes in the removal of evil or demonic forces from a given environment using the art of demonology. One who brings demonic forces out of their slumber to be cast away. Someone who uses the art of demonology to incantate demons for ones use in battling them. DETACHMENT THREE - See AREA 51. DIRECT WRITING - Direct writing is when spirits actually write using any means. This can be done by slate writing or by pen and paper. DIVINATION - The obtain unknown knowledge or future events from omens. Astrology may be considered divination. DIVINING ROD - A forked rod from a tree said to indicate the presence of water or minerals underground. DMILS - Abbreviation of Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems. Used to denote instances where one person is attempting to influence a distant biological system, usually the physiology of another person. As it is unclear whether this represents an influence (see psychokinesis), a case of ESP on the part of the influence (see ESP) or an opportunistic selection process, the term 'interaction' has been adopted. DOPPELGANGER - A spirit of a living person outside of the physical body. DOWSING - To be able to find underground water and/or underground minerals. DREAMLAND - Also see Area 51. A radio program created by Art Bell in the late 1980's that aired prior to Coast to Coast AM. Currently hosted by Whitley Strieber in an online format. EDNA PRINGLE - See J.C. EDWARD LEEDSKALNIN - See CORAL CASTLE. EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. EMPATHY - Rarely used in modern parapsychology, the popular usage of this term refers to a low-level form of telepathy wherein the empath appears to be aware of the emotional state of a distant person. An empath may also be able to "broadcast" emotions to others. EMPATHIC VAMPIRE - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. END TIMES, THE - The End Times are a time of tribulation that will precede the coming of a Messiah figure in many world religions. Primarily, the term End Times has evolved from use around a group of beliefs in Christian millennialism. For a more general view, see eschatology. END OF TIMES - See END TIMES, THE. ENERGY PARASITE - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. ENERGY PREDATOR - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. ENERGY SAPPER or ENERGY ZAPPER - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. ENERGY VAMPIRE - See PSYCHIC VAMPIRE. ESP - Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the knowledge of external objects or events without the aid of the senses. ETHER - See AETHER, THE. ETHEREAL - Of or pertaining to heaven or the spirit. Also see AETHER, THE. FACE ON MARS - One of the Cydonian mesas, situated at 30°45' north latitude and 9°26' west longitude, took on the striking appearance of a human Face on Mars in a photo taken by Viking 1 on July 25, 1976. While generally believed to be an optical illusion (pareidolia), others view it as evidence of a long-lost Martian civilization. Other features are argued to have been observed, such as apparent pyramids. A popular belief is that these are part of a ruined city. NASA has stated however that "a detailed analysis of multiple images of this feature reveals a natural-looking Martian hill whose illusory face-like appearance depends on viewing angle and angle of illumination." More recent pictures by the Mars Global Surveyor seem only to confirm the validity of this scientific opinion. On September 21, 2006, the European Space Agency published new photographs of the Cydonia region taken by the Mars Express probe. The new images are at a resolution of less than 14 m/pixel (46 ft/pixel). On October 23, 2006, the European Space Agency published a 3D animation of the "Face on Mars" using a combination of digital data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express probe and the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Originally, eighteen images of the Cydonia Mensae region were taken by the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters, but only seven have resolutions better than 250 m/pixel (820 ft/pixel). The other eleven images have resolutions worse than 550 m/pixel (1800 ft/pixel) and are virtually useless for studying the "feature". Of the seven good images, the lighting and time at which two pairs of images were taken are so close as to reduce the number to five usable, distinct images. The Mission to Mars: Viking Orbiter Images of Mars CD-ROM image numbers are: 35A72 (VO-1010), 70A13 (VO-1011), 561A25 (VO-1021), 673B56 & 673B54 (VO-1063), and 753A33 & 753A34 (VO-1028). FAITH HEALING - To know that you and others can heal yourselves by simply believing it. FANTASIC FORUM or FANTASTIC FORUM PIRATES - A web-based internet chat community devoted to the Coast to Coast AM radio program. Originally founded as an Art Bell chat site. Members refer to themselves as Pirates. FLYING TRIANGLE - See BLACK TRIANGLE. GANZFIELD - A state of mild sensory deprivation, characterized by the presentation of homogenous sensory fields. Thus, a person in Ganzfeld will have diffusive plastic hemispheres over their eyes while in a dimly red-lit room, be listening to white noise through headphones, and be seated in a comfortable, semi-reclined chair. Its use in parapsychology is based on a noise-reduction model. GEORGE NOORY - George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American radio broadcaster. As of 2006, he is the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show Coast to Coast AM. Noory was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, but now resides in Los Angeles, California and occasionally broadcasts from St. Louis, Missouri. Noory has more than 37 years of broadcasting experience and has won three Emmy awards. Noory served nine years in the United States Navy. He has said that he became fascinated with ufology and the paranormal as a child after having an out-of-body experience. As a teenager, Noory joined NICAP, the UFO organization that was a precursor to today's MUFON. Prior to hosting Coast to Coast AM, Noory hosted his own late-night radio program on KTRS in St. Louis where he was known as "the Nighthawk." The show, like Coast-to-Coast, also dealt with the paranormal, and was carried by stations in five states. Noory became a guest host for Coast-to-Coast before replacing Ian Punnett as the Sunday night host. On January 1st, 2003, Noory took over the weeknight hosting duties from Art Bell, who had decided again to retire. Bell then returned to host the Saturday and Sunday programs, with Ian Punnett doing the Coast to Coast Live show on Saturday night. With Noory as host, Coast to Coast AM experienced a continuous boost in listenership and became the top rated late night radio talk show in numerous radio markets throughout the country. On January 21, 2006, it was announced that Art would return to Coast to Coast on Saturdays and Sundays, replacing Ian Punnett on Saturdays, and George R. Noory on the first two Sundays of the month. Art returned to the airwaves on January 22, 2006, following his wife's death on January 5. Art announced on his first show back on January 22 that Ian Punnett will not be unemployed. Ian will work the prefeed live for 4 hours before Art Bell's slot on Saturday nights from 9pm-1am EST, 6pm-10pm PST. Noory is known for his mild-mannered interviewing style and his willingness to air callers with claims of alien abductions, near-death experiences, and other paranormal topics. In the past, he has made some unusual claims on his show. Noory claims that when he broadcasts his show from St. Louis, he broadcasts from a dark cave in the middle of nowhere. Regular listeners to Coast to Coast AM know well, however, that such claims are usually nothing more than Noory's tongue-in-cheek musings which, it may be assumed, are meant to further amplify the air of mystery embodied in the show's very premise. George Noory's patriotic pro-American stand, his down-to-earth style and his ability to instantly react to any types of callers in a friendly, often humorous manner has greatly contributed to his popularity with millions of US and Canadian listeners of all walks of life, from truckers driving across America at night to policemen on duty and night-shift security personnel to the blind and the elderly, and simply lonely people in need of a friend. George's family is said to be of Lebanese Christian descent and his father was born in Cairo in 1922. According to George, he was brought up as a Roman Catholic and his mother was a devout Catholic. He says he believes in 'a God' but some of his views, for instance on reincarnation and the creation of the human race by aliens who carried out a number of genetic experiments are quite out of line with the official dogma. George Noory is currently divorced. He once referred to the stress of working as a late-night talk show host as one of the reasons for his failed marriage. He has two adult children, a son and a daughter, and a granddaughter. Noory has repeatedly announced on-air that he is committed to remaining the major host of "Coast" until at least 2012, a year which is a frequently discussed in regard to so-called "Earth changes". His commitment is substantiated by a long-term contract with Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications which also produces such radio programs as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and Glenn Beck. GHOST - Ghosts or spooks are controversial phenomena which have several possible definitions: * The spirit or soul of a person who has died, especially one which haunts a place which was of emotional significance to that person when living. * The personality of a person after his or her own death which is not directly tied to the soul or spirit. A sort of psychic memory-imprint. * The character or memory of some being or thing which has died or, if it was never alive, been somehow destroyed or disassembled, which nevertheless remains existent (and sometimes detectable) in a semi-corporeal form. According to reported sightings, ghosts have taken the shape of humans, animals, and even vehicles. There are reports of ghosts (usually of deceased humans) in most cultures throughout the world. There is a great deal of dispute whether ghosts are figments of the imagination or part of objective existence. Ghosts are among the subjects studied by parapsychologists. GHOST TO GHOST - The Halloween edition of Coast to Coast AM becomes Ghost to Ghost, as listeners call in with their ghost stories. This program is traditionally hosted by Art Bell. Though Ghost to Ghost is a Halloween treat for listeners, at various times throughout the history of Coast to Coast AM, there have been non-Halloween editions. GLOBAL COOLING - Global cooling in general can refer to a cooling of the earth; more specifically, it is a theory positing an overall cooling of the Earth and perhaps the commencement of glaciation. This theory gained temporary popular attention due to press reporting following a better understanding of ice age cycles and a temporary downward trend of temperatures from the 1940s to the early 1970s. The theory never had strong scientific support. At present, the Earth is not cooling, but rather is in a period of global warming mostly attributed to human activity. GLOBAL WARMING - Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. The Earth's average near-surface atmospheric temperature rose 0.6 ± 0.2 °Celsius (1.1 ± 0.4 °Fahrenheit) in the 20th century. The prevailing scientific opinion on climate change is that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". The increased amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the primary causes of the human-induced component of warming. They are released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, etc. and lead to an increase in the greenhouse effect. The first speculation that a greenhouse effect might occur was by the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1897, although it did not become a topic of popular debate until some 90 years later. The measure of the response to increased GHGs, and other anthropogenic and natural climate forcings, is climate sensitivity. It is found by observational and model studies. This sensitivity is usually expressed in terms of the temperature response expected from a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere. The current literature estimates sensitivity in the range 1.5–4.5 °C (2.7–8.1 °F). Models referenced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) project that global temperatures might increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C (2.5 to 10.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100. The uncertainty in this range results from both the difficulty of estimating the volume of future greenhouse gas emissions and uncertainty about climate sensitivity. An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. These changes may increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornados. Other consequences include higher or lower agricultural yields, glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors. Warming is expected to affect the number and magnitude of these events; however, it is difficult to connect particular events to global warming. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming (and sea level rise due to thermal expansion) is expected to continue past then, since CO2 has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 50 to 200 years. . Only a small minority of climate scientists discount the role that humanity's actions have played in recent warming. However, the uncertainty is more significant regarding how much climate change should be expected in the future, and there is a hotly contested political and public debate over what, if anything, should be done to reduce or reverse future warming, and how to deal with the predicted consequences. GRAYS or GREYS - The Greys, also known as Roswell aliens, Zetas, or Reticulians, are an alleged extraterrestrial life forms that appear in modern UFO conspiracy theories, and other UFO-related paranormal phenomena. They make up approximately 75% of all aliens reported in the US, 20% of all aliens reported in Mainland Europe, and 12% of all aliens reported in Britain. GROOM LAKE - See AREA 51. HEMATOPHAGY - See VAMPIRISM. HYPERDIMENSIONAL PHYSICS - Hyperdimensional physics is a form of Pseudoscience theorized in the mid 19th Century. The pseudoscience was based on mathametical and geometric foundations. Unlike conventional physics, Hyperdimensional physics do not follow the scientific methoid and as a result is not accepted or is ignored by the general scientific community. See also HOAGLAND, RICHARD C. IAN PUNNETT - Case Ian Punnett (born March 3, 1960 in Wilmette, Illinois) is an American radio broadcaster. He has appeared on national news programs for CNN. He is a former host of widely-syndicated Coast to Coast AM, created by Art Bell, where he hosted every Sunday night from April 2000 until December 2001 and then every Saturday night from June 2005 until January 2006. His Coast to Coast audience has nicknamed him affectionately, "Church Boy" or the Ferret or Chad Bonesteel. On January 21, 2006 Punnett announced that the original host, Art Bell, would be returning each Saturday and Sunday to broadcast the show. Punnett moved to Coast to Coast Live with Ian Punnett, a new, four hour program, on January 28, 2006. The new show occupies a slot (6 p.m.-10 PM Pacific/9 p.m.-1 a.m. Eastern) where Coast to Coast AM had offered repeats of earlier shows for stations which carried the show earlier than the 1 a.m. Eastern/10 p.m. Pacific live start time. As such, many existing Coast to Coast AM affiliates automatically carried the new program from its first night and in the subsequent months many new affiliates have come on board. Currently, the affiliate count stands around 200. In his short time hosting Coast to Coast Live, Punnett has developed a loyal following of his own. Punnett always opens the show reminding 'hostile invading aliens' hovering just beyond earth's atmosphere to 'Eat the Canadians first', saying they are 'much tastier' than overweight Americans. Punnett, under the pseudonym "Ian Case" (his first and middle names transposed), co-hosted rock morning radio shows on WXLP in the Quad Cities as "Ian Case and the Coach" and then as "Ian Case and The Duke" with Mike "The Duke" Donegan on then-rock music station WKDF in Nashville, Tennessee in the early-to-mid-1990s. He left to do talk radio for WGN in Chicago in 1994 then Atlanta, Georgia in 1997 to host a nightly talk show on WGST under his real name, Ian Punnett. He returned to the WKDF morning show in 1998, though he remained in Atlanta and broadcast the show from a studio in his home after doing his show on WGST (his co-host, Mike "Duke" Donegan, broadcast from the station's Nashville studio). Punnett would occasionally slip up and announce his real name instead of the pseudonym, which inadvertently became a running gag. That show's run came to an end in early 1999, shortly before WKDF switched to a country music format. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, Punnett hosts the morning show (5-9 a.m.) on WFMP-FM. The show is known as A Balanced Breakfast with Ian and Margery, and is co-hosted by his wife, Margery C. Punnett who does her part of the show from a studio in their home while getting their two teenage boys off to school. Punnett has Masters of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, and is in the ordination process in The Episcopal Church. His wife. Margery C. Punnett, is a former TV producer who has worked for CNN as well as Oprah. INNER VOICE - Receiving guidance and assistance from inside of you. INSECTOID - Insectoid denotes any creature or object that shares a similar body or traits with common earth insects. Insectoids are commonly found in science fiction. Insectoids are also one of several reported alien species common in UFO abduction cases. INTUITION - Act of knowing without the use of usual rational processes. Based partly on subconscious pattern association of known information, and partly on subconscious psi impressions. JAQUES F. VALLEE, Ph.D. - Jacques F. Vallée, Ph.D., (born September 24, 1939) is a French-born ufologist, computer scientist, and former astronomer, currently residing in San Francisco, United States. (He should not be confused with the Canadian astronomer Jacques P. Vallée.) J. ALLEN HYNEK, DR. - Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 - April 27, 1986) was a U.S. astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is probably best remembered for his UFO research: Hynek acted as scientific advisor to three consecutive UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force: Project Sign (1947-1949), Project Grudge (1949-1952), and finally, Project Blue Book (1952 to 1969); for decades afterwards, he conducted his own independent UFO reseach. J.C. - JONATHAN CHRISTIAN WEBSTER, III - Jonathan Christian Webster III (also known as J.C.) is a frequent caller to the radio talk show Coast to Coast AM, primarily when Art Bell is the host. He purports to be the leader of a Christian religious group called CLAMP, the Christian Legion Against Media Pornography. JOHN TITOR - John Titor was the name used for the purported time traveler from the year 2036 who posted on several time-travel–related Internet bulletin boards during 2000/2001, making many ambiguous, but seemingly falsifiable, predictions about events in the near future and giving an account of his supposed native time period. Many proponents of Titor believe his claims may be unsubstantiated due to the complex nature of the multiple time-line theory. Whether or not John Titor was a hoax has been a topic of controversy on web-based paranormal discussion boards. KINGDOM OF NYE - Nye County is nicknamed "The Kingdom of Nye" from the radio program Coast to Coast AM, hosted by former Pahrump resident Art Bell. Nye County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of 2000, the population was 32,485. In 2004 its population was 46,714. Nye is the third largest county in terms of area in the continental United States. Its county seat is Tonopah. The Nevada Test Site and proposed nuclear waste repository Yucca Mountain is located in the south-western part of the county and is the focus of a great deal of political and public controversy in the state. The U.S. federal government also owns 92% of the land in the county. This is also a controversial subject for the county and for the state. A portion of Death Valley National Park is in Nye County, and visitors often stay at Beatty or Amargosa Valley. KNOWINGNESS / INTUITION - To get information without knowing where it came from. An instinctual feeling. LEVITATION - See TELEKINESIS. LUMINIFEROUS AETHER - See AETHER. LYCANTHROPE or LYCANTHROPY - See WEREWOLF. MADMAN MARKHAM - MALACHI MARTIN, FATHER - The Reverend Dr. Father Malachi Brendan Martin (July 23, 1921–July 27, 1999) was a Roman Catholic priest and a former Jesuit. Author of 15 books on religious and geo-political topics, Martin was a controversial commentator on the Vatican and other Catholic matters and a regular guest of Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM. He was a brother of the Irish historian F. X. Martin. MARK OF THE BEAST - See 666. Mel Waters - See MEL'S HOLE. Mel's Hole - Mel's Hole is the name of an alleged infinitely deep hole with a retaining wall around it, featuring paranormal powers purportedly found on the property of Mel Waters, who publicised its existence on episodes of Coast to Coast with Art Bell airing between 1997 and 2002. The property is located near Ellensburg, Washington, near the Manastash Ridge. Although the existence of this hole and the events surrounding it have been doubted by many, Art Bell and many of his listeners believe in the existence of the hole and continue to search for it today. According to the stories surrounding this, Mel Waters owned land outside of Ellensburg, which had a hole he plotted the depth (allegedly) to at least 80,000 feet deep. According to the Seattle Times, he claimed that "soldiers in yellow gear cordoned off his property and threatened to 'find' a drug lab on it if he didn't cooperate," and that "one neighbor claimed to have thrown a dead dog in the hole, only to see it later frolicking in the woods; how another saw a black beam emanating from the hole; how transistor radios brought to the hole play programs from the past." Search parties to this day routinely search the territory near Ellensburg for evidence of the hole. MEN IN BLACK (MIBs) - The term Men in Black (MIBs), in popular culture, is used in UFO conspiracy theories to describe men dressed in black suits claiming to be government agents who attempt to harass or threaten UFO witnesses into silence. "All MIB are not necessarily garbed in dark suits," writes American researcher Jerome Clark. "The term is a generic one, used to refer to any unusual, threatening or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting." The phenomenon was initially and most frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s; it is contemporaneous with many other conspiracy theories. MIKE SIEGEL - Mike Siegel (born 1945) is an American radio talk show host. He was the host of the late night talk show Coast to Coast AM from April 2000 until January 2001. He became a frequent substitute of the show's host, Art Bell in late 1999 and early 2000, and when Bell announced his retirement, he recommended Siegel to succeed him. Siegel maintained the format of the show that Art Bell had created, but his personal style was very different, and the show became less popular. Early in 2001, Bell decided to return and Siegel left the show. Siegel hosted the show from Seattle, Washington where he lived. He is Jewish and a political conservative. Before and after his time on Coast to Coast, he was a substitute for some nationally syndicated conservative talk show hosts including Michael Reagan. During the 1990s, he had a daily talk show on Seattle's KVI. Siegel was also formerly host of a morning drive conservative talk show on KTTH in Seattle, Washington. In early December 2005, His contract with KTTH expired and he quit his show. He is now replaced by David Boze and Dan Sytman in the morning. On February 1, 2006 Siegel began a "temporary" stint (announced to be through the end of February) as host of "Noonday" on WDAY-AM in Fargo, North Dakota. The show had been hosted by Jack Sunday and Sandy Buttweiler, who abruptly left the station on January 26, 2006 to return to Clear Channel-owned KFGO-AM, where they had been fired in December, 2004. As of June, 2006, he is doing a one-hour local issues radio show from 5-7 PM on KITZ in Bremerton Washington and KGTK in Olympia. MIND CONSCIOUSNESS EXPERIMENTS - Also known as MASS CONSCIOUSNESS EXPERIMENTS. During the 1990's, Art Bell conducted a series of these attempts to influence weather and politics using the combined mental energy of his listening audience. He has since suspended further experimentation, citing unintended consequences as the reason. George Noory, however, has continued to call on listeners to participate, not feeling the need for total restraint despite Art Bell's warnings to the contrary. MIND TRAVELING - See O.B.E. MIND TRAVELER - See O.B.E. MOMUS ALEXANDER MORGUS - See MORGUS, DR. MORGUS, DR. - Momus Alexander Morgus, also known as Dr. Morgus and Morgus the Magnificent, is the television persona of former late-night horror host Sid Noel Rideau. As the fictional scientist Dr. Morgus, he first appeared on late night television in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 3, 1959, in the House of Shock. With the help of his assistant, Chopsley, and a talking skull known as E.R.I.C., Morgus conducted weekly experiments while hosting late night horror movies. He also appeared in Detroit in 1964. He was the first horror host to star in a feature film, "The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus" in 1962. He claims his parents were scientists. He claims to come from a long line of scientists, stretching back 4,380 years to Morgus the First, master architect of the great pyramid. Morgus alleges to have mastered differential calculus at age five and estimates his IQ to be somewhere in the 300 range. He claims to have created the Internet (later stolen by the Pentagon), the cell phone, coined the phrase "outside the box," and discovered the speed of dark, which he described as roughly twice the speed of light. He also insisted that he possesses Albert Einstein's brain and the world's first molecular integrated computer. Lately Dr. Morgus has been showing up on the Coast-to-Coast AM radio show at the behest of long-time fan George Noory. MUFON - The Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON for short, is headquartered in Morisson, Colorado. It is one of the oldest and largest UFO investigative organizations in the United States. Established in 1969, it now has more than 3,000 members worldwide with most of its membership base situated in the continental United States. MUFON operates a worldwide network of regional directors for field investigations of UFO sightings reports, holds an annual national symposium and publishes the monthly MUFON UFO Journal. The stated mission of MUFON is the scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity through investigations, research and education. Along with CUFOS (the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies) and FUFOR (the Fund for UFO Research), MUFON is part of the UFO Research Coalition, a collaborative effort by the three main UFO investigative organizations in the US whose goal is to share personnel and other research resources, and to fund and promote the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon. MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, THE - See MUFON. NEAR-DEATH-EXPERIENCE (NDE) - A near-death experience (NDE) is an experience reported by a person who has died Clinical death and been revived (usually by medical means). Recent scientific studies have validated the NDE as not only a legitimate experience, but a verification of the long-held belief in an afterlife. The experience is extremely common, especially since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques. According to a Gallup poll approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience (Mauro, 1992). The experience often includes an out-of-body experience. NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DISCOVERY SCIENCE (NIDS) - The National Institute for Discovery Science was founded by Robert Bigelow as a way to channel funds into the proper scientific study of paranormal phenomena. They have done extensive research into the area of Cattle mutilation and also became the FAA's sole recipient for black triangle reports. Most famously they bought Skinwalker Ranch, when the news started breaking about it in 1996, and Deputy Administrator Colm Kelleher led the investigation for a number of years. Due to their rather opaque nature rumours have circulated (predominantly online) about the NIDS. These largely revolve around their alleged connections with the military-industrial complex, with some even suggesting they are a CIA front organization. However, others, especially those in the UFO community, say they have proved a great help in funding investigations. NORDICS or NORDIC ALIENS or NORDS - Nordic aliens, or Nords, are one of several types of extraterrestrial featured in the UFO mythos. Nords are described as resembling beautiful, taller than average humans with Nordic or Scandinavian features: pale skin, blue or green eyes and blonde hair, reminiscent of Tolkien's Eldar. Nordic contacts, often from Venus, were frequently reported in the 1950s and 1960s, but declined after that. Contactees said they are known to beam down from gold or silver colored cresent-shapes UFOs as well as a gigantic bright cigar-shaped UFOs. Many people believe the cigar-shape UFOs serve as a mother ship because there have been reports of smaller ships flying around it. Their space crafts are often very fast-moving and can come in large numbers. Several reports claim that these UFOs were encountered near mountains or forests and rarely hover thought over places. Contactees' reports of Nordic aliens describe them as benevolent observers who are not allowed to interfere with Earth culture. They are rarely described as abducting humans or performing experiments on them. Many people theorise they are humans' long lost relatives that have travelled to other planets. Most Nordics aliens who are encountered on earth are males. They communicate telepathically. Some versions of the UFO mythoi allege that in 1953, Nordic aliens landed at Homestead Air Force Base to warn humans of the Greys and Reptoids. Incorporating the claims of Billy Meier into the lore surrounding them, many believers of the mythoi say that the Nordics originate in the Pleiades, despite the extreme youth of the stars contained in this cluster and therefore, the great improbablity of life as we know it having evolved there. People claim the Nordics aliens live on the planet Telosia. They are sometimes known as Telosians and Pleiadeans. They are also referred to as Venusians and Wingmakers. Some speculate that many UFOs are secret aircraft made by humans in the USA and being tested. If so, the "Nordic aliens" are the aircraft's human white American crew. OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE) or ASTRAL PROJECTION - To be able to leave your physical body and project your soul, consciousness or what appears to be your mind to another place and return via a silver cord. PAUL HELLYER - Paul Theodore Hellyer, PC (born August 6, 1923, in Waterford, Ontario) is a Canadian politician and commentator who has had a long and varied career. On June 3, 1967 Hellyer flew in by helicopter to officially inaugurate an Unidentified flying object landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta. The town had built the landing pad as its Canadian Centennial celebration project, and as a symbol of keeping space free from human warfare. The sign beside the pad reads: "The area under the World's First UFO Landing Pad was designated international by the Town of St. Paul as a symbol of our faith that mankind will maintain the outer universe free from national wars and strife. That future travel in space will be safe for all intergalactic beings, all visitors from earth or otherwise are welcome to this territory and to the Town of St. Paul." Throughout his life, Hellyer has been opposed to the weaponization of space. He supports the Space Preservation Treaty to ban space weapons. In early September 2005, Hellyer made headlines by publicly announcing that he believed in UFOs. On September 25, 2005, he was an invited speaker at an exopolitics conference in Toronto where he told the audience that he had seen a UFO one night with his late wife and some friends. He said that though he discounted the experience at the time, he had kept an open mind to it. He said that he started taking the issue much more seriously after watching ABC's Peter Jennings' UFO special in February 2005. PARADISE RANCH - See Area 51. PARAPSYCHOLOGY - Literally beyond psychology. The study of apparent new means of communication, or interaction, between organisms and their environment (commonly referred to as psi, or psychic ability), beyond those presently understood by the scientific community. PARAZOOLOGY - See Cryptozoology. PAST LIFE RECALL - To remember or have mental flashes about living in another century. POLTERGEIST - A general term applied to a variety of site-, or sometimes person-, specific physical phenomena. These can include temperature variations, anomalous sounds, and movement of physical objects. The word 'poltergeist' literally means 'noisy spirit' and was coined back when such phenomena were thought to be due to the presence of some sort of mischievous entity. Currently, poltergeist phenomena are usually considered to be related either to unusual physical conditions at the affected site, or to be related to psychokinesis. Anecdotal reports suggest that many poltergeist focus on an individual under some form of emotional stress. PRANIC VAMPIRE - See Psychic Vampire. PRECOGNITION - Pre-knowing; where nondeductible information about a future event is acquired. PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS - To have dreams of events or incidents before they happen. PREDICTION - To be able to predict future events before they occur. PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS - Premiere Radio Networks syndicates some of the most popular radio programs in the United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clear Channel Worldwide and is headed by Kraig Kitchin. Premiere programs are heard on over 5000 radio stations worldwide, primarily in the United States and Canada and through streaming audio over the Internet on their system called Streamlink. PROJECT CRYSTAL NIGHT - See PROJECT SERPO. PROJECT SERPO - Project Serpo is a term in ufology circles referring to an alleged exchange program between ultra top secret levels in the government of the United States and aliens from a homeworld called Serpo. In November 2005 an anonymous source, claiming to be part of a high level group of people within the US Defense Intelligence Agency DIA, began releasing information allegedly concerning Project Serpo. This released information claims that in July 1947 there were two extraterrestrial disks UFOs that crashed in the state of New Mexico, widely known and referenced as the famous Roswell UFO incident. The Project Serpo releases further claim that there was one surviving alien entity, known as EBE, which was an abbreviation for Extraterrestrial Biological Entity. Communication was allegedly established with this surviving EBE, and consequently its home world. The EBE lived for 5 years and died in 1952. Communications continued with the home world, allegedly in the Zeta Reticuli star system, which led to the arrangement of an exchange program taking place between 1965 to 1978, in which 12 American astronauts traveled to Serpo, 8 of whom returned. Project Serpo may also have been known as Project Crystal Knight at the time. PSI - A general term for parapsychological phenomena that includes informational (RV, ESP) and energetic (PK) effects. Psi, or Y, is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet. PSIONIC VAMPIRE - See Psychic Vampire. PSYCHIC - Popular term used to denote a person who regularly uses, or who appears to be especially gifted with, psi abilities. Also refers to general phenomena related to the mind (from Greek psyche). PSYCHIC SURGERY - The supposed ability to paranormally perform invasive surgery using no conventional medical tools. The psychic surgeon uses either an unsterilized knife, or his bare hands, to appear to make an incision and remove some internal matter. Once the operation is finished, there is no sign of an incision, nor are there any unpleasant aftereffects (e.g. infection). Many of the investigated cases have turned out to be fraudulent, involving sleight of hand tricks to make the operation appear convincing. However, it is possible that, in some circumstances, the ritual nature of the "surgery" could help effect a cure through the equally mysterious placebo effect. PSYCHIC VAMPIRE - An energy vampire or psychic vampire is a being said to have the ability to feed off the "life force" (called, variously, qi, prana, or vitality) of other living creatures. Alternative terms for these persons are pranic vampire, empathic vampire, energy predator, psy/psi-vamp, energy parasite, psionic vampire and emotional vampire. PSYCHOKINESIS (PK) - See Telekinesis. PSYCHOMETRY - To touch an object with your hands and get information about the object, it's creator, its owner, or it's history. QUICKENING, THE - RAMONA BELL - Second wife of Art Bell, Ramona Bell was married to Art Bell for fifteen years. She unexpectedly died from what appeared to be an acute asthma attack on January 5, 2006 in Laughlin, Nevada, where the couple was taking a short vacation. She was 47 years old. The events surrounding her death were described, in great detail, by Art Bell during the January 22 broadcast of Coast to Coast AM. For weeks thereafter, callers expressed their sadness and sympathy for Art Bell to George Noory who had taken Art Bell's place weekdays in 2002. Mrs. Bell filled in for her husband as host of Coast to Coast AM on at least one occasion, after Art injured himself during the broadcast. RAY SANTILLI - In 1995, Ray Santilli instigated a wide reaching "alien autopsy" controversy when he claimed to posses footage taken by in a tent by a US military cameraman shortly after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Santilli first presented his film to an invited audience of media representatives, UFOlogists and other dignitaries at the Museum of London on 5 May 1995. The footage was subsequently seen screened in more than thirty countries worldwide. Santilli's original footage can be seen on the Laserdisc and VHS versions of Alien Autopsy – Fact or Fiction, a program shown on the Fox television network in 1995. Although the broadcast version did not show the actual "autopsy", those editions have the complete and unedited film, plus previously unreleased footage of wreckage from the presented as the remains of the alien craft reported to have crashed in Roswell. The show features interviews with experts on the authenticity of the film. Fox later produced a second program aimed at exposing the video as a hoax. RENDLESHAM FOREST INCIDENT - The Rendlesham Forest Incident is the name given to a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and objects in the sky and the alleged landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft, which all took place in December 1980, in the vicinity of Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England. Along with the Berwyn Mountain Incident, it is perhaps the most famous UFO event to have happened in Britain, ranking amongst the best-known UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident in the United States and is, amongst Americans, commonly referred to as "Britain's Roswell" or the "English Roswell". Like the Roswell incident, it occurred in the proximity of two military bases, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters (now abandoned), which were being used by the United States Air Force (USAF), eight miles (13 km) outside Ipswich, Suffolk. At the time these USAF/RAF NATO bases were under the command of Major General Gordon E. Williams (ret.) and under the Deputy Base Commander Colonel Charles I Halt. The Rendlesham Forest Incident occurred over a three-day span, which is now accepted to be from 26 December – 28 December 1980. Some of the evidence contradicts these dates, which has led to some confusion, as explained below. The incident involved the reported sighting, by a number of people, of mysterious moving lights and a conical metal craft which apparently landed in the forest. As well as the accounts of the object itself, unusual levels of radiation were measured at the supposed landing site. Some believe that alien beings were seen by witnesses. Sceptics dismiss the more extreme claims and offer rational explanations of the observed phenomena: for instance they claim that the initial sighting of an object apparently descending into the forest was caused by a bright fireball and that the flashing light subsequently seen from the forest edge was caused by the beam from a nearby lighthouse; nor, they say, was there anything unusual about the radiation levels. Believers do not accept that the sceptics can adequately refute eyewitness, documentary, photographic and radiological evidence. Following the event, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied that it posed any threat to national security and that it was thus never investigated as a security matter. However, later evidence indicated that there was a substantial MoD file on the subject and this has led to claims of a cover-up. Some have interpreted this as part of a larger pattern of suppression of information in regard to UFO/Alien existence/knowledge by both the US and UK Governments (see the UFO conspiracy theory). The Rendlesham Forest Incident has been the subject of a number of books and documentaries. REPTILIAN or REPTILIAN HUMANOID - Reptilian humanoids are intelligent, supernatural, or highly developed reptile-like humanoids in mythology, popular fiction, and pseudoscientific theories. They also appear in some conspiracy theories, most notably those of David Icke, and in science fiction. Reptoids, a conjoined word defining Reptilian-Humanoid beings, is the most popular name used to descibe these cryptid beings, although some authors also refer to them as dinosauroids or lizardmen. Similarly to the other cryptids, no one has produced proof of the existence of reptilian humanoids, and allegations of their existence can at best be referred to as cryptozoology or pseudoscience. REMOTE INFLUENCE - Also see REMOTE VIEWING. The act of initiating actions on the part of individuals through power of the suggestion. REMOTE VIEWING (RV) - Ability to access distant or shielded information primarily of visual character, such as natural or structural features, via an unknown mental process. RV can include other sensory modes, such as feelings, motion, or sound. Some individuals associate specific approaches, or protocols, with RV. Other similar terms: remote perception, enhanced perception, extrasensory perception (ESP). RICHARD C. HOAGLAND - Richard C. Hoagland (born April 25, 1945) is a proponent of theories on astronomical topics, as well as a number of conspiracy theories connected to the space program. His major focus is on previous advanced civilizations in the solar system, in particular on Mars and the Moon. His theories are not supported by mainstream astronomers. Hoagland is a former space science museum curator; a former NASA consultant, and during the historic Apollo Missions to the Moon, was science advisor to Walter Cronkite and CBS News. For the last 19 years, Hoagland has been leading an outside scientific Team in a critically acclaimed independent analysis of possible intelligently-designed artifacts on Mars. In the last 4 years, he and his Team's investigations have been quietly extended to include over 30 years of previously hidden data from NASA, Soviet, and Pentagon missions to the Moon. RODS or ROSWELL RODS - Rods, a rather new entry in the field of Cryptozoology, are creatures said to flit about in the air at such a high speed as to not be seen by the naked eye. Rods appear to be observational artifacts produced by rapidly flying animals. Practically all sightings of rods are based on video evidence, due to the propensity of video cameras to produce characteristic stroboscopic artifacts when imaging rapidly flying animals, especially insects, but also including birds. Their recent popularity seems to be a result of media exposure in television and in tabloids. Jose Escamilla, who runs the website RoswellRods.com, has appeared in numerous interviews and television "investigations". ROSS MITCHELL - Ross Mitchell has been waking up Northern Nevada radio listeners for over twenty-one years on KOH's Reno's Morning News weekday mornings from 5:00 to 9:00am. His broadcasting career began at age 13 in Fresno, California, and continued into his college years at the University of Pacific in Stockton, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. After working as a disc jockey, news director and reporter in California, Ross moved to Reno and KOH in 1983. In addition to hosting Reno's Morning News, Ross can be heard as the announcer for the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM. ROSWELL ALIENS - See GRAYS, THE. ROSWELL, NM - Roswell is a city in Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, USA. As of the 2005 census estimate, the population was 45,199, making it New Mexico's fifth largest city. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also the home of New Mexico Military Institute, founded in 1891. Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located a few miles northeast of the city on the Pecos River. In the 1930s Roswell was a site for much of Robert Goddard's early rocketry work. It is also the birthplace of actress Demi Moore, musician John Denver and Hall of Fame jockey Mike E. Smith. A Golf Hall of Famer, Nancy Lopez, was raised in Roswell (though born in California). A Hall of Famer astronaut, sixth man on the moon Edgar Mitchell, went to school in Roswell. Roger Staubach (later of the Dallas Cowboys) played football at NMMI, and Lewis Lloyd (later of the Houston Rockets) played basketball there. The professional baseball record for home runs in a season, 72, was set in 1954 by Joe Bauman of the Roswell Rockets, who took up permanent residence there (the record was broken in 2001 by Barry Bonds). Roswell is most popularly known for having its name attached to what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, even though the actual crash site was about 75 miles from Roswell, and in fact closer to the town of Corona. However, the investigation and debris recovery was handled by the local Roswell Army Air Field, and it was near Roswell that filmmaker Ray Santilli said he shot his film of an alien autopsy which he later admitted was a hoax. ROSWELL INCIDENT - The Roswell UFO incident was the purported recovery of at least one unidentified flying object (UFO) and its alien occupants, near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Many UFO researchers believe an alien craft crashed at Roswell and that the United States military sought to cover-up the craft's recovery. The military maintains that what was recovered was a top-secret research balloon that had crashed. The incident has become the subject of intense speculation and research over several decades, and has evolved into a widely-recognized and referenced pop culture phenomenon. Today, "Roswell" is synonymous with "UFO," and likely ranks as the most famous alleged UFO incident. There are widely divergent viewpoints on what actually happened, and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. In early July 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest. Later the same day, the Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force stated that in fact, a weather balloon had been recovered by RAAF personnel, rather than a "flying disc." A subsequent press conference was called, featuring debris said to be the crashed object that seemed to confirm the weather balloon description. The case was quickly forgotten and almost completely ignored, even by UFO researchers, for some 30 years. Then, in 1978, Stanton T. Friedman interviewed Maj. Jesse Marcel, who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947. Marcel expressed his belief that the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft. His story circulated through UFO circles, including in some UFO documentaries of the time. In February 1980, The National Enquirer ran its own interview with Marcel, garnering national and worldwide attention for the Roswell incident. Additional witnesses and reports emerged over the following years. They added significant new details, including claims of a large military operation dedicated to recovering alien craft and aliens themselves, as many as 11 crash sites, and alleged witness intimidation. In 1989, former mortician Glenn Dennis put forth a detailed personal account, wherein he claimed that alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base. In response to these reports, and after congressional inquiries, the General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was two reports. The first one, released in 1995, concluded that the material reported recovered in 1947 was likely debris from a secret government program called Project Mogul. The second report, released in 1997, addressed the reports of aliens and concluded these reports were likely transformed memories of the recovery of anthropomorphic dummies in programs like Project High Dive, conducted in the 1950s. The psychological effects of time compression and confusion about when events occurred explained the discrepancy with the years in question. These reports were dismissed by UFO proponents as being either disinformation or simply implausible, though significant numbers of UFO researchers discount the probability that any alien craft was in fact involved. SASQUATCH - See Bigfoot. SCRYING - A term used to cover a wide range of divination techniques which parapsychology would tend to classify as types of ESP. Most scrying techniques involve some degree of fixation on a surface with a clear optical depth (e.g. a crystal ball, a pool of ink or deep water) or on an area which shows random patterns (e.g. flames in a fire, smoke), the idea being that subconscious information available to the scrying will be manifested in their interpretation of the imagery or random patterns they see. Techniques using a clear optical depth are actually very similar to the idea behind the homogenous visual field used in Ganzfeld ESP research. SHADOW-ANIMAL - Similar to a SHADOW-PERSON, but taking on the shape and/or characteristics of an animal. George Noory has reported seeing "shadow rodents" in his St. Louis broadcast facility (i.e. the 'cave'). SHADOW-PERSON or SHADOW-PEOPLE - (also known as shadow men or shadow beings) are a supernatural phenomenon in which observers report seeing a dark form at the edge of their field of vision, that disintegrates or move a wall when noticed, usually within a split second. Reports of Shadow People are similar to purported ghost sightings, but differ in that Shadow People are not reported as having human features, wearing modern/period clothing, or attempting to communicate. Witnesses also do not report the same feelings of being in the presence of something that 'was once human'. Some individuals have described being menaced, chased, or (more rarely) attacked by shadow people, there have also been reports of Shadow People appearing in front of witnesses, or lingering for several seconds before disappearing. SHEW STONE - See Crystal Ball. SKINWALKER - A Skin-walker (also known as a Yenadlooshi) is a medicine person with a supernatural talent to turn into a certain creature. References to such powers can be found in numerous cultures' lores all over the world, closely related to beliefs in werewolves and other "were" creatures. The Mohawk Indian word "limikkin" is sometimes used to describe all skin-walkers. SKINWALKER RANCH - in the Uintah Basin of Utah was the site of a long running series of alleged paranormal phenomena. The Sherman family (also named the Gorman family in some news articles) bought the ranch, from absent owners, in the Fall of 1994. However, after experiencing what they believed to be paranormal activity, and citing personal stress, the family tried to sell the ranch in 1996. News of the alleged phenomena was picked up by some regional press outlets shortly afterward. The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), having read media reports, purchased the ranch from the family for, it is claimed, $200,000. Sporadic investigations by NIDS started at the ranch shortly thereafter. The ranch emerged in the press again in 2002, when NIDS allowed George Knapp, a reporter for the Las Vegas Mercury, access to the ranch. In December 2005, NIDS researcher Colm Kelleher and journalist George Knapp wrote a book outlining their take on the NIDS investigation. SOUNDS OF HELL - SPONTANEOUS HUMAN CUMBUSTION - SPONANEOUS INVOLUNTARY HUMAN INVISIBILITY - STEADY STATE - SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION - Sensory impressions below the threshold of conscious awareness. SYNCHRONICITY - Meaningful coincidences that often are mediated by subconscious psi activity. Our intuitive/psi faculty nudges our paths into meaningful intersections in times of need. TELEKINESIS , PSYCHOKINESIS, LEVITATION - To move an object or your body without physical means. TELEPATHY - To know what others are thinking as if to hear thoughts in your head. Thought transference including the sending and receiving of thoughts. TERRAFIRM - To be connected with the planet Earth as if it were a part of you. TIME TRAVEL - To project your physical or etheric body into a past or future time. TONE HEALING - Your tone of voice affects others by disturbing, catalyzing, soothing, lulling, inspiring and quite often healing them. TOUCH HEALING - To impart through your hands soothing and healing vibrations of energy. TRANSMEDIUMSHIP, TRANSCHANNELING - To have severe personality shifts. UFO PHIL - Phil Hill, better known as UFO Phil, has gained moderate fame and a cult-following as a novelty songwriter and purveyor of short, comedic internet videos. He is also a regular on the nationally syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, appearing frequently as a guest and contributor. In addition, UFO Phil is the writer/singer of the song "Listening to Coast to Coast", which is often heard at the end of the program. He is a recurring guest on The Hideout and The Ron and Fez Show, both formerly based in Washington D.C.. He also makes appearances on other radio shows throughout the United States and other countries. UFO Phil's song "Aliens Really Stink" was a novelty hit on the Dr. Demento Show and was featured on the CD "Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes Number 14". This song was recorded during a live coffee shop appearance in downtown Roswell. UFOLOGY - Ufology is the study of unidentified flying object (UFO) reports, sightings, alleged physical evidence, and other related phenomena. UNIDENTIFIED FLYING HUMANOID or (UFH) - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT or (UFO) - A UFO or Unidentified Flying Object is any real or apparent flying object which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation. Sightings of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times, but reports of UFO sightings started becoming more common after the first widely publicized U.S. sighting in 1947. Many ten's of thousands of such claimed observations have since been reported worldwide. In popular culture throughout the world, UFO is commonly used to refer to any hypothetical alien spacecraft but the term flying saucer is also regularly used. Once a UFO is identified as a known object (for example an aircraft or weather balloon), it ceases to be a UFO and becomes an identified object. In such cases it is inaccurate to continue to use the acronym UFO to describe the object. UNIDENTIFIED MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL or (UMA) - See Cryptids. VAMPIRE or VAMPIRISM - mythological or folkloric creatures, typically held to be the re-animated corpses of human beings and said to subsist on human and/or animal blood (hematophagy). They are also the frequent subject of cinema and fiction, albeit fictional vampires have acquired a set of traits distinct from those of folkloric vampires (see Traits of vampires in fiction). In folklore, the term usually refers to the blood-sucking undead of Eastern European legends, but it is often extended to cover similar legendary creatures in other regions and cultures. Vampire characteristics vary widely between different traditions. Some cultures have stories of non-human vampires, such as animals like bats, dogs, and spiders. WALK-IN - A person whose consciousness has been replaced by another spirit. WATERTOWN STRIP - See AREA 51. WEREWOLF - A werewolf (also lycanthrope or wolfman) in folklore and mythology is a person who shapeshifts into a wolf, either purposely, by using magic, or after being placed under a curse. The medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury associated the transformation with the appearance of the full moon, but this concept was rarely associated with the werewolf until the idea was picked up by modern fiction writers. Most modern fiction agrees that a werewolf can be killed if shot by a silver bullet, although this was not a feature of folk legends. Werewolves are sometimes held to become vampires after death. WHITLEY STRIEBER - WOLFMAN or WOLFMEN - See WEREWOLF. YENADLOOSHI - See SKINWALKER. YETI - See ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. ZETA RETICULII - ZETAS - See GRAYS, THE. This glossary is an open project. Please feel free to contribute!
It's been a couple of days and facebook is still rumbling a little bit with the program from Monday ( see previous post for those of you not paying attention :-) ) Although it is slowly starting to die down, asides from a little flare up caused by some American SA who felt the need to defend themselves. Now one comment caught my eye from someone who said words to the effect that it was only looking bad as it was a matter of context, and that the behaviour was perfectly normal beach party antics in the USA. This lead me think to the latest Mid Singles event held here in the uk, which I suppose when you tried to explain the concept behind a " inflatable chapel chill out day" members from another country might think we seemed a bit strange as well. Grumpys response when I told him the name of the event was to say " Inflatable chapel? What's wrong with a brick one?" Plus the way we socialise over here did seem a bit different as I couldn't really imagine a situation over there where you would get a really long hug from a ex-model who you have never met before and doesn't even know your name and then be called her angel simply because in a random co-incidence you happened to be carrying sudafeed on you. But I'm sure no one wants to hear that story :-) There was also a comment claiming the film did not show a very good side to church members because there were more non member producers then member producers. But where did it all go so wrong and seems to have upset the majority of people? Firstly I think it crossed the line from documentary to reality show. And no matter how good your intentions it's always terrifying easy to come across really, really badly. Secondly it was on BBC 3 which has a very good history of documentaries. Okay so we weren't exactly expecting panorama, but then again we weren't expecting a repeat of the last documentary about the church on the BBC where the genius reporter asking a group of the trainees at the MTC what their criticisms of the church were! When we were told it would be about four single mormons looking for love and what it was like being a single member that's what we thought we would get. We didn't. In only one of the cases did the man come across as what you would consider a "average" church single. He was doing the right things, acting and dressing in the right way but it hadn't happened for him yet as it were and even by the end of the film even though everyone on facebook was routing for him, he didn't get the happy ending we were routing for. The others well they came across to me as superficial. Now this could be down to bad editing, but some of the lines they were coming out with, like saying they didn't have a requirement of looks for people to be their friends or that they would ask the lord for help finding a car parking space didn't exactly scream out well rounded and deep individuals. Now this wasn't helped by the second issue, now I know you should not base judgements on peoples looks but the appearance of being superficial was not helped by at least 90% of them looking like they had just come off the set of the outset and the girls were affected by a ad version to wearing shirts and the girls were suffering from a critical shortage of material for bathing suits. Although this did lead to a sequence which one of my non member loved in that one of the guys was trying to stop a girl toppling over and had a obvious moment of panic when he couldn't think where to put his hands to grab her without it looking a little dodgy. Now a couple of Americans did turn up on the facebook group and offered a defence for the documentary and in particular the swimsuit issue. Firstly that there were more non mormons in the producers and they had chosen the direction of the film. Secondly, beach activities are like that. And lastly it was not a event organised or endorsed by the church but organised by church members. Which was a interesting defence to say the least. Now someone raised the opinion that it would have been better if it had been produced by the church. But firstly lets be honest, A it would never have been produced by the church for a non official activity and B the intended slant of the documentary is something I doubt the would have been wanted. So where does that leave my opinion of the documentary at the end of the day? It was a good attempt but missed it's intended mission statement and regardless of whether or not you thought people were superficial or it did or did not actually show the activity in it's "true form" missed that mission statement means you have to chalk it up as a fail Cryptid Clash: Ban-Manush vs. Buru 3 days ago
Today’s a special day for me -- Fat Goblin Games released my first, for-pay book (I had another article in the short lived Open Gaming Monthly a few months before, but I wasn’t paid for that) three years ago today, October 6, 2013. It was the Call to Arms: Axes & Picks book, which has been well received. I’ve sold over 160 of these books in the past three years since then, but bigger than that, I’ve worked on over 50 other books since then, some for other publishers but many right here for Fat Goblin Games. I’ve also had the chance to work with a LOT of new talent and bring them into the Goblin Hoarde. New writers like our most recent addition to the team, Ben Dowell \|Ben lives in rural Indiana, somewhere between Indianapolis and Chicago; the exact location changes every decade or so. His love of all things gaming started on an Atari 2600 and grew with him. Nearly 20 years ago, he was introduced to table top gaming with Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition. Ten years ago, he homebrewed a ninja-based game for his son. Now, he runs games for the whole family and a host of friends and acquaintances. Ben joined the ranks of professional RPG developers in January of 2016 when he co-founded Epic Level NPC, a nod to his D&D roots. His next goal is fulfill his childhood career choice, and become a werewolf. Our newest book from Ben is vs. Stranger Stuff Adventure: The Mad Gasser The Mad Gasser of Mattoon Based on an actual urban legend from his hometown, Ben was able to craft an adventure not just for our vs. Stranger Stuff game, but also included rules to play with our vs. Ghosts game, allowing the the "truth" of whom or what the Mad Gasser is to be up to the GM. Those options include: - An escaped mad man - A gas leak - Military experimentation - A cryptid beast - or even a Nazi Ghost! But an adventure involving possible Nazi ghosts isn't the only thing we have coming from Ben Dowell. Planned for release next week, we have vs. Stranger Stuff Adventure: Creepy Clowns. Cuz we're always looking for a way to use this guy again. And like with his The Mad Gasser adventure, this too will be quite a bit longer than the first few adventures we put out for vs. Ghosts. The premise of Creepy Clowns is taken right from today's headlines! \|The Fall Festival is only a few days away. School will be on break, a carnival is in town, and it’s all capped off with Halloween! Unfortunately, there’s always a few bad apples that want to take things too far. Lately, a group of “creepy clowns” have been scaring people in town. Can the kids in town convince the creepy clowns to cut it out before someone gets hurt? Or worst, before they cancel Halloween?!\| Now, clearly we're playing on the recent problems across the country with "phantom clowns," which also goes all the way back to at least the 1980's, but we do in the adventure try to point out that clowns are getting a bad wrap these days. Regardless, we hope you'll be able to enjoy that storyline when it drops early next week, just in time for a Halloween adventure! But That's Not All -- vs. Moon Men! We also have an entirely new and different vs. M Engine game in the works: vs. Moon Men is a roleplaying game in which players take up arms against alien invaders from another (but very nearby) world! Steal a ray gun and take the fight to them, or fight from the shadows while avoiding Big Lunar. Fight for freedom, stay out of the way, or help the invaders (but only if you’re a jerk). From the streets of Moscow to the backwoods of Tennessee, the Moon Men are here, and somebody needs to stop them! The Moon Men didn’t come in peace, so send them back in pieces! I'm not saying this is what they are going to look like, but it also might be... vs. Moon Men is coming to us from Jason Owen Black. \|Jason Owen Black has been gaming since before he was old enough to be on the Random Starting Ages table. He has a B.A. and an M.A. in history and a graduate certificate in gender studies, and uses that education to write better game than he would have otherwise, hoping to keep his head down long enough for his student loans to be forgiven. He grew up near Detroit but followed the siren call of game design and rainy winters to move to Seattle. You can follow him on twitter @owenstreetpress or check out his website at jasonowenblack.com\| Jason has some neat new ideas for ways to play things out with the vs. M Engine, and then The Fattest Goblin Himself and I are going to steal those and continue to work on our "Next Big Thing"... ...but more on THAT later.
I believe that my “sighting” does correspond with some descriptions of the Ropen. I know three missionaries (currently residing in Washington) that saw the Ropen in New Britain Island on numerous occasions and they are fairly close with what I saw. I have also spent hours talking with investigators like Garth Guessman and Paul Nation – it seems there is adequate reason to not exclude the pterosaur hypothesis. You and I must think alike, because I have also thought about it being a large woodpecker. As a matter of fact I’ve seen a Pileated Woodpecker twice. If there were woodpeckers with a crest-like feature (as some have) and with an 8 foot wingspread, I would consider the possibility more seriously. Interestingly, the crest was the same color as the head and beak (and yes, there was enough light to see it properly. The crest, beak, and head almost seemed to be one piece – I don’t recall any outstanding marks or lines differentiating them (I know the illustration depicts some of that though). The crest and beak were about the same size. [In reply to earlier post of mine not printed here] Good point, I sometimes wonder if I saw what has been called the “Batsquatch” since I don’t live a terrible distance from the region where the legends originated. By now you should have seen the first posting of the message string on the blog. With your permission, I should like to continue the string. As I mentioned before, it seems there is another large-bird Cryptid involved in Ropen sightings in New Guinea, a giant Hornbill from whence come some of the "horned head" sightings. It is known from another place under another name and recognised there as a different Cryptid. I have some good drawings of it and it does seem to sit up in a tree like the creature you saw did. But Ropens do not ordinarily seem to do that at all, all my information has them seen at the seaside or over the sea, and diving into the sea. Furthermore a wingspan of "only" 7-9 feet is in no way comparable to one of twenty feet or more-especially when the twenty-foot wingspan creature also has broader wings in proportion making the kite-shaped or rhomboid outline. The creature you saw seems to have had its wings folded neatly in "Bird" fashion and in fact that is what I noticed first about these drawings I consider to be a giant hornbill-the wings are folded up in the manner a conventional bird folds its wings. Needless to say, a Pterosaurian would NOT fold its wings the same way, the wings are structured quite differently. I do not wish to sound insulting but it seems to me that if your contacts are seeing something like you are describing and then saying that they are "Ropens" then they must have some overly-zealous reason for describing them as such because the descriptions as I have heard them do not match at all, partly for these reasons as I am explaining them to you. If they do have better information to the contrary I should like to hear it. Otherwise I would suspect that they are being overly imaginitive in their assessment. A Pterosaur would not roost in a tree in an upright position BTW and an actual Pterosaur would also have a furry coat. We have fossils that preserve the fur, and a Pterosaur's feet are not fashioned that way. A downed Pterosaur would walk like a bat because its feet are jointed on that way. However it is quite possible that you saw some sort of large bird with an unusual crest, it does have several distinctly birdlike features. Which is why I suggested a giant woodpecker and made up the demonstration for you, just so you would see how close the resemblance was. I am not inherantly against the possibility of Pterosaurian sightings, it is just that nearly all of the reports supposedly describing living Pterosaurians get several of the features wrong, such as the extent of the wing membrane, length of the tail in a large-sized Pterosaur (the ones with the longer tails are the smaller-sized Rhamphorhynchids), the lack of a furry coat, and getting the posture of the body wrong during perching. On the ground, the most of the weight would be taken on the forelimbs (wings) because that is where the largest mass of the body is and that is where the most of the muscular strength is (the breastbone/chest area)-the rear legs are quite puny in comparison. Besides, we HAVE Pterosaur tracks and they show the creatures to have been normally quadrupedal on the ground. The marks of the clawed wings are quite distinctive. I am simply giving you the facts as they are best understood at this point. I DO think that you saw something very large and unidentifiable-but more likely an unusual bird rather than anything else. What surprises me is that it is even too small to be considered a kind of Thunderbird sighting-Thunderbirds are ordinarily at least twice the size again of what you are describing. But SOME Thunderbird descriptions say it has a crest in the back of the head, or a horn, or two horns (? longer plumes at the back of the head?) Best Wishes, Dale D. Representation of a "Pteranodon" sighting off of Bali, from a German-language website The problem is and has been all along that Ropen sightings do not correspond closely to the known anatomy of Pterosaurs and especially not Pteranodon. The wings of Pteranodon were much too long and thin in comparison. While Pteranodon wingspan was exactly comparable to the width of a manta ray, the breadth of the fins of a manta ray make for an entirely different shape, more of a diamond shape: and of course the manta has no signs of feet sticking out the back end. Nor do Ropen reports. The Ropen shape OTHER than the assumed head and neck is exactly a match for a manta ray. Including the long, thin tail which a Pteranodon (or any comparably large Pterosaur) would NOT have. And the two fins a manta has in the front of its mouth exactly match witness' drawings of the ropens head when they are seen from the right angle. I reiterate the statement that the image of a Pteranodon with a long tail does not derive from Paleontology, it derives from TV cartoons in the 1960s. And NONE of the supposed "Pteranodon" sightings is actually describing anything remotely like the appearance or life postures of a Pteranodon. To beat the dead horse again, Pteranodons were likely to be quadrupeds on the ground because their top part greatly overbalances them. The head is much larger than the entire body is (Phillip's sighting includes a body that is already much larger than a Pteranodon's, both relatively and absolutely). And they were furry, not smooth and naked. Many sightings moreover specify actually "Bat" wings which is again wrong: bat's wings are supported by several fingers and the Pterosaurs' wings only by the one outer or "Little" finger. I find this whole discussion really ironic because Papua New Guinea IS a place where there are depictions of creatures which look very like Pterodactyls in Native Art. I have no copies that I can post, unfortunately the SITU files contain all of my material which I submitted to the SITU before it closed down, from about 1990. But these creatures as represented are not Ropens, they are much smaller and more like Pterodactylus rather than Pteranodon. I had sent in this information to both Sanderson and Heuvelmans but neither one of them offered me any comment or evaluation of the artwork. I rather guess that critics would say the representations Best Wishes, Dale D.
I had a great dream the other night, where all kinds of UFO, esoteric and cryptid researchers were gathered at a massive, world wide round table mega media event. Mainstream media had picked this up; CNN, etc. The marathon interview was organized by Nancy and Bill Birnes of UFO Magazine, and Amy from Paranormal Women's League. It took a long time to get this thing organized, but finally, the moment arrived. People like Greg Bishop, Nick Redfern Lesley Gunter (The Debris Field) , Alfred Lehmberg and dozens of others. In the dream I am so happy to finally meet these people in person; we had a great time being together. So we get down to the interview/discussion. All ears in America, lol, and beyond, have tuned in. Prime time. Coast to Coast has nothing on us! This is huge. The interviewer is someone not particularly knowledgeable about this stuff, which is both good and bad; but it works out all right. The interviewer asks me about my thoughts on the two versions of chupacabra, as I commented recently in this post. As I'm talking, in the dream, it turns out I've been to Puerto Rico and did some research. (I wish that were true! However, in real life, strictly an "arm chair" commentator at this point.) Then, as I'm describing the deep puncture wounds the creature has been known to leave behind, and the complete lack of blood within, and around, the victim, I have the distinct and powerful awareness that the clue to this mystery is in the blood. Something about the way the blood is drained, and the blood itself; the need for the blood, and what is done with the blood, -- the reasons why the creature needs the blood -- the answer is there. And I'm given the answer, or at least solid clues leading to the solution. This revelation is so important in the dream that I have a lucid moment: I tell myself I have to remember this when I wake up and make sure I write it down. Then of course, I wake up, and forget what the answer was!
Skeptic welcomes new podcast: MonsterTalk Just in time for Halloween, we’re proud to welcome MonsterTalk to the growing Skeptic media family. Dedicated to focussed critical examination of cryptozoological mysteries, this second audio talk show presented by Skeptic magazine is a natural complement to Skepticality (our flagship general interest skeptical program). Many skeptics hold a special fondness for monster mysteries. Cryptid tales are cool, often solvable, and mostly harmless. Mythical monsters are even relatively plausible. (After all, for Bigfoot to be true, you don’t have to overturn the laws of physics. You just have to find Bigfoot.) You can even discuss topics at the new MonsterTalk section of the Skeptic Forum. Getting to the bottom of such wild and wonderful yarns are MonsterTalk co-hosts Blake Smith, Benjamin Radford (cryptozoological author, and Managing Editor of the Skeptical Inquirer), and Karen Stollznow (a regular contributor to Skeptic, the Skeptical Inquirer, and the JREF’s Swift). READ more about MonsterTalk hosts. Representing the best of the tradition of both on-site skeptical investigation and archival sleuthing, these three take us on the trail of things that stomp, roar, and go bump in the night… Cryptozoological creatures like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Chupacabra have fascinated and inspired monster hunters for generations, providing endless reports of sightings, unverified film footage and blurry photographs to feed the public imagination. Thankfully, this kind of speculation and storytelling has also given rise to a new generation of skeptical investigators who use the tools of science to dig into monster claims. This week on Skepticality, Derek & Swoopy talk with Benjamin Radford, Dr. Karen Stollznow, and Blake Smith — the team from the podcast MonsterTalk. Darwin vs. the Wolfman In this week’s Halloween episode, MonsterTalk ventures into the realm of the werewolves — and asks what Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species implies for this fearsome monster’s plausibility. Guest Dr. Brian Regal (Assistant Professor for the History of Science at Kean University) discusses his lecture about whether Darwin slew the last of the werewolves. Professor Regal also explores the relationship between creationists and cryptozoology, and introduces his new book, Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. In this week’s eSkeptic, we present an article from an early Halloween issue of Junior Skeptic describing how to make your very own alien autopsy cake. Do it Yourself by Emily and Linda Rosa Have fun and make your very own alien autopsy cake! It’s great for a Halloween party or your birthday. My friends and I had a wild time dissecting my chocolate alien cake made with a glass alien head (sold in novelty stores as piggy bank), a big batch of green frosting and miscellaneous edible guts. Our alien cake was every bit as real as the famous alien dissected on the Fox Network in 1995. When my guests arrived, I gave them lab coats to wear (which looked suspiciously like long white shirts) so we all looked like scientists. then I led them into the “dissection room” where the body lay on what looked suspiciously like a dining room table. You can set the mood by getting everyone to make a cursory external examination of your alien — note the small ears, the imperforate mouth, the fragile, fluffy dermal layer, the lack of genitalia, no evidence of decomposition, etc. At first my friends were squeamish about cutting into the alien, but they soon got over it. Bethan plunged her knife through the frosting and into the chest which heaved as if alive as a result of the bag of guts (cherry pie filling and gummy worms) sliding around under the cake. It was pretty creepy. Bethan squealed and immediately pulled out the knife — which was dripping red — so she screamed again. But before long, my friend Erin was bold enough to plunge her hands into the alien and grab fistfuls of its (or her or his) guts. This alien tasted really good, too. My savage friends licked the guts off of their hands. Your alien cake will disappear fast, almost as fast as other extraterrestrials sighted on Earth. I hope you have as much fun as we did. Be sure to take some out-of-focus photos of the fun, just like the real alien autopsy hoax film. I would love to hear your stories about your experience if you make an alien cake. The recipe — assembling the alien cake - This alien takes three pans of cake: two 9” x 9” square pans and one 9” diameter round pan. We recommend chocolate cake to go with the cherries. - Take one of the square cakes and cut it into five strips. Cut one strip the same size off the other square cake, as well. These are your arms and legs. Arrange as you like. - The remaining cake makes up the hips. - Cut the circular cake in half and place the pieces over the bag of guts. You might need to sculpt the cake a bit. - Remember the phony alien autopsy film they showed on TV? None of the guts were connected. That doesn’t make sense, but it’s easier to do. For our guts, we dumped a big can of cherry pie filling and a handful of gummy worms (and anything else edible that you want) in a clear, thin plastic bag. Knot the bag tightly and cut off any extra plastic. - We had an alien head (actually a piggy bank) around the house that cost $10. We made a support for it from cardboard, covered with aluminum foil. If you don’t have an alien head you could use a green balloon. Draw a pair of big slanted eyes on the balloon with a black marker. Or make another round cake layer and cut an alien head shape out of it as shown. - Dermal Layer - Frost cake all over with green icing to match the color of the head. - Autopsy Table - Prepare the alien on a big sheet of cardboard covered with heavy duty aluminum foil to protect your table. NEW ON SKEPTICBLOG.ORG Farewell to Norman Jay Levitt (1943–2009) With great sadness, Michael Shermer reports the death of Norman Jay Levitt: one of the finest writers ever to grace the pages of Skeptic magazine. • READ the blog post • Carl Zimmer will lecture on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 2:00 pm The Tangled Bank An Introduction to Evolution with Carl Zimmer Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009, 2 pm Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech Zimmer, an award-winning science writer (New York Times, Discover), takes readers on a fascinating journey into the latest discoveries about evolution. In the Canadian Arctic, paleontologists unearth fossils documenting the move of our ancestors from sea to land. In the outback of Australia, a zoologist tracks some of the world’s deadliest snakes to decipher the 100-million-year evolution of venom molecules. In Africa, geneticists are gathering DNA to probe the origin of our species. In clear, non-technical language, Zimmer explains the central concepts essential for understanding new advances in evolution, including natural selection, genetic drift, and sexual selection. He demonstrates how vital evolution is to all branches of modern biology — from the fight against deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the analysis of the human genome. READ MORE about this lecture > VIEW all upcoming lectures > Important ticket information Tickets are first come first served at the door. Sorry, no advance ticket sales. Seating is limited. $8 Skeptics Society members & Caltech/JPL Community; $10 General Public.
Last week, we were treated to the clearest video of what was claimed to be a giant squid near the surface from central Japan’s Toyama Bay. A brave diver jumped in to get up close and personal with the rarely seen 12 foot long animal. The video was undoubtedly real but some question remained. Deep Sea News has some answers. The brave diver told CNN, “My curiosity was way bigger than fear, so I jumped into the water and go close to it.” The animal seemed lively but did not attack. According to experts Dr. Mike Vecchione and Dr. Chris Mah from the Smithsonian, the individual filmed squid is actually an Architeuthis (pronounced Ark-eh-TOOTH-iss), specifically Architeuthis dux, likely a young one due to its smaller size. There are other species of squid that get very large such as the Colossal Squid but they look considerably different. Architeuthis dux was named in 1857 based on remains. A. dux are considered to be the largest known cephalopod, the largest known mollusk and, likely, the largest invertebrate ever known to exist (noted up to 60 feet in length and possibly larger including the long tentacles). They also have the largest eye in the animal world. [Source]. The Deep Sea News piece mentions that it is not normal, but it has become a bit common, to see these squid near the surface. That’s not good. It likely means the animals are sick or injured. This individual remained in the bay for several hours and reportedly was then “ushered” back to open water. Perhaps it just took a wrong turn. There was no mention of obtaining any sample from the animal which would have been useful for additional genetic studies. Giant squid are the stuff of myth, associated with the Kraken of sea-lore, and described far back, into the 4th century BC. Cryptozoologists claim that the discovery of the giant squid as being an actual distinct and real animal is validation of the field of cryptozoology, the search for “hidden” animals. But that statement is not quite so direct as given. Remains of large squid were well documented. It was known that they were eaten by sperm whales because remains had been found inside their stomachs. Then, in 2004 and in 2012, the animals were filmed alive. So, we have the legend of sightings of giant tentacled animals and attacks on ships from ancient times and we have a genuine animal that sort of fits that description. But, the equation does not balance on both sides. A large part of cryptozoology is founded in historical accounts. These are accounts we can likely no longer verify or examine in any greater detail. Many existing animals we know well today were greatly exaggerated or misinterpreted in days before scientific observation. We can’t say that all historic accounts of giant squid or kraken can be attributed to A. dux. The giant squid is not even a good candidate for a cryptid. It was never really “hidden” it was just existing as it always did, in an alien environment off limits to human access. We needed to develop the means to find it with technology. The sea undoubtedly contains many more secrets. Yet, we have found and filmed these monsters. Naturally, these facts will lead to rational rejection of the idea that there are spectacular land-based cryptids such as Yeti and Bigfoot or mysterious lake-based cryptids like Nessie or Champ. We have even greater access to those environments but we have not found any remains or any good quality photo or video documentation. That negative evidence feeds a working conclusion that they do not exist in the imaginative forms proposed in cryptozoology literature. The natural world is an amazing place full of unique organisms left to discover but that does not mean that Bigfoot is out there. Considering ever more information we have gleaned from giant creatures that exist deep in the ocean trenches, we have less justification to invest in a search for fantastic monster at the surface. If they are really there, we would have found sufficient traces by now or they, like this sub-adult Architeuthis, would have revealed themselves to us.
Publication date: September, 2008 Plot: Ryan Brown and Tristan Jones Script: Tristan Jones Art: Paul Harmon Letters: Eric Talbot Cover: Paul Harmon and Steve Lavigne Frontispiece: Michael Dooney Frontispiece: Sitting atop a stump in a moonlit swamp as the Turtles lurk in the background, Leatherhead ponders the many different kinds of monsters. For instance, many are not what they seem on the surface, but in fact, they’re actually worse. Leatherhead decides it’s time for a story… On a salvage run down in the sewers, Donatello and Leatherhead are suddenly attacked by a gang using high-tech capture weaponry. Don is hit by a tazer and taken down for the count, while the armored leader of the gang, Razorback, knocks Leatherhead out with a tranq. Tossing Leatherhead onto a load lifter, they decide to leave Don behind as they weren’t paid to capture him. Don comes to and follows in secret, watching them load Leatherhead onto a helicopter marked with “Martech” corporate symbols. Back at the lair, Don and the Turtles do some sleuthing. They learn that the helicopter belongs to the Martech weapons plant based in Australia. Tracking some air traffic, Don learns that the helicopter will be connecting with a flight at JFK headed for Melbourne. The Turtles decide to hitch a ride to Australia and rescue Leatherhead. At the Australian compound, Razorback loads a bunyip into a holding cell. He’s called by the mysterious boss of the organization, a man with cybernetic limbs, who asks for a progress report. Razorback says that with the procurement of Leatherhead and the Mothman, all the cryptids have been secured. They’ve also captured all the human subjects his employer requested. The boss tells Razorback to prep all the cryptids for the imminent show. Sneaking off the cargo plane, the Turtles find themselves skulking around a heavily guarded compound on the isolated island of Hobb’s Gate. Sneaking into a command center, they take a look at a security monitor and see a group of notorious mercenaries and assassins gathered in a room. Mikey takes a commlink and heads through the vents to eavesdrop on the proceedings. Inside the big room, a voice comes over an intercom, telling the mercenaries that they’ve been collected to participate in a most dangerous game. There are weapons scattered all over the island, as well as some of the most vicious monsters from all over the world. The game won’t end until there’s only a single survivor left. The Jersey Devil is then released into the room and the mercenaries all scatter. Outside, the Turtles are spotted. Don and Leo draw the attention of the guards while Raph heads through the vents to find Mikey. Entering the large room, he’s attacked by the Jersey Devil. Mikey knocks the beast out with a sack full of rocks and the two make a break for it. In the nearby swamps, Leo and Don are caught off guard by one of the mercenaries and Leo takes a shotgun blast to the shell. Before the mercenary can unload another round, he’s pounced on and devoured by a chupacabra. At the commander center, Razorback observes the monitors, trying to keep the show running without interference. He sees the Turtles, and realizing they’ll mess up the gambling odds, he decides to call the boss. Out in the swamp, one of the mercenaries attempts to get an old Jeep started when he’s shot in the back by the boss of the game… a cybernetically enhanced Jack Marlin. Marlin gets the call from Razorback and isn’t happy. Elsewhere, Leo and Don have their hands full with a lumbering bunyip. Leo slices toward its ear and lops off a weird mechanical device. The bunyip appears to come to its senses and scampers off. Don inspects the device and finds it to be some sort of neural override. Leo then gets a call from Mikey on the commlink. He and Raph have just tangled with the Mothman and are now at a large tower. Leo says he sees the tower from his location and that he and Don will rendezvous with them there. Investigating the facility, they find a Sasquatch laid out on an operating table, soon to have a neural override device placed on it. Don looks through some computer files and learns that the entire “game” is being broadcast over the internet for the purposes of gambling. Marlin then appears on a ledge above them, with Razorback and his men holding Leatherhead at bay. Marlin explains that he survived the tumble he took into the underground river during their last encounter, but had to have his limbs replaced with cybernetic prosthetics. He tells them that Leatherhead has been fitted with a neural override device, which keeps the monsters from attacking him (and thus ensuring that he wins the thoroughly rigged game). He then unleashes Leatherhead on the Turtles. As his brothers deal with the rampaging beast, Don works some computer magic and shuts down ALL the neural overrides on the island. The Turtles and Leatherhead then race to stop Marlin from escaping. On the roof, they catch him and Razorback about to board a helicopter. Marlin opens fire on Leatherhead and nicks his right eye. Razorback and his men, meanwhile, are taken down by a group of Interpol authorities who have arrived late to the party. Leatherhead subdues Marlin and is about to kill him. The Turtles beg him not to, so rather than kill the man with his own hands, he hurls him off the roof and into the swamp. Marlin is promptly attacked and dragged beneath the murk by a bunch of hungry bunyips. The Interpol agents tranq Leatherhead and the leader, Emil Tendaji, approaches the Turtles. The Turtles remember him from their previous encounter with Marlin and Emil says that his agency works hard to keep endangered “cryptids” like Leatherhead safe from outside harm. He promises that all the surviving mercenaries on the island will be captured and that the Turtles and Leatherhead will be returned to New York. As they all board the Interpol helicopter and fly off, the bunyips below chew with dissatisfaction on some cybernetic limbs. The story continues in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #63. Chronologically, I’d say that the Turtles last met Leatherhead in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #23. Marlin and Officer Emil were last seen in Tales of the TMNT(Vol. 1) #6. Razorback will return in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #61. *This issue also contained a back-up story, “Threads” by Ryan Brown and Doug Brammer, and a bonus pin-up, “Wanna Race?” by Jim Lawson. Ever read one of those comics that’s so good, as soon as you finish it, you flip back to the start and you read it again? Well, that’s basically how I felt about “World’s Deadliest” when I first picked it up. It’s probably the single most re-read issue of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) for me, as a matter of fact. The team of Tristan Jones and Paul Harmon had previously proven their worth on Tales of the TMNT #36 and the fan support they received was practically instantaneous. Even I sent in an e-mail to Dan Berger, saying I wanted to see more of these two. Knowing how flakey the Mirage editors were when it came to creators and storylines in the second volume of Tales, sending in e-mails to rally support was pretty much the only thing you could do to try and ensure that the best talent came back or the best stories got proper endings (and even that didn’t work, sometimes). Though it took fourteen issues, we finally got them back and it was well worth the wait. “World’s Deadliest” is sort of an antithesis to the previous issue Jones and Harmon had worked on, which was a gritty, “realistic” Turtle story full of cop drama and a sobering, ground level perspective. “World’s Deadliest”, on the other hand, is a bombastic summer blockbuster filled with cyborgs and monsters and a ridiculous premise that perfectly facilitates the explosive story. While the setup is very simple (a parody of “The Most Dangerous Game” but with cryptids), it proves that any idea can either sink or float based on the talent of the writer. Jones wrings the maximum amount of excitement out of this one and Harmon does the ambitious scope of the script total justice. I’ve probably said it before, but Harmon’s black and white style reminds me heavily of something I’d have seen in the heyday of Creepy or Eerie. It’s dark, it’s dynamic, it’s spooky and it’s just really damn cool. Leatherhead hasn’t looked this downright ferocious and intimidating since Steve Bissette drew him for a bonus pin-up in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #6. It’s a nice counterpoint to the “brainy” Leatherhead who often got more page time in Mirage than his man-eating alter ego. There is, of course, one glaring error on page 11, where all 4 Turtles are seen together when Mikey is supposed to be in the vent. But by the time you get to the stunning reveal of the Jersey Devil at the very bottom of that page, you’re liable to completely forget about the art flub. And the wrap-around art cover really took me back to the old TMNT (Vol. 1) issues, too. So far as the continuity of the issue goes, it’s a bit weird. Leatherhead gets his right eye shot out, seemingly as a means to explain why he was missing an eye in TMNT(Vol. 1) #45… So I originally thought this was supposed to be set between his first two appearances. But that doesn’t really work, as Leatherhead is missing his left eye in TMNT #45. I think it’s better to set this story after Berger’s “Leatherhead trilogy”, where the mutagen boosters given to Leatherhead by the Illuminated Utroms granted him an accelerated healing factor (his right eye is healed again by Tales #63, anyway). Really, though, I’m just thinking about this shit too hard. As a “cryptid”, Leatherhead certainly fits right in, as he was inspired by the old urban legend of alligators in the New York sewers. As for the other cryptids, I was kind of disappointed by the sparse selection (only Sasquatch, Mothman, chupacabra, the Jersey Devil and some bunyips), but Jones got as much mileage as possible out of all of them (save Sasquatch, I guess). Being an Australian-set story, it only makes sense that the bunyips get the most page time and I enjoyed seeing a rather overlooked creature of legend receive a spotlight. If you look at Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) as a “pick and choose” series, and you’re only after the cream of the crop, then make #50 a priority. The story is fun, the art is lavish and the Michael Dooney frontispiece is amazing. Grade: A (as in, “Although with all the giant spiders, great white sharks and venomous koalas, I imagine most Australians live ‘World’s Deadliest’ every single day of their life”.)
The Monster Guys Podcast: Episode 032 – Boggy Creek Monster & The Lizard Man with Lyle Blackburn Show Notes & Summary: Ladies and Gentlemen … Mr. Lyle Blackburn is on the show with us today! Lyle is THE man when it comes to the Boggy Creek Monster, and other southern monster mysteries such as The Lizard Man, and as you’ll hear a bit about his upcoming project, The Mothman. Lyle Blackburn is an author, musician, and cryptid researcher from Texas. His investigative cryptozoology books, such as “The Beast of Boggy Creek,” “Beyond Boggy Creek,” and “Lizard Man,” reflect his life-long fascination with legends and sighting reports of unknown creatures. During his research, Lyle has often explored the remote reaches of the southern U.S. in search of shadowy beasts said to inhabit the dense backwoods and swamplands of these areas. Lyle has been heard on numerous radio programs, including Coast To Coast AM, and has been featured on television shows such as Monsters and Mysteries in America and Finding Bigfoot. Lyle is also a writer for the monthly horror magazine, Rue Morgue, frontman for the band, Ghoultown, and was recently featured in the documentary film, Boggy Creek Monster. For more information, visit his website at: www.lyleblackburn.com Also visit: www.foukemonster.net
In technology they call it vaporware. In cryptozoology it's called a cryptid. But Nice Price or Crack Pipe is all about the cars, and that's why we call it... the Vector. Not only did the Wagoneer Limo get you to the show on time, but it evoked the inner Larry the Cable Guy in a few of you, producing a dead-even NPOCP vote! That's probably because the back roads behemoth was based on a beloved American legend- the Jeep Wagoneer. Another flag-waving automotive legend is that of a U.S.-built supercar intended to take on the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, and one that over the past 40 years has become more myth than motorcar. Jerry Wiegert grew up in Detroit. That may have had something to do with his following the dream of turning his junior high notebook drawings into three dimensional, four-wheel reality. Wiegert's first company was dubbed VDF, or Vehicle Design Force, where Uma Thurman played the funny one. They produced one fiberglass-shell mockup before being reformed as Vector Motors - named after that roller - and began a nearly 4 decade saga of unfulfilled dreams, unflagging self-promotion, and corporate drama. Along the way they announced various prototype cars, all stylistically based on that first, iconic VDF pusher. Although more fully engineered, and able to move under its own power, the next iteration of the Vector, the W2, never reached production. But that didn't stop Motor Trend magazine from producing annual cover stories touting its mythical performance and imminent availability. Wiegert took the car to every auto show and car-related event in the country, trying to drum up interest and venture capital. In the process, he racked up over 100,000 miles on the 600-bhp twin-turbo Chevy powered prototype. The successor W8 disposed of the Chevy for a Rodeck aluminum V8, with wet-sleeves and again the twin turbos. Shunning their reputation as nothing more than a tease, Vector actually produced 17 of the W8s- and sold them! Their most notable customer was Andre Agassi who spent less time with the car than he did married to Brooke Shields, returning it after breaking down despite having been warned that the car had been delivered unfinished. The W8 was followed up by the Avtech WX-3 which returned the company to its roots by not being produced. Shortly thereafter, Wiegert was forced out of Vector through a hostile takeover by the Indonesian company - and good Transformer - Megatech. That company also sought to forgo years of tradition and actually produce Vectors for public sale. They determined that the most expedient way to do so would be to throw out the aerospace tech semi-monocoque chassis and one-off racing motor, and replace them with the modified chassis and V12 engine from the Lamborghini Diablo, as, at the time, they owned that company as well. So, that's what we have today- a Vector M12 which is really a mid-nineties Lambo in drag. The switch from sidewinder to longitudinal engine placement means the Vector body had to be elongated, and the cabin pushed forward. While it still sports many of the iconic Vector styling cues, the proportions are funky and it just doesn't look right. The 4-cam Bizzarrini-legacy motor puts out a healthy 500-bhp, but that pales in comparison to the 1000-bhp Wiegert had promised back in the company's glory days. That's not to say this silver bullet can't get out of its own way, it should be blisteringly quick, and have a top speed in excess of 200-mph. And strangely, all the Lambo parts will mean repairs and maintenance will be easier. Plus, the Vector had Lambo doors before Lambo had Lambo doors. As you might expect, the mileage is as low as the roofline, at only 3,900, meaning it was probably only used by a little old lady to drive to church on Sundays. The condition looks factory fresh, and as one of only 14 ever built, the $139,900 cost buys you not only a very quick piece of history, but exclusivity as well- as long as you can get past the Miata turn signals and Cavalier tail lamps. After this car was produced, Megatech imploded, selling Lamborghini to VW/Audi, and the assets of Vector to local management, for pennies on the dollar. Jerry Wiegert bought them out and returned the company to its rightful position as the world's leading non-producer of supercars, a reputation it enjoys to this day. So, would you shell out $139,900 for a chance to own not just a car, but a soap opera star? Or, do you want to maintain your tradition of not buying Vectors? Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.
I’m having a very Monster High-y week; the Frightfully Tall Ghouls are now in stores with two of them in my house already (though I couldn’t find the TRU exclusive Elissabat – yet – but my borderline creepy love for that design WILL drive me on until I have a 17” version of her) and then today my City Ghouls pack arrived from America! I was so excited I stopped making breakfast to play with them, did you get that? I postponed food for them. I don’t postpone food for real people, even the ones I actually like. Mostly my excitement – and my importing them rather than just waiting for them to show in my local Asda – is from me depriving myself of the characters unlit this pack came out and I could buy them in their ‘default’ outfits so they’d fit in with all the other ghouls and having to walk past walls of them all tarted up in their Gala Ghoulfriends ball gowns feeling left out that I didn’t own them yet. But they’re here now and they were definitely worth the wait. The City Ghouls three-pack is an Asda exclusive here in the UK (Walmart in the US) and part of the Boo York, Boo York subline that was 2015’s big thing for the franchise, with dolls of various price-points and a CGI musical special that I haven’t actually seen all the way through because I can’t stand McKitty Catty Noir. This pack has three of the four new monsters created for Boo York, Boo York (the other being Astranova) in their regular street clothes; Luna Mothews, Mousecades King and Elle Eedee. They use all the same parts as their previously released deluxe ‘Gala Ghoulfriends’ solo carded dolls but lack the ‘glittery’ finish those toys had. As I haven’t reviewed those – and don’t even own them – I’m going to refer to the new tooling they all received as ‘unique’ parts, but know that what I actually mean is ‘unique to the character’ as they are in fact all being used for the second time here. The set doesn’t include any stands (par for the course with exclusive multipacks) so the three would like to thank Clawdeen, Ghoulia and Rochelle for the loaners and Mousecedes would like to express her disappointment that she couldn’t use Draculara’s very pink stand, that the vampire must have the skinniest waist ever and that it’s made her feel fat. We’ll start with Elle Eedee because she has the best puntastic name of the three (L.E.D. geddit?). Ellie’s the daughter of ‘the robots’ and a DJ and electronica composer from Boo York (The MH world’s equivalent of New York) she’s very into music but doesn’t dance so much because she gets really into it and can overheat which is just fucking adorable, despite being friendly she’s a bit of a loner by her own choice. We already have a robot in the line – Robecca Steam – but as her name implies she’s very steampunk, all bronzes and into old fashioned things and is actually daughter of the Mad Scientist, so I have no problem with Elle coming in and filling the more standard futuristic robot archetype. The team went all out on her too, she’s made up of almost entirely unique parts (I haven’t checked up her skirt but I assume her hips are reused) that are all sculpted with panels but forgoing the rivets of Robecca’s body (which they easily could have just reused if they were feeling cheap) for a sleek anime-influenced design that makes her into the sexiest mecha ever – presumably taking the crown from Arcee. I get a very Indian vibe from her; there’s no way the placing of her on switch (I love that she has an on switch) between her eyebrows is anything but intentional and her hair and outfit all look a lot like the stylish westernised Indian girls I drool over see around town. I’m delighted by this. Actually Elle is easily one of the prettiest girls so far boasting I feel the sexiest face sculpt – everything about the make-up and balance of her face is just perfect for me so well done the sculptor - and mine has really nice sharp paint apps for those great ‘camera’ eyes of hers too, though there’s a little softness on the segmented eyebrows it’s nothing that really bothers me, and as they were doing a segmented design with a gradient I’ll cut ‘em a little slack. I was particularly pleased with the set having three girls of completely different sizes and builds, it just make me feel like I was getting more value for my money via getting three completely unique looking ladies. Elle is the long, sleder and tall one of the group, the doll isn’t actually any bigger (though I think the torso is slimmer?) she’s just wearing exceptionally cool shoes. Once again my photos are useless but they’re best described as using hover technology to create futuristic platform boots, they make her nearly a half-a-head taller than Luna (who’s standard MH doll size), I really should have pulled out Nefera to compare but I completely forgot, eh, Nefera’s a bitch anyway so she’d only have moaned. From the tallest to the smallest and a terrible segue, we have Mousecades King. Easily the best thing about this set is that it forced me to buy Mousecades because I was really disappointed when she was revealed and had no intention of buying her as a single carded doll, this was a mistake on my part. Nothing about her appealed to me when she was announced, not her personality and especially not her look; Another Boo York native she’s a spoilt, entitled, materialistic and shallow little brat befitting her being raised wealthy in high society and the daughter of the Rat King - not the Ninja Turtles villain but the antagonist from the Nutcracker ballet but despite all this she surprisingly isn’t an antagonist but really a ‘good person inside’, that may be but she’s still annoying. She also looked decidedly un-monstrous; she’s a mouse girl for fuckssake that’s not monstrous that’s Disney and she eschews the more Gothic/Alternative fashion elements often used in Monster High to dress in the most sickly sweet way imaginable (though I do love her Swiss cheese top and can imagine how excited she must have been to have found that in a shop). Until I had her in hand I thought her parentage was the coolest thing about her and then she arrived, I unboxed her thinking she’d just be filling the shelf but found she was really fun to play with! She has so much character packed into her tiny mousiness and I was able to get a handle on the ‘shallow but lovable’ character Mattel are pushing with her and drew quite a lot of amusement from posing her in mischievous and adorable but completely airheaded and point-missing ways, I feel like she’s become the worst sort of little sister – she’s completely the opposite of you but she’s just so loveable. What finally turned my opinion of her was her unique hand and forearm pieces, though she does feature a bunch of new parts (including a new torso to accommodate her tail) they’re a lot less obvious than her line-mates and she does have the smallest amount overall (though hardly an insult given that Elle and Luna are 90% new tools) but she does have new furry forearms and mouse/human hybrid hands, it’s such a small thing and not that noticeable in pictures (hence why I hadn’t noticed it before) but it completely changed my view of her design by giving her that more monstrous appearance she was so sorely lacking. I still feel she’s the weakest of the Boo York ghouls and the weakest in this 3-pack but I like her a lot more than I thought I would. I am a little concerned about her tail though, it’s very thin and quite brittle and I foresee a lot of broken tailed Mousecades dolls at bootsales in a few years, as a nice touch though it goes through a hole in her skirt rather than under it (I know the werecats also generally have this but it’s still a nice touch). Luna Mothews on the other hand – for my second crap segue – is the star of the set and not just because she’s a self-confessed ‘Goth Moth’ but let’s just get this out the way first; she was clearly going to be the daughter of the Jersey Devil until someone at Mattel nixed having a devil character because it would upset to many mothers. I have no proof of this but I’ll bet you a tenner it’s true. Luna is the daughter of the Mothman and is in fact from Boo Jersey, not Boo York, but wants to be on Broadway (pretty much) so is working shitty jobs until she can get her big break – something she doesn’t resent in the slightest. The New York area has its own very famous cryptid (some might say, monster) and it even comes from Boo New Jersey but it ain’t the Mothman, who is very closely linked to another location – Point Pleasant, which is in fucking Virginia; in fact the Mothman is often given the ‘full name’ of the Mothman of Point Pleasant or the Point Pleasant Mothman. Now there have been sighting of ‘Mothmen’ or similar in other places, including Britain’s own Owlman (which was probably a hoax) but it doesn’t change how odd a decision it is to have a New Jersey character in your line, a line where all the characters are children of famous monsters, and have them be the daughter of a famous cryptid but not have that crytpid be the Jersey Devil, especially when you already have a Mothman’s daughter already out. ANYway the Mothman is my favourite cryptid and you really shouldn’t be surprised I have such a thing, Luna’s inclusion on the set was partly what made waiting for it such a drag as I’m always eager to get any and all Mothman merch. She isn’t the first daughter of the Mothman to make the line but her predecessor was Bonita Femur from the Freaky Fusions line, which were all effectively mixed race characters, Bonita was the daughter of The Mothman and a skeleton1, so Luna is the first Monster High ghoul to be all Mothperson, a straight up female teen version of The Mothman just as Frankie is a straight up female version of Frankenstein’s Monster or Draculara is of Dracula etc so I was very keen to have her even if she though I technically already had a Mothgirl. Then I got her in-hand and she just became better and better, she’s virtually entirely a new tool like Elle but this time so that she can have a segmented exo-skeleton like body to make her look extra bug-like even though the Mothman was supposedly very furry or feathery, meaning she could really have re-used the Abbey Bominable/Marisol Coxi parts but I’m glad she didn’t because the new parts are lovely, mostly because they’re subtle enough to make her look bug-like without stopping her from looking attractive or making her look ill2 and her hands make her look a bit like she's giving the horns too. Her hair also translates to doll great and combined with her Goth make-up makes her bare a striking resemblance to Abby Sciuto from NCIS and that is such a good thing I can’t think of a metaphor. Now I have to be a bit weird; see she has a completely new torso both to keep the segmented look going and to allow for her wings but…well…she has a noticeably fuller bust and now I’ve noticed it I can’t unsee it, she’s now become ‘the Monster High girl with big tits’, just like Operetta is ‘the Monster High girl with the really nice arse’. I’m all for it, not just because as a heterosexual man I am legally required to like large breasts but because body type is one of the two areas where Monster High fail when it comes to inclusiveness (the other being sexuality), there is short and not short and that’s it; it isn’t a social comment or an attempt to provide an unrealistic role-model to young girls it’s mostly just because it’s cheaper to use the same parts over and over early on than make a new tool3 but we’re at the point where the line can clearly justify 90% new tools for new characters so it wouldn’t hurt to give us a girl with say, bigger thighs, or bigger boobs, or just a bigger body in general – and I don’t mean like Gooliope, no. I am trying to stop talking about Luna Mothews’ body parts but her wings, obviously their resemblance to Makit & Bakit style lightcatchers makes them amazing to start with but, ah, they lose a few points by not being on ball-joints, they are in two segments and both can be positioned independently of each other but I really would have liked them to be able to flap. They regain many of those points through their design, specifically the eyes, eye-like designs on moth and butterfly wings aren’t anything special I know but because the Mothman’s glowing red eyes are such an iconic part of the legend (so much so that the brilliant documentary about it was actually called The Eyes of the Mothman) it just pleases me so much that his daughter had red wings with eyes on them. The paint’s really fucking acceptable on mine too; Dark beaver could learn a thing or two about delicate black paint apps from these wings. If I have to find a downside with Luna it’s that I wish they’d given her a causal outfit that was a little more Goth to fit her self-proclaimed alliance with that counter-culture (well fashion sense), her cityscape dress is cool but it could belong to anyone with any style. I suppose Elissabat already has the sexy Goth look covered but I want as many sexy Alternatives as I can get dammit! Do I really have to write and concluding paragraph? I love the set, the dolls are great, everything is great. \|"Has anyone seen my dad?"\| 1 As Bonita was clearly marketed as the daughter of ‘the’ Mothman rather than ‘A’ Mothman and Luna is likewise marketed as the daughter of ‘The’ Mothman then presumably they’re half-sisters, this hasn’t however been confirmed in cannon. Also… Bonita has the nicest hair, it’s so long and soft and pretty! 2 unlike Skelly Calveris 3 just to remind everyone a tool is a steel mould and they’re very expensive.
Normal, adjective: Conforming to the standard or common type. See also ordinary. Abnormal, adjective: Deviating from the common type, such as playing monster-hunter on the rooftops of Manhattan. See also Verity Price. Telepathic mathematicians. Chess-playing dragons. Bogeyman nightclub owners. Talking mice. The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity and to protect humanity from them. Verity Price is just trying to do her job, keeping the native cryptid population of Manhattan from getting into trouble, and doing a little ballroom dancing on the side. But her tenure on the East Coast is coming to an end, and she s still not sure what she wants to do with her life. Enter Dominic De Luca, an operative for the Covenant of St. George, and Verity s on-again, off-again boyfriend. When he tells her that the Covenant is sending a full team to assess how ready the city is for a purge, Verity finds herself between a rock and a hard place. Stay, and risk her almost-certain death, or flee, and leave the cryptids of New York with nothing between them and the Covenant. It s not the kind of choice that ever comes easy. With allies and enemies on every side, and no safe way to turn, it s going to take some quickstepping for Verity to waltz out of this one. There s just one question on everyone s mind: Is this the last dance for Verity Price?"
Sasquatch – most often associated with the mythical (or is it?) ‘ape-like cryptid that inhabits forests’ but for 4 days at the end of May (the 27th to the 30th), just outside of the quaint town of George, Washington in the U.S.A, Sasquatch becomes one rocking festival of music to about 20,000 music lovers. To the readers who have experienced Sasquatch before, congratulations, you’ve earned my jealousy. To anyone who has not yet made the trek to the Gorge Amphitheatre, I will attempt to break down the experience as best, and eloquently, as I possibly can without turning this article into a tome. First of all, you have to camp, no question. I’m sure there’s plenty of nice hotels with nice hot, private showers fairly close to festival but camping is a huge part of the experience. You get the chance to meet some of the most unique people from all over North America that you would never have gotten the chance to hang out with otherwise and there’s a sort of camaraderie that forms within the neighbours you camp beside. There’s also the party tents. The experienced Sasquatch veteran takes their camping seriously, and their party tents even more serious. Walking though the campground, each party tent seems more elaborate than the next and it’s impressive what some people can do with a generator, some Christmas lights and a turntable. The venue itself, the Gorge Amphitheatre, is about a 20 minute hike away from the campground and is, literally, in a gorge right beside the Columbia River. There’s 3 smaller stages and a main stage spread out amongst the green, rolling hills. The majestic views sitting at the top of the gorge at the main stage are absolutely stunning, and there’s no questioning why the Gorge Amphitheatre is considered one of the most beautiful venues in the world. The line-up of bands this year was amazing, from the ‘bigger’ headliners – Foo Fighters, Death From Above 1979, Modest Mouse and the Flaming Lips, to the bands you’d pay $20 to see at the Odeon – Local Natives, Tokyo Police Club, Gayngs, Noah and the Whale, to bands I’d honestly never even heard of until I got there but enjoyed nonetheless – Wye Oak, Basia Bulat, Best Coast. The good thing about having over 100 acts split between four stages is that there’s never a gap in between shows and there’s always something to see. The bad thing is that there’s so much overlap it’s nearly impossible to catch a full set of a favourite band before hauling ass to a different stage to catch another favourite band. Mariachi el Bronx was the first show we saw and all agreed they’d be tough to top. Yet they were, by their main band The Bronx who played an enthusiastic set ending with the drummer throwing up all over his drums. Death From Above 1979 rocked pretty hard and brought the party to the main stage, as per usual, however it’s pretty sad in a hilarious way when you can tell the crowd only knows their most popular song. The Foo Fighters were a band I’d never seen live before and have always wanted to, and while the show was great we could have did without the band breaking down each song and giving everyone at least 5 solos each. Sleigh Bells were one of the reasons I went to Sasquatch in the first place and they did not disappoint. You know that old saying? ‘All you need is a wall of amps, smoke, lights and a hyper lead singer to put on one of the best shows of a music festival’? Well they followed that adage to a T. However, some awesome person in charge of scheduling put them in the tented Banana Shack stage, so the 200-ish sweaty, drunk festival goers waiting to get their faces melted off got real friendly with all of their neighbours. I would love to fangirl on more about my raging clue for the Sleigh Bells but I have a word limit and several more bands to talk about. The most energetic and happiest band has got to be Matt and Kim. I don’t think I saw Kim sit still once and Matt has those high kicks from behind his keyboard down. Their show was loud, upbeat and crazy and it was a toss up between who actually had more fun – the band or the crowd. Dancing around super sexy, in her sexy leggings and crop top, singing her sexy songs, Robyn put on one of the more, uhm, alluring shows of the festival. She even took a break half-way through her set to eat a banana, clearly stepping up her game and music since 1997’s ‘Robyn was Here’. I enjoyed the unusually peppy Bright Eyes show from the unusually hyper Conor Oberst, who blessed the crowd with his slightly awkward political views and his rant about how much he hates the internet in between the same songs I’d heard from the more mellow show I saw in Saskatoon the Tuesday before. Another band I’d gone to Sasquatch to specifically see was Gayngs. Although Justin Vernon was a no-show, thus unable to accept my marriage proposal, they still played that sensual baby-making music I love so much and clearly had a good time playing at the Gorge. I attempted the damned Banana Shack again for MSTRKRFT, but only stayed for half the show. They put on a crazy good dance party playing a lot of new stuff that’s not yet downloadable. !!!, or chk chk chk?, was like an American Franz Ferdinand on ecstasy. Nic Offer, the lead singer, was in the crowd more than he was on the stage and his pelvic thrusts were a highlight of the show. Last, but not least, The Decemberists were the last band I got to see at Sasquatch and were one of my favourites. The band has great chemistry, are amazing story tellers and really up the crowd participation level. They also reminded us about the hilarious scandal of 2009’s Sasquatch where 2 people were caught in a ‘carnal embrace’ at the top of the hill. A special thanks to the impeding thunderstorm for setting up the perfect mood during their encore, ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’, when lightening struck at the appropriate time, earning a split second look of awe from Colin Meloy. Although it might sound like running around a gorge in the hot sun for 4 days straight gets pretty tiring, however there’s always some really good music, and a better dance party to keep you running around like a sugared up 5 year old at Chuck E. Cheese and swearing that fatigue and dehydration are myths. And, sure, by the end of the festival you’re pretty music’d out, sunburnt, dirty, smelly, and more than ready to sleep indoors and never see a $8 noodle bowl again, but you also can’t wait to get back there next year and do it all over again. Maybe with less guitar solos, Dave Grohl. — Photos by Jade Bugera. View more photos on Facebook.
Glow in the dark fun with ill documented beasts. As the days start to lengthen and you can almost believe it’s springtime – suddenly it’s Valentine’s Day! Below are listed a few of my favorite finds from around the interwebs. Choose from among cool looking (and edible!) skull cards, bitchin’ human heart in a jar candles, and fabulous glow in the dark big foot tee’s! Or if your special someone is a true cryptid fan, maybe they need a Fiji Mermaid sculpture.
Saturday, April 2, 2016 Tatzelwurm: Rockwurm of the Alps Also the source of the mythological Basilisk as well. What i do see described is a potent lizard with well developed front limbs designed for burrowing and pulling rocks aside as well to dig out a meal. This leads to an odd form of bipedal motion with the hind limbs tucked up. This is not unreasonable and works as we can imagine an effective life way. It also makes real sense in order to navigate over a rock field. Been a lizard, it can likely go dormant during cold weather rather easily. Haylofts, and burrows show us how it may survive. It is no trick to line a burrow with long grass. It appears to be a carnivore, likely preying on whatever form of rock rodents are available which explains the digging ability as well. Larger versions are really older versions as lizards can grow large as they age. In short it all hangs together. I suggest that they rely on rock camouflage as well which is why we rarely see them You have to step on one. It looks like a rock. In short this creature likely exists and i did not expect that as i started this item. If this were a goat ,the smattering of reports listed would conform well. It is vulnerable to local predators which explains its spitting acid confrontation ability. Tatzelwurm: Dragon of the Alps Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Here is a cryptid from the bucolic Swiss Alps, the home of my Strickler ancestors. An odd beast feared for its cunning skills and ferocious nature...known by many as the 'Dragon of the Alps'. The Tatzelwurm is a mysterious beast that makes its home in the Alps...a legend in many Swiss communities. Reports of this mysterious creature vary in description, some witnesses claimed the Tatzelwurm to be lizard-like while others more bizarrely claim the features of a cat. A common description of the enigmatic Tatzelwurm is that of a creature between 2 and 6 feet, completely covered in scales and with no hind legs but rather a long snake like body. The Tatzelwurm has 2 front legs and is said to have very big bright eyes and feline like ears which some witness’s claim gives the Tatzelwurm the appearance of a cat covered in scales rather than fur. Another notable feature is that the Tatzelwurm can apparently expel poisonous fumes that are strong enough to kill a human. Hans Fuchs, a poor Swiss farmer was tending to his farm in the Alps. Suddenly he heard strange noises from his pig pen. He ran towards the pig pen to see what was attacking his prized pig and stopped in shock. What he saw that day in 1779 would not only kill his pig, but he would die the same day of a heart attack. Before dying the man told of seeing a tatzelwurm (German for “worm with claws”) 5 – 7 feet in length with a snake-like body, clawed front legs and a large feline-like head with sharp teeth. The creature can become extremely ferocious; If the creature doesn’t run away when it sees a person, it will turn and run toward the person emitting a high pitched call and would try to bite the person. In 1828, a peasant supposedly found the corpse of a Tatzelwurm which by the time he had managed to bring it home crows had apparently eaten half of the creature. Even so, the Tatzelwurm built up quite a following of believers and was even considered fact in the nineteenth century. Its now believed that even if this creature did actually exist that because sightings are so rare now it may be completely extinct. It is widely believed that the Tatzelwurm is actually some kind of rare salamander with characteristics resembling a Gila Monster, most notably the preferred habitat of underground burrows in mountainous areas. This could also explain the reports of poisonous fumes as the Gila Monster is extremely venomous and one of the worlds only venomous lizards, though it is not native to the region. The description of the Tatzelwurm even fits that of a Gila Monster even if it is some what of a loose fit. Another theory is that this creature could be some kind of giant skink, although skinks are also not native to the Alps. The Tatzelwurm is said to have normal hibernation periods; sleeping during the winter in crevices on mountainsides (this is the reason for the name “Stollenwurm”) or they will even sometimes sleep in hay in a hay loft. In the following two centuries, many reports were received about a strange monster lurking in the Alps and attacking the livestock of farmers in remote villages. There are many other tales of the legend of the Tatzelwurm. The first tale is that of a young girl who was working on a Swiss farm. While chopping down bean poles she accidentally disturbed the burrow of a Tatzelwurm and was attacked. The Tatzelwurm in this account was described as being of a gray coloration and about the size of a common domesticated cat with a fleshy hairless body and possessing only two front legs. According to the story the Tatzelwurm glared at the girl and she ran away describing big bright eyes to intense to meet. Another story tells that of a man and his son out gathering herbs in the mountains when the man suddenly heard his son scream and seemed to be paralyzed in fear staring at a rock. The man sprinted to his son only to see a ‘gruesome monster’ under the rock near his son which hissed like a snake and had the face of a cat with big bright eyes. The man managed to stab the Tatzelwurm with a sharped stick easily fleshing the flesh. According to the story the ‘green blood’ of the creature sprayed out and burnt the mans leg making his journey home long and painful due to his limp. In July 1883 or 1884, Kaspar Arnold saw a Tatzelwurm on the Spielberg, near Hochfilzen, Tirol, Austria. He watched it from a mountain restaurant for twenty minutes and was certain it only had two legs. A two-legged Tatzelwurm leaped 9 feet in the air toward two witnesses near Rauris, Salzburg, Austria, in the summer of 1921. It was gray, about 2–3 feet long, and had a head like a cat. In 1924 the five-foot-long skeleton allegedly was found by two men, who said it resembled a lizard’s. In 1934, a Swiss photographer named Balkin claimed to have photographed a Tatzelwurm near Meiringen, Switzerland, but his photo was probably a faked image of a ceramic fish. In the summer of 1969, a local man reported a 30-inch-long animal with two hind legs near Lengstein, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy. It seemed to be inflating its neck. In 1990, two naturalists found the skeleton of a lizardlike animal in the Alps near Domodossola, Italy. Giuseppe Costale saw a gray, crested reptile moving in a zigzag fashion on Pizzo Cronia in the same area on two occasions, in October 1991 and September 1992. In the 1960′s a photograph emerged which was supposedly taken of the mysterious creature. This was given to a Geneva newspaper from a source unknown. Most researchers and cryptozoologists who have seen the photo are in agreement that it is probably a hoax – most likely by a mayor of a Bavarian town attempting to attract tourists. In 1970, reports of an alleged Tatzelwurm were published in the Swiss newspaper La Tribune de Geneve by Georges Hardy. In 2000 a strange skeleton was forwarded to a local college. Some scientists said at the time is the first physical proof of the Alpine Tatzelwurm. Along with the skeleton came a sizable donation as well. The original owner of the skeleton remains a mystery. The law firm of Gunterhaus Ltd. in Germany handled the donation and refuses to divulge the name of the contributor or why the Geneva Institute was selected to be the recipient. As recently as 2009, many reports were made in the Tresivio area of Italy, near the Swiss border. Authorities chalked up most of these reports to "missing monitor lizards" that had escaped their masters. Some of the sightings were even said to be of "raptor" dinosaurs! Only the oldest residents of Tresivio called the mysterious creatures by the name they always knew them as..."basilisco" or basilisk. That was the Italian name for Tatzelwurm...a creature almost faded into non-existence. The Tatzelwurm is also known in other European countries under different names: * Stollenworm (Tunnel Worm) * Bergstutzen (Mountain Stump) * Springwurm (Jumping Worm) * Arassas (French Alps) NOTE: I only had time for two blog posts today. Lon
The Long-Lost Bigfoot Board Game “You and your buddy come to Alaska looking for gold even though the dreadful BigFoot has been sighted in the mountains. Other prospectors and you O, the humanity! I bring this up because I see a lot of people interested in the bigfoot/wood ape phenomenon who want them to be human (or almost human). Are You Trying to Tell Me Unicorns Are Easier to Video than Bigfoot?! According to YouTube user "Amazing Mystery Videos" this is footage of a real-life unicorn in the hills of Europe. So while we might believe in bigfoot Bigfoot Captured on Video in Calgary ~ Stabilized, Zoomed & Enhanced Bigfoot Captured on Video in Calgary ~ Stabilized, Zoomed & Enhanced. Click to zoom. Still frames from the video. Posted by Greg Giles. Check Out This Bigfoot Expedition Drone Footage It's Pretty Amazing! Members of the Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization take us along during one of their expeditions into their research areas looking for bigfoot. Sasquatch Howls in Michigan? Michigan BFRO investigator Jim Sherman, who goes by "Lord Cryptid" on YouTube, captured these vocals in 2012. This is in an area of Michigan ... Bigfoot Slaughters Deer Farmer Witnesses Carnage (Video) This story was told to me by a man named Chuck. Now Chuck lived high up on Monteagle in TN and had been born on the little farm on which he still ... Possible Bigfoot Sounds Recorded In Mississippi This is a recording from Brian Sons of possible bigfoot sounds. He recorded in in the state of Mississippi. I have attempt to enhance the audio. Thanks Bigfoot Seen in Alaska Eating Dead Walrus with Photo! The above image is claimed to be a still from a video taken by Bosco Olson Sr. in Hooper Bay, Alaska. Olson observed a bigfoot creature scavenging a Website Looking for Bigfoot Expedition Members in Alaska According to the website Fitmisc.com, they are looking for some individuals to go on a bigfoot expedition, all expenses paid, and posted the above I'm convinced the Blue Mountain is one of the best places to find Bigfoot evidence Bigfoot Evidence ⋅ Shawn Bigfoot Evidence reader Ryan & Crystal recently returned from the Blue ... Paul Freeman filmed his famous Bigfoot footage in the Blue Moutains as
WRITTEN BY: CRAIG JAMIESON PHOTOS BY: INCITE IMAGES "TRIBES OF THE REGION BELIEVED IN THE EXISTENCE OF A RACE OF 2.7M-TALL HAIRY, MANLIKE BEINGS CALLED THE RAKATAK. THESE MONSTERS WERE SAID TO INHABIT THE ROCK SHELTERS AND FORESTS ... AND THE SWAMPSAND FORESHORES OF THE MYALL LAKES NORTH OF NEWCASTLE, FRIGHTENING ABORIGINAL FISHERMEN FROM THEIR FISHING GROUNDS." – REX GILROY, CRYPTOZOOLOGIST, AUTHOR, GIANTS FROM THE DREAMTIME, 2001 IT TAKES A SPECIAL KIND OF STUPID TO TEMPT FATE. It's putting a priceless Ming vase behind a sitcom door. It's pushing a big, red, unfamiliar button just to see what it does. It's searching for a gigantic, merciless man-beast and deciding to camp in the middle of the thick bush that legends say is its ancestral stomping ground. It's exactly what we're doing. And what we're doing certainly seems like a bad idea to my fellow camper, Tom, who sums up the situation beside the fire. "So, we're in a place called Treachery." "Yes." "By this creepy Blair Witch Project swamp full of dead trees and surrounded by weird noises." "I don't like it either." "With no phone reception. And it's pitch-black, and things are moving around in the bush, and there's nobody else camping, and we're here because they've had decades of yowie sightings." "That's the brief for our story." "Great," he snorts. "This is stupid." I don't know if Tom means it's stupid as in silly (looking for yowies is clearly a Very Silly Thing, at least by daylight) or stupid as in scary (because now, in the late, quiet night, I'm not ashamed to admit it's actually, genuinely a bit scary). But surely—surely—we'll be fine. No-one has ever found definitive proof that the yowie, Australia's version of the infamous Big Foot, actually exists. And, should someone actually manage to find the elusive cryptid, it won't be a pair of city slickers sitting by a poorly erected tent, pensively munching half-cooked supermarket sausages. But this is cold comfort at 2am, with a thin layer of mouldy polyester the only thing between us and whatever keeps making sounds that'd give Jason Voorhees conniptions. SHOULD A BEAST, ONCE DESCRIBED AS "LIKE A BIG GORILLA WITH A LARGE HEAD RESEMBLING THREE PORCUPINES TIED TOGETHER", APPEAR, I WILL FIRE UP THE GRUNTY 3.0-LITRE ENGINE AND DRIVE OFF, EVEN AS IT FEASTS ON THE TENT DWELLERS. My Isuzu MU-X, parked nearby, looks an increasingly attractive sleep option. Solid steel and tempered glass certainly one-up our tent for protection. I'd be a full 230mm off the ground, thanks to its clearance, with thick steel plates on the underbody to stop anything seizing me, Jaws-like, from below. I'd even be able to set the climate control to a toasty 27°C, fold down the rear and middle seats—leaving a perfectly flat surface for my swag—and drift off into a lovely, nightmare-free nap. Safe in the knowledge that, should a beast, once described by a witness as "like a big gorilla with a large head resembling three porcupines tied together", come barrelling through camp, it will feast first on the tent dwellers. Even as I fired up the grunty 3.0-litre engine and drove off. Should something emerge from the shadows, I'd have zero qualms about doing just that. "IT WAS ABOUT 3M TALL, COVERED IN HAIR; IT HAD A FLAT FACE AND WALKED TO THE SIDE IN A CRAB-LIKE STYLE … IT JUST RIPPED UP WHOLE SHRUBS BETWEEN THE CREEK AND WHERE OUR CAMP WAS, RIGHT OUT OF THE GROUND—ROOTS AND ALL. A BLOKE CAN'T DO THAT; IT WAS QUITE INCREDIBLE." – BILL O'CHEE, FORMER QUEENSLAND NATIONAL PARTY SENATOR, 1977 It's morning. Apparently. There was no sunrise, just a pale hue that more or less failed to illuminate the low, heavy cloud cover. As morning breaks, the clouds seem to move in even closer, casting a malevolent shroud on our feeble encampment. Tom breaks the malaise with a hearty breakfast before we load up and hit the sandy trails around Seal Rocks and Yagon, in the Myall Lakes National Park, 45km south of Forster on the NSW midnorth coast. It's a truly beautiful part of the world every single day, except for the single day we've chosen for our yowie hunt. The clouds, grumpy all morning, have upped the ante from 'menacing' and look 'enraged', and it's raining sideways. Tom confiscated the MU-X last night after I mentioned using it as a hotel. It's no real hardship, mind; I'm behind the wheel of a D-MAX LS-U which shares much with its seven-seater brother. Both vehicles excel as we plough further into the scrub, neither giving quarter in terms of off-road poise or panache. Thirty metres further down the trail, we actually are ploughing. The trail exists now in name only. The scrub has given way to robust saplings that grow between the wheel ruts; they disappear beneath the D-MAX's bonnet like I'm driving a combine harvester up a sandy mountain. If I could share a small tip, it would be to never, ever try to do that, but I'd forgive you if you didn't take advice from a man who's hunting mythical creatures in the face of a Category 2 cyclone. Our convoy comes to a halt in front of a hill that would block out the sun, if any of us could actually figure out if it was shining in the first place. It's unassailable, we expect, even in the dry; driving a heavily specced bruiser with fat mudterrain tyres, it would be a stretch. Last night's downpour has carved the hillside away, leaving a climb that resembles a Crisco-drenched slippery dip. There's nothing for it; we'll have to go around. And then Mark, our Bear Grylls-esque photographer, decides we should give it a crack anyway, safe in the knowledge that we can reverse down or employ our salvage gear and the second 4X4. He scales the cliff-like face, props himself up against a trunk and declares that there's a small plateau halfway up, just before the hill actually becomes a wall of loose sand. But there's a path around the summit from there, so we should go for it. Tom is first to have a crack in the MU-X. He selects low-range 4WD, manually grabs second gear and sets off. Under-specced, his road-happy tyres struggle for grip, but the 4WD system doesn't let them lose out all together. Somehow, the MU-X pulls cleanly all the way up to the plateau. And the D-MAX follows. We're impressed. I HAD GONE FOR A RIDE ON MY BIKE WHEN I SAW IT UP THE HILL A BIT. IT LOOKED REAL TO ME AND IT WAS CLAWING THE TREE. BARK WAS FALLING DOWN AROUND ITS BODY. THEN SUDDENLY IT TURNED AND LOOKED AT ME … FROM ABOUT 50 YARDS AWAY … I TURNED AND JUST WENT FOR MY LIFE." – SHAUN COOPER, STUDENT, 1978 Mark is deathly silent. He skulks like a ninja, stalking something into the bush. Tom and I exchange bemused glances and retreat to our cars. Ten minutes pass with the speed of an hour until Mark finally emerges with pictures, not of a Yowie, but of a six-foot goanna. And a second massive storm front, eagerly joining the one that's been hanging over us all day. All of a sudden, bush bashing to find yowies has gone from tempting fate to asking for a Darwin Award. After all, we've plugged along, all day, through miles of sodden trails, almost-trails and places where trails have reverted to scrub. Dusk is nearing and our meagre fauna tally sits at a goanna, 24 brush turkeys, 10 million mozzies and one dingo awareness sign. And zero yowies. But we don't want to be here in the dark when that storm hits. So we make the brave call to scarper. Fate rewards our boldness. The clouds mostly back off for one glorious hour, time enough for a detour to the desperately gorgeous Sandbar Beach. Both the D-MAX and MU-X revel in the soft sand as we slew through sand drifts. It's easy to relax when the prospect of being dinner for a giant simian—or goanna, for that matter—is long gone. It's easy to relax, for instance, and forget that I've left my driver's window down. It's easy to then tempt fate with some bravado behind the wheel—bravado that picks up a cubic metre of sand and dumps it through the window, caking me. We found no yowies, but that doesn't mean there were no hairy moments. And while we can't be blamed if the local bunyips had gone to ground, I can be blamed for the sandpit's worth of ground—or, at least, sand—lining my D-MAX's sills and door seals. Every orifice of my D-MAX and me is caked in grit. I am not a smart man, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've been outwitted by a mythical beast. It takes a special kind of stupid to tempt fate.
Main / Card / THE VIEW Magazine Issue 6, THE VIEW Magazine Issue 6, Name: THE VIEW Magazine Issue 6, File size: 876mb Issue 6: February 8, – February 15, Issue July 6, – July 13, · Issue June 29, – July 6, Once your order is complete you will also be directed to a download link of the PDF version of Issue 6 to view on your desktop or tablet. You'll also receive a. The Magnolia Journal Magazine Issue 6 (Spring, ) Intentional Living [The x inches; Shipping Weight: ounces (View shipping rates and policies). Issue 6. Countdown cover issue 6 Countdown: Open with care! Teaching Guide includes exploring the English concept of point of view; exploring. Angel Magazine - Welcome to Angel Magazine #6, and welcome to the lovely month of December. The most December 2 · Issue #6 · View online. I am an. 4 Dec View product image in popup: Octonauts Magazine Issue 6 Inside this issue, we learn all about the graceful manta ray with an adventurous. Our massive sixth issue of Mighty Car Mods Magazine - available as an instant digital These are located in the 'View > Page Display' menu in Adobe Acrobat). 1 Oct Title: Vivarious Magazine Issue 6 \| Oct-Dec , Author: Vivarious Magazine, Name: Wider ﬁeld-of-view Specially engineered seating layout. 28 Oct Eventbrite - The Face Magazine presents The Face Magazine Issue #6 Release Event and Fashion Show - Saturday, October 28, at The Face Magazine Issue #6 Release Event and Fashion Show. View Details. HackSpace magazine Issue 6 cover To get you started, HackSpace mag issue 6 comes with a FREE paper automaton to cut-out and View PDF of contents. Vol.2 No.6 June 9, ARTIST. SKETCHES. 10 Portrait - Magazine Issues. View All Articles For Portrait. Filter. Magazine. Clear. Antiques. Arts. Buy a single issue of Built magazine. This great new magazine is dedicated to the worldwide trend of custom built motorcycles. Built: Issue 4 - 6 Bundle. Thomas Giddings. On the Rocks Magazine: Issue 6. 1. /. 7 View All · Close×. Share. Save Download Image(s)Processing Image(s)Download PDF. The latest independent issue of PROSTHETICS Magazine published by internationally acclaimed make-up FX designer and teacher Neill Gorton. Impact Magazine - Issue 6. IMPACT magazine: packed with real-world examples of how to use analysis to make better decisions. It's full of thought-provoking. 16 Jul Cryptid Culture Magazine is a new print publication based on Long Island, NY. The idea View Cryptid Culture Magazine Issue #6 by Various. The Trade Issue of Makeshift. Featuring analog wire transfers in the Middle East, organ swapping in China, and bustling exchange in the Nakivale refugee camp. Download latest issue. Goddard View is a magazine published by the Office of Communications at NASA's Goddard Issue 6 (August-September): Print \| Web. Buy Digital and Print Copies of Campervan - Issue 6: Great open spaces. (0 Customer Reviews) \| Write Review 6 issues per year Campervan is the perfect magazine for those looking for inspiring travel, features, .. View \| Add to Cart.
Perhaps I was a weird kid, or maybe I just got caught up in a lot of the cartoon merchandising hype, but I remember playing with a wide array of odd toys throughout my childhood, in some cases, crap that you rarely hear about nowadays. I of course had my main staples like the Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and my Star Wars stuff but there were a few toy franchises that made it into my playtime repertoire that were a bit more madcap. It’s important to note that I had a lot of toys as a kid, hell who am I kidding, I still have a lot of toys! I just never really grew out of the toy phase and though as time went on I gradually played with them less, I’ve always harbored an appreciation for cool and interesting toys. That being said, my collection throughout the 80’s and 90’s gradually became an eclectic mix of freaks, weirdos, and mutants and I’d like to share just a few of those lovable misfits with you now along with my thoughts on what made these toys so cool. Ketchuk and Dr. Gangrene. One of the basic AOTKT toy packs. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes– Yes this was a line of toys based on the B-movie parody of the same name, well actually it was based on a cartoon which was derived from the sequel to the B-movie parody of the same name, but let’s not get technical. What can I say about Attack of the Killer Tomatoes? I remember the cartoon series being highly ridiculous and entertaining, I’d be really interested to watch a few episodes now to see just how it holds up. Overall this was just a zany concept and back then, as today, I love well executed, self aware, crazy humor. I remember renting the movie around the time when the cartoon and the toys were hitting it big, and though I might not have quite understood all the jokes (or the actual concept of the movie for that matter) it was able to spark some awkward kind of devoted fandom within me. Maybe because it looked like a movie that I could have been able to produce as a kid. Whatever the reason I was tomatoes obsessed for quite some time. It didn’t help that my father is notorious for growing tomatoes which kept me supplied with a surplus of actual tomatoes to perform various mad scientific experiments on. I remember going through a scientific phase around this same time where many of my toys and action figures were put through the rigors of various medical experiments, generally resulting in their detriment. Now that I think about it, it’s probably good I didn’t go with a career in science, I’m sure we would have all been destroyed by cyborg-zombie toenail clippers by now. Anyway, these Killer Tomatoes toys, brought out by Mattel, were simplistic and insane and I owned all the main tomatoes from the show. The best part was that these toys could easily be integrated with most of my others in order to create such exhibitions as Turtles VS Tomatoes or the Tomatoes Take Tatooine! A sampling from the buffet of Food Fighters. Food Fighters – Seriously though, I for one loved these things. These guys were like playing with G.I. Joes during an LSD trip at a Denny’s. You want to talk about ridiculous toys, look no further. The tagline for Food Fighters was “Combat At Its Kookiest!” Verily I say! With names like Burgerdier General, Taco Terror, and (I’m not making this up) Mean Weiner how could you not love these crazy bastards? These were around during my elementary school years and I only ever actually owned but one Food Fighter, Short Stack, the angry looking stack of pancakes topped with butter, syrup, and an army hat. I did however have a couple of friends who had some as well and we’d do battle on the lunchtime playground. There were two divisions of Food Fighters, the Kitchen Commandos and the Refrigerator Rejects. Short Stack was a member of the Refrigerator Rejects, who apparently were the bad guys but I ask you, how can a stack of pancakes be menacing? Whatever the story line was for these guys they had great designs, and were just all around cool and interesting toys. One question though, why did they have human arms and legs? We may never know. The toy line also had a few vehicles that were amazing, one in particular was a tank made from an egg carton with a bottle of ketchup strapped to the top. Unfortunately there was never any type of media outlet for the Food Fighters and as a result they were only around for a few years which make them all the more alluring, an unexplained flash in the pan (pun intended) which had a lasting impression on my school days. Sadly Short Stack was stolen at some point in elementary school, and was never heard from again Toxie from the Toxic Crusaders line of toys, now with 95% less sodomy. The Toxic Crusaders – This show was right up there with Rambo and Robocop for the worst source material to derive a cartoon from. The original Toxic Avenger movie produced by Troma was full of gory deaths, boobs, sex, and more gore. Troma isn’t known for their wholesome, high quality, family entertainment but somehow somebody got it into their head that these guys could be the next Ninja Turtles. I mean a mutant’s a mutant right? It’s all the same. The Toxic Crusader toys were produced by Playmates, the same company that made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures and as a result they were very compatible in scale and design to the Turtles. Toxie and his pals fit in quite nicely. Even as a kid I knew the Toxic Avenger movie was forbidden fare, spoken of only in hushed tones and cryptic riddles. I recall some friends trying to rent it for a sleep over but being denied by the video store clerk when they took it to the counter. Though it wasn’t until many years later that I actually got to see the Toxic Avenger in all its ultra low budget glory, I always felt that I was pulling one over on my parents by owning these toys, because my folks had no idea what the Toxic Crusaders were. As far as they knew Toxie was just another one of those weird Ninja Turtles, and I felt like some kind of ten year old rebellious badass with such clandestine contraband in my possession. Dork. Death to the forces of R.A.M.S.! Barnyard Commandos– The ceaseless battle between the P.O.R.K.S. and the R.A.M.S. for control of the farmstead was given form, the result being Barnyard Commandos. Pigs and sheep armed with military equipment, what more is there to say? Any badass street cred I received from my Toxic Crusaders figures was completely evaporated by owning these things. These came to my attention when one was given to my grandmother (who loves pigs) as a gag gift. It was obviously one of the P.O.R.K.S. commandos, Sgt. Shoat N. Sweet, who came with a machine gun barricade. What really got my attention was the small “Code Book” that was included with the figure. Inside the code book were instructions on how to speak Pig Latin, which I quickly became fluent in, there was also some general information about the pig side of the fight, and a bit of history about why the pigs and sheep were warring. Well I am a sucker for a good toy narrative. Simple in design the Barnyard Commandos were soft plastic pig and sheep figures that had removable weaponry for which to do battle against the opposing faction. Not very complex at all. I guess what I found so great about the Barnyard Commandos was the back-story. Unlike most toys of the time the manufacturer didn’t take sides, neither the pigs nor the sheep were portrayed as the “bad guys”, the whole thing was just portrayed as ridiculous. Each character had a file card on the back of their packaging with a brief history and such, and the code books were just cool little pamphlets that really added something to the toys. A friend of mine had several sheep and I had three or four of the pigs and we had some good battles with those goofy farm animals until they lost their limited appeal and then abruptly the war was over. My pigs had a hard time readjusting to civilian life but they found cameos in some of my other toy adventures and I remember them regularly floating around my toy landscape even after the height of their coolness. One question remains though, what was in the R.A.M.S. code book? If you have any answers please let me know, because I don’t think I ever got to look at one! How many points is Bulbasaur worth? Monster in My Pocket – Monsters in every sense of the word, Monster In My Pocket was a collection of small rubbery monster figures with varying point values assigned to them depending on how tough and/or epic the creature was. Something like a run of the mill Witch was only worth 5 points, while monsters such as the Great Beast of Revelation were worth 25 points. Apparently there were at least two board games that were compatible with Monster In My Pocket but I never got that deep into it. These guys were another holdout from my elementary school days and at that time we would rather make up our own rules for playing with toys, instead of letting the man tell us how to do things! We would just keep our monsters in our pockets as it were, draw one at random, compare the numbers and proceed with battling them out as deemed by our imaginations and the point values. Ironically it was not all that different from what would eventually become Pokemon, right down to the obsessive collecting element of it all. Funny story, these guys are the reason Pokemon is called Pokemon in the USofA and not simply Pocket Monsters as it is in Japan. Matchbox found a real winner in Monster in My Pocket which went on for several years and involved cartoons, games, and comic books. The monsters had partners in the earlier M.U.S.C.L.E. Men who were basically the same thing except instead of monsters they were extreme wrestlers. To me it seemed like Monster In My Pocket was able to compile a complete list of every monster, ghoul, cryptid, and mythological creature ever known. More importantly the figures informed me, with what I assumed to be complete accuracy, which monsters could defeat the others. I learned a great deal about new and interesting monsters and my encyclopedia of horror was expanded exponentially. Unfortunately I made some bad investments in the Monster In My Pocket stock exchange, and over the course of several bad trades I lost most of my monsters. Today I am left with but a handful of low point rejects like the Phantom of the Opera and a mummy. Oh well, I learned quite a bit from my time with those tiny pocket monsters. So you wear a high-tech power suit fueled by . . . . wood? Battle Beasts -Sounds exciting doesn’t it? To be honest I have absolutely no idea what the story was with Battle Beasts. What I do know is that they had a crazy mix of animals from lions and apes to crows and anteaters, all dressed in high-tech futuristic suits. Often the Battle Beasts would have hands, or entire arms replaced with some sort of blunt force weaponry like morning stars or scissoring blades like Edward Scissorhands. Most importantly the Battle Beasts were marked with thermal activated stickers like those found on the old Transformers toys. Once you placed a finger over their chest you would be able to discover what elemental power individual Battle Beasts possessed, water, fire, or wood. Of course you can figure out how that works out. Much like Monster In My Pocket and Pokemon much later my friends and I would put together teams of Battle Beasts and line them up for individual battles revealing at the last minute which elemental mark each beast bared. I still have quite a few of my Battle Beasts; the stoic faced little creatures remain awesome to this day. Unfortunately due to the constant rubbing of their element signs, many of my Battle Beast’s thermal stickers have fallen off (good thing that doesn’t happen with everything, am I right? Zing!), but other than that they are still in pretty good shape. It’s been awhile since I’ve sorted through my BB horde, but I remember having some goofy ones; the frilled lizard and the three toed sloth come to mind. Really? A Sloth? Though I suppose it’s no stranger than a stack of pancakes wielding a gun or a pig with a flame thrower. Perhaps in the near future I will go over to my parent’s house and round up some of these crazy toys and see just what I have left and take inventory and some pictures of the ol’ gang to share here on the blog, until than . . . . . That is all!
That’s right, Hellions! JURASSIC FLORIDA is finally here, ready to chew up your e-readers and phones. The early reviews have been phenomenal. Hey, what better time than the summer to munch on a quick monster mayhem romp? Here’s what some folks have to say: “Jurassic, Florida is a hell of a romp, too, filled with monsters, gore, and carnage, with the pace cranked up to rapid-fire. There were a few moments that manage to surprise me with just how blackhearted Shea can be.” — Michael Patrick Hicks Reviews “I highly recommend this fast paced and exciting 5 star read.” — Horror Maiden Book Reviews “Shea delivers the chomp’n’stomp in epic fashion.” — Sc-Fi & Scary “Mankind’s on the menu–go get em’, champs! Dinner bell’ s rung!!” — The Haunted Reading Room This is just the first in my new, One Size Eats All trilogy. Hope it leaves you hungry for more. 🙂 If you’re a book reviewer and have an account with Net Galley, you can now download and read my June novella, JURASSIC FLORIDA. Now’s the time to jump on board the giant lizard train and dive into this year’s madness. It’s the first in a trio of novellas called ONE SIZE EATS ALL. Anyone interested in the direct link on Net Galley to the book, please respond here or email me at [email protected]. Happy monster hunting! About the book: FLORIDA. IT’S WHERE YOU GO TO DIE. Welcome to Polo Springs, a sleepy little town on Florida’s Gulf Coast. It’s a great place to live—if you don’t mind the hurricanes. Or the flooding. Or the unusual wildlife . . . IGUANAS. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. Maybe it’s the weather. But the whole town is overrun with the little green bastards this year. They’re causing a lot of damage. They’re eating everything in sight. And they’re just the babies . . . HUMANS. THEY’RE WHAT’S FOR DINNER. The mayor wants to address the iguana problem. But when Hurricane Ramona slams the coast, the town has a bigger problem on their hands. Bigger iguanas. Bigger than a double-wide. Unleashed by the storm, this razor-toothed horde of prehistoric predators rises up from the depths—and descends on the town like retirees at an early bird special. Except humans are on the menu. And it’s all you can eat . I grew up spending half my waking hours in comic book stores (and old time stationery stores that sold comics and Mad Magazine). I’m crossing another item off my bucket list this Saturday, June 11th at the Spider’s Web, the best comic book store in Westchester, NY. It’s located at 887 Yonkers, Ave, Yonkers, NY, right across the street from Empire City Casino. Here’s a bit of trivia, the proverbial poop hits the fan in my book, Tortures of the Damned, right at that very spot. So come see me, buy a book (all of my books will be on hand) and see where the end of Yonkers began. I’ll be in a nice tent right outside the store, working on my tan. Right now, you can get last summer’s smash hit monster thriller, THE MONTAUK MONSTER, on ebook for only $1.99. Load up your Kindles and Nooks and iPads for the beach, and don’t be afraid of the water…just what washes up on the shore! And if monsters aren’t your bag, THE HAUNTED HALLS by Glenn Rolfe is free on Amazon aaaand Jonathan Janz’s THE NIGHTMARE GIRL is only 99 cents! You can get three great books for just under $3. I dare you to find a better dealio. I know I’ve said in earlier posts that my book, THE MONTAUK MONSTER, is on display at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. This is the museum created and curated by Loren Coleman. I haven’t been able to get there since it was put in the display, but thanks to Asher Ellis, I now have photographic proof! Kind of like what we have of the creature itself. Thank you so much Asher for taking the pictures and sharing. I’ll be at the museum this summer and maybe again in the fall with copies of my next cryptid book, THE DOVER DEMON, in hand. Now I can retire early and happy. And a closer shot… Yes, I’m diving back into the cryptid pool this September, this time training my sights on The Dover Demon, a bizarre creature spotted in a small Massachusetts town in the late 70s. The cover art was done by Kelly Martin and she knocked it out of the park. Pretty damn creepy. I’d heard a little bit about this alien-looking creature, but didn’t get a true education on the legend until I met Loren Coleman on a trip to his International Cryptozoology Museum. In fact, the book is dedicated to Loren, who urged me to make the demon the star of my next show. And let me tell you right here, there’s more to this story, both the true accounts and my twisted take on them, than what you may think looking at the cover. This little cryptid defies classification. Gray aliens can kiss this beastie’s ass. So, what’s it all about Alfie? The Dover Demon is real…and it has returned. In 1977, Sam Brogna and his friends came upon a terrifying, alien creature on a deserted country road. What they witnessed was so bizarre, so chilling, they swore their silence, their lives forever changed. Decades later, the town of Dover is hit by a massive blizzard. Sam’s son, Nicky, is drawn to search for the infamous cryptid, only to disappear into the bowels of a secret underground lair. The Dover Demon is more than they could have believed, and deadly. These creatures are not alone, and their desires cannot be stopped. Can Sam and his reunited friends battle a race of creatures so powerful, so sinister, that human history has been shaped by their secretive presence? I know we have a whole summer between now and its release, but I had to share this cover. And if you’re in the Portland, Maine area on vacation, stop by the Cryptozoology Museum to check out the Dover Demon display. I promise, there will be no probing.
Today we’re sitting down to interview one S. L. Edwards. Part man, part weredog, part lover of olives and mayo, he is also the creator of the upcoming collection ‘Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts’. The work has an introduction by Charles P Dunphey and is described as follow: “Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts debuts a meteoric new voice in modern dark fiction. In these tales, you’ll discover the humanity of horror, and the traumas that birth ghosts of all kinds. From inner demons to the bloodied fields of war, Edwards maintains his unique voice while whispers of classic writers such as Arthur Machen and Thomas Ligotti shine through. Edwards enters the contemporary dark fiction crowd with a standout collection that is likely to cement his position amongst the modern greats.” S.L. hates olives and mayo with a passion rarely found outside of a zealot who has found the latest person they feel is against their own cause and the two must be offered to him at all available opportunities. Horror Tree (HT): Mr. Edwards, what can you tell our readers about your upcoming blasphemous work known only as ‘Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts’? - L. Edwards (SLE): First, thanks for having me, Stuart. I broke into the scene largely because of what you do at Horror Tree. The site was a gamechanger, and really allowed me to get my foot through the door. It’s an honor to be here, talking about my debut collection. So that brings me to the collection. “Whiskey” is a collection of twelve stories (plus a bonus story after the Afterword). Each story has an illustration from the incomparable Yves Tourigny. I may be biased, but I think this is his best work. It’s called “Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts” because the stories are, at their core, about the things that haunt us. Violence, intimate and political. Mistakes. Addictions. Deals made between people who you never know. Devastating obsessions. The “ghosts” in these stories are more thematic than literal, and the supernatural merely serves as a catalyst for horrors that were already there. Latent variables brought to the forefront. They focus on a variety of characters, who I came to know pretty well in the course of writing. I’m proud of it, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I’m a little anxious too. The writing community has been very kind to me, and I just hope I can make people proud. Charles P. Dunphey, in particular, has taken me on as a new writer and I owe him so much for it. HT: You enjoy bringing back characters from your stories and revisiting them in new tales. Does this collection contain any crossover in characters from your other works? Any from within the collection itself? - L. Edwards: Originally, there were going to be two stories containing a character named “The Matchmaker.” The Matchmaker is a mix of internet urban legends, myths coming out of the intelligence world, and a bit of an autobiographical monster. The premise of the Matchmaker was relatively straightforward, this is a person (question marks on “person”) who people can summon by leaving very specific amounts of money in a very specific pattern. There are different Matchmaker “maps” for major urban areas across the world. And once properly hired, the Matchmaker will arrange one murder for their client to carry out. Essentially, the Matchmaker allows people to kill other people, but with no consequences. However, one of those stories got cut. But as I was assembling “Whiskey,” the tone of the collection became quite clear. It would have been difficult to bring in Congressman Marsh (my politically Lovecraftian character), or Joe Bartred (my occult detective). I enjoy writing those characters and a few others, but I would like to have enough material to collect these characters into their own collections later on down the road. HT: Do you feel that any of the stories found within will lead to other tales of involving spirits? Your call on if I mean alcohol, nonphysical beings, or both! SLE: Oh, I think they already have! I’m currently shopping around another collection, entitled Monsters of the Sea and Sky that follows similar themes from Whiskey. Particularly, the stories in Monsters build off of the DNA established in “Cabras” and “Volver Al Monte,” which kind be found in the latter half of Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts. The “spirits” in these stories are centered around political violence, it’s cyclical nature and repeating consequences. There is something profoundly sad to me in peace being a divisive issue. It’s very rare for groups to make peace with their friends, instead it is by necessity that peace be made between groups and nations that do not trust each other. That have no reason to trust each other! And for this reason, we conflict repeated over, over and over again. As for nonphysical beings, most of my monsters are remarkably physical. When they’re not people, they’re monsters in the most straightforward sort of sense. But I did take some of the themes of “Maggie Was a Monster” and “I’ve Been Here A Very Long Time,” and put them into another story involving adolescence, growing up and finding first loves. I don’t want to give too much away about “Please Don’t Worry,” as it’s coming from Hinnom Magazine this year. But it was a profoundly personal, painful story. I am very proud of it, and I hope readers enjoy it as much as it pained me to write it. Now alcohol…you know, a lot of my characters sit around drinking whiskey! It’s become something of a cheap way for me to make excuses for writing long, philosophic conversations. Maybe that will be a running joke one day: “You know you’re in an S. L. Edwards story if you’re speaking Spanish and drinking whiskey.” HT: Did any other authors inspire the specific works in this collection? If so, who and how? SLE: I did, but I have to say I draw a lot of my writing from outside the horror community. Boris Pasternak and Vasily Grossman were big influences on me. Pasternak is pretty well-known, but Grossman is sort of the entire tragedy of WWII wrapped up in one sad human life. He was a war correspondent traveling with the Red Army, and a Ukranian Jew. The things he saw and the profound personal loss the war cost him are written across his masterful novel “Life and Fate.” For horror influences, there’s a lot of Poe. Lovecraft, of course. To an extent I think all of us live in Lovecraft’s shadow, and I also think that’s okay. Algernon Blackwood’s cosmic horror approach to nature made its way into “The Case of Yuri Zaystev.” Neil Gaiman’s ironic fantasy also shows up a few times too. HT: Anyone who follows you on social media will instantly recognize your love of doggos. While I understand this love, can you share a bit of your passion for our furry four legged friends with the world? SLE: The more I come to know people, the more I like dogs. I grew up with, and still have an extreme fur allergy. It was particularly bad with cats. But when you’re a withdrawn child, given to mood swings and just days of bitterness you don’t understand, that can be very hard. If I’m going to be honest, a lot of my childhood I often felt like I was underwater, or on a different planet, when my peers spoke. It led me to alienate more people than I wanted to, and I tended to have a difficult time making new friends. So there’s something to be said, for someone who is always happy to see you. Someone who doesn’t care about how awkward you are, someone who always wants to sit with you. Someone who doesn’t care about the news, or how you feel about your job, or how much the rent costs. Just someone who loves you, unconditionally. Who always dances when you come home, who always wags their tail. I don’t have anything against cats now, I want to make that clear. But I get very severe allergy attacks around them. A few people have told me that you can grow to tolerate it, but it’s very difficult for me. I instead enjoy pictures of cats. HT: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck was a ghost? SLE: Three. But poorly. HT: If you could write something with any other author who would it be and why? SLE: You know, that’s a very difficult question for me. I’m quite reluctant to answer, because the idea of a collaboration is quite intimidating to me. I don’t know how the mechanics works, and can be quite flighty with my schedule. For these reasons, I don’t think I would make a very good collaborator at all. The closest I’ve come is writing a character for Jonathan Raab’s Kottoverse. And while that was fun, I’m not sure that it would be easy to do again. Of course the obvious answer is Yves, who did the vast majority of the heavy lifting in crafting Borkchito. He deserves credit for that. But there are a few I think would be fun. John Linwood Grant pays such intensive attention to his characters that it would be impossible to turn him down. I’d be honored to get the opportunity to work on something with Misters Dry or Bubbles one day. Mer Whinery…it’d be great to do an Oklahoma/Texas sword-and-sorcery tale one day. My old Ravenwood friends, John Paul Fitch or Russell Smeaton… But then there are the dreams. These are authors who, if they approached me (please don’t approach me) would be very difficult to turn down. Gwendolyn Kiste is obviously my hero, as is Nadia Bulkin. Those two are just modern powerhouses, I am in awe of everything they do. S.P. Miskowski is another one. Jon Padgett once threatened to collaborate with me but luckily I was able to weasel my way out, I’m not sure I could that again. Most of these folks though, for good reason, don’t collaborate. And again, I’m just not sure what kind of collaborator I would be. I am sure I will try one day, but for now I’m perfectly happy playing in my own sandbox and inviting people in. HT: It is said that your nemesis is the wickedly evil Edward L. Samuels (though the way he tells it, you’re the villain in his story.) What can you tell us about this man of mystery? SLE: E. L. Samuels lives in the corner of your eyes. He is impossibly tall, and flickers in the light. In the night he’ll sing songs to you, but each of them are lies. Sometimes the wind will last too long, settle on your hair and that space just behind your ear. Do not turn around. When the lights flicker, the shadows in the corner seem to change. Keep looking forward. Before you go to sleep, you may hear a laugh. Just sleep. Please, just sleep. HT: What advice would you give to an author who is just starting out? SLE: Even just 45 minutes of exercise a day can lead to better health, including better sleep. The average person needs 8 hours of sleep a night, and eight cups of water in a day. Remember that: 8 hours, 8 cups. Try to eat fresh fruit and vegetables whenever possible. Substitute darker lettuce for iceberg when you’re eating a hamburger. And a balanced breakfast is actually HEALTHIER than no breakfast at all. HT: Do you have an ideal writing environment? SLE: Well…can I afford one? No. Ideally I’d like to right in some mountain cabin, drinking dark coffee out of a metal cup. I would wear flannel, and pet a corgi as it gently rested on my lap. After dinner with the people I love I would retire once more to writing. But no, no I don’t have one now. HT: Short story collections have been making a comeback in recent years, what inspired you to put one together and do you feel that this is a trend which will continue? SLE: I’ve always wanted to get a collection in people’s hands, and for a very long time I knew I wanted it to be called “Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts.” The idea of drinking scared me quite a bit when I was younger. I wasn’t an athletic kid, but was a smart one. My grades were everything to me. My state of mind was everything to me. And I was terrified that alcohol and other drugs would just annihilate myself. This led to the titular story, “Whiskey and Memory,” which has undergone many revisions since I first wrote it. So I’ve always wanted to get a collection together. These days I actually prefer them to novels. You get a better sampling of what author has to offer. I do think it will continue, by necessity. There are so many talented writers in Weird Fiction right now, and the ranks are only growing. There isn’t a lot of time for people to just generate novels. Less time to read them. As break out voices emerge, readers will want to sit down with a whole collection of the author’s works. I’m still dying, for instance, for collections from authors like Brooke Warra, Christopher Ropes, William Tea and John Paul Fitch. I’m over the damn moon that Betty Rocksteady’s collection is finally coming out this summer (check it out, y’all). So yeah, I at least hope it will continue. HT: What else would you like to share with the readers and authors who spend time at the Horror Tree? SLE: First of all, thank you for reading this. Putting a collection together is a stressful. Getting it out there is even more so. I hope that I’ve inspired some interest in “Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts.” If so, I hope you leave a review on Jeff Bezos’ evil empire, or on goodreads. Reviews make or break independent authors and publishers, and I could use your help. My other is a plea to check out the following emerging writers, who I may or may not have mentioned before: John Paul Fitch, Russell Smeaton, William Tea, Rob F. Martin, Brooke Warra, Jordan Kurella, Sarah Walker, Can Wiggins, Sean M. Thompson, Mer Whinery so many others. Support independent presses like Charles P. Dunphey’s “Hinnom,” Jon Padgett’s “Vastarien,” Scott R. Jones “Martian Migraine,” Robert S. Wilson’s “Nightscape” Doug Draa’s “Weirdbook.” These folks are on the frontlines of new weird fiction, new horror fiction. They are going to be the ones finding and promoting weird authors. Duane Pesice is also really good about that with every anthology he edits. And even more established writers could use your help and dollars. I cannot recommend the works of Gwendolyn Kiste or Nadia Bulkin enough. Same for S.P. Miskowski. John Langan. Michael Wehunt. Jayaprakash Satyamurthy. Kurt Fawver. Matthew M. Bartlett We live in a golden age of sorts, but it only lasts as long as readers keep reading. So I encourage you to give those good folks your time, your energy, and just a bit of your money. And this gets to my last thing: authors, support each other. Particularly you new ones. Your fellows are going to be your first readers, and your first advocates. But you are responsible for lifting them up too. Promote your fellow writers: it’s the right thing to do. ‘Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts’ is available for pre-order on Amazon! (Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.) Australian author, Chris Mason, lives in Adelaide, often dubbed “the murder capital of Australia.” Her stories have won a number of awards over the years — “The Stairwell” (Below the Stairs – Tales from the Cellar) won the best horror novella for 2017 in the Aurealis awards, and “The Black Sea” (Beneath the Waves – Tales from the Deep) was shortlisted for the Aurealis best horror novella for 2018. Most recently “The Black Sea” has been nominated for three prestigious literary awards. Here she talks to Wellington author, Tabatha Wood, about her journey into writing horror, what inspires her to write and what she believes we can learn from the horror genre today. TW. Your story, “The Black Sea” has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the Australian Shadows Award, and the Aurealis Award. That is an outstanding achievement. Congratulations! Tell me more about the story and how it came to be. CM. Thank you. I wrote “The Black Sea” specifically for a submission callout for the “Things in the Well” anthology, “Beneath the Waves – Tales from the Deep.” I was actually going to submit something else but that ended up being a much bigger story so I put it aside. All I had left was a title – “The Black Sea”- and the idea of a family being trapped on an island by a catastrophic event. I’m a pantser not a planner, and must admit I was surprised where the characters led me. I didn’t see most of what was coming until it was down on the page. Towards the end I had to stop and ask myself what I was actually writing about. In my mind there were a lot of layers to the story. When I figured out guilt featured heavily in the equation, it all fell into place. I did groan a couple of times as I was writing it. But then I looked on the bright side. If I felt uncomfortable, maybe I was doing my job as a horror writer. TW. Have you always considered yourself a writer, and what prompted you to start writing scary stories? CM. No, not at all. I’ve always thought of myself as a storyteller, though. I’m a bit of a daydreamer, and I can spin a yarn reasonably well, but I never had much confidence in my writing skills so turning what was in my head into words on a page, came quite late for me. I was well into my 40s before I wrote anything down. It took me another decade to start sending my stories out. I think I’m living proof that it’s never too late to start! The day after the Shirley Jackson finalists were announced I had to fill in a form that asked for my occupation. I lingered on the blank space for far too long, eventually smiled, and put down writer. It felt good! I’ve always liked scary stuff, the more creepy and weird the better. It feels natural to write those kinds of stories. TW. Who would you consider your influences — from any genre — and what was the first horror story you can remember reading? CM. Stephen King has been a huge influence. I started off with “Carrie” when I was sixteen and never stopped. I also love the work of Peter Straub, Joe Hill, Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, and Shirley Jackson. “The Haunting of Hill House” is a story I often return to. John Fowles “The Magus” I’ve also read over and over. More recently, I’ve been reading Joe Lansdale. I’ve just binged five Hap and Leonard books. There is so much to learn from Joe. “The Thicket” is a huge favourite. The list could go on and on. I’m probably influenced by everything I read. First horror story? Hmm… I read lots of ghost stories when I was a kid and loved Daphne du Maurier books, but the first book I remember really frightening the hell out of me was “The Sentinel” by Jeffrey Konvitz. TW. What sort of things interest and inspire you outside of writing? CM. I love to travel and explore new places. There is so much to see – the different cultures, the people, the history, the food, and the architecture. The world is full of fascinating stories. I also like to spend time outdoors, either in the garden or taking long walks. One of my favourite walks is around the bays in Wellington, your hometown, Tabby. New Zealand has stunning scenery. I can’t wait to get back there again. TW. We will have to meet up for a coffee when you do! Tell, me what scares you? CM. Humans! We can be nasty little creatures at times. We seem to be hell bent on wrecking the planet at the moment, and that terrifies me. TW. I totally agree. Monsters under the bed are nothing compared to what human beings can do. Are there any topics which you wouldn’t feel comfortable writing about? CM. I try not to censor myself too much. Horror is meant to be disturbing. Having said that, I’m not into excessive violence, descriptive scenes of rape and torture, or gratuitous sex. I don’t like reading it and I wouldn’t write it. I’m also very careful with my younger characters, and what I put them through. I generally defer to ambiguity and let the reader fill in the blanks when it comes to horrific scenes. Blood and gore doesn’t bother me if it’s done with a bit of humour. I’m a big fan of “Z Nation” and I thought Chuck Palahniuk’s “Guts” was absolutely hilarious. I think Jack Ketchum’s “The Girl Next Door” is a great example of how to cover a really difficult topic. He gives enough detail for the story to be disturbing without it ever being graphic. By the time you get to the end you know what’s going to happen without it being described. It’s a powerful and unsettling book. Stephen Graham Jones’ “Chicken” is another story that comes to mind. You need serious skills to pull off stories about sensitive topics. I admire anyone who can do it well. TW. I agree with you again. I have to admit I’m also a bit of a wuss when it comes to blood and gore. I prefer my horror more psychological, but that’s just my personal taste. Is there anything that you want to read or watch, but are too scared to? CM. I’ll read pretty much anything. It’s the visual medium that I sometimes need a viewing buddy to get me through. I want to watch “The Exorcist” again but have been putting it off as the movie terrified me when it first came out. Maybe it will be a different experience with the passage of time. I watched “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” alone, late one night. That was a mistake. Boy, did that have some jump scares! The second season of “American Horror Story” I skipped after the first couple of episodes. I loved all the other seasons, but that one really got to me for some reason. TW. I really enjoyed AHS, but I have to admit that Season 4 got under my skin a bit. The conjoined twins and the clown creeped me out too much! Do you think there are any books or topics you wouldn’t want your own children/nieces & nephews (if you have any) reading or watching? CM. I think it all depends on the age and maturity of the child, and their life experiences. Something I might recommend for one child would be completely wrong for another. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with books that challenge the reader to think. Obviously, I would steer away from anything of a violent or sexual nature, but in terms of horror, a ghost or two and some creepiness never hurt anyone. But then I’m of a generation that was brought up on Grimms’ fairy tales. Have you checked out “Little Red Riding Hood” or “Hansel and Gretel” lately? TW. Gosh, yes. Most fairy tales are dark and bleak when you look at them more closely. Kids being cooked. Parents being murdered. Disney might have sanitised a lot of the stories in their movies, but the original books are quite disturbing. My family has always been somewhat bemused by my love for the macabre. What kind of responses and support do you get from friends and family to your work? CW. Apart from a couple of dear friends, most people close to me haven’t read any of my work — and that’s fine! I don’t push my weirdness on them. My husband is my first reader and he’s always been supportive of my writing. It’s always good to see him having a quiet chuckle over what I’ve written. TW. My husband does that too. He’s always my first reader and I trust him to be honest with me. My eldest son is an excellent proof-reader. He can spot a typo from ten pages away. Heh! Are there any stories you’ve written that you’ve purposely hidden from those close to you and why? CM. No. There are a few ideas I’ve shelved though. I probably need to be braver on that score. TW. I understand that. It can be really hard knowing what to put out there to represent your best work too. Do you ever use events or experiences (or people) from your own life in your stories? CM. Events and experiences, yes. Individual people, not directly, mainly because their story is not mine to tell. Some of my characters are different versions of me, or who I’d like to be. Others are hybrids, bits and pieces of a whole lot of people. My stories, although completely fictional, are littered with emotional truths. TW. I like that — it’s a bit of the old “write what you know” but also “write what you like”. Good writing, even if it focuses on fantasy and the impossible should still feel “real”. You live in Adelaide, a place which is often dubbed “the murder capital of Australia”. Do you feel like that has influenced your writing in any way — perhaps you’ve felt pulled towards the weird and grisly or found inspiration in true-life events? CM. Yes, we do punch above our weight, unfortunately. I was about eight when the Beaumont children went missing. The mystery surrounding the case still haunts me as it does for most, older South Australians. It marked the end of leaving our doors unlocked and letting children roam the streets from sunup to sundown. As yet, the case hasn’t directly influenced my writing, but there are elements of my work that hark back to simpler times and the loss of innocence. I’m currently procrastinating over a novel I’ve written set around the same time and involving a group of children. There is so much of my childhood in there I’m finding it difficult deciding what actually is serving the story and what has to go. The Somerton man is another fascinating piece of our history and I’d love to work elements of that case into a storyline at some point. The case involving the Snowtown bodies in the barrels is intriguing, but I tend to gravitate towards the cases that are shrouded in mystery rather than ones full of gory details. TW. It just shows, yet again, how monstrous human beings can be. Much more terrifying than ghouls and vampires. Where do you think modern horror as a genre fits into society today? What do you think — if anything — it can teach us? CM. I think we are living in an era where reality is increasingly becoming stranger than fiction. I keep looking at news headlines and saying, “you just can’t make this stuff up.” Horror is a safe way to escape. At the end of the day, no matter how hard our heart is pumping, we can tell ourselves monsters aren’t real. Well, the fictional ones anyway! Does horror teach us anything? Yes I think it does in the same way a lot of old legends are basically cautionary tales. Horror can be a reflection on society, pointing to how we behave under stress or when faced with dire circumstances. I love zombie stories. They are basically survival manuals. “The Walking Dead” is full of tips on what not to do when rebuilding a community. To this day I still think of Stephen King’s “The Mist” whenever I go into a supermarket. I look at people and mentally choose the ones I’d want on my team in a crisis. Is that weird? TW. Not at all! Although as an slightly paranoid introvert, I’d probably end up as a lone wolf in that kind of situation, distrusting everyone like the father in “The Road” (Cormac McCarthy). Genres such as sci-fi and horror have always been very typically dominated by men. What sort of issues do you think modern female horror writers face which men don’t? Do you believe there are any, or is it a more level playing field now? CM. That’s a hard question to answer, especially as I’m so new to the game. I don’t doubt female writers are experiencing the same problems women have in any other field. When I look back at my favourite horror writers of the past they were predominantly all white men. Do I hold that against them? No, they were/are exceptional writers, but I do wish there had been a lot more Shirley Jacksons in the mix. Perhaps it would have encouraged me to start writing earlier, who knows? In my opinion, the internet and social media has certainly changed the landscape. I’m reading more work from female writers — and indeed writers from a whole range of backgrounds — than ever before, simply because I have better access. I can go from seeing a new name in a Twitter feed to ordering their books on Amazon or wherever in minutes. In the past I was limited to what was stocked in the bookshop or local library. TW. That’s definitely one reason why I love ebooks. I have such a more diverse reading list than I ever had and I’m finding some amazing new voices — yours included. You said a lot of your earlier influences were make. Do you feel like your idea of horror as a woman is any different to that of a male writer? CM. I’d like to think gender isn’t an issue and its got more to do with individual preferences and our own life experiences informing our choices. TW. That’s a good answer, and very true. I’ve always felt that diversity and representation are always important in any genre. How do you approach these issues in your writing? CM. I’m certainly mindful of including a diverse range of characters in my work, but it is something I grapple with, and need to get better at. It’s difficult to get right, I don’t want my characters to appear tokenistic. I also don’t want them to be stereotypical or misrepresented either. It’s always good when I watch a show or read a book where diversity is the norm. TW. That also goes back to what you said earlier about being mindful that some stories are simply not ours to tell. We always need to make sure that there is space for other writers who are better equipped to tell those tales. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative which have stayed with you? CM. I haven’t read any reviews of my work. Perhaps that’s a good thing. TW. What piece of advice would you give to any new and upcoming writer right now? What advice do you wish you’d been given? CM. My advice is to READ, READ, READ. And then read some more! The advice I wish I’d been given is easy. Just. Start. Writing. And study the craft. Knowing where to put commas comes in handy. TW. That’s great advice. And I have to admit, sometimes I still have no idea where to put the commas in! Who else do you think is “big” in Australasian horror right now, and what books are in your To Be Read pile? CM. Kaaron Warren is an inspiration. Did you see the Locus Awards finalists? She is up there with the best of the best. Her work has the ability to sit with you long after you put it down. I still think about “The Grief Hole.” Lee Murray is no slouch when it comes to picking up awards either. I really enjoyed “Into the Mist.” Her work has a unique Kiwi flavour. Deborah Sheldon is another female writer who puts out great work. Her short story “The Sand” in “Beside the Seaside – Tales from the Daytripper” is an absolute ripper – I don’t think I’ll ever walk on a beach again without it in mind. Matthew R. Davis, a fellow Adelaidian who also has stories published in the “Things in the Well” anthologies, was shortlisted for a 2018 Aurealis Award. His work is deliciously dark and layered. At the moment I’m reading John Ajvide Lindqvists “Handling the Undead.” My current TBR pile is a treasure trove from the charity bookshop: Joyce Carol Oates “Jack of Spades”, Richard Laymon “The Lake”, “The Hungry Moon” by Ramsey Campbell, Clive Barker “Mister B. Gone,” John Scalzi “Agent to the Stars,” and an old Ellen Datlow anthology, “The Dark.” I’m also looking forward to reading the new Paul Tremblay collection “Growing Things,” and of course Stephen King’s “The Institute” when it’s released later in the year. Oh, and on Kindle I’m reading “Coyote Songs” by Gabino Iglesias, which is hard to put down. TW. That’s a great list of good books. There are some of my favourites listed there too. So, to finish: If you were trapped in a lift with a character from one of your stories, who would you choose, and why? CM. My protagonists are all in the company of monsters. I don’t want to be trapped with any of them! * * * Chris Mason lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, with her husband, a cat, and five goldfish. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications, including the Things in the Well series of anthologies, and the Australasian Horror Writers Association’s magazine Midnight Echo #12. Chris’s ‘The Stairwell’ from the anthology Below the Stairs-Tales from the Cellar won the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novella. Her story ‘The Black Sea’ from Beneath the Waves- Tales from the Deep has been shortlisted for the 2018 Shirley Jackson Awards, the Aurealis Awards, and the AHWA Australian Shadows Awards. You can visit Chris at facebook.com/chrismasonhorrorwriter or on twitter @Chris_A_Mason. This week we revisit an interview with Kevin Grover. You can read the entire interview here. Claire – Hi Don! Great to chat with you. Let’s jump right in. What are you currently writing/working on? Don – Thanks, Claire. Really nice to meet you. And thanks, too, for the opportunity to talk with The Horror Tree. I’m working on a novel, ‘Dark Voices,’ and also serving as editor for ‘The Thirty,’ a group consisting of me and 29 other writers. We’re lashing together an experimental novel, ‘He Has Stayed Too Long,’ with one chapter written by each of us. I honestly thought ‘Dark Voices’ would be out by now, but ‘He Has Stayed Too Long’ is taking quite a bit of time, as you can imagine. Coordinating with 29 other writers isn’t quite as easy as I thought it would be although everybody involved has been fantastic. Claire – Tell me about your latest release, ‘Fallen Angels.’ Don – The artist Don Gilbert and I have been good friends since we were in our teens. He came by the house one day to drink whiskey and play guitar and as I was flipping through his sketch pad, I was drawn to a series of bizarre-looking drawings. When I asked him what they were, he said, ‘Fallen Angels’ and we took it from there. ‘Fallen Angels’ are the creatures responsible for every aspect of our lives down to the most insignificant events. Lose a button? A Fallen Angel’s responsible. First kiss? A Fallen Angel’s there. Final breath? Yep—a Fallen Angel. The poems I wrote to accompany the illustrations tell the reader a bit about the particular part of life the Fallen Angel on the opposing page controls and also a bit about how that angel feels about his job. Claire – Your journals ‘The Meeker Collection’ sound interesting. How did/does your newspaper writing affect your fiction? Don – Oddly enough, most of my newspaper pieces were in the humour vein and most of my fiction is dark horror. While I was working as the editor of ‘The Wilson County Advocate,’ I wrote a column under a pseudonym every week, usually an entire page, and because I was so completely bored with actual news, I would take the facts, bundle them with fiction, insert my alter-ego into the story, toss in a bit of biographical folderol, and just have a good time with it. The fan mail and the death threats began to pour in (some people have NO sense of humour) and soon ‘Jimmy Joe Meeker’ (that was the name I used) was the most popular writer we had. Once you start writing humour, you can’t stop. There’s a comedian inside me and he’s going to come out whether I’m writing a non-fiction piece for a magazine or writing a horror novel. I enjoy that. Everybody needs a laugh now and again, regardless of what you’re reading, and I’ve never been able to write anything without tossing in a bit of humour, however subtle. Claire –Tell me about your writing process. Where do you write? When do you write? Do you have any writing rituals? Don – When the muse visits me, I’m like a man possessed. I’ll write 5,000 words in a day, getting up every hour to spend 5 minutes on the recumbent bicycle so I don’t forget how to walk—but the muse doesn’t visit daily. I don’t force anything because I don’t think, for example, that making yourself write 1,000 words a day is going to get you quality results. There are going to be days when you’re not on, days when you’ve got other things on your mind. Yeah, it’s a job, and it’s a difficult job, but you have to enjoy it. Readers are smart folks—they know if you didn’t enjoy what you wrote and forcing yourself to write when you don’t have the spark is not an enjoyable experience for the reader OR the writer. Having said that, though, my works-in-progress are always on my mind and it’s rare a day goes by when I don’t work. I’m up early. I grab a mug of black coffee, plop myself down in my office, fire up the computer, and I’m off to the races. I use a two-monitor set-up which I find really helps when I have to research something, but I’m still torn about that because I’ve caught myself getting distracted. My office is where my guitar collection hangs and it’s much too easy to be able to grab one when I stumble onto another guitar player on YouTube demonstrating a song I always wanted to learn. It’s easy to be lazy. Claire – Tell me about your novels ‘Pandemonium,’ ‘Phantom Dead Man,’ and ‘Sarcophagus.’ Where did the inspiration come from? Don – ‘Pandemonium’ was my first novel and the inspiration came from several old buildings in Lebanon, Tennessee. Spooky, creepy old buildings—McClain School and the Lebanon Hotel. Late one night I went into the Lebanon Hotel—just walked right in—and took a tour of the place. After leaving, I drove to the abandoned school building and found it unlocked, so I took a moonlight tour of it, too. I got home at 2 a.m. and immediately began ‘Pandemonium,’ a story about an incubus in a small, Tennessee town. ‘Phantom Dead Man’ was an experiment in stream of consciousness and it arose from having too much on my plate. I was going to graduate school, working on two horror stories with deadlines looming, writing a how-to piece for a craftsman journal, working on a documentary for public television, and outlining a novel. I sat down one day with all these things whirling around in my head and I just started writing whatever popped in there. The book had a wildly opposing reception; readers either liked it or hated it—there was no middle of the road. ‘Sarcophagus’ came about after a trip to New Orleans. I’ve always been fascinated by the above-ground graveyards there and during that visit, I saw several tombs in St. Louis Cemetery #3 with gaping holes in them large enough for a person to squeeze through—and all the holes looked as if they were made by something pushing out, rather than in. ‘Sarcophagus’ was started on a legal pad the moment I got back to my hotel room. Claire – Where does your inspiration come from? Do you have a writing ritual? Don – Most of my inspiration comes from things I see; very little of it comes strictly from imagination. When I see something that triggers a “What if…?” I take out my phone and click a picture of it, but I’m also very old school. I carry a small, brown, leather notebook with me all the time and I’ll scribble the beginnings of the story in there. Once I’m back in the office, I open a document, type my notes into the document, write the first line or first few lines of the story, and save it in a working directory for later. That’s how I keep up with ideas these days and it’s much handier than shuffling through stacks of paper. Claire – You received some great reviews for ‘Fallen Angels,’ most compliments enjoying the mixture of creepy and humorous. Do you often blend writing styles? Don – Ha! Yes, the ‘Fallen Angels’ are just like us—some of them are funny, some are sarcastic, some are pricks, and some take themselves way too seriously. I do blend writing styles, though, and I do it with a purpose. Too much of anything is too much. In horror, you need a funny character—not laugh out loud funny, but observationally witty and self-deprecating. When you ask readers to suspend disbelief, you’re asking a lot, so having a character or a scene that’s something amusing out of real life helps the unbelievable become believable. Claire – Tell me about your chapbooks. I see they were penned in the ‘80’s. Has your writing style changed since then? Don – My style hasn’t changed all that much, but my focus has changed. I’ve moved away from poetry to fiction mainly because it suits me better. Poetry will drive a person nuts. I have two pieces in the newly released ‘Speculations’ edited by my friend Frank Coffman and I bled over those two poems like I’d been beaten with chains. Thirty lines of poetry and I spent weeks on them. I love poetry; it’s the easiest thing to do poorly, the most difficult thing to do well, and not many people seem to know the difference anymore. Hearing “I don’t like poetry” from people who’ve barely read any is painful, so although I continue to do it, I don’t publish much of it, not even in chapbooks. I still contribute to anthologies but chapbooks seem to be becoming a bit passé. I hope that’s not true, but it’s the impression I get lately. Claire – Tell me about your avant-garde project ‘The Thirty.’ Who did you work with? Don – I got this wild idea that it would be very cool to read a horror novel where each chapter was written by a different author; where each author could take the story in whatever direction they wanted. After turning the idea over in my head for a few weeks, I approached the writing community on Twitter with the concept and the response was fantastic. Within just a day or two, I had 35 people on board and the mix was as eclectic as you can get. We have well-known horror authors, we have noteworthy book reviewers, we have bloggers, and we have horror aficionados who’ve always wanted to try their hand at writing but never have. Using some very basic calculations for word count, and realizing we’d lose some participants along the way, I decided on 30 chapters, wrote the first one, and sent it out. The next author in line wrote their chapter, sent it back, and it took off from there. We’re on Chapter 18 now and I’ve been pleasantly surprised, especially at the writing from newcomers—people who’ve never written fiction in their lives. It’s been an amazing, exciting experience. If I mention everybody involved we’ll be here all day, but I do want to say that the “name brand authors” on board have all been extremely generous in lending credibility to the project. We have new writers who still cannot believe they’ve got a chapter adjacent to Jonathan Janz or Chris Sorenson or D.W. Gillespie. This speaks volumes to the support and camaraderie present in the horror community. Claire –Let’s learn more about you. Who is your favourite author and why? Don – Wow… It’s incredibly difficult to pick just one, but though it may be cliché, I’m going with the master. If it weren’t for Stephen King, I don’t know what we’d all be reading and writing now. Stephen King took a genre that had been marginalized for two centuries and with raw talent, dragged it into the mainstream and kept it there. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I think King is the greatest horror writer who’s ever lived. Sure, he misses the mark sometimes—everyone does—but when it comes to the most important thing in fiction, which is story—story—story, he can pull it off 99% of the time. Claire – Do you get writer’s block? If so, what do you do to overcome it? Don – I get writer’s block from time to time, but I have the greatest remedy—I grab my Gibson SG, plug it into a Marshall amplifier, and play along with Pete Townshend while The Who blasts “Won’t Get Fooled Again” over the sound system. It works every single time. The neighbours probably don’t care much for it, but most of them have “real” jobs so they aren’t home during the day anyway. Claire – Writers are weird, right? What’s the strangest/most interesting thing about you? Don – Most people would never guess, especially from my politics, that I was a United States Army Chief Warrant Officer for 26 years. Claire – What’s on the horizon for you? Don – I hope to see ‘Dark Voices’ published by year’s end and also see ‘He Has Stayed Too Long’ wrapped up by then. I’ve got an idea brewing for another book featuring the most terrifying monsters known to humankind: babies. Claire – And finally, you’re stuck on an island with only one book. What’s the book? Don – US Army Field Manual 21-76, ‘Survival, Escape, and Evasion’ along with Stephen King’s magnum opus: ‘The Stand.’ Thanks for your questions, Claire—it’s been a genuine pleasure. Amazon page: http://amazon.com/author/dongillette Ruschelle: Thank you for stopping by The Horror Tree and sharing a few of your writing secrets. So…do you happen to have at least one big fat writing secret? Lol Steve: Thank you for having me. Well, I have one main tenet I stick with and have stuck with throughout my years of writing so I suppose it’s worth divulging and that is to always listen to your voice. Writing is always better when it feels truthful and for me, I know it is the truth (at least my truth) when I listen to the voice inside me that guides my character development, plot, pacing, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely open to feedback as my stories develop but ultimately, I have always gone with my gut as to what would be right for the story. Ruschelle: Tell us about your first foray into writing with your teleplay, Final Transference. Steve: I was taking a writing for television class in college and as always seems to be the case, my mind went toward developing a horror story. I was living in one of the dorms and so the story developed about two college roommates that upon meeting find they have the ability of telekinesis but only with each other. One of my friends had a crush on a girl I also liked at the time and so that idea of competitiveness developed into the teleplay as a love triangle but with the roommates using their telekinesis as a weapon. I was quite proud of it and got an A-. Ruschelle: An A- is pretty sweet. You’re a fan of the Twilight Zone. What was it about the series that helped inspire your writing? Steve: For me there is so much about that show to admire. Visually, one element that stands out is when faces were used to show the emotion of the moment. Of course, the show used exemplary actors who had the skills to pull off the fantasy/horror themes. In my writing, I love creating small intimate moments for my reader so they are invested in what happens next and are right there with the character as the story unfolds. This is the essence of the kind of writing I strive to create. Also, the twist endings have always been inspirational. I strive to find that moment in all my writing where my readers will say, “Oh, didn’t see that coming.” Ruschelle: There were so many well-written, creative episodes, which was your favorite? Steve: This is a difficult question because there are so many but I would say Shadow Play is one of my favorites. It is about a man who is convinced that his life and everyone around him are in his dream. He is on death row and he tries to convince everyone that if he dies, they all die with him. I loved the idea of a dream you never wake up to—very scary, especially because it involves your own death. Ruschelle: Was there an episode you wished you had written because it reminded you of your own storytelling? Steve: Maybe the one called The Living Doll. I like the idea of an inanimate object coming to life and then being angry at you on top of that. To this day, it still creeps me out and as a side note, I always treat my daughter’s dolls with respect and kindness…just in case. Ruschelle: How did you choose the stories to debut in your collection, Palate of the Improbable? Steve: One of the seven stories had been one I had started years ago but was never quite satisfied with, so around that time I decided to re-visit it. Four other ideas for stories came to me around the same time. One story Final Audition was a dream I had and two stories Through A Wormhole Darkly and A Hand is a Terrible Thing to Waste were based on incidents from my childhood that evolved pretty quickly, so all in all these stories were all written within a year’s time so they all were included. Ruschelle: Do you have a favorite story from your collection? Steve: I love all my children equally because each one took me to a different place in my imagination and challenged me in different ways; however, the one that I was most happy to see all grown up (so to speak) was Through a Wormhole Darkly because it challenged me in so many ways. I had never attempted a time travel story so it was a challenge to pull it off and I feel very satisfied with how it turned out, particularly its sweet ending. Ruschelle: What’s the one piece of writing advice you received from a mentor that really resonated with you? Steve: I’d have to say the idea that story-telling must be full of descriptions that pop. I always strive to edit out words that are wasteful. Ruschelle: Fun question, if you could be the first person to discover the existence of a cryptid, which one would it be? Steve: I think the Jersey Devil would a fascinating creature to run into. It is definitely the kind of creature that will give one nightmares. Ruschelle: You have a cat named Blueberry who uses you as a scratching post. Sounds delightfully evil. Story material? Steve: Anything is possible. So far, she’s had just a brief appearance in my story Good Night, Sleep Tight, but if she gets a better agent who knows. Ruschelle: I’ll put my cat’s agent in touch with your cat and they can hash out the details. You won a Quarterfinalist award in a contest writing a script for Two and a Half Men. Kudos! Tell us a little about the script and the writing process you used to pen your script. Steve: The script was a lot of fun to work through. I sat for hours watching videos of the show to get a sense of each character’s voice and to map out story beats and even learned in the process comedic principles like why words with M or W are funny. I also did a lot of reading out loud to get the timing right. Once I had the idea of the main character Alan going to his high school reunion and getting stuck in an elevator with the girl that ditched him during his Senior prom (real life incident by the way: being ditched, not getting stuck) the rest of the story just wrapped itself around that. Ruschelle: Do you have any ideas for television scripts? Movies? Steve: Yes, I do, but ideas are easy. It’s the execution and follow-through that is the tough but rewarding part. I do have a few unfinished movie scripts that I hope I can finish in the near future. Ruschelle: You are the daddy of a toddler! All parents know toddlers can morph into adorable little monsters and those monsters can be inspirational. So, has yours crawled into any of your stories? Steve: Yes, she was the yet to be born baby in Good Night, Sleep Tight, also, she was the inspiration for the story Baby in the Mirror. I was up late one night having a particularly difficult time of lulling her back to sleep when I imagined my mirror-self helping put her to bed, but in the mirror. And, she is in a short story called Angel in a Box in which the protagonist wishes her baby never gets old and she never does. Ruschelle: Speaking of toddlers…you’ve written children books. Are they sweet and shiny books with happy endings or do they channel a darker side? Like… Winnie the Pooh meets Freddy Kruger? Steve: Hey, that’s an idea…” When the police entered the room, there was Pooh, lying in a pile of his own stuffing. We would need a catch phrase after the kill from the evildoer such as, “How’s the honey, Pooh?” or something cheesy like that. My first published children’s story was about a parrot that wanted to break out of its routine (it lived on a farm with an old man) so it escapes to the neighboring farm for adventure. I have others unpublished that I need to revisit and I’m certain my daughter will inspire me to write sweet happy stories in the future. Ruschelle: If you could speak with Rod Serling from across the veil, what would you ask him? Steve: Hey, Rod, I’d love to be a staff writer on the new Twilight Zone, can you put in a good word for me? Or, more seriously, Rod, how did you know when an idea was good enough to put effort into seeing it completed? Ruschelle: Thank you so much sharing your experiences here at The Horror Tree. Please share with your newfound fans what is next in the writing world of Steve Vasquez? Steve: I am currently working on adapting my stories from Palette of the Improbable into a film anthology or perhaps YouTube episodes along with working on a second anthology of short stories. It will probably have twice as many stories as my first book. Ruschelle: Where can your fans find you and your books on the www? Steve: On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Palette-Improbable-Tales-Horror-Darkness-ebook/dp/B01M9IFPI2/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=steve+vasquez&qid=1557926993&s=gateway&sr=8-4 Or on my website: writersteve.com Selene – Welcome to The Horror Tree, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions! First, tell us a bit about yourself. Rob – Well, I’m a father, writer, editor, and small town postal carrier—in that order. I grew up (and still live) in Salem, Massachusetts, where, back in 1972, my mom taught her imaginative, energetic, three-year-old son to read in order to give him something to do. I’ve loved stories ever since. Selene – How long have you been writing, and what about horror draws you? Rob – I’ve only been writing for about ten years—and I say only because unlike a lot of people I know who’ve been doing this their whole lives, that means I started at forty. As for why horror? I’m not sure. It might be that we write what we know, and deep down I’m just a fearful person. I tend to read eclectically, with fantasy, sci-fi, police/legal thrillers, mysteries and more in both my read and TBR piles, and not everything I’ve written falls into the horror category. For instance, I’m cowriting a YA supernatural adventure series with Stacey Longo at the moment. We’re editing the second book now, while agent-shopping the first—if any agents out there are reading this, I’m right here! The ideas that pop into my head, however, do tend toward the creepy, and so far that’s what I’ve found works easiest for me. I have plans for other genre work in the future, but right now horror just feels like home. Selene – You have a long publishing history; where would you recommend a new reader start to explore your work? Rob – Echoes of Darkness. Like I said, I started this later in life, and I was essentially learning to write through short stories. That some of them were being published was incredibly encouraging, but I’ve grown a lot as a writer since then, and looking back at some of them now is . . . well, cringe inducing springs to mind. In 2016, Books & Boos Press allowed me to gather some of those early works together, update them in a way that reflected my greater experience behind the keyboard, and add in a few brand new, not-to-be-found-anywhere-else tales to create a collection I could be—and still am—proud of. Thirteen stories, ranging in length from a thousand to fifteen thousand words? Yeah, it makes for a pretty good exploration. Selene – Let’s talk about your novella, Friends in High Places. It’s partially set in a carnival. I’ve written a few carnival stories, and your story “The Biggest Little Show on Earth” from Carnival of Nightmares is, while a very different story, also set in one. After decades of carnivals losing popularity (due to people being more ethical, both about the treatment of animals, and of people with disabilities who are no longer considered “freaks” and put on display)…Why do you think carnivals lend themselves so well to horror? Rob – One of the main ingredients in many horror stories, in my opinion, is isolation. The haunted castle on the moors, the cabin in the woods, the small town you happen upon while driving, all of these popular settings for scary stories (and more, so many more) have in common that they’re in the middle of nowhere, and when trouble strikes there’s no one to call for help. Even stories that take place in the city often have a sense of isolation about them: We can’t go to anyone for help because they’ll think we’re crazy/ they might be in on it/ we’ve done something wrong ourselves, and we’ll be in the soup! Carnivals, circuses, and other traveling shows essentially are those small towns in the middle of nowhere. They just happen to be mobile. The carnys, or circus folk, or whomever, are like the odd small-town citizens, but worse because they’ve chosen to be together. They’re more like a family than a population, especially looking at them from the outside, and they’re a family that lives by different rules than the rest of us: rootless, essentially modern-day gypsies in the eyes of John and Joan Q. Public. And we, the public, choose to visit this family, often with the intent of letting them frighten us just a little. The roller coaster, swing ride, and Ferris wheel shooting us into the sky. Getting lost in the hall of mirrors. Taking a ride or a stroll through the haunted house. Is it any wonder that, even without the sideshow and its so-called freaks, in this little town that seems so distant from the city it’s currently plunked down right next to, we’re a little more susceptible to a prod in the nerves? Is it so odd that, surrounded by this family of frighteners we don’t really know or understand, we don’t find it that much of a stretch to think they might be a little more different than they seem on the surface? And if those differences turn out to be darker than we ever dreamed when paying our money and pushing through the turnstile, well really, in the middle of this brightly colored little town in the middle of nowhere, who can we turn to? Selene – Let’s talk about specific fears. Specifically (!) I, like poor Tagalong Tommy, am TERRIFIED of the Ferris wheel. His ordeal is probably my worst nightmare. What scares you, and how do you tap into that current of fear for a story? Rob – I too am terrified of Ferris wheels. And roller coasters. And—but the list goes on. I have, however, gone on the damned things, most recently while trying with all my heart not to look like a big pussy in front of my (then) young son. To be honest, I failed. But I did force myself onto a Ferris wheel a couple of times, and what I can remember from the last trip onto the big rig is pretty well reflected in Tommy making himself take a seat. We only see Tommy in that scene, we’re not in his head, but I tried fairly hard to make his actions fit my memory. Having that memory, I’ll likely tap into it more than just this time. If I have a character who’s afraid of something—and it can be anything—I’ll try to remember what it was like as an acrophobe to be seventy or eighty feet up in the sky, nothing holding me up there but a horribly flimsy-feeling gondola supported by a machine I couldn’t even see most of the time. What passed through my mind? Did I have a physical reaction? Yes, you bet your ass, so what was it? How did I feel? The character likely feels the same way, or at least close to it, and so I’ll write them that way. Or, sort of conversely, I’ll write a scene with those feelings in mind, trying to impart them to my reader. It keeps me from adopting an I’m just writing this scene attitude, and gives me an I need to get their hearts beating faster, and maybe make them feel a little loose around the bowels goal. Selene – The characters in Friends in High Places are a pretty relatable bunch of kids. They feel like real kids, even if they are sometimes bratty and unlikeable. How do you create believable characters? Rob – I read them all aloud. I read every word of Friends in High Places aloud during the revision process, multiple times. For certain passages—anything with dialogue—it was very multiple. If characters or their dialogue start feeling fake to me, then they’ll feel twice as fake to readers, and I need to fix that. If they start sounding the same, I need to fix that. If they sound boring, I need to fix that. I’ve heard it said that we should all write the stories we want to read. Well, I like good characters, so I try hard to let mine be that way and write a story I enjoy. If other people like it too, it’s a win-win! Selene – I also found the plot quite suspenseful, with unexpected twists and turns. And very sad, given the boys’ fates. How do you create suspense in your plots and avoid predictability? Rob – It’s hard to be predictable when even you don’t know what’s going to happen next. That’s a kind of smart-ass way of saying I’m a pantser, or discovery writer if you’re feeling fancy. I’ve tried mapping things out—being a plotter, or outliner—but I never stick to the plan very well. For most of my writing, Friends in High Places included, I have a beginning and I have a destination, but how I get from one to the other is pretty much up in the air when I sit down to start. As I learn more about the characters—and they’re quite important to me, as I said above—I gain a better understanding of how they’d react in certain situations, and then their reactions start guiding the story. Sometimes they’d do something that gets me closer to that destination, but sometimes not, and I’m not going to make them act out of character just to further the plot. That just doesn’t work for me. So instead, I have to work the plot in this new direction and try to bend it—believably—back toward my goal. Sometimes that means involving other characters that would move toward my goal. Sometimes that means creating new circumstances to herd my characters in the right direction. And sometimes that means moving the goal a little. Would you believe the original idea for Friends in High Places didn’t even involve either the Ferris wheel it started at or the building where it ended? So when that happens, when a character, acting like that character does, makes me say “Well, I didn’t see that coming” as I’m writing it, I feel pretty confident it may take the reader by surprise as well. Selene – What’s it like working with Bloodshot Books? Pete does quite a lot for the horror community, so it would be nice to give BB a plug here. Rob – Have you seen the cover on High Places? That’s Pete’s fault. I had another cover artist in mind, one I’d worked with before and been quite happy with, but he suggested Lynne Hansen. I mentioned my guy again, and he pushed for Lynne. I caved. And then I wound up with this gorgeous cover Lynne decided to release as a numbered print. On Friends in High Places release weekend, I wound up at an event at the Haverhill Public Library, with me selling my book at one end of the room while at the other Lynne was selling her numbered prints of the cover. It was a lot of fun, sending people back and forth between the tables, and I kind of felt like a star, and the whole thing happened because Pete Kahle at Bloodshot Books decided to give me a new cover artist. Selene – You have some upcoming author events in May and June. What have you got planned? Rob – May 5—so I it this might have already happened by the time people are reading this—I’ll be in Salem, Massachusetts at the Old Town Hall, taking part in Cinco de Mayhem, a dark art market being run by Freaks Antiques and Uniques, an oddities shop right there in Salem. Like they say on their website, “If you are looking for oddities, curiosities, bones, skulls, jewelry, dark art, horror, macabre, occult, or just plain old creepy out of the ordinary items you have come to the right place!” I’ll be one of just two authors at the event (the other being Scott Goudsward, event coordinator for the New England Horror Writers) throwing books at passersby. Possibly literally. We’ll at least be throwing candy at each other, because that’s how we roll. Saturday, June 29, I’ll be at the New England Authors Expo, sitting in at the Books & Boos Press table at Northern Essex Community College–Haverhill Campus―at the Moore Atrium in the Hartleb Technology Center in Haverhill MA. I’ll be selling books and representing S&L Editing, of which I am half, so I’ll be wearing at least two hats that day. The event is free and open to the public, so if you’ll be in town you can wander in at will to see and chat with authors, editors, publishers, and whatnot. See? I’m old. I even use words like whatnot. Selene – What do you think of social media’s role in writing? Why did you give up on writing a blog? Rob – Social media can be a great tool for marketing, spreading the word about what you have going on and coming out. I’ve seen people use Facebook and Twitter very effectively for this. Blogging, too. But it’s not a method that works for everyone, and I include myself in that not category. I am awkward and terrible at self-promotion, which is something I keep vowing to buckle down and get better at . . . but I’m pretty uncomfortable saying Hey, look at me! I’m being great over here! I’ve had a couple of blogs. The first, While You’re Making Other Plans, went on for years. It was basically a response to the people around me asking the first real question you asked back at the start of this interview: why horror? They, however, seemed to be asking out of concern. I was basically a happy guy, wasn’t I? And I’d always read everything, not just horror, so where did this focus on such dark topics come from? So I started writing WYMOP as a way to show people I could write happier stuff—what folks like my grandparents might think of as more normal—and offer a look into my everyday life, which is pretty different in tone from the fiction I pour out onto the page. A large part of the source material for that blog were things I did with my son, who, though I no longer live with him and his mom, is a tremendo-gantic part of my life. Of course, he grew up and became a teenager, and we naturally began doing fewer and fewer things together. So then all I had to write about was me. My other blog, Writer in Progress, was intended to be a journal of sorts, very Rob-centric, covering my development as a writer and how I was going about it. So again, all I had to write about was me. Have I mentioned how uncomfortable I am pointing the finger at myself and making myself the center of attention? This is okay, this interview, because you’re asking me questions and I’m answering them. Coming up with stuff to tell people about myself, essentially saying Here, I know you were wondering this about me, is different, and for me very difficult. I was spending an inordinate amount of time working on those blogs once they were about nothing but me, and I agonized over every sentence, constantly asking myself who really cares about this? Eventually, I was spending so much time working on them—and accomplishing very little—that it was seriously cutting into my time for writing fiction, and to be honest, I’m much more comfortable writing about people other than myself, even ones that come from inside my head. All that being said, I’ve been thinking recently about starting up Writer in Progress again. Maybe. We’ll see. Selene – Going from current technology into past technology… Friends in High Places is set in the 1970s (I think. Although it’s not stated outright, Tommy’s mom drives a brand-new 1974 Buick). I’ve been seeing more horror set in the Seventies and Eighties, or pre-cell phones and Internet, and I wonder how much of it is nostalgia and how much is a desire to avoid modern technology in horror plots. What do you think of setting horror in the past? Rob – Every story has a place and time where it fits in. It just depends on the story. I’ve read period horror set back in colonial times (and earlier), modern stories, and futuristic sci-fi or post-apocalyptic horror, and it all worked because the story fit the setting. The setting for this particular novella was one part influence (I’d recently read Laymon’s The Traveling Vampire Show, a coming-of-age novel set in 1963), one part nostalgia (I wasn’t alive in 1963, but I do remember the later 70s), and one part setup. Lots of things I write are connected, often in ways only I know about as the connections aren’t germane to the stories themselves. In my mind, this story has a connection to another story I’m working on that happens much later in my own particular timeline. The public may never even see that other story, but a much younger version of one of its characters does appear in Friends in High Places. They’re only in High Places for my own enjoyment, but they did have a bit to do with just when the novella was set. Selene – In the Afterword to Friends In High Places, you mention the requisite “Where do you get your ideas” question. I won’t ask that, since you answered it well in the piece, but what would you say is the strangest or most unusual source of a story you wrote? Rob – A Long John Silver’s radio commercial. mic drop Selene – Since all writers are also readers, what authors would you say have influenced your work? Rob – All of them, in one way or another. The most influence, I suppose, comes from writers I’ve gone back to again and again. It’s become a rather hackneyed claim, but Stephen King is a big one. Several of his books are kind of go-to reads when nothing else around me looks appealing. I’ve also read a lot of Scott Sigler, Jeff Strand, Brian Keene, Jack Ketchum, and Dean Koontz. But I mentioned earlier that my reading taste is kind of eclectic, so I’d have to include (in no particular order) John Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany is my all-time favorite novel), Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker, Patricia Cornwell, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, John Sandford, Tony Hillerman, Robert Heinlein, Tracey Hickman and Margaret Weis, Joe R. Lansdale, and Janet Evanovich may write rom-coms that are the furthest thing from horror there is, but damn me if she doesn’t write characters that shine and stick in the memory. And this is all just off the top of my head. There have been times when I believe a particular influence was fairly obvious—I’ve already mentioned how The Traveling Vampire Show impacted Friends in High Places, and I have one that I actually think of as my Joe Lansdale story—but they’re all in there. All these and more. Selene – You belong to a collaborative group of writers, called The Storyside. Coincidentally, some of my online writing friends have recently been discussing the merits of belonging to a writing group. What do you think the pros and cons of writing groups are? Rob – It depends on what kind of a group you belong to, and what you’re looking for. I’ve been in a few writing groups so far, and they ranged in focus—and I don’t mean to be derogatory, this is just how I think of them—from rah-rah to this is a business. To cover just the two extremes, in the rah-rah group, everyone was expected to read aloud at the meetings, but no one was looking for any real feedback or criticism; the gatherings were, essentially, something to spur you on to write every week. There were people of various levels of skill and talent (the two are not the same), some of them quite good, but the focus was more on fun than improvement, and a couple of members actually looked down on me for pursuing publication. Everyone else was quite happy there, and were all getting what they wanted at the time: encouragement. And that was fine. I was using the group as a practice ground for reading in front of an audience, but I was looking for something, if not more, then at least else. Then I discovered The Storyside, were the focus is much more this is a business. The business, I’m happy to say, is in helping its members put out the highest quality fiction they can, in whatever genre they write. There’s a lot more critique and feedback, with the common goal of publication. That’s what I was looking for, but there’s more. It’s a small group, but with our combined social media we can reach a much wider audience when trying to get any kind of message out, and that definitely helps the business aspect of it. In the end, pros-and-cons-wise, any writing group is going to be what its members make of it. The key is to try to find like-minded people with goals at least similar to yours. If you’re looking for support, try to find that kind of group. If you’re looking for constructive criticism, those groups are out there too. Ditto if you’re looking for a little business help. And by the way, writing groups can grow and change just as the writers in them can. In The Storyside, we defined some goals and work collectively toward them. I took a course in editing, and the other (much more professional) editor in the group took me under her wing and helped me get much better at that, benefiting me and the group as a whole. A couple of members have gained a great deal of experience in book layout and what goes into self publishing (I plan to delve into this myself sometime soon). One of us is going to school for marketing and analysis, and his experience is helping everyone involved. As strong as The Storyside was when I joined it, its members have looked for the pros they want to get out of working collectively and actively moved in that direction. Selene – In addition to writing, you work as a mail carrier, and you have an editing service. How do you balance work, family and other commitments, and still have time to write? Rob – When I’m feeling good, I tend to sleep about four hours a night. Maybe five. I’ve had some health issues recently that, though thankfully minor, have been wearing me down and pushing that number up, and sometimes keeping me from doing anything other than the day job. Hopefully, after a few doctor visits, I’ll be up to snuff again and rolling along. I kind of can’t wait. But whether I’m feeling terrific or not, I try to set aside some writing time every day. I have to punch in at the post office at eight o’clock, but if I get in there by six o’clock, that gives me two hours where I can work mostly uninterrupted. Especially if I’m wearing my headphones. In a perfect world, when I’m feeling good, I try to write in the morning, then edit (or whatever else needs doing, and that might even be more writing) at night. When S&L Editing has a client, thus a deadline, sometimes those time slots will reverse, and I’ll maybe get to my own writing in the evening—or maybe not. But in that list you gave of what I do, the only inflexible is the day job. My whole family has always been supportive of my need to write, even though some of them don’t necessarily read what I’m putting out. Like I said, I’m a father first, and that does take precedence; but as long as everything that needs to get done does get done I don’t get a lot of pushback when I want to put something off for a bit to work on something else that’s important to me. To be honest, I think I’m hardest on myself when things aren’t getting done. And the L in S&L Editing is Stacey Longo, my editing partner and best writing friend. She’s both a much better editor than me and someone who occasionally makes me a little jealous as a writer, and we both understand this odd balancing act of a life we’ve chosen. We take each editing job as it comes, working as a team and shifting the heavy lifting back and forth depending on who has more time at that moment, and this seems to work for us. It does for me. I’m not sure what would happen if I had to do it alone. So yes, I’m pretty busy. All the time. But I’ve somehow managed to become surrounded by a pretty good support system where if things start to fall down it’s because I’m the weak link, and I’m doing my best to be the strongest link I can. Some people might point to me and say I’ve been lucky. I might point back at them and say, “You’re right.” Selene – What advice would you give a new writer who’s starting out? Rob – Learn to type. Oh, I can hunt-and-peck about ten times faster than I could ten years ago, but it’s still hunting-and-pecking. I think I’d get a lot more done if I was able to focus more on what I was trying to say and less on how I was getting it in though the keyboard. But that’s just me bitching. Real advice? Always strive to be better. Writing is the kind of thing where you never have to stop trying new things, so never stop trying. Never stop learning. Read and pay attention to what other writers—writers you admire—do. Listen to what people who read your work have to say, both the good and the bad (though listening to the bad sucks, believe me I know), and use what they say as a tool to shape what you do. If you have something edited (And everyone should at some point, no matter who you are. The books Stacey and I write together are sent out for editing and we’re both editors!), don’t just take your manuscript back and say Well, that’s all right then and consider it done. Look at what the editor pointed out, just as you would feedback from beta readers or a critique group. This is someone who’s been training themselves to be a very careful reader. See if they’ve helped identify any of your weaknesses—and then step on that weakness’s neck and crush it under your heel. And never stop asking questions. It’s a use for social media I forgot to mention earlier, but when you’re just starting out, Facebook can be a fantastic learning tool. Who am I kidding? Ten years later and I’m still using it that way. Whatever you write, whatever genre you like, there’s at least one Facebook page dedicated to it, and there are writers of that genre gathered there. I belong to several, some horror related, some more general. If you have any questions—for instance, I mentioned beta readers a minute ago, but what the hell are they?—you can ask the writing community on Facebook. Now some newer writers may be saying Dude, I’m so new I don’t even know what to ask about! That’s okay. Don’t panic. We’ve all been there. Again, I direct you to Facebook. If there’s one thing writers like to talk about, it’s writing. You don’t even have to take part in the discussion if you don’t want to. Just watch. Lurk. You might see terms float through the conversation like content edit, or an advance paying out, or even a whole thread about Ingram vs. KDP on customer service, or maybe something else that makes you scratch your head and say “Huh?” Well, now you have something to ask about. Selene – Thank you again for taking the time for an interview today. Do you have anything else you’d like to mention here? Rob – Seriously? This thing’s like nine pages long now—if you’ve gotten this far and been imagining me saying all this stuff the whole time, then you’re probably sick of the sound of my voice! Okay, real quick: if you’re a fan of the carnival theme, Limitless Publishing’s releasing the third book in their Creepiest Show on Earth anthology series in May. Available for preorder on the 4th and releasing on the 14th, it’s called Carnival of Strange Things, and somewhere in that little collection of oddities you’ll find my rather long short story, “The Fate Machine.” Check it out—it’s a fun series. If newer writers out there have any questions about what to look for in an editor or what to watch out for in a publisher, feel free to go to the S&L Editing website, click on over to the Contact Us page and . . . well, contact us. Whether you’re using S&L or not, Stacey and I don’t mind answering questions to help you make more informed decisions. We don’t know everything—hell, sometimes I sit around just reveling in all I don’t know—but what we do know, we don’t mind sharing. Anyone who’s trying to keep track of me can find me on Facebook, or my website, where I may or may not be restarting my blog. We’ll see. Selene, thank you for asking me these questions and allowing me to talk your virtual ear off. I appreciate all the time you’ve given me. Oh! One last thing: if there are any agents out there who might be interested in a funny YA paranormal adventure book starring two teen girls, one of whom happens to be a little living impaired, I may have something for you. Have your people call my people . . . by which I mean me.
To improve we have to change, and this has meant that the iconic Hunter Ski will now get a new name. Hunter ski will never be forgotten, and neither will you, the original Hunter Ski paddlers. We have decided to now called the company "Legend Kayaks". Our goal will be to always make Legendary kayaks that our customers love and cherish. The new names of the kayaks, will represent the Legends of the waters we paddle on. "Nessy" - The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid, reputedly a large unknown animal that inhabits Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. Our new double/triple seater kayak is big, strong and agile like its name sake. "Makara" - (previously named the "Hunter Ski") - is a sea-creature in Hindu mythology. It is generally depicted as half terrestrial animal (in the frontal part in animal forms of elephant or crocodile or stag, or deer) and in hind part as aquatic animal, in the tail part, as a fish tail or also as seal. Sometimes, even a peacock tail is depicted. The Makara can be used for many different purposes and thus the half crocodile, half deer creature is an apt name. "Proteus" In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea". Our shorter single kayak, the "Proteus" is equally at home playing in the waves as it is cruising rapids. With all the change will come a new website, simpler, cleaner and easier. The new website will be up in a few days and I will drop you an email to notify you. Check out the February edition of the complete Fly Fisher, Sean Ions uses his "Makara"/Hunter Ski to catch some beautiful Yellow Fish on the Orange River. I have also written an article on the Orange River, which will be published in the next edition of the GoFish magazine. We have a huge range of kayaks in stock at the moment to suit every need. Give me a shout if you need one and we can try find the right kayak to suit your purpose and budget.
About two months ago, my husband came home from work a little later than usual. I was not worried; I knew what kept him. My son did not. He was thrilled to see dad walk in with an itty-bitty kitty, our first family cat! We were all so excited. The kitten was so tiny, small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. He was a mess covered in burrs, ticks, and desperately needing a bath. His eyes were goopy, possibly an upper respiratory infection. He and his family were found by a friend of ours, abandoned in a box. They all needed care, so we decided to help and adopted one. He was frightened the first couple days. We cut the burrs out, bathed him and brushed him. He has long black fur with a regal mane. I love his unique white markings on his tail and face. He also has a white belly and paws. We decided to call him Exmoor. This was inspired by the cryptid, The Black Beast of Exmoor. It did not take him long to warm up to the idea of being an indoor cat. He warmed up to us quickly and took any chance he could to sleep in our laps. He already earned the nickname Purr Monster for reasons you can guess. His eyes seemed to be getting better as well. I was surprised by how lethargic he was, though. He hardly played like a kitten should. He slept all the time, a great deal even for a cat. He always wanted to stay in the bathroom and lay on wet towels. My husband suspected he was trying to stay cool. He was very calm for a kitten. Then one day, his eye started to swell. I immediately scheduled an appointment with the vet and took him in a couple days later. I was informed he had a virus, a kind of “cat herpes”. The swollen eye was beyond treatment and I was shocked when they told me it had to be removed. He also had a fever which would explain the seclusion in the bathroom. Over the next couple weeks we gave him antibiotics and eye ointment until his fever broke so they could start the surgery. I was worried for our new kitten but was assured that after the procedure, he would bounce right back. And so he did. They kept him for two days after the surgery. When we brought him home, he was instantly ecstatic! He was purring as loud as I ever heard. He seemed so thankful to be home with us. He really did miss his new home. Once he showed his love, he began running around like a basket case. He was literally bouncing off the walls. Though he was only a few pounds, it sounded like an elephant running back and forth across the floor. He used the couch like a jungle gym, leaping from cushion to cushion. He even ran up to both of our dogs and greeted them happily. Exmoor was a brand new kitten! Now, he sleeps all day and plays all night. He’s acting as kittens should, CRAZY! And the lack of an eye doesn’t seem to be bothering him at all. Well, except for his depth perception. There were those few times he jumped for the table and missed completely falling to the floor. It’s hard not to laugh, especially when he takes off like a bat outta’ hell afterwards. Only to come back later and try again. Exmoor is a great joy to have around and I feel great knowing that he really does appreciate what we have done for him. He has a lot of personality and is very intelligent. We lucked out with this one and he lucked out with us! Next week he will be getting his stitches out and his transformation to Cyclops Kitten will be complete. There have also been a lot more pirate jokes going around the house lately. ARRRRRR! We couldn’t have saved our kitten without the help of family and friends pitching in for the surgery. I am forever grateful to them. Sorry for the late blog post, as this has been one hell of a week for me! Thanks for checking in! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Until next time, “We passed a miserable night and then watched the Cyclops make breakfast of two more of our companions.” (The Odyssey, Book 9)
(W) Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh (A) AnneMarie Rogers (CA) Kat Leyh April's elaborate plans for Jo's birthday are well underway, and it's all camper and cryptid hands on deck to pull off the greatest party of all time! But when Mal, Barney, Jo, and Jen become shipwrecked on a mysterious desert island, they have to find a way back before the party is over! In Shops: Feb 20, 2019 View All Items In This Series Click to View
All summer, io9 has been offering a $2000 bounty to the person who can send us a picture of an animal that's a genuine cryptid, or mystery animal. We hoped to find a new species, or at least a real version of a long-sought animal from myth. And by gum, we found one! Our panel of experts has debated — and even examined one specimen — and we've come to an agreement on which creature is most likely to be a genuine cryptid among our entries. Meet the white cheetah, a legend since the mid-17th century. Now for the first time since the 1920s, the creature has been spotted. And we have photographic evidence! But before we tell you about the amazing adventure our bounty winner Guy Combs had chasing down the rare white cheetah, a little background on this bounty. Our panel of expert judges included Mark Siddall, a zoologist who specializes in leeches at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; Loren Coleman, a widely-recognized expert in cryptozoology and creator of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Maine; photoshop expert and designer Paul Hogan (also known as Garrison Dean, viral video creator extraordinaire); along with io9 editors Charlie Jane Anders and myself, Annalee Newitz. When io9 announced the cryptid summer bounty, we specified that the creature must be real, the discoverer must send photographs, and that the specimen should not be dead. We didn't want any Montauk Monsters, nor did we want anybody to kill Bigfoot if they found him. In July and August, we posted the most promising cryptids photographs we'd gotten, and readers had a chance to vote on which you thought were the most promising. We took your votes into account in our deliberations. A few weeks ago, our judges huddled together to discuss which of our five front-runner cryptid photos was most likely real. There was one surprise: Aaron Ambos, a biologist in Nevada had collected a sample of a leech that looked like it might be a new species. He sent that in to Siddall for examination, and we waited a tense couple of weeks to find out if we really had a new species on our hands. In fact, Ambos wasn't wrong to guess he might have the real deal. After examining it in his lab, Siddall said, "A year ago it would have been an exciting new species find. Alas it is Placobdella kwetlumye described by us in 2010." So close! Another close contender was this piebald wallaby, discovered by Anne Bradman in Australia. Coleman thought it might be the best example of a cryptid, since Australia and New Zealand are places where the most cryptozoological finds are made. But both he and Siddall agreed that it might also just be a "melanin variant" — just a mutant in terms of color — of a regular wallaby. So that left us with the magnificent white cheetah. Siddall warned that this might not be a genuine new species, as it could be another melanin variant like the wallaby — perhaps just an albino of the cheetah world. But he agreed that it was likely a real animal. Hogan was impressed with the fact that the photographs seemed genuine. He said: I got in real close on this one. The fact that they have 3 good images that are all seemingly un-photoshopped helps. If it was just one, I'd be more suspect. But I got in close, checked for matching spots and markings where I could and it seems legitimate. EXIF data puts the pics around the right range as well, though that can be fudged. Basically if it's a fake, they did a decent job on more than one image. There is one area that has me slightly doubting the balls on one of the photos, but that is only because if it was a shop, a lioness would've been a good source animal for this. Of course, it could just be that our white cheetah has really nice balls, as you can see in this image. What finally pushed the white cheetah over into the winner category, however, was that it was a genuine mystery animal that had entered mythology in the same way creatures like Bigfoot and the Moa have. Coleman, who has spent his life collecting cryptozoology myths and facts, put it best: Within cryptozoology, there has been some focus on the quest for the "King Cheetah," although it turned out to be a pattern mutation. White cheetahs have been found since at least 1608. But I could see some expeditions out to discover if this is a part-albino or a new subspecies of the known cheetah. None of our experts are convinced that this white cheetah is a new species — though further study might reveal that to be true. But they are all fairly certain it is a real animal, and like the famous King Cheetah cryptid, this cheetah has rarely-seen markings. And so Guy Combs' white cheetah wins the cryptid summer bounty. It is a real-life incarnation of a creature from legend. Combs is a wildlife artist whose lifelong dream was to find a cryptid like this. He told us via email: As a wildlife artist I'm intrigued by peoples relationships with different animals and how this has inspired fear and worship throughout history. From a cryptozoology point of view, mermaids, werewolves and unicorns have all featured in a subconscious mechanism we have that inspires us to view these creatures symbolically, and this I believe is a very basic human instinct. I work in conservation so it's always my hope that my paintings will inspire people to take up the cause for animals that our threatened by our relentless human onslaught. So I leapt at the chance of searching a huge area with the potential of finding this cheetah, and featuring him in a major artwork. The search was not easy, but with a spotter plane and two vehicles we were eventually successful! He says he's going to donate most of his bounty winnings to his local cheetah preservation project fund. Here's the gorgeous painting Combs made of the white cheetah. And now, here is Combs' story of finding the white cheetah: Back in December I was told about this incredible ‘morph' phenomenon that has not been seen for over 90 years, and that there was a pressing need to monitor and protect it while raising awareness of the species as a whole. The last one recorded was shot in Tanzania in 1921. By ‘morph' this means a genetic colour variation, the most well known being the ‘King' cheetah, specimens of which have only occurred in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The Mughal Emperor of India recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in 1608, saying that the spots were of a blue colour and the whiteness of the body also inclined to blue-ishness. This suggests a chinchilla mutation which restricts the amount of pigment on the hair shaft. Red cheetahs have dark tawny spots on a golden background and some desert cheetahs are very pale to be more camouflaged in their environment. There are also reported cases of melanism or albinism, but the latter does not apply to this cheetah. The only reported cases of this morph which scientists believe is a recessive gene like the king cheetah, have been in East Africa from the subspecies, acynonix jubatus raineyii. I was hooked from the first moment I heard about this, and needless to say I immediately wanted to get reference, but the prospect of finding it seemed incredibly remote. The only hope I had was that the cheetah, a male, was still with his mother and occupying the same area before he reached the age of independence. This time was fast approaching so the need was urgent to find him. Apparently he already showed small signs of conflict with other male cheetahs trying to get to his mother who had come into season again. Here is an account of my search: I was at home at Soysambu when I got the call that a window of time was open for me to have a vehicle and a spotter plane available to search the 100,000 acre area in which the cheetah was believed to be. That's quite literally the equivalent of a needle in a haystack. So I made my way there there with not a great deal of optimism other than I thought I would get some good background reference. Our first search was in a plane made by the Israeli army to train pilots and coincidentally called a Cheetah: a small frame of aluminium poles and nylon fabric with a propeller and wheels. I confess to having raised anxiety levels when on small aircraft due to a couple of infamous past experiences, so I wasn't thoroughly enthused when the pilot (despite being one of the finest in Kenya), explained that we would be doing an hour of mostly low level flying with tight turns. There were two big storms on either side and the air was being moved rapidly between them so we spent most of the flight going sideways. I gritted my teeth and tried to concentrate on searching the ground but it was pretty much a pointless excersise. So back on the ground I set off in a landrover to search the area, most of which has no roads and at least managed to get some good background reference in the evening light. I figured that I could probably work this one with photographs someone had taken of him as a much younger cub and reference I had of adult male cheetahs. After all, he was just the same but with no spots, right? So I headed to town and met some friends for a few drinks. Then my phone rang: - "We've just found him!!!" - "did you get any pictures?" - "no sorry didn't have a camera" - "ok I will be up and out there at sparrows!". My host was there warming up the plane and getting ready, however I suggested I trade places with someone in one of the vehicles so that at least if he was found I would be able to get some good ground shots. We set off and watched as the plane traversed from one end of the horizon to the other trying our best to follow, but silence on the radio. By mid-morning we once again had to call it off and regroup for coffee. Everyone dispersed and I caught up with some sleep. Pretty much the same thing that evening, and I was beginning to lose hope. Cheetah can cover huge distances at night but usually stay in the same area during the day, and by the following morning two nights had passed. My only hope was that because he was with his mother, that they were still occupying the same area. Once again, eternally optimistic, my host set off in the plane with another hapless volunteer that had to take my place – I felt like such a lightweight. Turns out that I made 100% the best decision I could have. As we were thundering over the roadless plain in the landrover, I suddenly noticed that the plane had started to circle. My heart shifted into first gear. Our radio was out but the plane had unmistakably made several tight turns and was continuing to do so until we managed to get close to the circle it was making. Of course it happened to be an area covered in large rocks and low trees, so I was sitting forward in my seat, clinging to the dash with my face up against the windshield trying to keep my camera on my lap as we bounced ridiculously over huge boulders. Then there he was. A white spot in a landscape painted gold by the morning sun. As we got closer we had to be very tactical about our speed and noise level which is pretty much impossible in a landrover, especially when you're driving over big rocks. Lots of "ok forwards…", "STOP" and "shhhhhhh!!!" in theatrical whisper. He let us get quite close before hunkering down and slinking off in the direction of even more vehicle-unfriendly rocks. But we managed to keep up and he didn't seem overly anxious about us. We barely noticed that his mother was following at a distance. We were with him like this for about 30 minutes that seemed like about 5 seconds. Then having punished the vehicle to the extent that I was amazed the wheels were still on, I noticed that he began to move away from us, walking at first, then trotting, then a good run. My heart sank and I thought my last view would be him running away in fear, but it became quickly apparent that he was focusing on something. The sun was in my eyes but I could make out a dark shape moving fast in a perpendicular direction to him. Binoculars out – it was a Serval Cat!!! Next thing we knew he was running at full tilt after this thing, zigzagging first then long stretches of blindingly fast speed. Alas, we were in the worst part of the boulder field and there was clearly no option of a pursuit. So after he disappeared and the dust settled we looked at each other and let out a looooong sigh. Amazing. I came away feeling as though I had seen Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. And got photographs!!! This is not my first involvement with cheetahs. I'm very familiar with the species in terms of the personal friendships I have with people who work tirelessly to ensure their survival, and the subject matter I have been asked to paint. From my childhood I will never forget visiting some friends of my parents in Naivasha who had a pair of domesticated cheetah. Oblivious to their presence I ignored a well intentioned warning and took off down their garden, very quickly finding myself face down in the grass with a cheetah on my back. Fortunately my Dad, a well rehearsed rugby player, dealt with my assailant quickly and efficiently. However, at no point did I feel as though my life was in danger. It was just like being roughed up by a playful dog. So in a way I have always felt a strong connection with them, and I am now practically obsessed with this individual animal and the unforgettable experience of finding him and being allowed to spend half an hour or so with him. I hope I have done him justice on canvas. The painting itself, aside from being the most accurate portrayal I was capable of, includes certain elements that are important to the story. The area is one that accommodates one of the highest densities of cheetah populations in East Africa. This could be as a result of a distinct lack of other larger predators that would be a threat to their existence, a large prey base, and an area relatively protected from development. I wanted to include this latter factor and have faintly suggested a settlement complete with cell phone tower on the ridge in the middle distance. This, of course, is the greatest problem that cheetahs face in our ‘human' age. The locations is very significant here also, and the distant Ngong Hills together with the setting full moon make it very specific. The sun and moon are intentionally symbolic here too: the moon representing Artemis, the goddess of animals and forests and the sun representing Apollo, the god of arts, amongst other things. The title, "The Phantom", suggests an elusive, mythical entity that exists somewhere between night and day.
The sun rises over the ridge of the local snowcapped peaks of Forumsville, USA, casting its effulgent rays over the city. Its citizens stir, preparing for their days and going about their business. But while its run-of-the-mill civilians throng the streets, heroes take to the rooftops. Oh, wait. Lemme fill you in. Forumsville is famous for its animal-themed heroes, known as Miraculous holders, due to having an abundance of them— on the Internet, these heroes are sometimes referred to by the slang word ‘furries’. Truly a concrete jungle, am I right…? No? Okay. Back to Forumsville. I’m supposing you expect these heroes to be responsible, wise adults, with jaw-dropping powers and thrilling lives behind the mask? That they fly over the city skyline, ascending heavenward and breaching clouds as they soar Superman-style to search the streets for evil? … the opposite is true. Most of these heroes are high-schoolers, as a matter of fact, and due to being animal-based, most of them don’t have the flashiest powers. Heck, the heroes can’t even fly, because wings would cause them to fall backwards, and capes are just ridiculous at times when they’re just to billow in the wind. So, why are these Miraculous holders patrolling the city so much? Two words: Partridge Bumblebee. Partridge Bumblebee is the city’s enigmatic cryptid of a villain; nobody has ever seen him, assuming Partridge Bumblebee is male, like many of the reports of the formerly akumatized say; what’s an akuma, you might be asking? Akumas are villains who are corrupted by yellow bumblebees created by Partridge Bumblebee which, funnily enough, are also called akumas. That’s totally not confusing at all. However, there’s hope! Some heroes can purify akumas by breaking the object in which the akuma butterflies enter— usually some sort of Special Power or weapon has to be used in order to accomplish this, but this isn’t always the case. Despite his efforts, Partridge Bumblebee typically loses. But, of course, there are Miraculous holders who side with Partridge Bumblebee. We call them ‘villains’, because… well, they’re the anti-heroes. What else would we call them, Partridge Bumblebee’s Army? Vote PB for President 2020? Okay, that was some awkward humor, but back to the villain discussion. For one reason or another, villains side with Partridge Bumblebee— but they can reform, I guess. Just, y’know, at the expense of being ridiculed by the city and the myriad of online blogs dedicated to Miraculous holders. Wait a minute— who are you? Also hey uh yeah put ‘OwO’ in Other if you’ve read this far 1. Under no circumstances are your characters allowed to have wings of any sort. Wings are obviously the most evil thing on the planet. Okay, but seriously, no wings. Gliding with a cape is allowed, though. 2. Please, try to keep edge and angst to a minimum. A good idea would be containing it to their backstory and some character arcs. 3. Each forumer is allowed to have up to four characters. 4. Repeats of animals are allowed, but if need be, the mod team will restrict certain animals; think of a ‘blacklist’ of sorts. 5. Tying in with the rule above, don’t mini-mod. If you want to offer input to someone, regardless of your status in the FWRP, that’s fine— but don’t go around acting like you can accept forms and whatnot. 6. Only @Cleaver, @Ghost, @Hawk, and @Myself (Necromancer) can accept forms at the moment. If there is any change, an announcement thread will be released. 7. Hate the character, not the person. 8. If you’ve read this far, add “what’s” to Other. 9. Shipping is allowed, including LGBTQ+ ships. 10. If you want to have your character(s) discover the identity of someone else’s character, discuss it with the person beforehand. 11. Powers must relate to the animal. Special Powers can relate to the abilities of the animal and/or mythology surrounding the animal. Furthermore, costumes have to be themed off the animal as well, and cannot be unrealistically colored. (ex.: a skunk hero being bright pink isn’t allowed) 12. Weapons can’t be OP. No laser blasters or whatever. 13. No mythical/extinct creatures. 14. Put ‘this?’ in Other if you’ve read this far. Miraculous holder form: Special Power (ie.: Cataclysm, Lucky Charm): Emotional Weaknesses (Akuma prey): Emotional Weaknesses (Akuma prey): My form, UwU: Name: Rebbecca Evangelina Rossi Hero Name: Sweet Bunny Age (13-17): 15 Sexuality/Orientation: Biromantic Bisexual Appearance: Rebbecca is 5’4”, with a fair complexion and lithe frame. She has mid-back length, wavy platinum blond hair; her bangs are sideswept/parted to reveal her forehead, and there’s one strand on each side of her face that ends at her chin. Her hair is let down sometimes, though most if the time she styles it in a high ponytail. If one looked closely enough, they’d find small ‘crinkles’ at the corners of her lips and eyes; this indicates that she smiles quite a bit. Rebbecca wears a light cherub pink tee, along with a soft yellow jacket. Her lower half consists of a pair of acid-washed jeans with light sidecar orange, soft tusk yellow, and slightly dark azalea pink floral patterns; these same floral patterns can be spotted on the pair of white converses she usually wears. On colder days, Rebbecca wears a pastel pink hoodie with rabbit ears attached to the back. Personality: Rebbecca has a cheerful disposition. She’s optimistic and tries to motivate those around her to act, making inspirational or otherwise motivational remarks; she’s the kind of person with a positive quote for almost every situation, probably getting most of them from books. “The impossible is possible” is this girl’s motto. Rebbecca truly believes that if you try hard enough, you can do anything you want to do; she tends to have high goals and can be seen as ambitious. She’s very honest, but doesn’t like to be blunt — the only thing she isn’t really honest about is how she feels. Rebbecca doesn’t like lying to people, claiming it gives her ‘a rotten feeling in her gut and makes it feel like she’s swallowing bile’; she feels immense guilt when acting on pretenses. As a result of this, she’s a poor liar and actress. Rebbecca has an... eccentric way of thinking. She’s extremely creative and is constantly bursting at the seams with new ideas, although a good one fourth of those ideas are just things she forgot to write down to remind herself. Now, onto her flaws. Rebbecca sees the world through a pair of rose colored shades; she’s a bit gullible and is easily deceived. While she is by no means dumb or oblivious, she’s inclined to trust people due to a fear of being betrayed. As a result of her naïveté combined with her optimism, her optimism can be borderline idealistic. Rebbecca has a hard time opening up about her negative emotions, due to typically bottling them up for the sake of those around her. She’s altruistic, but puts others before herself a bit too much. Rebbecca, while book smart, doesn’t have the best memory and often has to write things down in order to remember them. She also daydreams from time to time, and can get lost in thoight. Hero Appearance: Sweet Bunny wears a white suit and matching mask that cling to her skin. Protruding from her hair is a pair of white rabbit ears with light pink insides. The wrists of the suit are lined with white fur, and so are the boots built into it. Her irises become a vivid red color. Hero Personality: Sweet Bunny’s not too different from Rebbecca. She’s more focused, and has a more serious demeanor. She’s creative, but knows not to blurt her ideas. Sweet Bunny is still a poor liar and actress; despite going under a new alias as SB, she’s still easily guilted. Weapon: Sweet Bunny’s weapon is what resembles a pocketwatch. It’s gold, with a twelve hour thing on it; it can be used to purify akumas via opening up and then yeeting the bee inside of it, as well as doubling as a kind of ‘grappling hook’ in a hitch. Powers: Enhanced agility; can jump higher than most Miraculous holders Special Power (ie.: Cataclysm, Lucky Charm): Sweet Bunny’s Special Power is Poof— basically, she poofs into a cloud of smoke, and can appear at a maximum of nine feet away from where she was last standing. The disadvantage of this power is that it can only be used once, like most Special Powers. Miraculous Appearance: Rebbecca’s Miraculous is a hairclip. The hairclip is a soft pastel pink barrette when uninhabited by her kwami, Dashii. Once activated and inhabited by her kwami, the hairclip becomes a jade green color with five slightly darker pawprints serving as the counter. - book smart - easy to get along with ig? she doesn’t typically have a problem w/ someone, at least on her side - optimism can border on idealism - not street smart; not the best liar/actress - physically weak, particularly in the upper body strength department - doesn’t tend to look around when in a hurry (ie: when, say, running in a forest from someone hunting her down, she’s likely to trip on a root once or twice because she didn’t notice it) Emotional Weaknesses (Akuma prey): - fear of being betrayed - bottles up her emotions for the sake of those around her Other: >:) no cheating you heckers Name: Dashii (Pronounced as Dash-ee) Animal: Mini rex rabbit Personality: The saltiest little thing you’ll ever meet, Dashii’s a very outspoken and sharp-tongued kwami. She’s very blunt with people, and usually expresses her care for others via tough love. She’s saltier than the Dead Sea. Also highkey sassy. Fear her. Appearance: Standard kwami anatomy, with a white body and jade green eyes. Two small rabbit ears with pink insides and a white cottonball tail. Food: Popcorn, but she prefers it salted. Run Down For Who Doesn't Watch ML, by Ghost: So, the heroes work like this: every hero has a miraculous- a piece of jewelry that when it contains a Kwami (Talked about later) transforms the hero into someone with superpowers. When in hero mode, the person gains a special outfit- always consisting of at least a skin-tight suit and a small mask around their eyes and on the bridge of their nose. The person becomes extra agile and gains a special weapon. They also have something I refer to as a Special Power- some extra ability they can only use once and temporarily. Some examples are Ladybug's Lucky Charm- where she summons a special item to help her. However, after using this ability the hero only has five minutes before they transform back to normal. This is counted down on the hero's Miraculous. When the Kwami enters it it gains five symbols representing the animal (For Cat Noir, for example, it has a paw. The palm, and four digits.) After they transform back the must feed the Kwami its favorite food so it gains back the energy needed to transform. More about the Kwami- Kwamis are magical creatures that help the hero transform. Without it they can't transform. The Kwami has a basic body structure of a large head and small body (Look up Kwami). It has features of the animal it embodies. Now, Akumas and Partridge Bumblebee. Partridge Bumblebee can send out yellow bumblebees- Akumas- to possess people when they gain negative emotions. The possessed person gains special powers based on the nature of what is making them feel negative or what item the Akuma stings; Partridge Bumblebee identifies his victims, using his ability to see through the eyes of all the bees and then sending out this magical glowy yellow bee thing that stings the object. The Akuma can only sting items, not people, and to free said person you must break the stung item- which will release the Akuma- then capture the Akuma and purify it (Can be any way.). When Purified the Akuma becomes a notmal bee and is harmless. The possessed person becomes evil with several goals: Taking over Forumsville, getting revenge on who wronged them, and getting the Miraculouses of whoever shows up to stop them for Partridge Bumblebee. Partridge Bumblebee himself never shows up. Please tell us why you'd like to report this post creator of CoI, the PJO FWRP (/355313) the ♡heart♡ wants what it wants and what it wants is to burst out of your chest and terrorize people. it's an alien, remember?
This cryptid article comes from the excellent paranormal news site Week in Weird. An image from a trail cam in Alberta, of what appears to be a Bigfoot kicking back and relaxing. The author of the letter took the time to brighten up the image, and if it isn’t a hoax, or a misidentification, it would be one of the clearest pics of a Bigfoot since the Patterson-Gimlin footage. Here is a link to the original article. What do you think? Could this be a bear or a person in an ape suit? Maybe a gorilla? You decide.
Fallout 76 factions are very different from the way factions have been handled in previous Fallout games, nominally because there are no human NPCs in Appalachia for you to receive quests from in the first place. While previous Fallout games have let you align with different groups to conclude the game’s main quest and even form alliances for side quests, factions in Fallout 76 are all about players unlocking access to bespoke gear. While Fallout 76 doesn’t have any human NPCs to engage with, it is possible to join a number of factions in the game, ranging from cultists to the Enclave. While in Fallout 4 you decided whether to side with the Minutemen, the Brotherhood of Steel, the Railroad, or the Institute, in Fallout 76 you can actually join all of the available factions – after all, there’s nobody around to call you out for your betrayals. Each of the Fallout 76 factions has a series of quests for you to complete and will lead to some handsome rewards, including the ability to launch nukes. This isn’t easy stuff though; to access and complete the quests, you’ll be coming up against some high-level foes in dangerous areas. Here is a list of all Fallout 76 Factions: The Responders are the first faction you’ll find in Fallout 76, because they’re presented to you almost right away. As long as you follow the initial quest and don’t venture off gallantly by your lonesome, you’ll discover The Responders in and around Flatwoods. Their quest line serves as an introduction to the game; it takes you from Flatwoods up to Morgantown then down to Charleston, two of the bigger towns you’ll find in Appalachia. The Responders are a volunteer group comprised of emergency service staff like firefighters, medical workers and policemen and women. They made it their mission after the Great War in 2077 to assist survivors and teach them basic skills, in an effort to restart civilisation. By the time you leave Vault 76 in 2102 though, the Responders have all gone, with the last remaining members being the Protectrons you often find throughout Appalachia. The Responders are the reason every train station has a vendor and utilities like workbenches and stash crates. Fire Breathers are the Responders that specifically deal with Scorched. They’re set up in the Charleston Fire Department, which is where you can sign up to join the Fire Breathers. You’ll then be taken south, to the Ash Heap region where you’ll need to complete a training exercise. The Fire Breathers final training exercise involves entering a burning mine shaft named Belching Betty. The place is infested with Scorched; you need to get inside, reach the the bottom, activate an emergency beacon, then get out. To protect you from the toxic environment you’re given a firefighters outfit from Bernie, the Fire Breather’s helpful Protectron located outside. You can learn a little more about the history and formation of the Fire Breathers via some holotapes found in Morgantown Airport. The Charleston Emergency Government are a faction in Fallout 76, but they’re just mentioned rather than being available to join. You can find everything about them in the Charleston Capitol Building, where you find out that they were led by Abigale Poole. The group consisted of surviving members of the West Virginia state government, including Majority Whip Tanner Holbrook and Chief of Police Mayfield. There’s a lot to learn about the Charleston Emergency Government so we won’t spoil it all for you. We’d recommend heading there and listening to the relevant holotapes and reading the notes for yourself. The Order of Mysteries is found in Riverside Manor, east of Charleston and next to the Summersville Dam. To gain access to the Order of Mysteries hideout though, you first have to go to the Whitespring Resort, which is located further east of Riverside Manor, south of the New Appalachian Central Trainyard. When you’re there, search the homes within the grounds of the Whitespring. You’ll stumble across a dead woman inside a shower; loot her holotape and listen to it to begin the Into the Mystery quest. You should have also received a Worn Veil quest item from her. Head back to the Riverside Manor, slay all the Scorched then equip the Worn Veil and walk into the front parlor room, which is left of the door as you enter the building. This will reveal a hidden entrance behind a bookshelf that grants you access to the Order of Mysteries and all of their quests. Interestingly, the Order of Mysteries is a secret organisation with only female members. If you played Fallout 4, you’ll remember the Silver Shroud radio and TV show. Well, the leader of the Order of Mysteries is the actress who plays the Mistress of Mystery in the Silver Shroud, Shannon Rivers. The Order has a number of members, each ranked in a hierarchy. You can join the Order of Mysteries and open a lot of doors for yourself in Fallout 76 – even if you’re playing as a man. If you’ve been paying attention to the various cryptids in the game, you’ll know one of the most elusive is Mothman. A terrifying creature that can be found via random encounter, it flies down and stalks the player, peering from behind its enormous red eyes. If you approach it, it will fly off. There’s no guaranteed location for the Mothman to appear, but at Point Pleasant, north-west of Flatwoods, there is a dedicated Mothman Museum. Pick the lock to the level two door at the back of the museum and head downstairs. You’ll find a room dedicated to the Mothman, complete with an altar, tree roots traipsing across the ceiling and creepy statues on the walls. There’s a couple of notes here for some background lore but unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to join the Cult of the Mothman or start any quests with them. Despite not having to do anything with them, we know that the Cult of the Mothman had been around for a long time prior to the Great War. The day before the bombs were dropped, on October 22 2077, the Cult conducted a ritual intended to summon the Mothman. Brother Charles said the ritual had worked and that the Mothman warned him of a flood that was going to happen, so the Cult took heed of his warning. That’s as much as we know unfortunately, though there may still be more to find. It is possible that this cult is connected to a Public Event that can be started at a lighthouse near Morgantown. Complete the event and you’ll be able to commune with the Wise Mothman and receive a helpful blessing. In Fallout 76, the Enclave is perhaps the faction with the biggest influence. They’re located in Whitespring Bunker, an underground facility within the Whitespring Resort grounds, but you’re not able to access it right away. In order to start the Enclave quest line, you need to travel to the far eastern part of the map and look for the Abandoned Waste Dump. It’s located east, over the river from Berkeley Springs or north of Valley Galleria. When you arrive, you’ve got some serious fighting to do. Two Deathclaws are found inside the initial cave, one to the left of the entrance and one to the right. We found that sticking to one side doesn’t aggro the other Deathclaw, although one of them should be patrolling the place when you arrive so you may want to fight that one first. When you take out the Deathclaws, explore the left-hand side of the cave and you’ll find a dead Enclave soldier search them to find out how to access the bunker. Follow the instructions from there and you’ll gain access to the bunker. From there, it’s fairly straightforward and you’ll be given directions to the Whitespring Bunker. MODUS, the seemingly sentient AI will greet you and direct you on how to join the Enclave through a series of tasks. This is one of the locations you can launch nukes from in Fallout 76, so joining the Enclave is a very tempting offer. If you’re in the dark as to who or what the Enclave is, they’re an organisation that first appeared in Fallout 2 and has been seen or mentioned in every instalment since. They’re comprised of descendants from the United States government and other powerful corporations that worked with them. Historically they’ve been viewed as a terrible group to be involved with due to their disdain for anything that isn’t purely human, while also committing horrible atrocities on humans, too. For example in Fallout 2, they abducted an entire community in order to perform tests on them. Co-founded by senator Sam Blackwell, one of the first named people you’ll hear about on the Enclave journey, the Free States were a small group of people that worked together to survive the nuclear bombs inside concrete bunkers found in The Mire region. When they finally emerged, the members of the Free States discovered Scorched and the monsters that created them, Scorchbeasts. They made it their mission to research ways to defeat the Scorched and ultimately the Scorchbeasts, but they all perished before finding success. There’s three bunkers in The Mire; Abbie’s, Ella Ames’ and Raleigh Clay’s. Raleigh Clay was the leader of the group and the other co-founder alongside Sam Blackwell, though his bunker is the only one you need a password for. You want to start the Free States journey by heading to Abbie’s Bunker in the far north-eastern corner of the map, where you’ll gain access to the other two. The Free States quests are dangerous, with multiple Deathclaw and other cryptid encounters along the way, so make sure you’re a high enough level to tackle them. One of the most famous Fallout organisations, the Brotherhood of Steel can be found in Appalachia. As you progress through the Free States quests you’re actually directed to the Brotherhood of Steel location, so you’re best bet is to kick off with the Enclave, moving on to the Free States, and finally the Brotherhood of Steel. Led by Elizabeth Taggerdy, the Appalachia chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel was formed after Captain Roger Maxson, the founder of the Brotherhood, convinced Taggerdy to leave the United States Armed Forces. As you’ve undoubtedly realised given the lack of human NPCs in Fallout 76, the Brotherhood of Steel have been completely eliminated by Scorched by the time you get to their headquarters at Fort Defiance. That’s in the south-eastern corner of the map, right on the border to the Cranberry Bog area. Along with Fort Defiance, the Brotherhood of Steel has numerous outposts set up across Appalachia. Locations include Camp Venture, Grafton Dam, Spruce Knob, Survey Camp Alpha, Firebase Major, Firebase LT, Forward Station Alpha, and Big Bend Tunnel East. There’s not a lot you can do for the Brotherhood in-game but you can see the effect they had on the world through plenty of notes and holotapes. Ah, everyone loves Raiders, right? The infamous common enemy found in multiple Fallout games, the only Raiders you’ll actually be seeing in Fallout 76 are the corpses littered across locations you visit. Believe it or not though, you can actually help the Raiders and complete a quest for them because their leader is a Miss Nanny robot. Head to the Top of the World location, directly north of the Whitespring Resort and east of Horizon’s West. You’ll come across Rose; a Miss Nanny with the personality of Rosalynn Jeffries, a member of the Cutthroats who were one of the Raider gangs. Her quest involves building a Signal Repeater for the Raiders, followed by shooting a Yao Guai with a Karma Syringe. There’s not much lore to the Raiders; the Appalachia group were made up of five gangs, each with different specialist skills. As is the case with most of the groups in Fallout 76, they were all seemingly wiped out by Scorched.
\|First appearance\|\|Cryptid vs. Cryptid\| The Biloko is a Zaire mandrill like cryptid. It made its first appearance in Cryptid vs. Cryptid. It has super powerful crocodile like jaws capable of tearing apart bone, flesh, and possibly anything it can get in the grasp of its mouth. They also have the ability to walk upright like apes. They have very large and dangerous looking teeth. It is also seen in the opening credits of the show. The Biloko was featured in the illegal cryptid fights hosted by Van Rook were he went one on one with Fiskerton. At first, the Biloko had the upper hand that is until Doyle told Fisk to forget everything Doc and Drew thought him about a fair fight and honor. It also escaped the fighting arena along with the other cryptids in Cryptid vs. Cryptid. The Biloko appears at level 9 as a cryptid released by a code (The code is Zon, Zak, Zon, Fiskerton). This top of a small mountain on the side of the pyramid and when the escaneas gives a leap and a roar.
We are so used to seeing mesomorphic bodies clay sculpture progressive wear with the bold colours, beady eye-catching patterns, the versatile looks, and rarely see a voluptuous nonnegative size female person added to the mix; and if we do it’s unremarkably in an all over sized top, with dull colouring and no pattern. Hey adventurous Queens, While living thing in New dynasty this summer , I was asked on numerous occasions " What to Wear To craw terminated Events in Barbados? Time is aflare fleetly on and the enumeration to the big day is on. " yield playing period in Barbados, is our most popular example for festivities, were we grasp our culture but also celebrate with family and friends. Can you believe there are just 5 days unexhausted till the big "jump up". 21 home truths only girls with big boobs will understand Bra valuation is ridiculously unfair You can get a C-cup bra that looks delightful for under a tenner. It costs some £35 for the big-boobed to head off looking like our nans, meaning our interior contract barely covers the contents of our underwear drawer.2. Big boobs are to a lesser extent sensitive than dwarfish boobs Encounter an F-cup wearing a concentrated jumper, and she won't be healthy to feel a thing. Big and Hairy (TV Movie 1998) - IMDb A boy moves into a new townspeople and has difficulty making friends, so he joins the basketball team. at the start experiencing bittie success, his quality increases when he convinces a Sasquatch to joint the team. So some in this movie is meet too ridiculous, which to a point, turns it into a moving-picture show that is great for friends to get jointly and just jest at. Its a cryptid playing basketball for a middle school(? In all, I don't advise this movie for its motivated enjoyment, I do say its worth a timekeeper at smallest once to alter fun of it.
'Harrison Morton is the Devil' I, like everyone else who knew him, can tell you the first time I became aware of Harrison Morton. Anthony Blake, a friend of mine who had recently begun a job at the Department of Defense, and his coworker Michael Tapley had been at a bar when a man walked up to them through the crowd. The man, they said, was pale, reedy, and dressed in a threadbare black suit with a grey vest. Despite his archaic clothes and funereal visage, the man had apparently been quite lively in affect, and had at various points in his discourse with them made mention of being a magician. Jokes about his attire aside, neither man had chosen to challenge Harrison on this claim, and after a single beer the supposed magician had simply handed each a business card with his name on it—nothing else—and walked away. Fairly tame and unremarkable, if not for the fact that each man swore that what happened next actually did occur. Needing to pay for their drinks and also wanting to put away the business cards, each man went to take from his pocket his wallet. Anthony reached for his front left pocket, Michael for his right rear pocket. Neither found their wallet there and had a brief moment of panic before realizing that Anthony’s wallet was now in his right rear pocket, and Michael’s was in his front left. Except Anthony now had Michael’s wallet, and Michael now had Anthony’s. Assuming this to be the result of some earlier confusion, they exchanged wallets back, before opening them to discover that their photos, credit cards, driver’s licenses, and even receipts had been swapped, leaving each of them now, essentially, still holding the other’s wallet. Harrison Morton, ladies and gentlemen. The second time I heard his name was from Marisol Rodrigues, with whom I had a brief, interesting, but ultimately fruitless Tinder date. Despite our lack of romantic chemistry, we kept up a casual acquaintanceship that consisted mainly of sharing funny photos and memes, and from time to time texting one another charming anecdotes. One night, as I was settling into bed with a book, my phone buzzed. Then again. And again. By the time I gave into the insistent vibrations, Marisol had written out, over the course of seven texts, a bizarre anecdote, which she promised was not a fabrication. Apparently, a “Tim Burton character” walked up to her and some friends as they were smoking cigarettes outside of a movie theater and asked them what they had seen. After asking a few perfunctory questions about the film, which he professed to be interested in seeing himself, he mentioned that he was a magician, and asked if they wanted to see a trick. Amenable to a light diversion, the women all said yes, and were delighted by a simple but elegantly performed card trick. After a light round of applause, the man handed out “a business card minus the business” and then slipped off, puffing a cigarette that no one had seen him produce or light. One of Marisol’s friends—she gave me no names—realized that the man had “nicked” her cigarette from her, and she was now left holding a McDonald’s straw cut to the length of the cigarette she had half-way smoked. Marisol laughed, took a drag of her cigarette, and was taken aback to discover that suddenly she was holding a menthol. Another of her friends likewise pulled on her cigarette to discover that hers was now a full-flavor. A fourth friend suddenly had a light. When they compared cigarettes, it became clear, through recollection and a lipstick stain, that Harrison Morton had switched who was holding which cigarette without any of them having realized the shuffle. “Harrison Morton is a devil,” she ended, with a purple devil face emoji to top off the story. Immediately I decided I had to find out about this man, this magician, who had made such an impression upon three people from my life. Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe it was a sense that he was following me or circling me; that my friends and I were adrift in an ocean, and three of them had reported feeling something bump into them below the surface, and I must ready myself. So, of course, I goggled the name, which returned primarily results for a Pennsylvania middle school, and little else. Facebook likewise yielded no results that seemed relevant. Having reached the extent of the research I was willing to do on my phone, I set the phone back on my nightstand and decided to try again the next day on my laptop. Twitter, it turned out, was the best source for more stories about Harrison Morton, a man in a “suit he pulled off a dead Earl” and who “totally fucked with my sense of existential security,” to quote a few of the sources. I expected a repertoire to reveal itself, for more stories of swapped wallets and cigarettes, along with a few other random tricks, deployed depending on the situation and perhaps the proximity of the last performance. Instead, I found a full menagerie of tricks and illusions, no two of which repeated close enough to be considered the same. Swapped items were a theme, of course, mainly used as a means of redressing a lack of interest, though sometimes used as the finale to an actual card trick. The card tricks seemed never to be the actual focus of his art, unless you were the man who bit into a sandwich following a failed “is this your card” trick only to find his card between the tomato and the cheese. Each person reported having been handed a card with no contact information of any kind. On Instagram I only found pictures of his card, none of the man himself. A few scattered videos of reactions to having been “pranked” by him, all of which were taken long after the “conductor for an orchestra of skeletons” had taken his leave. Not seeing him, and only having the amusing descriptions posted on social media, made my curiosity grow. I imagined a paper-white man with sticks in his unruly black hair and black eyeliner. Then in my head he turned into a frail, tubercular orphan in his deceased father’s coachman’s outfit. A disgraced duke ingratiating himself to elites for a room for the night and whatever silver he could carry. Stumbling in this way upon Harrison Morton was like stumbling onto a new cryptid, some sea serpent or were-beast that had yet to reach a point of cultural saturation. Each new clue or story made me feel as though I were the first to truly grasp its meaning. Was I, in fact, the first person to ever put together all these disparate parts of Harrison Morton into a single, multifaceted whole? Was I, in essence, the discoverer of a brand new species? How many tales and glimpses were gathered and cataloged before the panda or gorilla was finally seen in the flesh and made real? If I was, truly, the first person to recognize the reality of Harrison Morton, what was I to do with that information? How did I prove him to be real? At the time I was a freelance writer working for a number of outlets all over the city. A film or book or museum exhibit review here, a personal essay there. I would attend openings and press conferences and local city council meetings and whip up a narrative or a story and shop it around. I had a few editors who thought of me as theirs, though I was beholden to no one. Having tried my hand at college for one semester before dropping out I had no debts to pay off, and thus I found myself one of the few members of my much-economically-maligned generation who had only to worry about rent. Friends who had gone to school for journalism or English or even engineering and economics found themselves taking high-paying jobs in call centers or as executive assistants to cover their loan payments, while I was free to, with ample poetic irony, hoover up the low-paying jobs in their fields of study that cared more for personality and a willingness to work without the expectation of insurance or high pay than formal education. So, I began writing, compiling screenshots of tweets and quotes from Instagram stories and videos to create a portrait. Of course there was no “peg” for this story—no present or immediate concern or interest to make it worthwhile—but I assumed that on a slow enough news day I might be able to slip it into a local interest column. Maybe a web site would find it amusing and plop it on their front page as a Friday evening diversion for week-weary commuters. I asked to quote my friends as well, and reached out to the authors of the tweets and owners of the Instagram posts for expansions on their social media dispatches. I wanted more than just the rote facts of the moment; I wanted to know how the tricks, illusions, had made them feel. Strangely, despite the obvious overtones of invasiveness and theft, no one seemed overtly put off by Harrison Morton’s trickery. There was a level of impish charm to the young man that put everyone at ease, and the fact that the sleight of hand manipulations were so easily discovered once the moment had come for the reveal made the incidents seem more playful than sinister. When I asked what had been done with the cards the mountebank—as I had taken to calling him, believing “magician” or “prankster” would be less likely to conjure the right amount of awe—had given out, everyone said the card now held a place of prominence in their lives. Shoe boxes of tokens and tickets; in the wallet, next to the credit card; snuggly fastened in a scrap book. Not a single person had thrown out the card, and two of them even spoke about how they kept the card on them like a talisman, seemingly believing that it might keep them safe from another intrusion from Harrison Morton’s talents. After two weeks—during which Harrison Morton was the most amusing but not most pressing or time-consuming of my works—my article was ready. It was the type of piece you might expect to present itself on the front page of a Gotham newspaper in a fresh reboot of the Batman franchise; a light inquiry into rumor and myth that was more of an aggregation and call to arms than an actual investigation with hope of an answer. Like a police blotter article about a rash of break-ins mixed with a lighthearted local interest story about a neighborhood myth. Is This the Ghost Cat Stealing People’s Lawn Gnomes? There was no picture, which was a knock against the piece. I thought about calling up a police or FBI sketch artist to do a mock-up, but that idea struck me as eminently uninspired. I had a graphic design friend mock up a comic-style panel with a shrouded figure walking along a sidewalk made of wallets and cigarettes, but one editor told me that the cigarettes wouldn’t play in an article not specifically about them. Finally, I decided to take a photo of my own; on my reclaimed-wood desk I laid out a handmade leather wallet with a slight fan of cards coming out of it, as though a poker hand served as the contents in the place of credit cards. A queen, a king, a jack, an ace—all of the same suit—and, at the top of the fan, a smiling joker to top the whole thing off. The picture was simple, but it spoke to the aesthetics of the time. It was clever, earth tone, and felt newly vintage. With this visual included, The Express quickly snatched up the story, running it with the photograph taking up a fair portion of the first page of the article. Minimal edits to the content itself, and those mainly paring back some of my more flowery linguistic tics. That morning, which was cold despite the steady encroachment of spring, I left my apartment and wandered to the nearest metro stop, taking a copy of The Express from one of the vest-wearing men who handed it out to passing commuters on their way into the warm subterranean of the metro. I took it into the Starbucks next to the stop, confounded the barista by ordering a black coffee, and then sat to read over my work. Often, when I read my words post-publication, I would be overcome by both a distaste for my own writing and a healthy amount of rage directed at the editor for not doing better with my raw materials. This time, though, I found myself rather amused. I put myself in the mind of someone on their way to work, reading about this bizarre little flicker of benign deviousness that existed alongside racist incidents, sex scandals, and violent crimes. How charming it must be to look up from this article and see a train car full of people, any of whom could be victim or perpetrator of some seemingly magical trickery. And that was that. With the publication of my article I had exorcised Harrison Morton from my soul, drawn him from my bloodstream. Despite the open-endedness of my piece, I had done enough work to unshackle myself from my curiosity over him. I had done my part, and now the Internet or the Post or some greater force would do the rest of it for me. As the day went on I charted the spread of my article, which was picked up by The AV Club after it went viral on Reddit. As I expected, the story was a perfect Friday trifle for the world to take up and consume with performative joy. Reddit and Twitter piled on more supposed sightings, people claiming that their grandparents had mentioned Harrison Morton to them when talking about their lives in their countries of origin. I sighed at the sight of this, shaking my head as I sipped a glass of whiskey at Jack Rose. Soon enough my mountebank would become the next Slenderman or Chupacabra. Turned from a gallant trickster hipster into a larger-than-life specter. I felt a little guilty, actually. Here I had taken a perfectly ground-level scamp and had robbed him of his agency and identity. At first, I had thought that perhaps Harrison Morton would read my article and feel accomplished. Now I imagined him growing more disdainful of me as more people sought to carve up and embellish his life for their own benefit. By the time fake photographs of old London newspapers began circulating claiming that Harrison Morton had been a pickpocket in the streets of Whitechapel alongside Jack the Ripper, my fifth whiskey was beginning to sit poorly with me. What had I done to Harrison Morton? The next morning, I woke up feeling an acidic vortex in the pit of my stomach. I made a large breakfast and skipped the gym, watching old TV shows on Netflix as my sense of criminal complicity in the murder of the idea of Harrison Morton ebbed and flowed. My Twitter follower count climbed upward, and my DMs began to clog with people claiming to have more information about Harrison Morton. I blessed myself for not having included a picture of his calling card in my story, but of course the Internet would find them soon enough. Soon there would be a thousand Harrison Mortons all over the country. I had exorcised my demon and the rest of the country had taken it up as a new faith. I knew, academically, that the craze would be over in a less than a week, or the real Harrison Morton would turn out to be a murderer or white nationalist, scuttling the whole mystique; but in the moment it hurt to feel as though my discovery was being stolen and abused. The feeling faded, though, and soon enough equilibrium re-established itself. The only real lasting change was that now I was considered a sort of Monster Hunter for the DC metro area, an investigator of legends and whispered myths. The title hung easily on me, and soon enough I was reporting on all manner of strange urban legends and rumors of a fanciful—or at least harmless—nature. The man who named and fed all the squirrels on the University of Maryland campus. The violinist who serenaded random metro stops with no seeming pattern and no hat set out for change. Things like this kept me steeped in the weird world of District marginalia. Four months after Harrison Morton hit the pages of The Express and after I became a minor celebrity who no longer had to hunt for stories but rather had them lobbed at me, Harrison Morton reemerged. In Adams Morgan he slipped someone’s whole chain of car keys into a beer bottle they had been drinking so that the bottle had to be smashed to retrieve them. In Chinatown he switched two people’s shoelaces. In Rosslyn he slipped a playing card into every pocket on the person of a tourist. Coming so long after Harrison Morton fever had died down, I took each of these offered reports with hopeful skepticism, listening to every detail and pushing for more information. Could he really be back? And back with such minor and playful antics? I found myself almost proud of him for not having been pushed to be bolder, stranger. I remained skeptical until I saw the cards that the victims of his illusory practice showed me. They were identical to the cards produced previously, but with small line of text added beneath his name. A theatrical and jesting flourish that proved, to me, that this was the one and only Harrison Morton. It read: As Profiled in The Washington Post Express by Connor McLeod, A Real Son of a Bitch.
Hollywood News Friday June 14, 2019 LIVE! WITH KELLY & RYAN (ABC) Scheduled: Bill Pullman, Kate Gilman Williams, Debi Mazar, guest co-host Robin Givens THE VIEW (ABC) Scheduled: Kevin Bacon THE TALK (CBS) Scheduled: Jennifer Aniston, guest co-host Vanessa Williams ELLEN DEGENERES (SYN) Scheduled: Kumail Nanjiani, Gary Clark Jr. THE REAL (SYN) repeat: How to save money while planning your wedding WENDY WILLIAMS (SYN) repeat: Morris Chestnut MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D (ABC) Sarge has May; Altarah has Daisy, Enoch and Simmons; two planets need saving. 20/20 (ABC) When a woman is found unresponsive in her bathtub, two of her daughters suspect their father is responsible. WHISTLEBLOWER (CBS) Whistleblowers expose a scam involving inexperienced midwives overseeing high-risk pregnancies and a scheme involving kickbacks at a mortuary. HAWAII FIVE-O (CBS) repeat: Grover's parents and brother arrive in Oahu for Thanksgiving; a thief is crushed to death by an empty safe. BLUE BLOODS (CBS) repeat: A medium claims to know what happened to a woman who was found dead of an apparent suicide; Jamie and Eddie help a woman who bought cheap insulin online that nearly killed her son; Frank goes after a man he thinks is laundering money from a charity. 2019 US OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS (FOX) The second round begins at the 2019 U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy looks to continue rolling after winning his second title of 2019 at last weeks RBC Canadian Open. McIlroy joins a star-studded group with Jon Rahm and Marc Leishman for day one and two. AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR (NBC) repeat: Last season's "last ninja standing," Drew Drechsel, and former New England Patriot Tyrone Poole are among the notable competitors who will face Atlanta's challenging obstacles, including Off the Hook and Ferris Wheel, which are both new this year. DATELINE NBC (NBC) When a woman is gunned down in her kitchen in rural Iowa, her husband suspects their son of being involved. MASTERS OF ILLUSION (CW) Featured magicians include Rick Smith Jr., Michael Turco, Jason Andrews, Lefty, Alexandra Duvivier, Matt Marcy and Naathan Phan. THE BIG STAGE (CW) Acts include Sergey and Sasha, Poreotics, WOW Las Vegas, Diana DeGarmo, Adam Bell and Jackie Fabulous. LIVE PD (A&E) Police across the country work the Friday night shift in real time. REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (HBO) The Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute; columnist George Will; actor Martin Short; former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.); editor Bari Weiss. PARANORMAL CAUGHT ON CAMERA (TRAV) An Oregon man captures some of the best Bigfoot footage ever; a shadow person is caught lurking in a backyard; a cluster of UFOs appears over a Texas town; a young girl defies gravity. PORTALS TO HELL (TRAV) Jack and Katrina investigate a haunted bed-and-breakfast which is next door to the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah; the team explores ongoing paranormal activity in the area, including cryptid sightings, demonic activity and UFOs. LOVE AFTER LOCKUP (WE) Megan faces Michael’s family at his release; Tracie demands to meet Clint's disapproving mother; Marcelino worries Brittany’s felon friends can send her back to jail; Jazmyne warns Lizzie to stay away from Scott. BRIDEZILLAS (WE) JerseyZilla Holly drops a bombshell, and her sister-wife plots revenge, leading to a runaway bride; HerRoyalZilla Lamesha fires her wedding coordinator, then her bridesmaids engage in an epic battle of shocking proportions. JIMMY KIMMEL (ABC) repeat: Will Arnett, Ali Wong, King Calaway STEPHEN COLBERT (CBS) Scheduled: Aubrey Plaza, Dan Abrams JAMES CORDEN (CBS) repeat: Dr. Phil McGraw, Timothy Simons, Ashley Tisdale TONIGHT SHOW/JIMMY FALLON (NBC) Scheduled: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Ramy Youssef, Ivan Orkin LATE NIGHT/SETH MEYERS (NBC) repeat: Aidy Bryant, John Waters, Sen. Michael Bennet, Johnny Radelat LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY (NBC) repeat:Logan Browning, Durand Jones & the Indications, Jharrel Jerome Tomorrow/Saturday, June 15th AUSTIN CITY LIMITS (PBS) Robert Plant performs new songs and classics from Led Zeppelin. LIVE PD (A&E) Police across the country work the night shift in real time. THE SON (AMC) In 1852, Young Eli's Comanche band are forced to survive on their own; in 1916, the McCulloughs search for Maria; Jeannie discovers a devastating secret. IYANLA, FIX MY LIFE (OWN) During the Mitchell family's final visit, Iyanla addresses the chaos of family squabbles, breakdowns and blowups by making each member face their core issues of mistrust. TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: CHARLOTTE (OWN) As Tyyawdi and David struggle with their trial separation, they find themselves being ambushed with unsolicited advice at Christine's party in front of Tyyawdi's ex; Ursula meddles in her daughter's relationship, hoping to stall her marriage plans. GHOST ADVENTURES (TRAV) Zak and the crew stick together as they investigate a 127-year-old hospital in Colfax, Wash.; visitors to the abandoned building report hearing strange growls and being attacked by unseen hands. Sunday, June 16th CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD (ABC) Celebrity contestants include The Chainsmokers, 5 Seconds of Summer, Boris Kodjoe, Nicole Ari Parker, Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter. THE $100,000 PYRAMID (ABC) Featured celebrities Italia Ricci, Kal Penn, Ayesha Curry and Graham Elliot. TO TELL TH TRUTH (ABC) Featured celebrities Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Ron Funches and Kirstie Alley. 60 MINUTES (CBS) International opera star Ryan Speedo Green; National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore; Jaap van Zweden, the music director of the New York Philharmonic. THE GOOD FIGHT (CBS) series premiere: Lawyers Maia Rindell and Diane Lockhart join one of Chicago's pre-eminent law firms after a financial scam destroys Maia's reputation and wipes out Diane's saving. Plus: Diane settles in as a new partner at Reddick, Boseman & Kolstad; Maia continues to deal with the repercussions of her family's Ponzi scheme; Lucca and Maia unexpectedly pick up a new case. 2019 US OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP (FOX) The 2019 U.S. Open wraps up with round-four action. Pebble Beach Golf Links has proved to stand the ultimate test for players, with just one golfer finishing under par in the last two U.S. Opens played here. The winner takes home $2.25-million. AMERICA’S GOT TALENT (NBC) repeat: Auditions continue as contestants of all ages and variety acts of all types audition for the chance to win the $1 million prize; the golden buzzer returns, but there are only four chances left to proceed directly to the Los Angeles live shows. NEW AMSTERDAM (NBC) repeat: Max continues to work to solve underlying problems within the hospital despite his struggles with treatment; Reynolds makes the choice to do a costly surgery to determine an elusive diagnosis; Bloom must face her personal demons head-on. BURDEN OF TRUTH (CW) Joanna struggles to control the narrative of Noah's case when Lovand starts a smear campaign against him; Billy and Gerrilynn wait for an answer in their civil suit, when an unexpected visitor turns up in Millwood with an offer. FEAR THE WALKING DEAD (AMC) June and Dorie take shelter to hide from a threat, but a misunderstanding with a desperate survivor leads to trouble; Alicia and Morgan face a dangerous obstacle. NOS4A2 (AMC) Vic strives to live a normal life despite Maggie's warning; Charlie Manx puts Bing Partridge to work. REAL HOUSEWIVES OF POTOMAC (BRAVO) Monique celebrates her rainbow pregnancy, but her mother-in-law presents new challenges; Candiace reveals to Gizelle that Monique called Katie a name; Ashley and Karen share a spiritual moment, but the presence of a visitor brings Karen to tears. SOUTHERN CHARM NEW ORLEANS (BRAVO) Jon and Jeff's bromance continues to bloom; Barry and Tamica spice things up; Reagan leaves everyone speechless when she drops a bomb on Jeff and the group during a Halloween haunted walk through the French Quarter. THE REDEMPTION PROJECT (CNN) season finale: Mario Jr. and Aldo Gonzalez want to meet the man who killed their immigrant father, who was living the American dream until he was shot while trying to stop a robbery. UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA (CNN) season finale: Kamau visits Philadelphia and Chester, Pa., to learn about the toxic man-made disasters that have polluted these communities for generations. KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS (E!) Khloe tries to mediate a fight between Kourtney and Kendall, but ends up making matters worse; Kim continues searching for a cure for her psoriasis; Kris makes herself at home in Kylie's new office space, so Kylie must show her mom who is boss. RELATIVELY NAT & LIV (E!) Liv develops a plan to "parent trap" her previously married but now single parents; Liv's sister, Sophia, feels left out of on a upcoming trip to London. 90 DAY FIANCE: HAPPILY EVER AFTER? (TLC) Colt and Larissa face legal issues again; Jay's sister confronts him about the truth; Chantel faces off with Pedro's sister; Elizabeth's baby shower has an unwanted guest; Pao's mom rejects her birth plan. MOTHERED (TLC) Kathy causes strife in her daughter, Cristina's, marriage; Cher and Dawn hide a secret from the family; Sandra and Mariah get plumped in Las Vegas; Sunhe worries about getting left behind in Angelica's new life. CLAWS (TNT) Desna and her crew start working at the casino and discover the Lovestones are involved in some illegal business with a very important person. RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! (TRAV) A New York photographer climbs skyscrapers to capture a bird's eye view of the city; Louisiana stuntmen create illusions using explosives; a rock band films its latest music video in 4.3 seconds; Michael Grab balances rocks in impossible towers. LEGENDARY LOCATIONS (TRAV)Josh Gates explores six legendary locations where passionate people risked it all for love, including a former spy hub on the coast of Spain and a cave in Puerto Rico that may hold the fabled Fountain of Youth. WATCH WHAT HAPPENS (BRAVO) Scheduled: Janet Mock, Candiace Dillard NEW MUSIC THIS WEEK TIM - AVICII SAVE ME - EP - FUTURE HAPPINESS BEGINS - JONAS BROTHERS HEATHERS THE MUSICAL (ORIGINAL WEST END CAST RECORDING) - LAURENCE O'KEEFE & KEVIN MURPHY ALL BLUES - PETER FRAMPTON BAND AFRICA SPEAKS - SANTANA LEGENDARY - TYGA Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Score) by Elmer Bernstein Folllies 2018 National Theatre Cast Recording by Stephen Sondheim The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988 Gold by John Mellencamp My Songs by Sting Stiv: No Compromise No Regrets by Slim Jim Phantom, Jimmy Zero John Wick 3 Soundtrack by Tyler Bates & Joel J. Richard Seconds Out by Genesis One Man Band by James Taylor NEW DVDS THIS WEEK: “Captain Marvel” (Brie Larson, Jude Law, Samuel L. Jackson) “Captive State” (John Goodman, Vera Farmiga) “Five Feet Apart” (Cole Sprouse, Haley Lu Richardson) “The 27 Club” (Todd Rundgren) “Kinky” (Dawn Richard, Vivica A. Fox, Gary Dourdan) “Miami Love Affair” (Burt Reynolds) “The Mustang” (Bruce Dern, Connie Britton) “Sanitatum” (Elisabeth Rohm, Richard T. Jones) “I Am the Night: Limited Series” “Orange Is the New Black: Season Six” “V: The Original Mini-Series” Magnum P.I.: Season One Norm of the North: King Sized Adventure NEW MOVIES THIS WEEK: (Opening Thursday) Men in Black: International - PG-13 115 min - Action \| Adventure \| Comedy \| Sci-Fi- The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization. Stars: Tessa Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, Rebecca Ferguson, Emma Thompson Shaft - R - Action \| Comedy \| Crime - John Shaft Jr., a cyber security expert with a degree from MIT, enlists his family's help to uncover the truth behind his best friend's untimely death. Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Alexandra Shipp, Avan Jogia, Regina Hall The Dead Don't Die - R - Comedy \| Fantasy \| Horror - The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves. Stars: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Alyssa Maria App, Carl Arcilesi American Woman - R - Drama - A woman raises her young grandson after her daughter goes missing. Stars: Christina Hendricks, Aaron Paul, Sienna Miller, Amy Madigan Hampstead - PG-13 - Comedy \| Drama \| Romance - An American widow finds unexpected love with a man living wild on Hampstead Heath when they take on the developers who want to destroy his home. Stars: Diane Keaton, Hugh Skinner, Brendan Gleeson, James Norton Cuba Gooding Jr. Escorted In Handcuffs As Second Woman Comes Forward - While Cuba Gooding, Jr is an Oscar-winner – he also stands accused of being a groper. Yesterday we told you there was some question about him turning himself into police in New York following allegations of getting grabby with a woman in a bar this past Sunday. Well, he did – and cameras caught it all. The 51-year-old Oscar-winning showed up at Manhattan's Special Victims Division, and later was seen being led away in handcuffs before pleading not guilty to accusations of “forcible touching.” Afterwards, his attorney, Mark Heller, spoke to reporters saying Gooding did nothing wrong – and maintains there are not only witnesses, but video to prove his client’s version of events. Heller offered, “There is not the slightest scintilla of inappropriate conduct on his part.” Meanwhile, a second woman is coming forward and accusing actor Cuba Gooding Jr. of groping. The woman, who has not been named, says that back in 2008, Gooding grabbed her backside. Heller’s calling it nonsense. “There is no pattern of conduct," he told reporters. "It is not uncommon for people to come out of the woodwork when these things happen." Either way, Gooding is scheduled to appear in court later this month. Jessica Biel: I’m Not An Anti-Vaxxer - Yesterday, we reported that Jessica Biel was seen lobbying against a strict vaccination bill in California along with Robert F Kennedy Jr. The appearance had fans suspecting that she’s an anti-vaxxer, like Kennedy is known to be, so now the actress is setting the record straight. Biel has taken to Instagram explaining her visit to the California state house, rejecting the anti-vaxx label. Biel writes that she’s all for vaccinating your kids, she just wants parents to have the choice to “make educated medical decisions for their children alongside their physicians.” “I am not against vaccinations,” the post reads. “I believe in giving doctors and the families they treat the ability to decide what’s best for their patients and the ability to provide that treatment.” Madonna Will "Never Say Never" To More Kids - Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Madonna is a mother of six, and she admits she’s learned a lot from having to take care of so many children. "(Having children has) reminded me how precious time is, and how each child requires attention and vigilance and guidance in a different way," she tells “Today.” "Really, you have to be ready for anything. They teach you to stop being obsessed with yourself, cause they're always there to throw a wrench into the works. ... Self-obsession is not allowed with children." She adds, "The more kids that you have, the better you get at being a parent." So, would she be open to adding to her family? "Um ... not right this second," she said. "But never say never." Sophie Turner’s Bachelorette Party- As you may recall, Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas are set to tie the knot a second time with a ceremony in Paris. Ahead of the wedding, Turner and a bunch of her girlfriends enjoyed a night out in Europe for her Bachelorette party. The festivities kicked off in a private jet, complete with Mcdonald’s and drinks. The group, which included Turner’s “Game Of Thrones” co-star and maid of honor Maisie Williams, flew out of London and headed to Spain. There, they all put on different color wigs and parties the night away. Turner’s gal pal Blair Noel has shared some pics from the girl’s night. Celebrity Parents: Just Like You? Yes! - Being a parent is full of ups and downs. Yesterday was a good one for Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos - as their only daughter, Lola, received her high school diploma. Kelly shared a sweet family photo with the 17-year-old and her brothers, 22-year-old Michael and 16-year-old Joaquin. Kelly captioned it, “The graduate.” Elsewhere, Hilary Duff shared that she recently spent the night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with her daughter, Banks Violet. The seven-month-old had a bug bite on her face that got infected. She said that the staff took good care of them, and the baby she shares with fiancé Matthew Koma is looking great. She also has seven-year-old Luca with her ex-husband, Mike Comrie. Elin’s Baby Daddy Identified: As we previously reported, Tiger Woods’ ex-wife Elin Nordegren is expecting her third child – and now we know who the baby daddy is. According to Daily Mail, it’s former Miami Dolphins football player Jordan Cameron. Apparently, they’ve been dating on the down-low for almost three years now. Lisa Vanderpump & Paula Abdul Hang Out In Vegas: Lisa Vanderpump has been living it up in Las Vegas ever since she opened her Vanderpump Cocktail Garden at Caesar’s Palace, and she has good company. On Tuesday night, she was spotted hanging out with Paula Abdul at the NFL 100 Summit. The two are both part of the Caesar’s family, Vanderpum with her cocktail garden and Abdul launching her residency this summer. LiLo Was The Real Star Of T-Swift’s Instagram Live: Taylor Swift went live on Instagram yesterday to announce her new album, “Lover.” But the real star of the show ended up being Lindsay Lohan, who started randomly chatting during the live stream. She left multiple comments, the most viral being, “my mom was in ‘Cats,’” most likely referencing Swift’s role in the upcoming adaptation of the musical. The Return of Baby Phat: Kimora Lee Simmons is teaming up with Forever 21 to bring back Baby Phat. The brand that she and her ex, Russell Simmons, owned relaunched yesterday. The line – which is almost sold out – includes plenty of ’90s staples like terrycloth tube tops, cheetah print and huge hoop earrings along with 2019 favorites like bike shorts and bodysuits. And you won’t have to break the bank to wear the iconic cat logo. Prices range from almost $15 bucks for a crop top to just shy of $25 dollars for a sweatshirt. Is Chrissy Metz Single?: Chrissy Metz may not be single, but a recent IG post has people thinking that she is. The “This is Us” star – who’s dating Hal Rosenfeld – shared a quote from Vienna Pharon about relationships moving from the honeymoon to the “integrated love” phase. She then wrote a lengthy caption that said, “Sometimes we walk away and sometimes we choose to allow love to expand into a place often unvisited. Integrated love is messy, and vulnerable, it demands us to see our partners as flawed (i.e. imperfect) and to allow them to see the same of us.” So far, there’s been no official word on the status of their relationship. Taylor Swift Announces New Album “Lover," Drops New Song - Taylor Swift fans got the news they’ve been anxiously awaiting. The singer announced on an Instagram Live session that her new album, “Lover,” will drop August 23rd. (Fans will be glad to know there's an Easter egg in the date, 8 (for August) +2+3=13, Tay's favorite number) The album, which Taylor describes as "very romantic," features 18 tracks, including the already-released “Me!,” featuring Brendon Urie. It also features the new song “You Need To Calm Down,” which she dropped at midnight. A video for the song is also set to be released on Monday, debuting on "Good Morning America." ONE MORE THING! It seems in addition to the standard version of the album, Tay will be releasing the album in four deluxe editions, all available at Target, with each one containing different content. Charli XCX Announces New Album & Tour - Charli XCX fans are finally getting a new album. The singer announced she’ll be releasing her third album, “Charli,” on September 13th. “Omg I just listened to my album in the car and cried,” Charli shared on Twiter.” It’s so good. I’m so talented. Even just the tracklist written down is a piece of art.” “Charli,” the singer’s first album in a little over five years, will feature guest appearances by Lizzo, Christine and the Queens, Haim, Troye Sivan, Brooke Candy, CupcakKe, Big Freedia, Sky Ferreira, Kim Petras, Clairo, Yaeji and Pabllo Vittar Miley Cyrus Drops Video As “Black Mirror” Character - As we previously told you, Miley Cyrus stars as a pop star in an episode of the Netflix series “Black Mirror,” and now her character, Ashley O, has released a new music video. The video is for the song, “On A Roll,” which, as we previously told you, is a remix of the Nine Inch Nails track “Head Like A Hole.” The song is briefly featured in the episode, “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too," in which Miley’s character dreams of making more meaningful music. It’s Bonnaroo Time! - Music fans will be headed to Manchester, Tennessee this weekend for the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival. While things actually got started last night with special Grand Ole Opry night, the real festivities launch today, with a lineup that features Phish, Childish Gambino, The Avett Brothers, Courtney Barnett and more. Saturday night’s headliner is Post Malone, with a bill that also includes Odesza, Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, The National , The Lonely Island, John Prine and Maren Morris, while Phish returns for two more sets on Sunday, with The Lumineers, Cardi B, Brandi Carlile, Walk The Moon and more also on the bill. And Phish fans who can’t make it to Tennessee can still experience the festival. The band announced they will be streaming their two Sunday sets on their streaming site LivePhish, starting at about 9:30 pm ET. Salmon Jacket From “The Bachelorette” Becomes Meme - Bachelor Nation has noticed a trend over the past few weeks of Hannah Brown’s season of "The Bachelorette." Multiple suitors have been spotted wearing the same salmon-colored jacket on the ABC show, which has fans wondering… are they sharing it? Twitter user Cait puts it perfectly, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Salmon Jacket.” The blazer has become a full-blown meme on Twitter, with some fans even betting over who’s going to wear it next. Singer-songwriter contestant Jed, who has donned the salmon jacket, has joined in on the fun, too. He’s posted a little tune about the garment on Twitter. ===================================== “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” Is Back: “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” is back for another round. The show returns to MTV on July 11th, with the cast reuniting for Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s wedding. Daniel Radcliffe Joins “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Special: Daniel Radcliffe has signed on for Netflix’s upcoming “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” interactive special. The special debuts in 2020, and also stars Jon Hamm along with more of the returning cast. Thomas Ravenel Court Records Unsealed: The court docs from Thomas Ravenel legal battle with “Southern Charm” co-star Kathryn Dennis are being unsealed. According to The Blast, a judge has approved Ravenel’s motion to reverse the decision to seal the case, since he was talked about in the recent season of the Bravo reality show. Tracee’s Next Project: Tracee Ellis Ross has signed on to executive produce and voice the lead character in “Jodie.” The animated show is a spin-off of “Daria.” Tracee describes “Jodie” as a smart, funny workplace comedy full of commentary about everything from gentrification to sex to tech to call-out culture. It’ll also be the first adult animated show in almost 20 years to center on a Black woman. ===================================== NeNe’s Negotiating: Looks like NeNe Leakes is on-board for another season of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” after all. There was some speculation that she might not come back when everyone started filming next season except her. But her rep said, “The only reason why she’s not currently shooting is that she is still in active negotiations with her contract.” It’s not clear how much longer they’ll be talking. Good Burger, The Pop-Up Shop: Good Burger is popping up in Los Angeles to celebrate the revival of “All That.” The fictional restaurant from Nickelodeon’s “All That” and the movie will get a real-life pop version this summer. While the burger joint isn’t scheduled to open until July 10th, Good Burger fans can purchase tickets HERE starting on Monday. Meanwhile, the revival of “All That” premieres tomorrow. “RHOC” Stars Back Together: Gina and Matthew Kirschenheiter are back together. The two filed for divorce almost a year ago, but they decided to reconcile. All of that will be covered on the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County.” Vanessa Hudgens In “The Notebook” Musical Adaptation - Vanessa Hudgens has nabbed her next musical role... kind of. The singer and actress, who’s starred in “High School Musical,” “Grease: Live” and “Rent: Live,” will do a staged reading of a musical adaptation of the 2004 romcom “The Notebook.” Hudgens will read as “Middle Allie,” Rachel McAdams' part opposite Ryan Gosling in the movie. The reading of Bekah Brunstetter’s adaptation takes place at Vassar College’s Martel Theater on June 23rd. Meanwhile, Tony nominee Hailey Kilgore will be “Younger Allie,” and “Cabaret” star Andy Buckley will read “Older Allie.” Trailer Drops For “The Shining” Sequel: Ewan McGregor stars as an adult Danny Torrance in the upcoming sequel of “The Shining.” And now, the trailer for “Doctor Sleep” has dropped – and it looks just as eerie as its predecessor. The movie based on Stephen King’s original novel hits theaters on November 8th. MTV Honors The Rock: Congratulations are in order for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards is honoring him with the Generation Award. It celebrates beloved actors whose diverse contributions to both film and television have turned them into household names. The show airs on Monday. Cuba Gooding Jr. Might Not Surrender In Groping Case - Will he or won’t he? That’s the question we’re all asking about whether or not Cuba Gooding Jr. will turn himself in today. As we’ve told you, he’s been accused of groping a woman at a bar in New York City. He was supposed to turn himself in, but that might not happen now. The plan was for the Oscar winner to surrender at Manhattan Special Victims Unit with his lawyers, Peter Toumbekis and Mark J. Heller, in tow. At that time, he’ll be fingerprinted and have his mug shot taken. However, Heller viewed the surveillance video from the night in question and has decided that there was “absolutely no criminality taking place” as far as Cuba is concerned. He questions whether the Manhattan DA’s Office Sex Crimes Unit has actually seen the footage because he can’t believe that they’d want to arrest his client. Because of that, he’s not sure that Cuba will turn himself in. ===================================== Report: Lori Loughlin Will Fight USC To Protect Family - Now that the sentences have started for those involved with the college admissions scandal, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are gearing up for a fight. According to court documents, the couple – who’ve been accused of paying a half a million dollars to get daughters Bella and Olivia into the University of Southern California – may be involved in a future civil dispute with the school. Apparently, the speculation is that they might want to recoup the money they may have to pay rejected students or enrolled students who have seen their degrees devalued because of the scandal. “She feels that USC is going to do whatever’s necessary to attempt to financially ruin her family,” a source explains. “She wants to expose USC’s admission practices.” In the meantime, Lori and Mossimo are each facing up to 40 years in prison and a fine of half a million dollars after pleading not guilty to fraud and money-laundering conspiracy charges. Mira Sorvino: I'm A Date Rape Survivor - Mira Sorvino has been a big advocate for women’s rights, especially during the #MeToo and TimesUp era. She appeared at a press conference with Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday, where she pushed for stricter sexual harassment and rape-reporting laws. The actress got emotional as she opened up about her own experience, revealing that she’s a date rape survivor. Her testimony was praised by Cuomo for being “brave and courageous.” “I have never said that in public, because it is impossible to share those kinds of things,” she said. “You feel shame. You feel like it was somehow your fault.” Will Cory Booker Say, “I Do” to Rosario Dawson? - Will Cory Booker and Rosario Dawson make their love official? It’s possible. Since announcing his presidential bid, Booker’s been faced with a lot questions about his relationship status. During an appearance on RuPaul’s upcoming talk show, the 50-year-old senator dropped a major proposal alert after it was pointed out that he’s be first unmarried president in a long time IF elected. “Well first of all, the swearing in isn’t until the 21st of January 2021,” Booker said. “You never know what might happen between now and then.” He also added that he’s dating “somebody very special.” That “special someone” – also known as Rosario – was sitting in the audience and was all smiles as RuPaul questioned her man. We’ll have to see how this turns out… Jamie Foxx & Katie Holmes Are Doing Long Distance - Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes disproved rumors that their relationship fizzled out after going Met Gala official last month. Now we have an update on their relationship: they’re doing things long distance. That’s probably why they’ve been spotted apart lately. Foxx is living in Los Angeles, and Holmes across the country in New York. So don’t worry, a source says the two are still going strong. “Things are going swimmingly,” the sources notes. “They’re making long distance work, and they’re stronger than ever.” Tim Allen Racism Controversy Resurfaces After New Interview - Tim Allen is being accused of racism – and this isn’t the first time. Thanks to a recent interview with the actor and Tom Hanks for “Toy Story 4,” a problematic 2013 interview with Allen has resurfaced that has him in hot water. Xilla Valentine sat down with the two actors in a video that’s been posted to Twitter, testing Hanks on his “knowledge of black culture.” He goes back and forth with Hanks about the card game Spades… but it all flies right over Allen’s head. “I don’t have any idea what you guys just said,” he noted. So, the Twitterverse thinks Hanks is totally cool. But Allen’s confused and kind of awkward response has the Twitterverse reigniting claims of racism, dragging him over a 2013 interview with Tampa Bay Times where he insisted that it’s okay for him to say the N-word because he has “no intent." Amanda Bynes Lawsuit Being Dropped: Yesterday, we reported that Amanda Bynes was being sued by a mental health facility over an allegedly unpaid bill. But Creative Care Inc. has already filed to have the suit dismissed, without prejudice according to docs obtained by Page Six. Neither the facility nor Bynes’ lawyer has responded to the outlet’s requests for comment. Adam Sandler Flew In Jen Aniston’s “Broken Plane”: You may recall that Jennifer Aniston had an air scare on her birthday when her private jet made an emergency landing. In a new interview, she reveals that Adam Sandler hopped on that same plane the next day. “He literally texted me the next day and was like, ‘thank for your broken plane,’” she says. Katherine Schwarzenegger’s Second Wedding Dress: It turns out Katherine Schwarzenegger couldn’t choose just one wedding dress for her wedding with Chris Pratt – she wore two custom dresses by Armani Privé, one to walk down the aisle, and one for the reception. Now, Page Six has given us a look at the second dress for the first time. YouTuber Marries His BFF’s Mom, Divorces Month Later: Popular YouTuber David Dobrik has filed for divorce from his best friend and fellow internet star Jason Nash’s mom. Yeah, you heard that right. Not only did he go ahead and marry his best friend’s mom “on the spot,” they’ve filed for divorce after just a month together. But it looks like it’s all good, he says they enjoyed a honeymoon in Hawaii after tying the knot. Motherhood, Take Three, for Tiger’s Ex: Congratulations are in order for Elin Nordegren. The ex-wife of Tiger Wood is expecting her third child. The new addition will join 11-year-old sister Sam and 10-year-old brother Charlie – the kids she shares with the golf legend. At this point, we don’t know who the new baby will call daddy. We’ll keep an eye on this one… Andy Cohen wants Legalized Paid Surrogacy: If Andy Cohen has his way, New York will become the next state to legalize paid surrogacy. He’s campaigning to get the law on the books so that people won’t have to travel cross-country to get it done. As you know, he had his son, Benjamin, by a surrogate. But he had to go to California to get it done. For the record, women’s rights scholars have argued that paid surrogacy turns women’s bodies into commodities and is coercive to poor women given the sizable payments it can bring. Also, feminists like Gloria Steinem have denounced it. John Corcoran, Dead at 64. John Corcoran has died. The 64-year-old brother of “Shark Tank” star Barbara Corcoran had a heart attack while vacationing in the Dominican Republic in April. The family says that, contrary popular belief; his death is unrelated to the recent mysterious deaths of American tourists. His daughter said that he had a heart condition. Ariana Grande Donates Proceeds From Atlanta Concert To Planned Parenthood - Ariana Grande brought her “Sweetener World Tour” to Atlanta over the weekend, and she’s using proceeds from the show to protest Georgia’s strict new anti-abortion laws, donating $250,000 to Planned Parenthood. “Ariana Grande’s generous donation comes at a critical time — in Georgia and across the country, anti-women’s health politicians are trying to ban all safe, legal abortion,” Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Dr. Leana Wen tells “People.” “Thanks to inspiring support like hers, Planned Parenthood can continue to fight back — in the courts, in Congress, in state houses, and in the streets — against these dangerous attacks on people’s health and lives.” Wen adds, “We are so grateful to Ariana for her longstanding commitment to supporting women’s rights and standing with Planned Parenthood to defend access to reproductive health care. We won’t stop fighting — no matter what.” All Five Spice Girls To Reunite For Animated Movie - While Victoria Beckham may have sat out of the current Spice Girls reunion, she’s apparently ready to get back together with the group, just not on stage. Paramount Animation announced they are developing a new Spice Girls movie, with all five band members - Melanie Brown (Scary), Emma Bunton (Baby), Melanie Chisholm (Sporty), Geri Halliwell (Ginger) and Beckham (Posh) – confirmed to take part. It will also feature Spice Girls music. Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria says the Spice Girls "had an idea that we've been developing. They are very involved." So far there’s no word on when the film will be released. Madonna’s Team Fights Suggestion Tour Is Bombing - Madonna’s reps want you to know that her “Madame X” Tour is not bombing. Earlier this week, the New York Post claimed the singer was “struggling to sell out” the intimate BAM theater in Brooklyn, and that there are hundreds of seats still available to most of her shows, but insiders insist the tour is doing just fine. "In life, the only guarantees are death, taxes and the “New York Post’ takedown piece on Madonna," Live Nation chief Arthur Fogel, tells “Billboard,” explaining that Madonna sold about 31,000 tickets during her New York pre-sale, with only about 8.8% of tickets still available. "We started with seven shows" in Brooklyn, Fogel says, "then added five more to get to 12 shows then added another five to get to 17. I'm adding shows because it's a flop? Is that some kind of new business model that I'm not familiar with?" Ticket prices could be playing a role in why Madonna hasn’t fully sold out the tour, with front row seats going for $1,650 plus fees, while front orchestra seats range in price from $1,350–$700, with other areas in the house going for, $550 and $359. Steve Miller Announces Box Set - Steve Miller is digging into his archives for the first time to put out a new box set. “Welcome To The Vault” is due for release on October 11th. The upcoming collection spans six decades, offering fans more than 50 tracks. That includes Miller’s greatest hits along with previously unreleased recordings like demos, rehearsal tapes, outtakes, and unheard Steve Miller Band songs from the 60s and 70s. The set also comes with a DVD featuring 21 live tv performances and concert footage, and a 100-page book of photos and more memorabilia. “Welcome To The Vault” can be pre-ordered. Fans are getting a preview with a new take on “Rock’N Me,” labeled “Alternate Version 1.” Dave Chappelle Making Broadway Debut - Dave Chappelle brought his show on the road for a successful stint at Radio City Music Hall back in 2014. This summer, he’s going for round two – only this time, on Broadway. The comedian will make his Broadway debut with a five-show run this summer at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City, “Dave Chappelle Live On Broadway.” The show runs from July 9th to 13th. Tickets go on sale to the general public on June 21st at 10am via Ticketmaster. If you want to take part in the ticket presale, register for Ticketmaster Verified fan before June 16th. Luke S On The Real Reason He Left “The Bachelorette”: As we previously reported, “Bachelorette” suitor Luke Stone abruptly decided to leave the ABC reality show during this week’s episode. Many fans speculated that it was because of all that Luke P drama, and while he admits that played a part in his exit, it’s not the only reason. “I tried my best to communicate with Hannah [B], [but] I felt like she didn’t trust me,” he tells Us Weekly. “GoT” Source Says Kit Harington “Lost His Way”: We told you before that “Game Of Thrones” star Kit Harington checked into rehab a few weeks ago. He’s doing it partially for his wife and co-star Rose Leslie, and is reportedly eager to get back into acting. Speaking to Us Weekly, the hit HBO series’ costume designer Michele Clapton says that the actor was showing signs he needed help as the show wrapped. “When you stop, a huge security blanket is taken away,” she explains. “I would imagine that had something to do with it. He lost his way a bit.” Nike Releasing “Stranger Things” Shoes: Nike is the latest to team up with “Stranger Things” to promote the hit Netflix series. They’re launching limited edition “Stranger Things”-themed, 80s-inspired sneakers. The collection includes shirts and shoes printed with the logo of the show’s fictional school Hawkins High. MTV Set to Honor Jada: Congratulations are in order for Jada Pinkett-Smith. The “Red Table Talk” host will be honored with Trailblazer Award during the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards. It recognizes game-changing creators in entertainment. Mrs. Will Smith’s “Girls Trip” co-star, Tiffany Haddish, will be on-hand to present the prize. Past recipients of the honor include Lena Waithe, Shailene Woodley, Channing Tatum, Emma Watson, and Emma Stone. The kudofest airs on Monday. Chris Hemsworth Helped Tom Holland Land “Spider-Man”: It turns out Tom Holland partially has Chris Hemsworth to thank for landing his role as Spider-Man. In a new interview, Hemsworth says he “made a call” to make it happen for him, since he says the two actors have “a great friendship” and “good mutual respect.” Keanu Reeves Glad Fans Are Enjoying All His Latest Roles: Keanu Reeves has been keeping himself busy with his latest big screen roles in “John Wick,” “Always Be My Maybe,” and coming up, “Toy Story 4.” As a result, he’s also been getting a lot of hype lately, which he’s thankful for. While he’s not sure about Entertainment Weekly’s claims that he’s been dubbed “the internet’s boyfriend,” he has thanked fans for the “positivity.” “It’s really special how [my latest roles] have been embraced,” he notes.
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“And where were you last night young lady?” Enquired my owlish father, peering over his poached eggs. I was not fooled by the calmness of the question, his eyes betrayed a simmering anger. “Last night?” I feigned surprise. “Yes Sophie, last night. The one in which you did not come home at all!” Outburst. “Well?” the calmness returned “I, I met someone” Apoplexy threatened “You did what? A man?!” “Yes, no, sort of, I didn’t mean to.” The awful implications of my disappearance only now seemed to dawn upon me. “What man? Where is he? Did he touch you?” “No no, not at all, at least I don’t think so…” as these words came out I could see I had to be less vague “You don’t think so?!” “No, no father he didn’t!” “Then what were you, a 14 year old girl, doing with this man all night?” The horror of accounting for this dawned on me deeper and deeper, I began to tremble. “Nothing, he, said he knew a short cut home, across the downs back to here.” “Oh he did did he, and I suppose you stopped to pick flowers off the path too!” I looked at the breakfast table. “Sophie, have you any idea how dangerous that could have been?” I started to cry “Did he hurt you?” I sobbed onto the table cloth, “Did that bastard hurt you? Because if he did…” “He, he did’t h hurt me.” “Then what, you stopped to play tiddly winks? Sophie you were gone all night!” “No, we w walked ac cross the d downs, I didn’t know where we were.” “Then why did you go? What were you thinking?” “I d don’t know, I wasn’t scared, father it was… strange.” My father paused, something arrested the anger in him, some interest was piqued. I looked up from the table cloth. “I don’t know where I was.” I said through tears “And I don’t know how I appeared in bed this morning. He looked shocked. “Sophie, you haven’t been to bed! Between your mother and nanny and I someone has been waiting up for you all night!” “Father I don’t understand” Waves of distress overcame me, accounting for my actions had seemed like a problem, but now realising that I couldn’t account for them. This was an anguish my mind could take. “Sophie…” calm but firm “Sophie, who was he?” “He, he said he was my uncle. He was like a frog.” the absurdity just came out “Your Uncle? But you know both your uncles. One lives in Newport and the other in London.” “He wasn’t either of those uncles father, he was a different uncle.” “What do you mean? What was his name?” “He said his name was Ambrose.” The word dropped like a stone into the room as if it were a pool. The ripples were visible. My father’s whole expression wavered, and trembled the recomposed slightly “Ambrose, you say?” “Yes…” I mirrored his waver “uncle Ambrose.” “Uncle Ambrose?” “Yes.” My father lost his composure and the colour drained out of him. Silence filled the room. “Father?” “Mm?” The replay came as if he returned from somewhere distant. “Do, do you know him?” “Who?” “Uncle Ambrose?” “Him, oh, yes, maybe. Sophie…” “Yes father.” “Sophie, maybe since you just came down from upstairs, maybe you you weren’t out all night, maybe you were there all along and we didn’t see you.” “But I remember him father, I remember being out in the hills in the dark, I remember the glowing stones in the twilight.” The fake composure tried to reassert itself “Sophie, Sophie, listen to yourself, glowing stones, dark hills, these are dreams not reality. No, you must have come back when we didn’t notice and you must have slept in a flat and inconspicuous way and we, we your worried guardians have been fools.” I was almost carried along with this narrative, if only because the ill formed images of the twilit path seemed more disturbing than this notion that I had been at home and dreamt it. The concealment however was too great for the vivid feeling that I had not dreamt it. “Who is uncle Ambrose?” He twitched slightly “I, I’m sure I should ask you the same, since it was your dream and not mine.” He tried to make this sound jovial, but his anxiety showed through “You said you something like you might know him father, what did you mean?” “That oh, I don’t know, I must have been thinking of someone else.” “Who?” “No one, nothing, nothing to do with this.” “Father your lying!” “Don’t! Don’t say that! Ambrose is a phantom, a fiend, a nothing!” The words erupted suddenly, his anxiety dissipated a fearful intensity gripped him and he stared at me with pointed eyes “A devil!” “But where do you…” “Sophie, I do not know if you dreamed him or saw him, it matters not a jot of difference. If you see him Sophie you must hide and run or both.” “But why? What do you mean? I am quite unharmed.” He calmed again as if accessed a place in which to talk of this was allowed “Things like Ambrose give clues, Sophie, the clue here is the name.” “I looked quizzically on.” “Think Sophie, think, his name is ‘uncle Ambrose’. U A are the initials. These stand for no less than ‘Utter’ ‘Abomination’. Do you see? This is what he is!” There was something persuasive in my fathers tone that rendered his decoding as quite sensible, even powerful. I began to feel frightened at this unmasking of his nature. I didn’t say the year did I? Do you think it matters? I told you the year in which I was born and left the detail of the moment hanging, like the drooping willow branches in that lake. Truthfully I don’t know. If I was born in 1892, then that day, the day I’m trying to tell you about must have been in the next century. You see I’m getting ahead of myself. I did know about the causeway to the rear of the guesthouse, but I didn’t know yet. Not whilst I tossed the flowers and waited for fish -it sounds much less poetic when phrased that way. I was sat on a stony outcrop staring emptily into the lake surface and its flotilla of inflorescences when a voice pipes up out of nowhere. “Young lady! Young lady! What do think you are doing?” I was startled out of my state and looked about. Coming towards me, up along the path by which I had come, was a man. He had what you might call a foppish attire, or would you call him a dandy? He looked smart anyway, slightly too smart, as if the smartness were an affectation. His jacket was scarlet and his breeches black, he wore a patterned shirt and a blue cravat at an unusual angle. His hair bounced slightly over his face and he waved his stick towards me. “Young lady, young lady.” he lost his urgency as he drew nearer, he was youngish, in his twenties and not unattractive. My quizzical expression yielded no words for him. “Young lady, you are doing it all wrong!” He finally managed when he reached me. I looked confused, “What am I doing wrong?” so taken aback I did not even think to enquire who he was. “You seek to charm the fish do you not? You beseech them with a gift of flowers.” I looked on dumbfounded. “You are doing it incorrectly on two accounts. One, the flowers you chose are not suitable, and two you are not addressing them correctly.” I still did not know what to say, so unusual was the encounter. In honesty the gentleman gave a me something of a sense of dread, yet my silence beckoned him to fill it. “If one would charm the fish one must not use such herbs.” he pointed with disdain at the still bobbing plant heads “Yet fear not, for nearby is in fact a much more appropriate plant, and no, one will not need to get wet to retrieve it.” He glanced around near the vegetation of the bank before the outcrop “Aha, here we are.” he reached down and picked some small blue white flowers. “These will suffice for now” and with an extraordinary bound he suddenly made appeared on the outcrop next to me. “Stand girl! Stand!” he ordered and with an arm he practically lifted me upright. The arm did not let go and I began to become frightened. He was right behind gripping the upper arm that he had lifted me with, now his other arm circled me with the blooms and forced them into my grip. Calmly but forcefully he said “Now repeat after me ‘piscus piscus liw xole, if you please’ then scatter the speedwells below. I wanted to scream, but the strange ambiguity of threat and calm instruction settled on the latter side and I found myself looking out to the water, his grip fading away and the words drifting from my mouth “Piscus piscus liw, xole”. The small blue flowers fell from the rocky edge into the shaded water below. They were lighter than the heavy heads that I had clumsily thrown in before and would not travel far from the edge. The lake water lapped at the stone and quickly pushed some of them under. I continued to stare, quite bewitched, at the water below. Just short moments passed before they came. At first just a barely perceivable glass eyed face, then more. I did not know what kinds they were but clearly they were many. They emerged around the rock edge in a flurry, or a shoal rather, if one may use that term for many different fish together. Some pointy faced and swift, some dark in colour with wide heads, some tiny and some long. Close to the edge was just a mass of shaded silver and dead eye whereas where the shadow’s power faded, the water was a coruscating vision of piscine undulation from which I could not unfix. “You see!” he said suddenly with a tone of genuine joy “It is all a matter of know how!” Returning slightly, I noticed that his grip had gone and that in fact he was no longer in any kind of tactile proximity to me. “Thank them and tell them to go.” Continuing my gaze I managed to say “Thank you, you may go now.” upon which the fish retreated back into the recesses of the lake. The Lemurian numogram is a powerful system of accretive mathematics for the way it derives philosophical, mythical, magickal and polytical insight from immanent mathematical structures. Landian neolemurianism is adamant on the exceptionality of base-10 due to its global hegemony, yet there is nothing either in nature or culture which privileges the decimal over all other systems. That there exist other numogram-like structures is a fact: Yves Cross reports on a base-16 “hexadecigram” in an article over at Vast Abrupt. Recent discoveries, however, suggests the panorama of still-unexplored numolabyrinths to be overwhelmingly big. The surfacing of documents previously believed lost reveals that from 1958 to 1968, Mexican anthropologist Teodora C. Lombardo and her colleagues over at the Mexican Institute for Experimental Education (IMEX in spanish) worked on a system which described a large quantity of numograms, which were the occult basis for a “Xenodidactic” educational program intended to prepare revolutionary subjects. The system, called General Numogrammatics, consisted in its fullest form of 256 numograms with thorough mythical and scientific attributions and used a special numbering system with 256 characters which also served as ideograms. Sadly, the full version of the system, contained in the unique copy of an IMEX-printed book called The Numogrammaticon, was lost after a police raid shut down the clandestine college in 1968, but the surfaced documents (police reports, confiscated notebooks, and folders upon folders of IMEX research materials) allow us to reconstruct the system, albeit partially. We at Tzitzimiyotl Central (Surface Web beacon here) have so far calculated the information necessary for constructing all numograms from base 2 to 36. These have been organized to form a partial version of a structure first discovered by Lombardo’s team in 1964: the Digital Pyramids. The Greater Pyramid, or Pandemonic Pyramid, arranges all syzygies of all number bases in a single table; the two Lesser Pyramids, on the other hand, show only even or odd bases. According to Lombardo, these three structures reveal the mechanics of expanding, conquering civilizations in a process known as Pyramidal Expansion. Sadly, technical limitations have stalled the work at this point, and so Tzitzimiyotl Central has reached out to the CEO to tackle the problem together. We Tzitzimimeh believe the Numogrammatics of Lombardo were only the beginning of a much more powerful system. A letter apparently written only hours before the raid suggests that Lombardo’s team was looking to expand numogrammatics beyond the realm of integer numerations, but their suppression by the Mexican government (then led by known CIA asset Gustavo Diaz Ordaz) cut short this possibility. We intend to finish their job. To this end, we present the current status of research into General Numogrammatics. Any numogrammatical (a.k.a. pandemonic) system base-n can be described as n zones named by the integers 0 through n-1, paired into syzygies which add to n-1. Each zone x has a cumulative gate equal to the tellurian plexing of the xth triangular number number. Each syzygy is in turn linked to a “tractor” zone determined by the difference of its members; i.e., the tractor for syzygy 8::1 is 7 because 8-1=7. By calculating gate and tractor functions, a graphical representation of the desired numogram can be constructed. The graphic approach to numogrammatics, however, becomes unwieldy as radix increases; the sheer number of zones and syzygies results in complex structures with many possible geometrical arrangements. This problem was side-stepped in the 60s by two members of Lombardo’s team: mathematician Marina Constantino and computer scientist Adela Xirón, who devised a tabulated form to describe base-n numograms. A Constantino-Xirón tabulation, as it is known today, consists of three tables: the Zones table lists all zones and gates; the Tractor table lists the tractor currents for each syzygy; and a Circuit Map providing a color code for the tractor regions. All entries in the first two tables are colored according to the Circuit Map code. Using an algorithm written for a clandestine Soviet implementation of ALGOL-60, the two scientists generated the CX tabulations for bases 2 to 256. During this process, a fundamental structural distinction between even and odd bases quickly became apparent. Even numograms have only complete syzygies, closed traction cycles, 3 current lines and one periodic structure appearing every 6 bases from 16 onwards known as the Cave System. Odd numograms, on the other hand, have one unpaired zone along with its syzygies, open traction regions, 2 current lines and one periodic structure, still unnamed, every 2x bases beginning in base-3. We will deal with current lines and periodic structures in the next post dealing with the Digital Pyramids; for now we will explain the particularities of odd numograms. In all numograms base-n where n is an odd number, there is one self-cumulative non-paired zone equal to (n-1)/2; because there is no other zone to calculate tractor difference with, Zone (n-1)/2 can be considered to have Zone 0 as its tractor zone, and no syzygy ever has Zone (n-1)/2 as its tractor. Further, odd numograms have “open” traction regions, meaning a terminal, or central, loop (be it a 1-step plexing or an n-step cycle) is fed into by a linear sequence of syzygies with a beginning and an end; Aracne Fulgencio, who illustrated the Numogrammaticon, likened these open regions to comets, and biologist Eva Lombardo speculated about their connection to the times of the Late Heavy Bombardment. CX representations of odd numograms use colors differently from those of even bases: darker hues represent the “core” closed loop of the traction region, while ligther ones represent the “tails” which feed into one or more of the core’s syzygies. Although we know Constantino-Xirón used a special method for noting which tails coupled onto which part of the core loop, it hasn’t been found. Our provisional CX representations of odd bases look like this: We Tzitzimimeh have so far generated the CX tabulations for bases 2 to 36, divided into two workbooks, one for even and one for odd bases. Work is currently underway for expanding this into higher bases, with base-62 as the current landmark. Despite their differences, even and odd numograms seem to be connected by an undercurrent which is not yet understood. An anachronic multi-base expansion of Barker’s Spiral devised by Fulgencio, called The Gyre points to a possibility. The Gyre maps all bases n and under in a single spiral that continually opens forwards. Whilw Fulgencio’s original rendering is said to have consisted of a three-dimensional wire sculpture, it was destroyed along with the IMEX building. A two dimensional rendering up to base 10 is presented here: Base 2 and 10, the lower and upper limits, have their connections in black. Bases 3 and up are color-coded by descending color frequency, indicating progressive opening up of The Gyre (increasing wavelength). As in Barker’s spiral, left hand connections indicate (n-1)-sum pairing, while those on the right hand indicate n-sum pairings. Interestingly, these connections correspond to the syzygies of even and odd numograms, respectively. Color circles around a number indicate it having the (n-1)/2 position in the corresponding base. The fact that the spiral pattern is born of the alternation of even- and odd-base numograms suggests a connection between these apparently different bases. A note in Xirón’s diaries records a hypothesis by another unnamed IMEX professor, who suggested numograms as “pneuminous atoms”, with different properties determined by the number of zones much like chemical properties are determined by the number of protons. According to this hypothesis, odd numograms act like “excited states” or “unstable isotopes” of the more stable even numograms. Sadly, not much more information on this has been found yet. “As for P, well P was a different matter. P was in a position to acknowledge -better than myself probably- the strangeness of the event, yet he seemed oblivious to the potential moral content. Q’s disappearnce was for him, a source of fascination, yet so great was this fascination that it eclipsed all other sense in his head, even senses pertinent to his own occult inquiry, thus again, in this sense also Q. was utterly gone.” The notion increasingly presses that the titular agnostic disjunction may be the disjunction that colours all manifestations (ontological decisions). This clearly needs seriously thinking through but it seems a promising corridor. The claim possibly sounds extreme because of the usage of the term magick. In fairness this could be extreme as pneuminous manifestations go all the way up to the strangest cryptid encounter (and down to the simple synchronicity). The disjunction is disclosed on the interpretation of the encounter. Does it actually seem to entail an alteration in the structure of the seemingly solid externality or doesn’t it? This externality is either inert to the conceptual overlay (pneuma) or it isn’t. In the occult event the externality seems breached by the pneuma, but the interpretation may draw it back into something commensurate with the solid externality -illusion, hallucination, confirmation bias. In the Narp the different assimilation-accretions compete to take control of this space. This is difficult to move freely beyond because the nature of the Narp is also agnostic disjunctive: Is there an actual whole self or are there just the competing assimilation-accretions? What even would this difference look like? In fact the latter entails the former insofar as the name of the Narp forms the centre around which the pneuminous structure accretes. This name-accretion is what we usually call the self, as such it is just one more assimilation-accretion in the Narp, except that in what we call psychological health, it is the dominant one (the neurotic accretion from the term NARP). The first arm of the disjunction on the Narp nature does not mean this. It rather suggests a real self somehow independent of the name. There are no doubt various shades of these but the basic real self or contingent self disjunction is primordial to the problem. Now neither arm of contingent self/real self does not ally itself necessarily with either arm of magick obtains/does not obtain, rather it discloses these options: i) Real self-Magick obtains ii) Real self-Magick does not obtain iii) Contingent self-Magick obtains iv) Contingent self-Magick does not obtain i) The sense of (i) is difficult as of magick entails that information affects what it overlays, we cannot have a self that resists pneuminous interaction (claims itself to be apart from it). It is true that one could define magick such that it only affected reality outside of the self and one might also define the self as the higher self (the ensouled ontologies also feature here). In this sense it is possible to rescue (i). It is however minimally the most untenable of the manifestations. ii) Is a situation a lot of people identify with. The self is real but our concepts do not affect the externality. It is difficult to make sense of this insofar as a rigid self is always difficult to justify -it is hard to see how any kind of self is inert to our interactions with it (without defining it out of harms way). However it has a coherence for people’s beliefs insofar as the solid external reality is reflected by a similar inward picture. iii) This is the chaos magickal world commensurate with the philosophy described herein generally. The self is an assimilation-accretion and the possibility of the various assimilation-accretions linking up to make the externality change are actual. iv) Describes a very rational understanding of the world. Pneuma cannot restructure reality but the self is recognised as contingent. As such assimilation-accretions happen but only at psychological level. It will be noted in this that there are more manifestations lurking that have not yet been uncovered. The situation is constantly being referred to as one of a Narp conceptually comprehending an externality. This is of course what it looks like yet this situation itself is fraught by manifestationist decision. There may be no actual externality. The whole thing might be nothing but Berklean idea without even a God to prop it up. Of course this kind of idealism is difficult -a pure pneuma with no umbra- because nothing then is given to determine why the world looks like one thing and not another and why it hangs together so well. It is however perfectly functional with magick, which now is not a conceptual overlay overpowering an umbratic but just restructuring of the information. This does also leaves the problem of within the pure idealism there are solid ideas and unsolid ones yet one can however posit this kind of idealism without actually having to explain its mechanics. It is a manifestation and one requires no externality that exists at all without the Narp. This pure idealism must also have its non-magickal opposite. This would be a situation of pure ideality which nevertheless is completely solid. In this manifestation, if it were possible to peek round the curtain one would see there was literally nothing outside of the Narp-field (presumably other aware beings too) yet within it it held together in an absolute consistency in which the idea world was not swayed by the ideas in each Narp. It is always interesting to note that such a pure idealism cannot extirpate the phantasy of the umbratic. Of course the idealism looks extremely untenable anyway but even from within one would still come up with the notion of what is there outside the Narp-field. The idealism must be raised as a manifestation though its agents are few and far between. It just needs noting as the means by which the externality may be rendered incoherent. This incoherent idealism supplies the reinforcing clue to our starting point. The notion is that each ontology is not a singular ontology, but rather each is a manifestation but must also be bifurcated into its magick obtains/magick does not obtain disjunctive forms. This raises the possibility of other non-pneuminous magickal conceptions. For example transcendental realist/magick-obtains might invoke a completely different condition of possibility [for magick], a picture that might look more like a Harmanian occasionalism. This is an attempt to solve the problem I often perceive to occur in OOO in its sloppy ignorance of all the linguistic philosophical progress that was made last century. I think it’s pertinent because the language relation is crucial to understand the alternative realities that lie flickeringly present beside the dominant materialist convictions. Let me say that the notion is under construction so I expect some conceptual difficulties. Nevertheless here at the CEO we are encouraged by the potential exhibited so far. The term vector is taken from the notion as a host which carries a parasite, the parasites here though are concepts. The vector term can be used in a fairly ordinary solid world compatible philosophy or it is equally applicable to the fluid world magickal one. - Vectors are the phantasy of the myth of the given. Phantasies are agnostic disjunctive options that are not dominant but that will not go away. The notion of pre-interpretive perception is exactly such a thing. It looks cogent and not cogent at the same time. We can somehow easily conceive that we could see things without our having names of them yet when challenged we find that perceptual content is comprehensive conceptually grasped albeit incoherently. - Vectors are regions (vectors do not settle Kantian or otherwise arguments) that have certain natures, certain restraints to them. These restraints enable conceptual attachment (accretion). - E.g. the classic hammer. The ready-to-hand hammer before it has reached further accretive levels (noun/image like present-at-handiness) is still the primary form of attachment to a vector. If you want to say that the people had a concept ‘stone’ then we acknowledge that ‘stone’ too is attached to a vector. Vector regions enable the concept stone via accretive similarity (hardness, coldness, in the earthness), but all the concepts are formed by the Narps or other beings capable of some kind of informational cognition. The set of restraints that enables the vector to facilitate the concept stone, enables the facilitation of hammer (with some further restraints, like shape etc). - There is no talk of vectors as noumenal or in themselves, they are just what allows certain conceptual attachments to make sense. They are not real objects. ‘Real objects’ has a grammar depending on your ontology that is itself facilitated by certain vectors, what kind of thing can have ‘real object’ attached to it? This sends us down a circularity that reminds us of the need for manifestationism (the competing world of ontologies) indeed vectors may be able to part of manifestationist theory as the transcendental condition of what can count as some kind of discreta in a given ontology. - This is worth repeating and may indeed end up as the stumbling block. Vectors are not objects, rather object is a concept attached to a transcendental vector. OOO wants to widen this to non-physical objects, this is a reasonable aim that the vector notion aims to deal with more successfully than ‘object’. Objects in ooo are not carriers for concepts, they are often phrased as simply being something. This is inadequate for their description in relation to other things. A ‘stone’ is not lying next to a ‘hammer’ outside of our perception, unless of course we think of the strong pneuminosity theory in which the hammer accretion is actually attached to the vector, making it in some sense a hammer for anything. There is certainly a complicated picture to paint in relation to the nature of different kinds of objects, we should be wary of simple reductions. - In a sense a vector is not a discreta, as discreta is the basic restraint for ‘object’. Vectors are preconceptual restraints in accessible being that allow concept attachment, either as use or just name (‘this is called Maxwell’, doesn’t tell me what its for, or how it will behave). We might in this respect speak of a vector field as potentially comprised of regions that disclose themselves owing the Narp interaction. - A given ontology wants to say ‘this is an object’. To do this it must cogently be able to say what restraints apply. Object is also a concept. If the grammar of this ontology says that physical discreta are objects, then vector regions for this concept must have e.g. discretion and space taking as features. - The vector can only be detected by its transcendental status. If concepts are autonomous they may attach to each other (pure pneuma) or to umbra (vector regions). Concepts are not just for Narps, animals clearly have some degree of conceptualisation and other pneuminous bundles with processing abilities may also exist. Noun-concepts are just a refined more accretive form of pneuminous relation. - The restraint by the vector makes the accretion of the pneuma possible (the concept formation). - Objects do not ‘withdraw’ because there is no object to withdraw. An object cogently spoke of as such is an object which relies on a vector. The vector does not withdraw, it is just the host for the object concept, it is visible as such. - A concept may inhabit any vector that allows it to do so (meaning as use). - In magick we may attach concepts to vectors that seem to defy the grammar of the restraints of the vector e.g. this piece of paper has the power of healing. - Vectors deny any concept being applicable to them. There is no spatial, chronological or privileged difference anymore between the real and the concept it mirrors. The real is imaginary and the imaginary is real. It is the closing of this distance that creates a flat, immanant and blindly operational space which I call assimilation. We cannot even relapse into older physicalist notions of the real such as external space and time: an action figure toy does not breathe-in the atmosphere of such a ‘space’, it’s context does not refer to that context shared by physical bodies in space and their social-political narrative. King Kong is no less real than the chair you are sitting on. Both can be represented in external or eidetic space, Both have a use tem in language (i.e “have you seen King Kong?” or “where is my chair?”). Both have other relations that differ from their present use; King Kong is identified through various relations, contexts and histories such as Science-fiction, the toy industry, the film industry, exoticism, the place Skull Island etc. Reality – the sum of experience – is not weird, funny nor horrific, ‘It’ simply is. The only other capacity that can achieve this indifference, this reality, is neurosis (hence equating neurosis with experience). In Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle neurosis is the only thing that escapes designation (goes ‘beyond’ it). Content in the mind is designated as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘pleasurable’ or ‘painful’ but neurosis is the condition which produces content in the brain; it decides, through repetition, whether X will appear bad or good. In other words, the neurotic capacity to repeat and fixate (i.e to simulate experience) is found in both sane and insane experiences, both happy and sad ones. Ergo neurosis is this indifferent reality that we speak of (or at least the condition for it). The ability of this Expressivist (Deleuze) or Contructivist neurosis is precisely what Baudrillard is talking about when he observes the relative autonomy of simulation and simulacra (from army training courses to Disney Land); that the real is manipulable based on the relatability of signs, and it is only ‘use’ (and the conventionalising of use) that separates the reality of Disney Land from the reality of a romantic relationship, a 9 – 5 job etc. To be sure, there will be simulations (assimilations) that appear without your consent (what has been ontically found in traditional psychological neurosis); your mind will try and make a reality out of something, a web of designations that one could live within. Based on generic and personal dialectics between general concepts (their ‘shareability’) and your experience, such tensions will spark semantic tensions, but this doesn’t have to be exclusively psychological; a man’s fear of nudity might stem from him encountering his parents having sexual intercourse at an early age, but other symptoms can occur simply by living in a restrictive society. The idea of getting up at 6am the next morning is semantically implicated by the state of drunkenness I am in at midnight. These are not neutral concepts changing under circumstances of the individual; they are concepts that have their own pleasure principle, their own likes and dislikes, their own preferable assimilative processes. Similar to psychology, however, there seems to be a heuristic difference between process and form; the almost vitalist force of un-designateable reality, of infinite neuroses and assimilations, that only take on meaning when formed and chafed by humans (or living creatures), that become representations amongst other representations like some form of atomistic idealism. The designation of meaning is superimposed onto the domesticated world through our practices, and we inherit these meanings as they enjoy dominion over us or become ‘challenged’ (Nietzsche). The usability of the concept has always carried a correlate of desire with it (the need to be used) and hence concepts cannot be severed from the desire for designation, ergo, concept traces will always tell you more than what is designated on the surface (see Graham Freestone – ‘Spider-Spit’). We always knew this sensitive fragility in the ‘human subject’ (the psychological subject) but now its time to look at the concepts ‘themselves’, as artefacts of the incoherence/incommensurability of present day human. The first dictum of psychology ; one should never blame themselves for themselves. What Harman calls the intentional image is the pneuma as accreted into a particular form. There are some similarities between OOO and pneuminosity however these are largely superficial. In pneuminosity there is no ‘real’ object as opposed to an intentional one. This underscores Harman’s dubious interpretation of Husserl in which he seeks to separate out the intentional object from the real one. For pneuminosity this separation does not occur. The pneuminous object is what it is, information (pneuma) is not an inert separate image/sensation that is apprehended, rather it is the totality of everything that the Narp experiences -and is made up of. Being-burned by a fire is still an informational happening within the Narp-field. The only need for something beyond the pneuma is the notion within the pneuma that there must be something beyond it. This is the phantasy of the beyond. It appears in Kant as the ding-an-sich and in Schopenhauer as the will. Those familiar with CEO terminology will understand that phantasy does not mean something negative but rather suggests a region whose ontological status is wholly indeterminate.The manifestation war rages over the nature of the beyond. Here at the CEO the beyond-pneuma is known as the umbra. This is not the same as the ding an sich as it makes no claim to be the totality, indeed it is something less. Since pneuma is wholly its own substance with no necessary umbratic behind it, the phantasy (maybe it is more like a fantasy) of the umbra is something less than the in itself which could only be conceivable as both pneuma and umbra. Because all we have access to is pneuma the umbra is just a pneuminous accretion of the impossibility of itself. Of course it is not this simple because precisely one of the manifestations that wants to control this realm is the continuation of information beyond the Narp. This seems wholly reasonable yet it is still the product of an agnostic disjunction. We do not know what the ontological status of things outside of the Narp field and phenomena like pneuminous interference suggest it may be extremely strange. We cannot presuppose the same kind of informational interactions that we experience happening within the Narp-field as continuing to happen outside of it no matter how incomprehensible that might seem. Incoherence is not a criteria for rejecting something because incoherence goes all the way down (and up). There are forms we term pure pneuma, these are dreams, images in the putative internality of the Narp, visualizations projected [outwards]. These kinds of visual pneuma have no umbratic restraint, for it is the restraint that gives the idea of the umbra to the Narp. These kind of things have the pneuminous structure of exactly that i.e. what it means to know these things as such things is that they have no beyond and this is necessarily true of them (if we accept the definition of pneuma as substantialised information). Those things that we might consider not as pure pneuma are still wholly pneuminous; the only difference is that owing to their recalcitrance they suggest that there is something beyond them on the level that is sometimes called present-at-hand (that level which considers extensional physicality and not use). A hammer is pure information (pneuma), within the Narp field the comprehension that the strike upon the nail will yield a result is all part of the pneuma. Yet the hammer in darkness, outside the Narp field, what is this? This question immediately presupposes the individuation of things cogently persists outside the Narp field. That pneuminous suggestion of solidity and continuity outside of the Narp field is so seductive and it is not that it needs outright rejecting, it’s just that it needs comprehending in its radicalness as just one manifestation.It is not a problem for the hammer, it is a problem for the allness that falls out side of the Narp field, solipsistically and collectively. This is the true implication of this mess. ‘Phantasy’ as CEO terminology has a pseudo technical meaning. Phantasies are those ways of interpreting being that stand in a certain relation to what we call reality. Reality can only mean an appeal to what we take to be real. This is a use-term with its correlative accretion. ‘Reality’ designates the accretion, ‘is that real?’ is one of the many uses for the word (its assimilation of us) that feed back into making its accretion. The difference between fantasy and phantasy is that the former is wild pneuminous ramblings of a Narp that might extend down any threads at all with neither rhyme nor reason. Super-powers and unrealistic sexual ambitions are common fantasies. A phantasy is the suppressed option in an agnostic disjunction. Agnostic disjunctions exist in all strata of the world. They notably exist when there are viable criteria supporting both sides of an argument. The resolution of such disjunctions is not determined by criteria that apply to common language games of truth (which exist because the criteria to undermine them are more akin to fantasies). In the case of agnostic disjunctions the decision is made by the agents who work for each side, one of which will gain general hegemonic control. Pneuminous interference (previously known as synchronicity) is the classic example. The disjunctive split is in its simplest form (it can be complicated further) between a magickal interactive world and a solid-material one. The general scientific-western agents have pushed that latter option as ‘reality’, but because of the very nature of pneuminous interference and its concomitant implications it is not possible to extirpate option 1 (if pneuminous interference did obtain it would still look like the existence we have). Hence pneuminous-interference is a phantasy. Phantasies are not just the domain of occult speculation, they proliferate in the realm of conventional media. This rather biased article seems in places to suggest we need to stop listening to conspiracy theorists and fake news and listen to the establishment line. For one though it is a bit dubious to lump both phenomena in the same bag (though they are related, fake news are more akin to fantasies) and secondly it is precisely the point there are good criteria for not believing the establishment news media. The consumption of such media is nowadays strongly infected with scepticism about its motivations -both of corporate and political agents. Of course the paradox appears there that is was the established media that revealed the various lies of governments/corporations, without which we would not have been able to be scepticism. This though purely points to the fact that some agents of the media are state agents, some are corporate agents, some are journalism agents (and there are others too). This jumble of agents unleashes scepticism upon them all (via accretive contamination) which simultaneously frees at least a certain part of the population from adhering to it as ‘honest journalism’ and makes it appear guilty of sometimes overt partisanship. This freedom enables other agents to step in to supply their own criteria as to why they can reveal the ‘truth’. Many conspiracy theories have perfectly believable sounding criteria which if Narps were philosophically honest would accept they do not know not to be true. Conspiracy theories are often phantasies, which are often rejected by educated intelligent Narps just because these Narps don’t identify themselves as agents of those forces. A government scientist denounces the claim so the weight of ‘reality’ presses down upon the ‘phantasy’. However the agents of the conspiracy ‘phantasies’ cannot be persuaded by the agents of the current ‘reality’ precisely because they too have criteria to faciliate their belief. It is a stalemate that is made to look like a defeat. To qualify these words, this piece is not about propping up conspiracy theorists claims but it is about an epistemologically honest description of the situation. Some Narps like to talk about phantasies of food from previous ages that protected them from various failings in the regional processor itself (the fleshy bit). By a pneuminous thread to the accretion of ‘the natural’ and its various positive value pneuminous parts, such accretions have various agents working for them. In these putative instances of ‘the natural’ the Narps didn’t eat the food to protect themselves, they just ate the food that was available. The claim tends to be something like that the diversity of foods and the unprocessed nature of such food stuffs made for a generally Narp preserving recipe. Of course as since most people didn’t live very long back then its very hard to tell how much truth there is to this and of course it seems cogent that not all diets from the past were the same, some may be have been more diverse than others. In writing this we already can feel the neurosis creeping in. Once the Narps created the nutrition accretion (itself formed of neurosis) they generated the possibility for more neuroses. The afore-mentioned notion of nutritional diversity is exactly one such. Whilst the notion of diversity of foods being healthy may have existed, overriding it largely would be something more like survival value (enough food), the worry as to whether or not a given Narp is eating a broad enough range of different foodstuffs would not be likely high in their pneuminous field. But now this neurosis can easily take over us; the knowledge that different vitamins, proteins, amino acids exist in different foods can easily make us paranoically supplement or extend our diversity to top up all these endlessly depleting reserves. This neurosis -the phenomenology of the nutrition assimilation- extends effortlessly into the medicine accretion-assimilation. Certain foods are not just topping up essential parts they also actively preventing potential enemy assimilations from destroying the regional processor. This kind of nutrition-medicine accretion has various scientific criteria to make Narps heed it, as well as various unscientific ones; both of these have different kinds of epistemic power. Further neuroses feed into this pot. Narps are also infected with ‘too much of something can be bad’. Self medication through plant-technology (herbs/plant foodstuffs) and supplementation runs part of the Narp preservation script (a transcendental neurosis) in a baffling neurotic display: I should take this, but how much of it? How do I know when I have taken enough? Endless proliferating agnostic disjunctions whose resolution is decided by dubious criteria (themselves upon analysis subject to more agnostic disjunctions) run the autonomous neurosis. But there is no value judgement here, the message is not that we’re crazy (neurotic) and we need to step back from it. The message is rather that as Johns has pointed out: neurosis is the adequate description for the facticity of thought. The facticity of thought means its seeming autonomous arising outside of our putative ‘control’. This is just one more evidence of the autonomy of pneuminous accretions. We cannot decide that we need to not supplement or use plant-technologies or follow different dietary advice because such a decision implies we could avoid nutrition-assimilation-choice and leaves only i) consuming somehow only of necessity, but unless you are extremely poor -and we do not deny or make light of the fact such Narps exist- every choice is within the paranoic neurosis of how to best preserve your regional processor (and thus the embodiment of your neurotic accretion) or ii) the kind discourse that we should live our lives and resist this nutrition-accretions. We might think ii) is preferable it is assuredly a popular phantasy, but just try removing those autonomous accretions and their concomitant neuroses.
...When Will got a phone call from Jackson Green. The two had met a few times, enough to exchange phone numbers at least, but Will wondered why he would be getting a call from him. He answered, and Jackson quickly interrupted in a strained whisper: "Hey, sorry, y'all're th' first person I c'get a hold of - sump'm's following me, and I need help. South Green Trailer Park, back corner o' th'-" He was interrupted by a crash; his phone clattered to the ground, then the roar of a shotgun filled the line, just before the phone went dead! Concerned, Will called Toby and Alistair, and they quickly made their way down the street to the nearby trailer park. Jackson's trailer was obvious; a police car was there already, and another was just pulling in. Concerned neighbors crowded around. The large bay window in his trailer was smashed in, and there were dents from shotgun pellets across the side of the building. The door hung halfway off its hinges. After a little snooping, Alistair and Will found there were no tracks around the back of the building - whatever cause the damage either stayed to the road, or took a rockier path to the side. Toby spoke with a policeman, and after confirming that he was a friend of Jackson, the officer allowed him to accompany him into the building. Inside, the damage was obvious: the broken-in window, pinpoints of light from the shotgun blast, and a knocked over lamp... as well as a smear of blood on the ground. Toby uncovered Jackson's cell phone - screen smashed - under the sofa, and almost invisible against the carpet, a three-inch, tapered, plastic-like object. He pushed it with his foot, and it shimmered a little in the dying light. He carefully palmed it, and headed back outside. Meanwhile, one of the officers' radios squawked to life: "Unit 3, check." "Unit 3, we’ve had another boogeyman sighting on campus. Can you do a wellness check on a witness at the LeTourneau's student center?" "Dispatch, we have another 45 minutes here then we can head over." "Unit 3, roger that. Dispatch clear." The officer sighed, something about "prank calls again," and went back to keeping the rubberneckers out of the building. The three friends, meanwhile, decided to head over to the student center, as long as they were going back to campus. Just inside the building, they found Leslie Merspin, the student writer for Cryptid Underground! She looked pale and shaken, and as soon as they showed up, she jumped up and threw her arms around Will. Somewhat baffled, he did his best to calm her down. "I was on my way back from Glaske, taking the long way 'round to get to my dorm - going behind the materials joining lab. I heard this freakish noise, like a growling, purring sound mixed with a swarm of bees. I tried to hide around the corner. Somebody came past, heading towards the maintenance building, and they were dragging somebody all hunched over with them. I didn't really see them... but nothing human could make noises like that." Michele, seeing Alistair talking to a strange girl, immediately came over to see what was going on. The ROTC student who was sitting with her looked a little skeptical, but offered to stay, while the party went to check it out. Will found some distinct tracks - footprints from a human, and footprints from something much, much different, a three-toed creature of some kind. They tracked them to the new greenhouses, built at the edge of campus for the biology and horticultural students. The tracks lead to the third building, and they could hear weak cries for help coming from inside! Inside, the air was thick and humid, obviously designed for the tropical plants inside. Two paths lead down the center of the greenhouse; Alistair and Michele followed one, while Will and Toby followed the other. They stepped out at about the same time, to see a woman, holding a nasty-looking stomach wound, and... the chupacabra! Will, Toby, and Alistair weren't frightened by the creature, but Michele took one look and ran screaming from the building. The creature turned towards them, but the woman on the ground seemed to divert its attention through some mental means. She held it for a moment, but the effort proved too much, and she passed out. Immediately, the creature leaped towards Alistair! Alistair tried whacking the creature, while Toby and Will helped the woman; the chupacabra turned on Alistair, but its claws merely raked across his bulletproof vest harmlessly. He struggled with it, until Toby ran up behind, and with a mighty chop, hacked into its back. Already injured from Jackson's shotgun blast (as they correctly inferred), the creature fell to the ground, dead. Alistair immediately began harvesting quills from the creature, as Toby and Will pulled the woman outside and bandaged her up as best they could. As they finished, two black vans pulled up, and several men in suits stepped out. One introduced himself as Officer Johnston, and declared that he and his fellow officers were part of a task force hunting the creature inside, and were part of the Longview Police Department. Alistair, meanwhile, had followed the path to the end, and uncovered a hidden lair the creature had undoubtedly been living in. Inside were bones from small animals, as well as what were likely the bones of homeless people it had killed and eaten! He tried to hide from the agents entering the greenhouse, but only succeeded in tipping over a plant. The three were told to return to their rooms... In the following days, they learned that the greenhouse had been burned to the ground; Will, through his contacts with the police, also found out that there was no special task force, and that no one named Johnston worked there. More intriguing was a package that showed up, with a simple note from Jackson Green to keep its contents safe, and secret. The package includes a photograph, with the words, "June 17th, 1986 - Monica & Jake B at Dad's office! Best buds!" written on the back. It's a picture of a young girl, maybe 8 or 9, and a slightly older boy, maybe 13 or 14; behind them is a middle-aged man, wearing a small label pin (a phi symbol), a white-haired man, and a younger man, standing a little apart with his arms crossed. A little research later, and Toby was quite sure that the girl in the picture was Monica Dragic, current owner of EyePhi! The middle-aged man was her father, Morgan Dragic. The other name - likely the young man - resulted in no information, but everyone was sure they had heard the name before, but just couldn't remember where... After Christmas break, there was still no sign of Jackson Green. GlenMac was sure he was still alive, somewhere, but there were no leads available. The group was contacted by a radio show, Lurk Until Dawn, a show that interviewed interesting personalities and touched on the strange, the alien, and the supernatural. Having heard about their interactions with the chupacabra - called by students the Needler, due to its ridge of spines - the show invited them to come and talk about their adventures for a little. The interview went well, but halfway through, there was a commotion out front; as they raced to find out what was going on, they saw a man holding a gun! The secretary was standing nearby, her hands in the air and her face white as a sheet, as he forced her to unlock a display case and yanked a golden microphone from it. Waving his gun, he dashed out of the building and to his running vehicle. Alistair ran after, trying to spot which way it went, but it had already vanished in traffic. Inside, the manager fumed; the microphone was really only of sentimental value. It was a gift at the station's 75th anniversary, back in 2004. He promised a reward if it could be returned. The station engineer, Jessie Achord, loaned the group a laptop to do any research they needed, while Ryan Lunemann, the "voice" of Lurk Until Dawn promised to reschedule, as they had already gotten a good response from the interview. The only information they had to go on was a video of the getaway truck - free of a license plate - and a good shot of the thief.
Monster Monday: Skunk Ape Habitats The skunk ape is said mainly to inhabit the Everglades, but sightings of the cryptid range throughout the backwater swamps of Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Arkansas. Researchers believe that skunk apes spend a considerable amount of time underground in caverns and alligator caves. The rotting organic matter present in these subterranean areas could be responsible for their foul odor; although there is speculation that body odor and poor personal hygiene could play a role, too. Southern swamps hold myriad potential food sources for skunk apes, and it is believed that they may subsist on an omnivorous diet--feeding on flightless nestlings, fish, deer, wild hog, giant leather fern, cabbage palm, pond apple, acorn, and hog plum. The broad area of their sightings could be due to the nomadic lifestyle of a primitive hunter/gatherer society, as some investigators believe, and while most sightings of skunk apes involve individual creatures, there have been eyewitnesses who claim to have seen them in pairs or small groups. Most skunk ape sightings occur where civilization meets the wilderness, although it is unclear if the cryptids are drawn to these places in particular, or if it is simply a matter of humans being there to see them in the first place.
Midnight Blue-Light Special Published on: March 5th 2013 Format: 328 pages, Paperback The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity--and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and when her work with the cryptid community took her to Manhattan, she thought she would finally be free to pursue competition-level dance in earnest. It didn't quite work out that way... Midnight Blue-Light Special takes its monster (cryptid) cast seriously.They kind of get the royal treatment what with a colorful field guide attached to the end of the book and illustrations on McGuire's website.How cute are those ? As this picture should well confirm, the beasties of this series have real flavor.Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the humans, especially the center piece, Verity Price, who, no matter what I say at the end of the day, will have a stylish name.But let me be blunt: Verity can no longer buoy this narrative. As you can tell from the cover, she has already had to yield serious front cover art real-estate, now sharing the spotlight with her cousin, Sarah.The emphasis on family (family tree provided, yet not quite thorough enough to deserve photo-copying/linking) definitely comes through as the primary theme.Every chapter is headed by a zingy line from Verity's grandmother, grandfather, great-grandmother, etc., etc. With all this emphasis on family, I was expecting the conclusion and climax to make better use of them, but frankly their employment is confusing and nigh worthless.The candy-colored inhabitants of wonderland that are New York's cryptid population really only get the B-plot treatment, the cold shoulder, which for so long appeared to be heating up. Now this would have been ok, if the A-plot had not steered into terrifically dark territory, involving the maiming and near disintegration of those involved.It would have worked if the rest of the book had been pointing towards edgy thriller but everything leading up to this, including book one and its cover, had this firmly pinned as campy comic book style urban fantasy. A few more dishes of that original recipe need be prepared, so as I may forget all about that dark dark place the final third (of this book) took me to.Let's have some more apparently sarcastic platitudes from the waheela, Istas, a bear-wolf shifter knitted up in the body of a crafty umbrella lace sewing to-all-appearances cute lady.Even another night when the waheela shared a dinner of rats with the Aeslin mice I would accept.Instead shudder I have this unnavigable darkness BOOKS IN THIS SERIES: For the bright and exotic side characters, not the central plot LIKE THIS, LIKE THAT: series by Seanan McGuire (a repeat I know but I have heard good things), the series by Liz Jasper
\|Was a small bigfoot-like cryptid really seen in Central Park?\| The article is about a guy named Barry who saw the strange creature. He said it was covered in rust-colored hair, almost looking like a Bigfoot - except for the fact it was only about three feet tall! Barry didn't tell anyone about his sighting at the time. Who would believe he had seen a mini-bigfoot in Central Park? You can read the full account of the sighting in Nick's MU article - Bigfoot? No! Mini-Foot? Maybe!
The daily life of a Middle School Library Media Assistant. Thursday, February 23, 2017 Today I worked more on the diversity list, but also pulled books for the Persuasive Book Talk I needed to do 1st period. I pulled all of our 'You Wouldn't Want to Be....' books and then talked on Cryptid Tales, George vs. George and Middle School - the Worst Years of My Life to the students. Laminated after school until I ran out of film, I will finish up tomorrow! I did Mr. G's and Mrs. F and didn't even notice Mrs. K had book covers out! They were not in the box is my only excuse!
In the Deep Forest, an Unusual Bond and Untamed BeautyNew York TimesShe gets help from a sasquatch. Isaac C. Singleton Jr. plays a watchful sasquatch. That would be the Big Man (Isaac C. Singleton Jr., fantastically kitted out in fur and makeup), one of the more eccentric characters recently to hit the Big Screen. ...See all stories on this topic » New Bigfoot Video and Audio KTVL news hunts for Bigfoot with Dr. Matthew Johnson (Updated) Dr. Jeff Meldrum lecturing at Utah Valley University library today Chinese scientists suggests Gigantopithecus lived in 'closed forest habitat' Robert Lindsay: The fallout between Dr. Melba Ketchum and the Erickson Project [Bigfoot DNA Study] Goat-Man Bridge Nick's Fortean Pic(s) of the Day A bridge in Denton, TX, has a strange history linked to tales of a grotesque creature alleged to frequent the place. And Nick Redfern points out the state of Texas has more than one legend of the same type creature, with similar reports from other locations across the United States. Redfern provides a photograph of the quaint Denton construction that has its own private monster. And there's news of another widespread hairy biped from North America today, too, as a popular television program has visited the Hoosier State Monday in efforts to document the search for America's best known cryptid, as revealed in Kirsten Clark's report 'Finding Bigfoot' in Southern Indiana. Elsewhere, the newspaper archives offer a treasure trove for Richard Muirhead of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, and he offers a few more yellowed clippings today in Muirhead's Mysteries: Two Odd Marine Stories from the South China Sea.
Kinzua Dam, a paranormal hotbed? July 3, 2009 In 1796 Seneca War Chief Cornplanter was granted 15,000 acres along the Allegheny river by Pennsylvania for his assistance to the State as a loyal and a steadfast protector of American families settling in the wilderness of the upper Ohio River basin. In what would become the oldest standing Indian treaty, George Washington granted the land to Chief Cornplanter and his ancestors forever. Forever ended in 1965 when the completed Kinzua Dam flooded the Allegheny river and covered the ancestral lands of the Seneca leader. Their homes, their only viable farmland, and the graves of the ancestors were now under hundreds of feet of water. Despite petitions from Tribal leaders to JFK to stop the proposed Dam in 1960, the President and United States broke the longest standing treaty between the Government and the Native Tribes of North America. The residents of Kinzua and the adjoining town of Corydon were relocated, the Indian burial grounds were dug up, including that of Chief Cornplanter himself and the remains were entombed on the nearby hillside with a memorial. But to this day the Seneca claim that not only was the removal itself a vile act of desecration, but that there are still some missing tribal graves under the flooded waters of the Allegheny. And even the bones of Cornplanter himself were treated with irreverence and disrespect, leading some who witnessed the desecration to believe that perhaps not all the remains of the historic Chief were re-interned. (American Heritage Magazine, December 1968, Vol.20 Issue 1) The flooded valley is called the Allegheny Reservoir by the Government but to the Seneca nation this man made lake is called Lake Perfidy. Perfidy because of the underhanded deception that was conducted by the Corps of Engineers throughout the planning and building of the Dam and the promises made concerning the relocation of the people of the Tribe. With all of the trauma and desecration one is not surprised to find out that there have been paranormal happenings along the Kinzua Dam and Lake Perfidy. But one would be amazed at the cornucopia of high strangeness that has manifest itself along the shores and beneath the waves of this cursed lake. But finding out these nuggets of Fortean happenings is not an easy task. Most of the campers and fishermen who spend their days and nights along the site are not the kind to openly share their incredible stories of the unexplained. But once in a while you get some who are willing to share their stories, and sometimes they are in the strangest places. Kinzua is an Indian name which means â€œfish on spearâ€ and the area since the flooding has been a prime Pennsylvania fishing spot. Indeed there have been record catches made on the man made lake. My family has fished at the Dam for years and I had never heard of any paranormal activities. However, recently I took a trip to the Tom Ridge Center, a welcome center to tourists coming to Presque Isle Peninsula here in Erie and I came across some strange first hand information. The reason for my trip to the center was to check out their exhibit of the 1966 UFO landing on Presque Isle, which I have reported on here. The Exhibit was not very informative and actually very condescending, disappointing since the incident was listed as never solved by Project Blue Book and the amount of time the Air Force investigated the incident. In fact the Air Force is never mentioned at the display; all they reference is a Park Ranger who claims â€˜nothing spectacular happenedâ€™. But what peaked my interest was an adjoining display of Bayside Bessie, Lake Erieâ€™s resident lake monster. The display made it seem that the creature had been sighted locally, when it was only briefly seen in the 1890s and the modern sightings took place near Cleveland Ohio. So I talked to one of the executive staff of the center about the display to see if I was missing anything. And of course when you talk to some people about the unexplained, you usually get their own stories. The staff person told me that there have been some very strange sightings of a lake creature at Kinzua. She had heard a report from a Park Ranger that the Dam divers had a harrowing encounter with a very large snake-like creature within the last year. There was video supposedly shown by the Army Corps of Engineers to some Government officials of the creatures in Lake Perfidy. The executive told me the neck of the creature they had on tape had a massive neck that was almost two feet thick. The tape was made as divers were doing maintenance on the Dam itself and it also showed some monstrous fish near the bottom of Lake Perfidy as well. I was told that the divers have since resorted to working in cages as they inspect the Dam for fear of both the unknown aquatic creature and the car sized Catfish that might mistake them for a possible snack. Intrigued, I did some research. I talked to some Tribal representatives who told me that there were rumored caves and an underground system that ran from the area of Kinzua to Lake Erie. Ancestral legends had it that although they were natural, sometimes the tribal members would use the system to move under the mountains faster than it would take an overland traveler to move the same distance. The representative I talked to claims that it would be through these tunnels that any type of large creature might have made its way to the Dam during the last 44 years. The tribe had no records of any lake or river monster along the Allegheny, so the representative assumed that if there is a lake monster in Lake Perfidy is had to have come from Lake Erie through these underground tunnels. There are also some online accounts of sightings of both the monster and giant fish: Becky who lives in the area writes: â€œâ€¦my friend and i have seen that monster from the first jake's rocks outlook. it was about 7 years ago, maybe the summer of 2000. to me it looked like a loch ness monster type creature. i did not see the head but i think it was the middle body area. it was in the water between the actual concrete dam and the bouys that people can not boat/swim beyond. (area to the left of shale beach if you are standing at shale beach). mind you the cars from the jake's rocks overlook look like matchbox cars. this thing was huge. it happened very sudden but it felt like it was in slowmotion. we both stood there speechless. our friends still to this day do not believe us. my friend and i have named it the serpent, believing we were the only people who have ever seen this thing. we still talk about it today and just laugh because nobody believes us, knowing what we saw, but maybe it's not a joking matter. there was something in that lake that day and i am not sure what it was, but we saw something rather strange that day.â€ Also from the large fish forum on the Monsterquest site: â€œI to have had an encounter with large fish where i live. I live in northwestern pennsylvania in a little town near the Kinzua Dam. We have huge northern pike and tiger musky. it has been said that workers at the dam will not go in the water without a protective cage due to the size of the fish near the dam. they say that they are the size of sharks. I believe the largest musk caught at the dam was about six feet long. I wish i could get monsterquest here to prove whether or not there are giant fish at Kinzua Dam.â€ But strange creatures in the lake are not all the supernatural goings on around Lake Perfidy, UFO sightings, hauntings and Bigfoot sightings are also very common around the area. The Paranormal Ghost Society features many of these stories and their own investigations. Of course the famous â€˜baby bigfootâ€™ picture circulating the web last year that was shot here was determined to be only a Black Bear, but there are hordes of other sightings of a manlike ape near the cursed valley. From About.com comes a story from Kristian in 2001: â€œâ€¦I decided to take a look outside. We had a BB gun with us. A pump-up pistol. I pumped it slowly and loaded about 10 BBs down the barrel. While I was doing that, we heard something circle the tent. Once it got to the other side of the tent, it sounded like something was lightly touching the tent up around our heads... like a scraping sound. It completely circled the tent and came back around to the entrance. I then mustered my courage and slowly opened the tent flap. Drawing it back, I could see nothing. I smelled something horrible, like a dead animal, but I couldn't see anything. Then I realized that what I was looking at at was a huge, furry leg. It was blocking all the light into the tent from the campfire outside, which was still burning. I had the pistol in my hand, pointed at the doorway. A split second after I realized what it was, I think Chuck did. One of us screamed. I pulled the trigger...â€ Read the full story here: I saw Bigfoot And you can see other reports from the area at the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society website for Warren County. The tribal representative told me that he was not surprised that there have been a surge of Bigfoot sightings in the area, â€œThey hear the lament of the Nation and are drawn to the land to heal it. It is a sign that things should be restored to a balance, for when things are out of balance the spirits of nature are brought out into the open to fight along side the people of the land.â€ To me the most disturbing unexplained occurrences reported at Kinzua are those of a haunting nature. Campers at night will hear a strange moaning floating over the still waters of the lake; it is that of a woman who seems to be in mourning. Some Seneca tribal leaders suspect this is either a tribal spirit bemoaning the fact that so many graves had been desecrated and left to the indignity of being washed over by a man made lake and recreation center. Others say it is that of a woman whose remains were separated between her original burial place in the now watery grave and the new location near the Dam. Tona 37211, a woman of Seneca heritage tells of hauntings in the area in an article on Hubpages: â€œMany stories cite this area as being home to many Native American hauntings from sad and angry Native Americans roaming the area because of being disturbed after being laid to rest. They say that if you are in the area while hiking you will hear strange and unusual noises and feel eerie feelings in certain area's. They are still area's within the forest that are sacred Seneca lands.â€ UFO reports are numerous in the area as well, as are USOs. Many have claimed to see unknown flying objects disappear within or appear from the lake. MUFON has a few official stories, a recent one from January of 2008 tells of an incident that happened in the neighboring town of Warren, PA: â€œIt was snowing very continuously that night but the sky had that slight lit up look. My husband took our puppy out for a walk while I stayed home. He proceeded to go north up the street and follow the main road through town( our town is dark except for porch lights and corner street lights). He noticed when he stopped for the puppy that a series of five yellow silent objects moving across the northwestern part of town in silence. He watched them move -then move so fast out of sight that he said it was in a second. What was unusual after that was about two minutes after the sighting there was an extremely loud roar following after them. He could see nothing but he proceeded home to me. Upon arrival at home I greeted him with the fact that our windows and doors in our house had shook so bad for a minute that I would have thought it was a tornado sitting on our house!! I went outside and saw nothing. It was not thunder. It was not sonic boom. It seemed more like something unseen was following what he had just seen and I had only heard. The next day several people in our town were all talking about what had happened that night. I hope this did not only happen to our town.â€ Is it a curse upon the land that brings this high strangeness of a various phenomena? From the various reports from almost every branch of Forteana there seems to be something deeply disturbing going on. Yet the Government and the Army Corps of Engineers who maintain control and maintenance of the Dam and Lake Perfidy claim there is nothing going on at all. After hearing the stories and reading the firsthand accounts, the Army Corps of Engineers say they are all just â€˜Urban Legendsâ€™ or â€˜Tall Talesâ€™. He insists there are no supernatural goings on, be it hauntings, UFOs or Cryptid creatures. The officer I spoke with told me that the divers do not use cages while they dive and while the lake does hold many record catches from anglers who fish there, there really is nothing out of the ordinary beneath the waves. The strange noises are just other campers or wild animals that sound like a moaning woman, the UFOs are aircraft or fireworks that land in the lake, and he said with a wink, â€œWe all know about the baby Bigfoot that was caught on camera a few years back. There are no unexplained things at the Dam, just people who have never been close to nature for any extended period of timeâ€. After his debunking I asked him why a director for the State run center would tell me that they had not only heard of monster fish but a â€˜Loch Nessâ€™ type creature caught on camera, the smile wore off his face and he asked me who exactly it was that had told me this. I was vague and just replied it was one of the executive staff, and he wanted to know names. I told him that I did not get a name, which I did not, the person did tell me their name but I never wrote it down. With there was an obvious sense of annoyance on his part and he cut our talk short, gave me a quick nod and told me it was very interesting to talk to me but that he had to be heading back to his office. Interesting. Am I being paranoid, or did it seem like the officer was covering these paranormal events up and was very disturbed to hear that private information had been leaked out. I never was one for conspiracy theories, but it was if the chip had materialized on his shoulder as soon as I mentioned the Tom Ridge Center stafferâ€™s disclosure to me. I recounted this incident to the representative of the Seneca nation that I had talked to, he told me of his opinion with no mincing about the issue. â€œI donâ€™t see why you would trust them anyway, they are trying to protect themselves. They lied to the Seneca about the taking of the land from the beginning. They would rather lie and deceive than honor a treaty given by Washington himself. They lied about the burial of our ancestors, took our homes and built us houses that did not even last a decade. Why would they tell you the truth about the spirits of the land crying out?â€ Thousands of vacationers, hunters and fishermen take advantage of the lake that the was built on deception and the breaking of the oldest treaty the United States had with its Native population. Are the spirits of the ancestors crying out and manifesting themselves in various high strangeness? Or is the pristine watershed drawing the various cryptid creatures of the area to its shores as it does so many thousands of humans per year? Certainly such actions by our Government to the native population and the desecration of the graves could cause some paranormal activity. And what of the UFO sightings? I havenâ€™t even touched on the Big Cat sightings in the area in this article. It seems that while few care to talk about it, those that do recount many stories of bizarre happenings at Kinzua Dam. As for now, I will still investigate and keep you updated. If you have had any experiences at Kinzua, feel free to send me a message or comment.
“I don’t want you getting disappointed, but the creature isn’t real. Trust me. I looked into it.” Frida MacAlastair momentarily pulled the phone away from her face and shook her head at her cousin’s words. This was why she had wanted to meet her cousin in person. She had wanted to watch his face, gauge his expressions, look into his eyes, and judge whether or not he was bending the truth just to protect her from some danger she wasn’t authorized to know about. Her cousin had resources that she didn’t have access to. He had warned her he would not be able to go into details about those resources. But she was holding something back from him too. She had it right there in front of her. Her ancestor’s—their ancestor’s—journal from the expedition that ended his belief in the fantastic. That man was no scientist, but he was captivated with his era’s discoveries of fossil bones belonging to species that were human-like but not human. One hundred years ago, he introduced the world to a most extraordinary creature. “You’ve told me there are strange things in this world,” Frida said. “Things from the depths of our past and things beyond our imagination that are real.” “This isn’t one of them.” Frida was silent for a moment, debating whether or not to tell her cousin about the journal. Maybe if he knew about it, he might be able to find out more. But she hadn’t looked at it herself yet. She had found it three days ago and hadn’t dared to do much more than read the first few words written within. Those words had triggered a swell of emotion within her. She wanted to go over all of her notes again before she read that journal. She wanted to put together a narrative of her ancestor’s life, the life of the man who was responsible for the considerable MacAlastair fortune. She was his namesake. He was her great-great grandfather, Alfred MacAlastair. Though Frida was his direct descendant, she and Alfred were so different. Beyond his white skin and her brown. Beyond his being a man and her being a woman. Beyond his being gregarious and charming and her being private and introverted. They were so different. Yet something had always drawn her to him, even as a child seeing his portrait hanging in the mansion of her better-off cousins. She had always felt a connection to him. When she grew older, she heard the rumors of his days as a confidence man and a circus barker. And it only made her want to know more, but the family was strange about the founder of their wealth. She had to grow old enough, strong enough, and diplomatic enough to convince her family that she could look into Alfred without disgracing him, or them. She said goodbye to her cousin and hung up. Her cousin was some kind of ghost-hunter or the like. He sometimes consulted for a legitimate government organization. She hadn’t been holding her breath that the government would share any discoveries if it had any to share. Not about something as extraordinary as the creature her great-great grandfather once claimed to have discovered. Alien, fairy, cryptid, hoax. The creature was referred to by many terms over the course of its infamy in the annals of human history. But Alfred MacAlastair didn’t give it a term. He gave it a name. He gave it a title, a rather flashy title. MacAlastair’s Marvelous Photosynthesizing Hominid. And then he made it famous. Long before he became an iron ore mining magnate, Alfred MacAlastair had a passion for the sciences. He wasn’t the only one. It was the turn of the century, and the country was fascinated by new discoveries. There were books on botany and microbiology, filled with drawings of newly discovered species. There were paintings of the cosmos above and the mysterious seas below. There were exhibits of archaeological artifacts, dinosaur bones, and human fossils. MacAlastair found a partial skeleton of the most extraordinary hominid species yet uncovered. For some reason, he did not report his find to a scientific institution or his government. Rather he saw an opportunity with the circus freak show and he simply begun displaying the fossil bones around the country. He displayed them along with what looked like magnified sections from handwritten notes drafted by the discoverer of the bones. This original discoverer of the fossil bones and fossil impressions perished from an illness he contracted on his way out of the unnamed jungle in which he found them. Perhaps he was stung by something, perhaps he grazed a thorn of some deadly tropical flower. Before he lost too much of his senses or his strength, he packed away the bones, along with all his notes and journals, and sent them to the one person he believed he could trust, an old friend. Alfred MacAlastair. MacAlastair had started a small mining company and it was doing well enough, so he had some capital. As such, after receiving this posthumous package from a man he had not heard from in many a year but who had once been the closest of friends, did what any decent man would do. He unpacked the bones, and he hired scientists to try to put them back together, study their properties, even deduce what the creature might have looked like in life. According to MacAlastair, the scientists found marks on the bones that suggested the creature was feathered. The creature appeared to be half-bird and half-human, leading to not a few harpy jokes among the scientists, who in those days would have been studied in the Greco-Roman mythological classics. The harpy was a terrible monster, half-woman and half-bird. The creature from the jungle would have been the size of a modern human toddler. The scientist found what they thought were the remnants of plant material that might have been preserved alongside the creature or perhaps was eaten and partially digested by the creature. They later realized from their studies of the fossil impressions that the plant remnants were part of the creature’s skin. There weren’t too many details. But somehow, the scientists, or perhaps MacAlastair himself came to the conclusion that the creature was able to do something that no animal was known to do…it could photosynthesize. It could convert the raw energy of the sun into the energy it needed to fly and run and do whatever else the creature did. With all of the other extraordinary attractions available, one might think that a few bones and illustrations wouldn’t really catch the eye of a thrill-seeking circus-goer. But it did. MacAlastair may not have been a scientist, but he was intelligent, and well-spoken, charming, personable, humble. He was sincere. He was also a talented artist. It was he who drew the pencil sketches in his exhibit of what he imagined was the site of discovery and the fossils found in place. It was he who drew renditions of the bones themselves, in a series of clever line drawings that showed the bones moving into position until they formed the shape of the final creature, with faint lines representing the bones that were not found but were extrapolated. The first part of his act consisted of him building up the audience’s anticipation with the sketches and stories of the fossils’ harrowing discovery. In these stories, which MacAlastair admittedly embellished, the fossils’ discoverer didn’t perish from an insect sting or some disease. He perished from poison on the tip of an arrow that had been fired upon him by the native peoples of the jungle for trespassing in their realm. They hadn’t know he had also taken the bones, else they might have chased him. MacAlaister was known to pause at that moment and scan the audience. He would grow sober and question the morality of a deed that might be no better than grave-robbing. He spoke of the struggle in his conscience between his duty to return the bones and his duty to show his fellow man evidence of the incredible diversity in their own form. “Perhaps you can help me to decide,” he would tell the audience. Then he would drop the curtain on a small glass case that stood on a pedestal beside him on the stage. Within the glass case were the bones. (They were actually replica bones as the real ones were locked away so they wouldn’t be stolen or damaged.) As the audience strained to take a look at the admittedly unexciting bones of a tiny skull and a few limbs, MacAlastair would step away from the case and draw their attention again. “Are you curious as to what this creature would have looked like in life?” Of course they were curious, and they would say so. He would drop another curtain. This one covered a painting in vibrant color. An image of the creature, a calm and otherworldly expression in its eyes, looking out at the audience, large flight feathers covering his thin delicate arms. Its skin a lovely shade of moss green. Under the figure was the name of its species. MacAlastair was no scientist, but this name too, he had chosen. Homo chloropinnae. Chloropinnae for “green wings” or “green feathers.” The first few times, MacAlastair worried about how the audience might respond to this revelation. He wondered if they would laugh. Throw popcorn at him and his beautiful display. He feared they would sit aghast, confused, and then shuffle out silently. None of his fears came true. The audience would gasp. They would sit aghast, all right, not in confusion, but in wonder. Their eyes would widen. Many would smile. A few even fainted away. Alfred MacAlaister and Homo chloropinnae were mostly ignored by anthropology experts, who didn’t want to taint their field with the salacious sensationalism of the circus show. But MacAlastair began to draw the attention of the press. Specifically, his creature began to draw their attention. The press called it the Flying Plantman. A flying man would be hard enough to believe. A man with green skin would be hard enough to believe. But a man who was both? The press was intrigued by the outlandish claims and the magnetic personality of the man who made those claims. MacAlaistair would invite members of the press to come on stage with him and ask him any questions they wanted. Some of them became quite captivating discussions, such as the time a well-respected journalist of the era, who often covered topics of scientific interest, engaged him. “How do you know that the bones aren’t a mix that don’t belong together, at least not on one creature?” the journalist asked. “We’ve seen that happen before. The head could have been that of a child. The forearm bones could have been a large predatory bird, and the remains of the plant material might have come from an ancient tree that fossilized long before the other elements showed up. Horrifying as it might sound, perhaps a large raptor carried off a baby or a small child and brought it to its nest. The plant matter could have been used to make the nest or carried there along with the child. Sure the bones look like they fit together, but we have no test we can conduct to link all the separate parts.” MacAlastair smiled. “Perhaps not today, but someday we will.” “Why would this small hominid be able to photosynthesize? How is that an advantage? Trees and plants sit still. They abide in one place and stay there for hours upon hours, not expending nearly the amount of energy that animals do. A small hominid wouldn’t be able to do that. It would have to keep moving, hide from predators, away from the open light.” MacAlastair pointed his finger to the sky. “But that’s where the creature’s flight comes in. The two qualities work together. The hominid still ate the way animals eat. But it had this additional way of creating energy, and according to the bones of the forelimbs, their wings were quiet large and powerful, like a modern raptor’s. They could stay up in the air for hours. Why, some scientists believe that birds are able to sleep a bit while their flying. I’ll bet this hominid did just that. Sleeping, gliding, and photosynthesizing.” “All right, then. Say you’ve convinced me that this creature actually existed and worked the way you’re saying. How did it come into existence? How did birds and mammals and plants come together to make this thing?” “You’re saying that backwards, friend. There weren’t three different living organisms coming together to make this thing. There were three different living organisms that arose from this one being.” There was a raucous commotion in the audience then. Some scoffed or laughed aloud, refusing to believe what they judged to be a preposterous notion. “Such a complex being arose bearing all the gifts that the separate beings on the earth now possessed? If that’s so, where has it been hiding all this time?” MacAlastair laughed cheerfully. “You just answered your own question. Your real question is ‘why haven’t we found it until now?’ The answer is that they have been hiding from us. Willfully. And why not? Our cavemen ancestors were brutes. They probably would have hunted, killed, maybe eaten these poor creatures.” “So you believe there are still living members of this…new species, or rather old species?” “Do you believe that modern man is now mature enough to perhaps commune with such folk as these?” “Modern man, modern woman…I’m not so sure about modern children though.” Here, he glanced at a little boy and girl sitting in the front row and winked at them. He waited for the chuckles to subside, then he looked up at the audience. “If they don’t want to be found,” MacAlastair said. “Then we should leave them be. Let them judge when we are mature enough. And hope that we get there before their species does go extinct.” “That’s an awfully convenient answer, Mister MacAlastair. To admonish your fellow men from going after the very evidence that would support your discovery, or disprove it.” It was inevitable considering the growing popularity of the Flying Plantman in the public conscious. An expedition was being mounted, with or without Alfred MacAlastair, to explore the jungle where it was believed the fossil of the Flying Plantman had been found. The aim was to find more evidence of the creature, if there was any to be found. MacAlastair would have been remiss if he did not join it. They followed the notes and maps of the man who had brought out the fossil of Chloropinnae. The expedition was meant to last for six months give or take. The party of explorers was gone a year. For half that time, they lost contact with the outside world. By the time they emerged from the jungle, every single one of them alive and well, it had been thought they were lost for good. Search parties had been sent into the jungle and had found some evidence of the expedition party’s camps, but no trail to follow. The explorers were confused, for after they lost contact, they began to leave markings and clues to their whereabouts, and notes assuring any searcher that they were well. They figured that despite their cautions, the animals of the jungle, and the rain and humidity had wiped away all such clues. Everyone assumed that the expedition had failed, because of how dejected MacAlaister seemed in the days following the party’s return from the trip. And because there were no announcements of any major findings. All of the other expedition party members seemed to be walking on eggshells trying not to say that they had seen and found nothing, at least nothing they sought to find. The jungle itself was an ordinary jungle. They had taken samples of the soil, plants, and insects, so the expedition would not be a complete waste. After returning, MacAlastair stopped exhibiting the Chloropinnae fossils publicly. He put them in storage in a private vault, along with his journals from the expedition. Some wondered why he should have expected anything more. For they believed he went searching for the very creature that he himself had created. MacAlastair began to claim that he never truly believed in the photosynthesizing hominid. He only hoped it was real. But he did believe in something. He believed in the trusting and open-minded natures of most folk. He had not aimed to cheat them. He had aimed to engage them, to have them go home and be enthralled with the sciences. He had always wanted to be a scientist, but the best he could do was be a showman. So he did what he did best. There were many interviews in the papers upon his return. Many hard questions for MacAlastair to answer. “Do you feel guilty at all, for fooling all those people for all those years, into believing this apocryphal creature was real?” he was asked. “It was real,” he answered. “It was real in their imaginations. And that’s real enough, wouldn’t you say?” “Well, that’s all good and well, Mister MacAlastair, but what I mean is that they were unwilling participants in this imagination. They didn’t know they were imagining. They thought they were witnessing.” The story faded over time. The Flying Plantman was forgotten. MacAlastair was not, but he was in the news for very different reasons. More respectable reasons, some said. Frida didn’t have access to the fossils, if they still existed in the family vaults. Or if they ever really existed at all. If she could get them, she could have all the modern-day tests performed. DNA testing. Molecular profiling. Radiocarbon-dating. MRIs, CAT scans, radar, or whatever kind of imaging made sense. Her great-great grandfather’s sudden turnabout after the expedition was suspicious. She wasn’t the first to think so. There were some who thought he’d made a noble sacrifice. He had found flying plantmen in the jungles and decided that he needed to protect them. He had decided to make certain they would not be harassed by modern man coming to visit them and to traipse carelessly through their home. He and the other members of the expedition must have vowed to keep it secret. Or perhaps the other members of the expedition hadn’t seen what MacAlastair saw. Or maybe he had fooled everyone including himself into believing in Chloropinnae. And the expedition was like a bucket of cold water to the face. Frida thought she needed the fossils. If she could find proof one way or another, she would know what kind of person her great-great grandfather was. Or maybe she didn’t need the fossils. Maybe the answers she sought were in his journals. She was afraid to read the journals. All the other documents, interviews, pamphlets, essays, and the like, were documents that he knew others might see. But his private journals were only for his eyes and his kin’s eyes. They would contain the truth. So Frida hoped. So Frida feared. He hid the journals in plain sight. Along with stacks and stacks of identical books that were marked as ledgers from a century past. Frida was the first to have taken the effort to flip through the books. Everyone else just assumed that the journals of his life and his expedition were lost. So three days ago, when Frida identified and opened his expedition journal, she was the first to look upon its pages since Alfred MacAlaister himself. She received a chill upon seeing the first few words. My child, these words are for you. Her eyes filled with tears, though she knew the words weren’t actually for her. They must have been addressed to one of MacAlaister’s five children, likely the eldest, a son whose name she couldn’t remember in the moment. Frida looked at the old pictures of her great-great grandfather, one of them taken just before the expedition that changed the course of his life and the fortunes of his family. They both had dark hair and thick neat eyebrows. But otherwise, they looked completely different. They were so different. But she longed to find out how they were the same. And she longed to solve the mystery that he had longed to solve. Whether it was something wonderful or terrible that he found in the jungle, he obviously sought to keep his fellow man away. But he must have known that people would eventually return to the jungle. So maybe he was only trying to buy time. Most of his detractors might have felt vindicated and smug upon his return in failure. Others perhaps felt pity. No one needed to return to the jungle when the man who was most eager to find something said there was nothing to find. If there was something, anything, even something that wasn’t quite a real discovery, surely MacAlaister would have returned with it. His reputation as an exaggerator served him well if his aim was to keep people out of that jungle, at least for a time. Frida was ready now. She flipped carefully through his expedition journal, before she even began reading it. She found symbols and drawings that should not have been there, representing scientific discoveries that had not been made, or not been made public at least in her great-great grandfather’s time. On one page was a drawing of a right-handed double helix shape with lines linking the helix so it looked like a ladder. That was DNA. On another page was a letter “H” with a superscript that looked like a zero. She thought it was some variant on the symbol for the hydrogen atom until she did an internet search and discovered it was the symbol for a sub-atomic particle that hadn’t been proposed for several decades after the journal was written, and had only been discovered in Frida’s time. There was a single sentence on the last page. I don’t know what the symbols mean, but perhaps you, in your time, will know. Frida felt the chill again and raised her brows. Then she flipped back to the front and began to read. If you are reading these words, I beg of you. Do not venture where I ventured. There were both wonderful and terrible things there. I believe my friend, the Chloropinnae, was one of the wonderful things. And I regret that he or she came to a violent end here, my flying plantman. I used to despise that name that the press gave to my friend. Flying plantman. I thought they meant disrespect. Perhaps some did. But others perhaps meant it with affection. I regret all the more knowing that my flying plantman may have been one of a kind. I wish I could remember the details of what happened. I know there was another being, just as strange and extraordinary as Chloropinnae. I know I spoke with this being. And it, she or he, spoke with me and explained things to me that I cannot remember. What I do remember is having a profound understanding. I remember being afraid, afraid because there is more unknown to us in this world than we care to admit. Perhaps we were better suited to live among these unknown things when we were primitive. Before we built the cocoon of civilization within which to lie in relative safety. I have felt uneasy ever since returning. Though my sense of wonder has not diminished, it is accompanied by an equal sense of dread. I had hoped to discover that our species has the potential to become wondrous, beautiful, and self-sufficient beings. That we can fly without aid of machines. That we can drink the light of the sun and abide without the need for food. How much more resilient we would be. How much more beautiful if our forms were truly varied. Some men with wings. Some with tails. Some with fur. Some with feathers. I cannot describe the being I spoke with. I wrote down as much as I could after the encounter. I was the only one who remembered it, because I was the only one who took that extra step. Did time stop for the others while I spoke with this being? I’ve read many a story where the author writes, ‘It was like waking from a dream.’ I have always scoffed at that remark. Never again shall I deem it ridiculous, for it was like waking from a dream. I could not remember details that I swear were vivid and obvious only moments earlier. I only remember clearly the warning. It was not a threat, not directly in any case. It was a warning. There were dangers there that we did not and could not understand. And if we chose to venture further, and if we survived and returned to civilization, we might carry those dangers, as an ill man can carry plague, and spread that danger through our modern world. I have recorded some symbols and markings that I do not understand. I sincerely hope that simply writing them down does not invite this unknown danger, in the way that written symbols could invoke demons in the old stories. Do not think, my child, that because I have abandoned this quest that I have abandoned the cause of exploration and investigation. It is not so. We must continue to explore, to strive towards an understanding of our world and ourselves beyond what we understand today. But we must know that there are limits. We are flesh, bone, and blood. That will not change until the day of our bodily deaths. There is only so fast a man can run. Only so much he can lift with the strength of his arms. There is only so much food and drink he can consume without bursting. So too there is only so much knowledge we can hold in our mortal minds. There is only so fast those minds can think and therefore comprehend. There are beasts in this world that can rend our bodies apart. There are beings in this world that can rend out minds apart, and perhaps even our very souls. But there are also beings that can heal our minds and our very souls. Chloropinnae, Frida thought. And she beamed. Her eyes brimmed with tears. She read on. She imagined her great-great grandfather’s voice. I hope to meet my friend in some other world, not as a fossil, not as a figment of my imagination, but as a living being. I hope to look him in the eyes. I have no reason to believe he was good, or that he was or could be our friend. I only felt it. As different as he was, he was a friend. And he was marvelous. Copyright © 2016 Nila L. Patel
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 Omar Sharif, SuperStar of Dr. Zhivahgo ... and the Dark-side Controllers Nighttime yowls, Summerstorm-dancing Kitkats... hot, muggy now on the tame prairie... however, the edge of a storm swept through late this morning, and cooled the temps down significantly... thank you, Divine! ... three days ago when the Kougaress trekked down to her mailbox a gorgeous black butterfly with blue neon tipped wings settled on a clover blossom right in front of her ... this Big Cat cooing-talked to butterfly for a bit... and then when she carefully skirted the flower, the butterfly suddenly flitted ahead her, landed again... and then took off... such a magical experience. Hunker bunker down, and hang onto each other, darling kittens... the world will be spinning out of control in some key ways during the coming days... however, enjoy the beauties of summer, and get out on the land if you are able. And remember, this Big Cat loves ya! So, the Kougaress had one of her epic dreams starring Adrian Paul, which went on until she awoke this morning... it was one of those dreams that makes perfect sense as you're living it, but seems somewhat confusing... anyway the gist of it, was that this Big Cat was trying to help Adrian Paul with some dilemma... he contacted her... and she had some sort of helpful solution, which some of those around him did not want him to know... they wanted to keep him ignorant about how to help himself... as far as the setting, it took place in this unusual theater complex, and there was this dominant maroon color, like curtains, but more... don't you just love confusing dreams? ... anyhoo, at one point, the Kougaress was showing Adrian Paul something she held in the palm of her hand, that would explain things to him... he appeared older in the dream, but not at all decrepit... he was still exceedingly handsome and very tall... there were several scenes where communication between us was stopped by others who wanted to keep Adrian Paul under their thumb, so to speak... however, he persisted in seeking out this Big Cat... and as the dream ended it seemed like he got the basic message, and would be following it... what the heck all this means, no the Kougaress does not have a clue. Authoress news and mews ~ The Kougar is working on Chapter Thirty-Two of Keina and Drev's erotic love story. She so hopes to get some more done later tonight. She is enjoying these two, the way they are relating to each other, discovering each other. Featured at SHAPESHIFTER SEDUCTIONS ~ We Pause for A Well Needed Break Happy Weekend Gang! ...So for my enjoyment and yours, please click on the video below. I stumbled on this band due to another author friend posting the link on Facebook. The song has its versions in rock, country, and a few other places. This jazz one is my fave. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. A Meeting by Moonlight by Pat Cunningham The woods surrounding Talbot's Peak tended to fill up after full dark, as the population literally let their inner beasts run loose. By contrast, the streets and sidewalks of the town were practically deserted. Only a few humans and even fewer shifters walked the streets after midnight. Why would anyone bother? The shifters had the woods and the humans had their bedtime. Anyone out and about in town usually had a good reason. Gypsy's reason was she liked the solitude. Without others around to muddy the auras, she could indulge in feeling the freedom of the untamed forest around her and all the primal sensations that pulsed within. It was like being a wolf without becoming a wolf, though she usually succumbed and shifted before her walk was done. Tonight, however, she sensed another pedestrian roaming the streets nearby. Circling. Drawing closer to her. Hunting her? Operation UFOS Are Real by Savanna Kougar Hot summer howls and yowls, shapeshifter lovers. Continued from last week, a short flash scene 'cause that's all I can manage. ... To Quote from last week: "Our Talbot's Peak saga continues. The bad guys have made pests of themselves, and are harassing our beloved mayor, Gil. Well, they just might be real sorry after Operation Crunch." But first, Blade Runner, ET rabbit shapeshifter, has his ornery-alien way with the bad guys. Operation UFOS Are Real Blade Runner performed a low aerial circle above the ambush spot. The highway sharply curved limiting visibility for the driver. Stands of tall trees on both sides all but guaranteed no human prying eyes. Except for the odd hiker, and who would believe their alien-rabbit story? Blade Runner had already shut down cell phone service to this immediate area. No vids allowed. "X marks the spot." he amused himself with the Earth saying. After recording the area, he repeatedly beamed the images to the two satellites surveilling this section of road -- thus masking Operation UFOS Are Real. "Targets estimated to be one mile away." Kitty's sweet yet purrfectly serious voice came over his com system, as if she stood beside him. *ROMANCE AUTHORS, HERE'S CONTEMPORARY PLOTLINE FOR YOU... AT LEAST, SOME GOOD MIGHT COME OF THIS CRAPOLA* GEE, YA IDIOTS, WHAT CAN'T BE PHOTO-SHOP FORGED THESE DAYS??? WE NEED REAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN, NOT THIS CRAP 'NEWS' ~ ‘No Sex Without Written Consent’ Movement Sweeping Nation Kit Daniels \| Growing campaign pushes “sexual consent forms” after several states adopted “Yes Means Yes.” Omar Sharif, SuperStar of Dr. Zhivahgo ... and the Dark-side Controllers This Big Cat adored Omar Sharif as an actor, and developed a crush on him after watching Dr. Zhivahgo. Her heartfelt gratitude goes out Omar Sharif, who has now passed to the Other Side. Not only because of his outstanding ability as an actor, but because he played roles that are crucial to understanding history... at least, a significant bit of history/herstory. If you want to know what part of the One-World agenda is for the human race, watch Dr. Zhivahgo. The same horrific tactics are being used right now, right this moment by the dark-side controllers. In memoriam: Omar Sharif, 'Lawrence Of Arabia’ Star, Dead At Age 83 ~huffingtonpost.com~ The Egyptian-born star, who was best known for roles in "Lawrence of Arabia," "Funny Girl" and "Dr. Zhivahgo," suffered a heart attack on Friday in a ... THIS IS FASCINATING INFO WHICH MAKES A WHOLE LOT OF SENSE TO THE KOUGARESS ~ Your Ancestors Didn’t Sleep the Way You Do Are you in tune with your ancestral sleep rhythms? Your Ancestors Didn’t Sleep the Way You Do Sleep is an important “activity” for most people, essential for rejuvenating the mind and revitalizing the body. But like most people, you’re probably not getting all the sleep you need, and over the years you may have incurred a sleep debt. Many people find they wake during the night without warning, causing worry that they may be suffering from a sleep disorder or other health issues. The reality is, however, sleep may not be an all-night thing as we commonly see it in today’s society. In fact, historical records, centuries-old literature, and ancient references to sleep are all revealing a whole new way we should be looking at how we slumber. Segmented Sleep: More Normal Than You Realize It’s probably not a stretch to say you’ve woken up during sleep once or twice in your life time. Perhaps you find you’re waking up in the middle of the night every night, and maybe you’re wondering if you may be suffering from insomnia or maybe even sleep apnea. Most people naturally follow this line of thinking, and doctors are more than happy to prescribe a sleeping pill to these individuals. Known as “segmented sleep,” this seemingly irregular sleeping pattern may not be a disorder at all, but a natural biological response that we, in modern times, have forgotten. ~infowars.com~ TASMANIAN TIGER 'NEWS' ~ Extinct Tasmanian tiger has been seen 'numerous times' Monday, July 13, 2015 Tasmanian Tiger researcher contends that the famed cryptid may be lurking in mainland Australia. — Daily Mail OH, AREN'T WE SO CUTE 'NEWS' ~ Welsh government responds in Klingon to UFO airport query Monday, July 13, 2015 Star Trek-inspired response from Welsh government yields no valuable UFO information. — BBC News UFO 'NEWS' ~ Secret German UFO files released Sunday, July 12, 2015 After a long and intense struggle, the German government has been forced to make its UFO research public. — Huffington Post UFO sighting reports doubled in June Saturday, July 11, 2015 The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) has indicated that there has been a sharp rise in reports recently. — Unexplained Mysteries FORGET HUMAN LOVE FOR THE LAND AND FRUITS OF THE LAND 'NEWS' ~ Robots picking fruit and driving tractors? Saturday, July 11, 2015 Dr. Christopher Lehnert recently talked about the potential robots held for the agriculture industry at CQ University. — Daily Mercury WHEN THEY GO SOLAR LET THIS BIG CAT KNOW 'NEWS' ~ Electric planes make history by flying over English Channel Saturday, July 11, 2015 Two French pilots have made separate flights over the English Channel in electric planes, journeys that each represent a historic milestone in the future of aviation. — Discovery News THE BRAIN IS ELECTRIC 'NEWS' ~ Why mind-reading is a science, not a magic trick Saturday, July 11, 2015 Electrical activity within the brain means that our thoughts can be read and understood. — The Telegraph OMYHEAVENS! YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS VID... AND NO, THIS BIG CAT IS NOT GIVING UP DUKES OF HAZZARD NO MATTER HOW UN-PC THE SHOW IS 'INFO' ~ Blue Collar Comedians Totally Predicted ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Controversy Trey Sanchez ~ Truth Revolt ~ July 10, 2015 The “Blue Collar” comedians, consisting of Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Larry the Cable Guy, can now be considered prophets for a sketch they did during the second season of their show Blue Collar TV nearly eight years ago, which reworked The Dukes of Hazzard into a more culturally sensitive and politically correct version. From removing the Confederate flag from the top of the General Lee, to Boss Hogg and Uncle Jessie completely changing their identities, this satirical version was an attempt to show what the Duke boys would be up to in a world mad with political correctness. And how right they were! Of course, they weren’t entirely correct, because the show has not been restyled – it has been pulled off the air by TV Land. Not only that, but many outlets are refusing to sell the show’s merchandise because of the appearance of the Confederate flag on their vehicle. So for now, enjoy a look back at “The Politically Correct Dukes of Hazzard”: Big Cat by-the-numbers ~ 11:11 pm... 11:22 pm... 11:33 pm... 11:44 pm... 11:55 pm... 9:33 am... 10:23 am... 2:34 pm... 9:33 pm... 11:22 pm... 11:33 pm... 11:44 pm... 12:12 am... 12:34 am... 1:11 am... 11:11 am... 11:55 am... 3:33 pm... 4:44 pm... 5:55 pm... 6:33 pm... 8:44 pm... 10:10 pm... 10:23 am... 1:11 pm... 2:22 pm... 3:33 pm... 4:48 pm... 5:55 pm... 10:10 pm... 10:23 pm... 11:44 am... 1:23 pm... 2:22 pm... 10:10 pm... 10:23 pm... 11:22 pm... 11:44 pm... 12:12 am... 8:44 am... 12:12 pm... 2:22 pm... 4:44 pm... it's a wacko, gone crazy world... [what she can manage] the kougaress bites back headlines *OR, THE TURDS HIT A GINORMOUS BANK OF TURBINE-ENGINE FANS* RADIATION, EXTREME LEVELS ... WE ARE ALL UNDER ATTACK 'NEWS' ~ Huge List Of People In A LOT Of Trouble From One End Of America To The Other! http://allnewspipeline.com/Big_List_A_Lot_of_Trouble.php NUKING THE WORLD... GEE, WHAT AN EFFING NOT SURPRISE 'NEWS' ~ Flaw found in French nuclear reactor Saturday, July 11, 2015 A weakness has been discovered in a French nuclear reactor of the type set to be built at Hinkley in the UK. — BBC News WATCH: Massive Tornado Tosses Debris Near Hutchinson, Kansas VIDEO: Raging Floodwaters Sweep House Into River in Kentucky VOLCANO 'NEWS' ~ Volcano Uptick: Mexico's Volcano of Fire Colima spews ash 7 km into the sky! Eruption of Indonesian volcano sparks travel chaos By NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press HAVEN DALEY, Associated Press Jul 10, 2015 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Ash spewing from a volcano on Indonesia's main island of Java sparked chaos for holidaymakers as airports closed and international airlines canceled flights to tourist hotspot Bali, stranding thousands. LIKELY WEATHER WARS 'NEWS' ~ China evacuates over 865,000 as super typhoon nears GET OUT OF THE MAJOR CITIES NOW!!! 'NEWS' ~ Chicago Woman and Her Children Attacked By Racist Gang: “Didn’t Belong In Their Neighborhood Because She Was White” abc7chicago.com \| Pedersen said one person was on a bicycle – the group used it as a battering ram, shattering the back window. NYPD Preparing to Implement Crime-Prediction Software Mikael Thalen \| “If you’re thinking Minority Report, that’s not happening,” software producer insists. ‘Smart Cities’ Will Know Everything About You Wall Street Journal \| From Boston to Beijing, municipalities and governments across the world are pledging billions to create “smart cities”. AMERIKA JACKBOOTS 'NEWS' ~ US Military Coup for Euro Meltdown? :The irony is that 70 years after the defeat of fascism in Europe, Europe is coming full circle under the same phenomenon. This time instead of Nazi jackboots, we have American ones. SOVIET STYLE BRAINWASHING IS ALIVE AND ALL TOO WELL 'NEWS' ~ DEM JUDGE ORDERS PSYCH COUNSELING FOR D’SOUZA Clinton appointee ignores physicians, orders more counseling for Dinesh YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK ...HEY, BLAME THE ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS LIKE PESTICIDES AND MONSATANO'S ROUNDUP 'NEWS' ~ Taxpayers Spend $3.5 Million to Find Out Why Lesbians Are Fat WHATEVER YOU DO, DO *NOT* SIGN UP 'NEWS' ~ Congress Passes Law Creating ID Card for Veterans: VERY, VERY DANGEROUS!NOTE NOT ACTIVE DUTY BUT VETERANS! PEOPLE, YOU'VE GOT TO PROTECT YOURSELVES... THE SOCIETY YOU KNEW IS GONE WITH THE SUPERSTORM WINDS 'NEWS' ~ ALBUQUERQUE: Six New Mexico Teenagers Brutally Gun-Down Man In His Own Driveway 'Tolerant' liberals target gun store owner with death threats over displaying Confederate Flag SOME VERY GOOD... LET'S HOPE/PRAY CONTINUES 'NEWS' ~ Breaking: All 10 Children Returned To Off-Grid Naugler Family Off The Grid News - All 10 children who were removed from the home of an off-grid Kentucky family in May have been returned to the parents... Joe and Nicole Naugler, whose story captured nationwide attention this year, received physical custody of their children last Thursday. Final legal custody has not been granted, but they are hopeful that will happen by the end of the family court proceedings. The next court date is expected to be July 27. THE GREEK TRAGEDY-DRAMA ... BLESS THOSE PEOPLE 'NEWS' ~ The ‘Greek Debt Deal’ Is Already Starting To Fall Apart Economic Collapse - The “deal that was designed to fail” has already begun to unravel. The IMF, which was expected to provide a big chunk of the financing, has indicated that it may walk away from the deal unless Greece is granted extensive debt relief. This is something that the Germans and their allies have resolutely refused to do. Meanwhile, outrage is pouring in from all over Europe regarding what the Greek government is being forced to do to their own people. Most of this anger is being directed at the Germans, but the truth is that without German money the Greek banking system and the Greek economy will completely and utterly collapse. So even though Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras admits that this is a deal that he does not believe in, he is attempting to get it pushed through the Greek parliament, and we should know on Wednesday whether he was successful or not. THE ANTICHRIST AT WORK... THIS BIG CAT'S WORDS, NOT ALEX'S 'NEWS' ~ Special Report: Pope Francis Is A Vatican Coup Alex Jones \| Pontiff a socialist tool to usher in one-world government. THIS IS WHAT THEY DID IN RUSSIA WHEN THE COMMUNISM CREEPAZOIDS TOOK OVER 'NEWS' ~ Video: The Push To Make Husbands And Wives Illegal Prison Planet.com \| Bill would ban “husband” and “wife” from being used in federal law because they discriminate against gay people. THEIR *FRAUD* NEGATES YOUR *CONSENT* ... THAT IS ONE KEY TO UNLOCKING THEIR EVIL CONTROL 'NEWS' ~ Greek debt crisis: Goldman Sachs could be sued for helping hide debts when it joined euro Goldman Sachs is said to have made as much as $500m from the transactions known as “swaps”. It denies that figure but declines to say what the correct one is. The banker who stitched it together, Oxford-educated Antigone Loudiadis, was reportedly paid up to $12m in the year of the deal. Now Jaber George Jabbour, who formerly designed swaps at Goldman, has told the Greek government in a formal letter that it could “right historical wrongs as part of [its] plan to reduce Greece’s debt”. Mr Jabbour successfully assisted Portugal in renegotiating complex trades naively done with London banks during the financial crisis. His work helped trigger a parliamentary inquiry and cost many senior officials and politicians their jobs. It also triggered major compensation payments by banks to the Portuguese taxpayer. KICK THE FEDS OUT OF AMERICA, FORCE THEM TO STAY IN D.C. 'NEWS' ~ Government Secret Police Program Exposed InfoWars \| Federal agencies are circumventing constitutional obligations. AMEN!!! THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH/SOUTHWEST WILL RISE AGAIN, ALL COLORS, ALL CREEDS 'NEWS' ~ The Confederate Flag Needs To Be Raised, Not Lowered: What we see materializing before our very eyes is tyranny: tyranny over the freedom of expression, tyranny over the freedom of association, tyranny over the freedom of speech and conscience ~chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3336/The-Confederate-Flag-Needs-To-Be-Raised-Not-Lowered.aspx~ Texans organize 'Operation Counter Jade Helm' to keep an eye on the federal troops The U.S. Military will bring over a thousand troops as well as aircraft and heavy vehicles to Texas and six other southwestern states for Operation Jade Helm--an unprecedented special operations training exercise. A civilian group has organized to monitor the training, including companies in Texas that plan to post up at each drill site in the Lone Star State. WOULD DESTROY THE FREEDOM OF THE INTERNET 'NEWS' ~ Top Computer Security Expert Warns – David Cameron’s Plan to Ban Encryption Would “Destroy the Internet” Liberty Blitzkrieg \| What kind of fool actually thinks violent, criminal organizations will care about what David Cameron says is law? THANKS, SOROS, YOU NAZI MONSTER... UKRAINE FLASHPOINT 'NEWS' ~ ‘Right Sector on combat alert’: Ukraine Neo-Nazis refuse to lay down arms after shootout RT \| Ukrainian Right Sector militants, blocked in on the outskirts of Mukachevo after deadly clashes with police, are refusing to lay down their arms. YEAH, YOU COULD JUST SEE THE STILLS OF THOSE VIDS AND KNOW THEY WERE FAKE 'NEWS' ~ BOOM! Expert On Fox News Admits ISIS Video Is Fake, Using Green Screen and Teleprompter Underground News - This Is For EVERYONE Who refused to Listen To Us Out Here On Youtube. For every Truth video removed saying exactly what they are saying Now on Main Stream. For those of you whom will only believe the wicked mainstream , .. Here You Go! We Told You So! John McCain Responds to Staged ISIS Beheading Video Paul Joseph Watson - McCain responded on his official Twitter account, remarking, “Another nutty conspiracy theory from the #Russian Internet trolls – I’m very proud to be target of America’s enemies.” He followed up with a subsequent tweet in which he stated, “1st they doctored pics to say I met w/ #ISIS. Now #Russian Internet trolls say I staged ISIS executions. Proud to be their #1 adversary!”... What’s ironic is that McCain was pictured meeting with an individual who is now the leader of ISIS forces in Libya – Abdelhakim Belhadj – who worked directly with U.S. and NATO forces during the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi. Belhadj also previously fronted the LIFG terrorist organization which killed U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was later credited with imposing Sharia law in Libya. THE FBI CAN ONLY ARREST/CAPUTRE THOSE THEY SET UP TO BE BAD ... HOW PATHETIC 'NEWS' ~ Another “Terror” Arrest; Another Mentally Ill Man, Armed by the FBI The Intercept - U.S. law enforcement officials announced another terror arrest on Monday, after arming a mentally ill man and then charging him with having guns. ABC News quoted a “senior federal official briefed on the arrest” as saying: “This is a very bad person arrested before he could do very bad things.” But in a sting reminiscent of so many others conducted by the FBI since 9/11, Alexander Ciccolo, 23, “aka Ali Al Amriki,” was apparently a mentally ill man who was doing nothing more than ranting about violent jihad and talking (admittedly in frightening ways) about launching attacks—until he met an FBI informant. At that point, he started making shopping lists for weapons. The big twist in this story: Local media in Massachusetts are saying Ciccolo was turned in by his father, a Boston Police captain. PC IDJITS ARE BORN EVERY MINUTE... OKAY, THEY'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED, AND DUMBED DOWN, AND BRAIN FRIED BY FLUORIDE ... PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THEM HOWEVER YOU HAVE TO... THEY'VE BECOME THE DARK-SIDE'S ZOMBIE HORDE 'NEWS' ~ NAACP Wants Stone Mountain Confederate Generals Sand-Blasted Off, Mount Rushmore Next? Paul Joseph Watson - The Atlanta chapter of the NAACP has called for the iconic and intricate Stone Mountain carvings which feature confederate generals to be sand-blasted off and wiped from the pages of history. In the name of political correctness, NAACP’s Richard Rose told WSB-TV that symbols of the Confederacy should be removed from all state-owned buildings, parks and lands in the area, including a carving which depicts Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. * Related: Flag Purge Continues: NAACP Wants Stars & Bars Removed From Alabama Troopers’ Vehicles Twitter Campaign Encouraging People To Rip Down Confederate Flags Steve Watson \| “Stealing a flag and getting arrested is just going to increase hostility.” VIDEO: Americans Want To Repeal 1st Amendment ‘Because Beyonce Said So’ Steve Watson \| “Yeah, it gets people thinking. I like it.” ‘Offended’ flea market shopper calls 911 over Confederate merchandise American Mirror \| The caller complained that the Confederate items were “not authentic” and were replicas of flags and weapons. Professor’s Manifesto: Vegans Must Illegally Overthrow Society to Save the World National Review \| A professor at the University of Texas at El Paso wrote a manifesto saying that animal-rights activists must rise up and commit “illegal raids”. HOW NAZI-COMMUNIST SICKO IS THIS GUY? 'NEWS' ~ Hate Crime? Professor calls for arresting Americans who display Confederate flag: THE WORLDWIDE ECONOMY BEING DESTROYED BY THE NEW WORLD ORDER CRIMINALS TO BRING EVERYONE TO THEIR PROVERBIAL KNEES 'NEWS' ~ Strategic Investment Manager Warns Of Worldwide Financial Detonation: The Whole Thing Is Going To Blow Up Mac Slavo \| The seriousness of the global economic crisis cannot be underestimated. GEE, THROW THIS PSYCHO WIMP THROUGH THE PORTAL TO THE DINOS 'NEWS' ~ Nestle CEO Says He Would Profit More from CA’s Drought if He Could Christina Sarich \| Serious droughts don’t seem to matter. FACEBOOK: THE CIA'S DARK-SIDE HANDMAIDEN 'NEWS' ~ Facebook “Celebrate Pride” Rainbow Filter a Psychological Experiment New American \| Facebook has denied that the filtering tool is an experiment of any type. THE BENGHAZI GUN-RUNNING WITCH ... YES, SHE WAS RUNNING GUNS AND MAKING A BIG OLE ILLEGAL PROFIT ... JUST LISTEN TO THE MORIARTYS WHO KNOW THE TRUTH 'NEWS' ~ ‘This Interview Is Over': Clinton Backer Hangs Up On Host After Grilling Over Clinton Emails [VIDEO] Daily Caller \| Former Clinton White House special counsel Lanny Davis hung up on Newsmax TV host Steve Malzberg Friday. JIMMY and JoANNE MORIARTY will join The Power Hour today to update us on what is currently happening in Libya. DVD: Moriartys: Our story on DVD and much More Articles of Interest: * VALIDATED Hillary Clinton Running Weapons into Libya via Qatar VIDEO * See visual proof of Hillary's 'secret war' by Jerome Corsi * Hillary’s secret war - Clinton approved arms for terrorist enemies of the United States by Andrew Napolitano NOT GOOD FOR YOU 'NEWS' ~ The Real Reason to Avoid MSG: Industry Secret Ingredient for Food Addiction Christina Sarich \| How do you feel about the ingredient? Move Over Golden Rice: Scientists Claim to Have Invented New Rice 'To Feed the World’ SQ-I WOULDN’T TRUST THESE GUYS WITH MY LIFE OR MY GENETIC WELL BEING WOULD YOU? GOOD FOR YOU 'NEWS' ~ 12+ health benefits of oregano, as well as SIMPLE growing tips! Natural Society - An herb whose name means “mountain joy”, oregano is a savored spice widely used in Italian, Mediterranean, and Mexican dishes. But few know just how healthy this herb can be. As with many flavorful kitchen herbs, when you cook with oregano, you are getting far more than a flavorful punch—you’re also receiving a range of health and healing benefits. And if you wanted to experience oregano benefits by growing oregano yourself, you’ll be happy to know that raising this herb from a seed is fun and easy. * Related: Does Your Oregano Measure Up? 10 Reasons You Really Need to Be Eating Black Seed Natural Society - There are many multi-purpose plants and herbs out there one can utilize for achieving total wellness. One of those natural medicines is black seed, otherwise known as Nigella sativa or black cumin. VACCINE TYRANNY STATE... THE RIGHT TO MAIM AND/OR MURDER ANYONE THEY WANT WHENEVER THEY WANT ... OR CHANGE YOUR DNA 'NEWS' ~ California Now Wants to be First State to Mandate Adult Vaccines – Criminal Penalties for those Who Refuse:Is California becoming a medical police state? THE PHOTO SAYS IT ALL-MEDICAL GESTAPO' In a brazen act of medical tyranny, California recently became the first state in the U.S. where lawmakers removed religious exemptions to those opposing vaccines for their children. The bill now signed into law, SB277, faces legal hurdles in court next. Now, legislators in California want to pass the “first US adult vaccine mandate with NO personal exemptions and CRIMINAL penalties for failure to comply.” SB 792, would eliminate an adult’s right to exempt themselves from one, some, or all vaccines, a risk-laden medical procedure. Will California soon become a medical police state? New Zealand: “HPV Vaccine Has Done This to My Child” July 13, 2015 This was a very hard video to post, my 12 yr old daughter was fine before her vaccine, now this is her life. We live in New Zealand and I thought our healthcare system was ok, we have been left to deal with this ourselves. I’m showing this because I want people to know what damage this vaccine can and does cause. Please research before deciding. I didn’t. "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. " -Thomas Jefferson (1791) "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." AND "Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it. - Mark Twain "Only a fool fights in a burning house." Klingon saying. 'A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.'—James Madison "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." ~Thomas Jefferson JFK... to paraphrase... Washington D.C. has the best of both worlds. Northern hospitality. And southern efficiency. The most powerful weapon is the human soul on fire. ~ Have a lovely magical month of July ~ ~ MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH ~ And, May you live the dreams of your heart, not in interesting times... Summerstorm-dancing kisses from the Kougar...
This is odd simply because it is very much a kids book. The title page even recommends it be shelved as such. It's a 72-page hardcover book about the size and shape of your average picture book, and while there isn't a whole lot on each subject, authors Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears and Roxyanne Young provide a pretty thorough overview of Cryptozoology. It's a pretty great introduction to the topic—I would have loved it when I was in grade school—but grown-ups who have read much on the subject probably won't find too much in here the haven't heard before. After a few pages explaining what cryptozoology is, the book breaks into chapters. Each begins with a scene-setting "Imagine...a night as dark as it is quiet..." page fictionalizing a theoretical encounter with something or other, and then presents a world map of sightings of a particular group of animals, and a bunch of short, one or two-page articles on various subjects under the umbrella of that group, with lots of pictures, sidebars and short interviews with real-life investigators and experts. These chapters include ones on Bigfoot-type creatures, sea monsters, prehistoric cyptids, and cryptic mammals, and, the most interesting part for me, a "Cryptidictionary" section. This is a 12-page section at the back of the book, with each page having four or five entries on various cryptids, giving each a paragraph of text, a "reality index" rating from "real" to "hoax," and a black and white drawing by Spears. Those drawings are what I'm most interested in for the purposes of this piece, but I should note that if you're interested in the subject matter and do run across this books, it may be well worth a flip-through for more than just art appreciation. I did learn a few things, including having heard of a few cryptids I'd never heard of before (Georgia river monster the Altamaha-ha, The Piasa Bird), and learned about a fantastic artist I had never heard of before, Sarina Brewer, who creates Feejee Mermaids, chimeras and other strange sculptures out of a combination of taxidermy and, I assume, magic (Do take some time to check out all the galleries on her site...there's an awful lot to see there). The book is heavily illustrated with a ton of photographs and charts and maps and other visuals, but among all that visual clutter are some very nice drawings by Rick Spears (Who, I should note, is not the Rick Spears responsible for Teenagers From Mars and Black Metal, but instead a Georgia-based illustrator and builder of museum models and exhibits). Spears provides black-and-white sketch-like illustrations of each of the cyrptids who have entries in the "Cryptidictionary," and these seem to be quite purposefully drawn to resemble quick sketches, as if Spears were a police sketch artist interviewing a witness about what the Jersey Devil he saw looked like, or perhaps he himself were hiding in the bushes trying to record what the Nandi Bear looked like before it disappeared into the shadows. Spears' work is the only true visual throughline for the book, and it's a treat to see so many vastly different animals and creatures filtered through a single style. They all seem to belong together, which I suppose makes them feel a little more real (That is, they're all made of the same stuff, they all share a similar weight and relation to the artist). Likewise, I enjoyed seeing extremely familiar images recreated from photos or film into Spears' sketchy style. For example, that rotting corpse that looked like a plesiosaur that a Japanese fishing boat pulled up, or the Dover Demon, or Florida globster or Cardiff giant. Also fun was observing the choices Spears made in differentiating groups of monsters that share a great deal in common. For example, there are about ten different sea-going reptilian sea monsters/serpents in the 'dictionary, and he gives them each various details so that no two look alike. If there are lake monsters, it would be reasonable to assume that The Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, Champ, Caddy and their lesser-known ilk are all different instances of the same time of unknown creature, but Spears draws them each as if they were their own species. I particularly liked his Nessie, which sports giraffe-like horns. Simply put, it doesn't look like any Loch Ness Monster I've ever seen, and that's pretty exciting. To illustrate this, check out Spears' various hairy hominid types. Again, each of these creatures are, if real at all, likely close relatives, but Spears gives each its own look. In addition to Bigfoot, who is represented in the dictionary by a drawing of a footprint (and on the cover as the traditional Patterson-Gimlin style of striding ape-man), here are Spears' Bigfoot-types: Those are, in order, a Sasquatch, a yeti, an orang-pendek, the skunk ape, the Australian Yowie and the Chinese Yerren. Just a couple of subtle differences here and there make a really big difference in giving each their own look, huh? Here's a just plain bad-ass looking monster, "The Owlman of England," which looks significantly cooler and scarier than the firsthand reports I've read of those sightings (or any of the owl men I've seen in Western pop culture): Perhaps my favorite drawing of Spears' in the book, however, is of the cryptid referred to in the dictionary as the "U-28 Sea Monster." I had coincidentally just heard of this dude a couple weeks ago while reading Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe's Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep. Here's how Tales tells this poor sea monster's tale: When the German U-boat known as U-28 torpedoed the World War I British steamer Iberian, it sank more than its human enemies...survivors...saw a sixty-foot-long creature "writing and struggling wildly" as it took to the air more than one hundred feet up—the result of of the Germans' explosion. Yes, this monster's only appearance was as a casualty of an underwater explosion. I like the weirdness of this story, which just seems so weird that it almost kind of has to be true—if anyone was going to make up a story about a sea monster sighting, why would you set your made-up sighting in the middle of an explosion? There's something appealingly slapstick about this story too; I guess it's the sea serpent equivalent of someone saying they saw Bigfoot, but they saw him just as he stepped on a landmine and incinerated himself. Anyway, I love the way Spears depicts this monster: Finally, since I'm an Ohioan, and I know at least some of you are also Ohioans, I'd be remiss if I didn't include Spears' illustrations of our fellow Ohioans, The Loveland Frog or Frog Men. For more info on the Loveland Frogs, here's a Cryptomundo post, and here's a site entitled The Loveland Frog Project. In short, there were several sightings of what appeared to be reptilian humanoids with frog-like heads in Loveland, Ohio (near Cincinnati), occuring in the spring of 1955 and again in the spring of 1972. The original sighting was made by a businessman who said he saw three bipedal reptile-like creatures on the side of the road. When he stopped to investigate and got too close, one of them held up a wand that began to spark. So here's Spears' Loveland Frog, which garners a rating of "unknown" on the reality index:
Saturday, May 03, 2014 Here are a few hominid or Bigfoot encounter reports from eyewitnesses in Wisconsin: Bigfoot Duo Reported at Nelson Lake, Wisconsin I am writing about a sighting I had on June 26th around 8:00 pm at Nelson Lake, Wisconsin. I was fishing from my canoe about 30 yds. from the shore near Tanning Point when I noticed a whimpering sound. It was coming from the woods at the shoreline. It sounded like a dog whining, so I stopped what I was doing to watch the woods to see if anything appeared. After a few seconds I saw a child scampering from the woods. I didn't get a very good look but the child had very thick brown hair all over it's body and was very small (human toddler size). It quickly showed itself then bolted back towards the woods. I sat there in shock. But within seconds I heard three distinct and angry 'grunts'. I then saw a large ape-like head rise above the lower tree boughs. The eyes were barely visible but I could tell that it didn't want me there. That was enough for me so I started to paddle towards the north shore when all of a sudden I heard a loud 'plop' then 'splash' from behind the boat. I turned around in time to see another rock heading in my direction. It was many yds. from me but I got the message. I was shaking from the time I witnessed these beasts up until a few hours later when I was in my home office pondering what I had seen. I think it may have been Bigfoot. I Googled 'Wisconsin Bigfoot' and your blog came up. Was this a Bigfoot? I'm not an outdoorsman though I enjoy canoeing and fishing. Have there been other sightings in this area? Is there a danger? I appreciate your help. I am a state employee so I would prefer my identify remain confidential. Thank you. Source: Witness Statement The following incident was in the same area: Seeley, Wisconsin Bigfoot Buzz According to the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Department, two deputies responded to an alleged Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, sighting on Highway 63 just south of Seeley on the evening of Jan. 3. Since then the sighting has been the topic of conversation in that small community, with multiple reported sightings being called in to the Sawyer County Record office since. Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle confirmed that two deputies responded to the call, only to find footprints and hair at the site. But “unless Bigfoot was wearing boots,” Zeigle laughed, “I think it’s pretty much a prank. “A lady called in and said ‘You probably think I’m nuts, but I’m not … I have not been drinking.’ She reported seeing a Bigfoot or someone dressed in an ape suit on Highway 63 near Stark Road,” Zeigle said. “We sent a couple officers up there and what they found was a set of foot tracks going from the road to the timberline and back to the road and they also found a long, black hair.” He affirmed that there have been no sightings since then. But the story takes a curious turn from there. According to another reported sighting obtained by the Record, a Wausau man, who wishes to remain unnamed, and his nephew were snowmobiling on a trail just southwest of Seeley when they saw something unusual cross the trail. “I don’t know what I saw, but my nephew and I both saw something very real,” he said. “We only saw legs from the hips down as it was caught in the headlights of our snowmobiles. It stepped out of the woods, walking upright, and stepped across the trail right in front of my nephew who was ahead of me 20-30 feet. “The legs were long (and) covered with long dark hair,” he continued. “My first thought was it was a drunk walking through the woods after leaving the Sawmill Saloon, but that makes no sense. We were quite a ways west of the Sawmill and there is no trail or crossing anywhere near there for someone to be walking.” After gunning their snowmobiles past, the two turned around to explore the area and find tracks. But they had not marked the spot with a landmark and were unsuccessful at finding any sign when they returned to the area. “We saw these legs for only a very brief moment, but again, it was very real,” he added. Following up on the sighting, a number of possible theories have been revealed. Cindy Ferraro of the Sawmill Saloon said that one potential explanation is that something was roused when the managed portion of the Uhrenholdt Memorial Forest south of Highway OO was cleaned up a few months ago. She said a friend who lives in the Seeley Hills area has reported unusual behavior coming from her dogs lately; they seem to be agitated by something out of the ordinary. Source: Sawyer County Record NOTE: I believe Seeley, Wisconsin is near Nelson Lake, northeast on Rt 63. Here is a link to a previous sighting reported to the BFRO - Man recalls encounter at a cabin on Nelson Lake...Lon 'Swamp Monster' - Near Dyer Lake, Wisconsin I am writing about something that happened to me about 20 years ago. I live in a small lake area called Bohners Lake, just outside of Burlington, Wisconsin. At the time of this tale I lived on the opposite side of the lake of where I live now about a half mile away from a boy scout camp called Camp Oh-Da-Ko-Ta. This camp encompasses 185 acres of beautiful rolling hills and woodlands on Dyer Lake. It was a beautiful summer day and I decided to take a walk with my dogs, a Golden Retriever and English Setter. I went a different way than usual and happened upon the back trail to the camp. It was chained off, but I chanced it anyway and hopped over to check it out. The trail was very quiet and peaceful and we walked a while enjoying ourselves greatly. After a bit we came upon some buildings. One was a large pole barn type that had it's doors chained shut. Curiosity overtook me, as usual, and I went up and pushed on one of the large doors allowing a crack of about 6 inches. I tried peering inside and couldn't see much but a floor and empty space. I was shocked when an earsplitting roar came out of the barn. It sounded like a scream but deep, guttural and bearlike. Well, my dogs took off running, and I took off running after them terrified. We ran back to my house and, shaking like a leaf and out of breath, I told my (now ex) husband what had happened. He of course told me that what I had heard was a crane........ I just stared at him incredulously. I knew better, but I wasn't going to argue the point with him and just pondered on it for a bit by myself, attempting to calm down. The day went on and nothing else was said about it until just after dark when we both heard the same scream coming from the back yard! The house I lived in at the time had a huge back yard. At the very back we had a garden by a small wooded area, and it was from there that we heard the scream. Well, my ex grabbed his rifle, and the dogs and headed down to the garden finding nothing. He came back to the house, eyes wide, and acknowledged that what I had heard was not a crane. After that we went about our night talking about it, with the dogs nervously prancing about, and eventually went to bed. Being summer, the bedroom windows were open and about 3 am, I was shocked awake when "it" was just outside the window and screamed into it. The dogs didn't even bark, they just cowered, whining. My husband again jumped up and grabbed the rifle and went outside, without the dogs as they didn't want to have anything to do with it, to investigate...again nothing. Well the story would end here as we didn't hear anything after that, and I was too scared to investigate the building again, but it just happened that about 3 weeks later my husband and I went away for the weekend on a camping trip and my mother, younger sister, and her two daughters spent the night at our house to watch the dogs while we were gone. The following morning my sister was in the kitchen cooking breakfast when my niece Sandra came in. She looked at the kitchen window and noticed a long smear mark on the kitchen window. She was about 9 at the time and looked up at my sister and said, " I know what did that." My sister looked at it and asked Sandra what she thought made it. Sandra replied, " Ooooo, it was the Swamp Monster"... My sister chuckled and asked her why she thought that. Now, I was always teasing the girls with stories about a swamp monster that lived out by me so they just knew that there was a creature out there. This of course was before my own experience and it wasn't cute and funny anymore. Then she said, "I saw the Swamp Monster last night." My sister said chuckling still, "Oooooo, what did you see?" Sandra just looked at her and said, "I saw a huge white hairy arm and it ran it's claws across the bedroom screen." (my bedroom) My sister said, "Wow, what did you do?" Sandra said, "Aw, I just rolled over and went to sleep, I knew it was Aunt Tina trying to scare me." Of course, we were camping. So, what did she see? I haven't a clue to this day. But I wonder, were they keeping something out there, or was there something living in that barn unbeknownst to them at the camp and did it follow me home? Last summer my brother, sister-in-law and I tried going back there, but we got stopped by the person living across the road before we could go across the chain that is still there. One more thing about that camp. Before this situation, a group of us had gone in the front entrance to the camp by car to check out Dyer Lake that is at the center edge of the camp hoping to sneak in some late night swimming. This was of course after dark and we of course were not supposed to be there. We arrived at the trail to the lake and got out of the car with our flashlights to walk. We tried following the trail but ended up going off somewhere along the line. We went over a hillside and there, at the bottom of the hill was a beautiful raw iron gate about 6' tall. There was a hole dug into the side of the hill, and this gate was covering the opening. We opened the gate, and found ourselves in a 12'x12' cave of sorts. Inside were candles, a dead rooster, and a sythe. There was nothing else. No altar or other signs of occult practices, just the things we found haphazardly laying about the room. My sister's now ex-husband took the sythe (which I told him to leave there) and we left and never went back. That is until I went for my walk that summer day. Source: Witness Statement NOTE: You may also want to read the following: The 'Place of Many Dead' - Devil's Lake, Wisconsin The Bosak Encounter: Terrestrial, Cryptoterrestrial or Alternative Being? Sheriff’s department investigates Sasquatch sighting Report of an Old Bigfoot Sighting From Linda Godfrey: Listening to Coast to Coast, I was shocked to hear about bigfoot in southeastern Wisconsin. Let me tell you about my experience. Keep in mind that I am a college graduate and a recently retired high school teacher. I do not belong to any strange sects; in fact, I’m rather nerdish. Truly, I’m quite believable. Continue reading at Linda Godfrey’s Blog The Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators and researcher Linda Godfrey are actively seeking information from eyewitnesses of paranormal and cryptid phenomenena in Wisconsin. Monsters of Wisconsin: Mysterious Creatures in the Badger State Weird Wisconsin: Your Travel Guide to Wisconsin's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets Mythical Creatures (Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena) if you have any information on these cases. Just leave a message with contact number, or you can write direct to report any strange sighting or encounter at
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 24th, 2006 Show You The Money? $5000 Could Be Yours Cryptozoologists, Bigfooters, and others pursuing hidden animals are despondent all the time about not having any funding for their quests. But right now, people have no excuse for complaining if they miss out on the money that is out there for the taking. Ask yourself, have you obtained a cryptid-related photo and are keeping it in a drawer that might get you $5000 in your effort to continue your search for Bigfoot? Well, act quick. Your time is running out to turn it in for that contest you first heard about last October. The contest submission deadline is around the corner, on February 3rd! Click image for larger version The number of photos received at the Duel Masters Creature Appreciation photo contest headquarters, thusfar, is surprisingly low. I wonder why folks who need fiscal support and want to do serious research aren’t sending in some entries to qualify for money that is waiting to be given away? Duel Masters trading cards (Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro) is going to give five people a total of $9000 for their cryptozoological photos. It goes without saying, one of those winners could be you. Not me, you! I’m one of the judges who is on their panel, so I can’t win anything. 🙂 But if you don’t submit, you won’t even be considered. The prizes are $5000 for the first prize, $1500 for the second prize, and $500 for three people who win the third prizes. Do you think you have something that might make the contest’s criteria? They are a lot easier to meet than you might think. Although the Duel Masters trading card games are played by pre-teens and adolescents, there’s no age limit to this contest. A committee determined by Wizards of the Coast will use the following criteria for this contest: 1) photo successfully furthers the myth (i.e. a traditional story accepted as history; folk tale; saga) and allure of finding an elusive mythical beast, such as Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster or Yeti (a/k/a Abominable Snowman) (50%), 2) originality and creativity (30%), and 3) artistic merit (20%). Ties, if any, will be broken by re-judging exclusively against criteria No. 1. I had nothing to do with the criteria for this contest, and, for example, I read their use of the word "myth," as "legend." Most of all, I am extremely happy to see that they have ruled out computer-based fakery (e.g. PhotoShop and related software computer distortions), in these photos. I will keep high standards, as a judge on this contest, as you can imagine. But I also understand the creative process some young people might go through to express their interests in cryptozoology. As an artistic process, this contest is an interesting mix of art, creativity, and cryptozoology, of course. As a forensic process, this contest (which is limited to United States submissions) could reveal some interesting bits of new evidence supporting Bigfoot. (I would assume entries for Nessie and Yeti will be rare, but maybe not. Americans travel a lot.) So dust off that photo collection, get out there in the field to snap a new pix, or take a photo of that Bigfoot that has visited your family’s farm for three generations and mail it in to: “Duel Masters Photo Contest,” c/o Hunter Public Relations, 41 Madison Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10010 or email it to Remember, you’ve got until Friday, February 3, 2006 (the 16th birthday of one of my sons, coincidentally)!! How can I be any clearer about this? Don’t sell yourself short. You could be a winner – of money. Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
We've gotten more intriguing cryptid photos from people trying to win our Cryptid Summer bounty. Here are a few of the pictures people have sent us over the past two weeks, ranging from highly plausible to downright bizarre. Now you can vote on which you think might really be cryptids. We'll consider your votes when deciding which photos to submit to our panel of experts in August! Here are this week's potential cryptids, with descriptions. Vote for which you think are real in the box at the bottom of the post. (You can still vote in Round One here.) Describing the photo at the top, Aaron writes: I'm a wildlife biologist in Nevada. I was conducting a fish study at an isolated northeastern Nevada spring when I discovered a very unusual creature in one of the fish traps. My first thought was that it was a flounder fish, but this made no sense as I was standing in an isolated freshwater spring hundreds of miles from the ocean. I quickly realized it was a leech, but a very weird, spiny leech. I almost kept it, but instead photographed it and released it. Later, I realized it could be a yet undescribed species, so last month I returned to the spot and managed to capture a single individual. I will actually be sending this specimen to Dr. Mark Siddall for his expert opinion. It is definitely the strangest leech I have ever seen. Mongolian Death Worm I have photos of a mongolian death worm. The pictures were taken with a handheld camera. The mongolian death worm slid through a path discoloured by his passing. He moved too quickly for me to take a photo of his whole body but here you can see his tail as he slides over a giant log. You can really see the size comparison. Found in Choongmuro, Korea on August, 2010. It has a fluorescent wing and body. This is a photo of a wallaby with broad white stripes taken at my parents' house, located on the side of Mount Macedon, Victoria, Australia. For a couple of months prior to the photo, my mum had been describing to my sister and I about this white striped wallaby she had been seeing in the garden around her home. I think we both assumed in the manner of a younger generation that she was a little... mistaken and the stripes were probably bird poo or some such. But one day the mysterious wallaby made an appearance when we and a camera were on hand and as you can see, the stripes are genuine. Whilst I've only done brief research on the wallaby, I've never uncovered any similar examples of such broad white stripes on a wallaby. The photo was taken in May 2009 and we haven't seen the mysterious wallaby since around that time. I am not sure if this is a cryptid or a mysterious animal. I just know I had never seen it before and I can't find it anywhere online. It just kind of scurried about, occasionally leaping up and flying over a little bit. It would often walk sideways and in sort of a sideways/downward walk across the window. This photo was taken during Aug of 2004 by a motion sensor game camera. I had stayed at a hunting cabin alone the month prior and heard strange mumblings, a powerful blow being struck to a nearby tree and even something on the roof of the cabin. The next morning I went outside to look for footprints or anything I could find. I walked down a private road that ran through a pasture bordered on one side by thick woods. As I stood in the road I suddenly heard a large branch or stick snap. Up ahead of me something was running just inside the treeline down toward me. The treeline was about 25 yards away from me and whatever was running was dark and moved like lightening. I wasn't exactly sure where it stopped but then I jumped when something in the woods directly in front of me snorted. It sounded exactly like a gorilla exhaling sharply through it nostrils. I knew what it must be, I couldn't see it but I knew it could see me. I walked back to the cabin and for a time was too afraid to stay there alone. I returned to the cabin the following month, Aug., and set a game camera up on an outside window ledge of the cabin. I was hoping maybe something would walk past the camera. This camera has a fixed focus for about 20-30 ft. Instead of walking past the camera, I believe an adult female Sasquatch was about to pick the camera up using its right hand. Just as its hand was about to make contact with the camera it flashed. When the flash reflected off of the fingers of the Sasquatch it created a light flare or glared image of the fingers (note the shape of the glare). If you look past the glare you can see the face of the adult turned slightly from the camera. At the bottom edge of the photo you can see the face of a juvenile Sasquatch looking directly at the camera. I have been visiting the cabin ever since this happened.
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 20th, 2007 BBtv, which is the popular blog site Boing Boing’s new television outlet, has broadcast their feature on “Cryptozoology” today, November 20th, 2007. Celebrity personality Xeni Jardin writes of the program: Cryptozoology with Loren Coleman and BBG’s Joel Johnson By Xeni Jardin Yeti, sea serpents, Sasquatch — fantasy creatures or flesh-and-blood biological oddities? Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson visits the Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine to explore these cryptid enigmas and more. Joel speaks with the museum’s founder, blogger and cryptozoology expert Loren Coleman, who is also the author of Mysterious America. To view the video, click on “International Cryptozoology Museum visit.” Now about that “off-the-record” Bigfoot walk…let’s just not talk about it. 🙂 Thank you for donating to the International Cryptozoology Museum by sending your financial gifts, unwanted or extra replica cryptia, and/or cryptozoology artifacts to Loren Coleman, Director, ICM, PO Box 360, Portland, ME 04112, or your fiscal contributions via PayPal to [email protected] (those are lower case “L”s not “ones”) Photo by Amber Waterman. Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
The two part episode "Two Face" from Batman: The Animated Series. Harvey Dent had already been established as a good, loving man at this point, and you're rooting for him every step of the way to not become a bad guy. Hedoes. "Heart of Ice". Not only for taking a joke villain like Freeze and turning him into a legitimate threat, but was the first time a cartoon show ever seriously delved into themes such as vengeance and that characters could die. These were the bread and butter of Transformers: Beast Wars, especially in the second and, to a lesser extent, third seasons. A heavy one was the Death of Dinobot, who has an entire episode dedicated to his Dying Moment of Awesome where he takes on the entire Predacon lineup including the Implacable Man Rampage and, as far as he knew, stop Megatron's plans of changing the future. Another good example was Transformers: The Movie, which killed off a lot of characters, in particular Optimus Prime. Sure, it was to sell toys, but that's still pretty gutsy for an 80s cartoon. The finale of Transformers Animated's second season definitely counts, seeing as it confirmed two long-running fan theories, namely that the Autobots' ship was really a dormant Omega Supreme, and that Sari is at least part robot. Following up on this, the three part opening movie for the third season was pretty much a wham episode, not giving us much time to recover from the previous episode as it promptly addressed almost every single problem of the finale, and managed to raise even more questions. It was also significantly darker than most of the series had been so far, namely with a more in-depth look at the unethical methods of the High Command and Blurr being murdered by being crushed into a cube onscreen. After this, the whole series' Wham quotient increases dramatically. The series became noticeably Darker and Edgier and started featuring onscreen character deaths rather than the ambiguous approach used in earlier seasons, along with some rather disturbing material (see: Wasp). Predacons Rising. "Wasp forgive Bumble-bot... But Waspinator NEVER FORGIVE!" The episode where Sari learns that she has no birth certificate, social security number, or anything else to prove that she legally exists. "The Bus" was just thought to be a simple pretend bus hijack to teach kids a lesson in skipping school gone wrong only to end up being set up for real and not by accident either! It was because Rob aka Dr. Wrecker is the one who tricked the adults to get $1 million and use a real explosive to kill everyone on the bus! The fact that Gumball (along with audience first time seeing the episode) didn't see it coming means Rob actually made progress in being a real villain at an alarming rate after the last time we see him in "The Nemesis"! From this point on, what may happened next in anyone's guess since he'll likely be out of jail and the painting from "The Oracle" might be happening sooner than expected. But Cybertron wasn't done yet, oh no. The episode right after had Hot Shot, Scattershot, and Red Alert brought to the brink of death (fortunately, they upgraded in the following episode, but still.) And then there was episode 47, "Guardian", featuring Vector Prime's heart-breaking Heroic Sacrifice. Arguably episode 46, "Showdown", as well. While we're on the subject of the Unicron Trilogy, Transformers Armada's Cramp certainly qualifies. After half a show's worth of playing in the Heel–Face Revolving Door Starscream goes out to battle with Megatron and lets himself be killed, just to make Megatron form an alliance with the Autobots. In Transformers Prime, "Partners" has Starscream defecting and becoming neutral, but the true Wham Episode in the series is in "One Shall Rise - Part 1": Earth was formed around Unicron. "One Shall Rise - Part 3": Unicron is defeated, but Optimus loses his memories of the Autobot-Decepticon war, and leaves with Megatron. "Crossfire": The Decepticon ranks are reshuffled after Airachnid kills Breakdown (whose remains are recovered by MECH), then goes rogue... along with an army of Insecticons. "Toxicity": Bulkhead is almost killed and likely permanently damaged. The following episode, "Hurt", has Miko finally lose her innocence after killing Hardshell to save Wheeljack, who becomes alienated from the team for endangering Miko. Not only is Bulkhead stated to never be at the top of his game again, but Hardshell's death finally convinces Megatron of just how dangerous humans really are.] "Darkest Hour": Optimus destroys the Omega Lock — and any viable chance of restoring Cybertron — in order to prevent Megatron from cyberforming Earth. However, Megatron retaliates by declaring an all out of invasion of Earth, and launching an all out attack on the Autobase. In the ensuing chaos, Wheeljack is shot down by Starscream while the Autobots and humans are scattered as they evacuate the base, which is then blown up by the Nemesis... with Optimus still in it. "Rebellion": Optimus is revived and rebuilt into a new, far more powerful body using the last of the Forge of Solus Prime's energy, the Autobots led by newcomer Ultra Magnus destroy Darkmount, and the Autobots get a new base. "Thirst" is probably the biggest wham episode of the third season: Knock Out and Starscream's experiments with Dark and synthetic Energon turn Cylas into a vampiric Terrorcon, whose resulting rampage costs the Decepticons more than half of the Vehicons, and the entire Insecticon horde once Airachnid is freed and banished to one of Cybertron's moons. Cylas is finally killed, and Project Predacon is sped up as well. This leads to a chain of events which ultimately cost the Decepticons victory in the war by the series finale. The second season finale in ReBoot, which kicked off its first real Story Arc with a bang. The finale was set around an invasion by the web and an Enemy Mine situation. But all within the last few moments it ended up with Bob, who is in every regard the most important person on the show, being betrayed by Megabyte and exiled to the web, leaving the Bratty Half-Pint as the designated hero to stop Megabyte. Compounded by the agony of the third season being stuck for so long in Development Hell. Used again early in season 3. Remember that new guy keeping Mainframe safe? Well we can kiss him goodbye too. Sacrifice and a lot of the My Two Bobs arc are pretty whammy themselves. Frisky Dingo does these quite a lot. The second season plotline of Xander and Killface running for President took a sudden turn when someone finally pointed out that, since Xander's only 32 and Killface isn't a U.S. citizen, neither of them can actually get elected President. In a rage, Killface cripples Xander, kills his cute animal mascot, and vows to finally destroy the world like he said he would in Season 1. Justice League episode "A Better World" starts off looking like a Batman Cold Open with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman fighting their way past Mooks to stop a Big Bad. It's Lex Luthor. No surprise there. But Lex taunts Superman about Supe's complicity in Lex's crimes because Supe always holds the Hero Ball like he's got crazy glue on his palms. Then come the 'whams': (1) Superman murders Lex Luthor; (2) he's glad he did it; (3) the camera pans out the window to reveal that Superman just killed the President of the United States; (4) then the JLA takes over the entire planet! Thank heaven it was an alternate reality. Until they figured out how to come to our world and do the exact same thing. The 3-part episode ending season 2, "Starcrossed", turns out to be a Wham Episode too. Hawkgirl is The Mole for the Thanagarian Empire, and always has been. She helps them take over the planet. She turns against her own people when she realizes they will destroy her adopted home and helps the Justice League prevail. But the JL satellite is destroyed in the process, and Hawkgirl quits the League before finding out if she had been expelled from the team. Let's not forget the Justice League Unlimited episodes that dealt with the Cadmus Arc. About half of seasons one and two to be exact. Culminating in the episode "Question Authority" which had six Wham moments topping each other! Luthor finding out his cancer had gone into remission, The Question finding out the secret of the Justice Lords, The Question deciding to avert fate by killing Luthor so that Superman couldn't, Luthor issuing a Curb-Stomp Battle on the Question and revealing his Presidential campaign was a lie, Superman finding out his old ally Professor Hamilton had volunteered for Cadmus, and Captain Atom showing up at the last moment revealing he has orders to stop Superman from rescuing the Question. The arc had one more Wham to go; in the last few moments of "Panic In The Sky", we discover that the true Man Behind the Man isn't Luthor, but actually Brainiac, who was fused into Luthor's body. Dragon Booster's plot changed significantly when Armaggedon showed up in talking amulet form, promising power for Moordryd, the antagonist, which led to him becoming the Shadow Booster and ultimately rebelling against his father. This had far more impact than Mortis revealing that he is Connor, Artha and Lance's dad, and not as dead as they thought. The lack of impact for the latter event was because the fandom had assumed that for months. King of the Hill has "Death of a Propane Salesman," in which it is revealed that Buckley died in the propane explosion at Mega Lo Mart. Luanne goes slightly insane attempting to hide her grief. The first season finale puts the every previous Story Arc episode in a whole new context when Slade reveals that all the villainous plans he set up were just tests of Robin's skill, who he wants to serve as his new apprentice. And is willing to kill all of Robin's friends to make it happen. "Birthmark" from Season Four has Slade coming back from dead, and revealing that Raven is going to end the world. Then there's the fourth season finale, where Raven voluntarily brings the world to an end. For a while. Seeing that Slade is a charred skeleton beneath his mask was just gravy. The season 1 finale, "Kindred Spirits". For two seasons Vlad has mustered all his energy and strength to make Danny his son. Then we find out in "KS" that he had prepared a back-up plan to complete a perfect clone of him as a substitute (incidentally, that's also why Vlad gave Valerie her first ghost hunting suit) on the off-shot that the real Danny never will come to his side. Shit happens and one Villainous Breakdown later, Vlad changes his mind about the boy; that little bastard is DEAD MEAT. The season one episode "Public Enemies" also falls under this, as it rather drastically changed the status quo. Before, ghosts were not widely recognized or even known, and so Danny Phantom flew (no pun intended) under the radar. All of a sudden, ghosts become a recognized enemy across the entire city that need to be fought against, and not only that, but Danny Phantom becomes the number one enemy after being framed for kidnapping the mayor! And all orchestrated spectacularly by Walker, whose bastardry will never again be understated. The Ultimate Enemy. Dear God, The Ultimate Enemy. Danny's life has been going fine until he decides to cheat on the CAT. One small mistake, and everything goes downhill. His friends and family end up dying horribly in an explosion, and with no place to go, he ends up in Wisconsin living with Vlad. The guilt and sadness eats away at the poor kid to the point where he begs Vlad to remove his humanity, allowing him to rid himself of his emotions. Well, that backfires. Horribly. Danny's ghost half rips out Vlad's ghost half and fuses with it, creating a sociopathic monster that destroys most of the earth. The Reset Button got hit, of course, but the whole plot of the episode is just disturbing. And even then, after a season of being Danny's Secret Secret-Keeper Danny finally learns that Jazz knows the truth about him. Wham Episode, indeed. The season 1 finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars not only introduced an original character, Cad Bane, who immediately comes across as a Badass and unlike most villains thus far succeeds in his mission, nearly wiping out a room full of Senates and an unarmed Skywalker in the process but fueled the launch of Season 2 which in two episodes is already Darker and Edgier than almost everything the first season had to offer. Also worth noting is various episodes in the series achieved this status by totally reversing the "kiddie" status some of the earlier episodes gave the show. It is likely different for every viewer, but most agree that "Rookies" was the one that paved way for the more mature episodes to come later in the series. The villains that paved the way for Cad Bane in the Ryloth Trilogy weren't too stupid either, but they each had a fundamental weakness the commander of the blockade did not expect Anakin's suicide run because of his pride, the droid in Innocents of Ryloth did not perceive the Twi'leks themselves as threats until they were ripping him apart, and Emir Tambor stalled long enough for Mace Windu to capture him because of his greed. Unlike these villains Cad Bane's only weakness seems to be that nobody else is as badass as he is. Season 3's Mortis trilogy, for our two main characters: Anakin Skywalker realizes the burden on his shoulders as The Chosen One, which was something he previously dismissed as a myth. He also witnesses both himself and Ahsoka turn to the dark side, and will most likely do whatever it takes to stop that from happening. Well, regarding himself turning evil, yeah, about that... Ahsoka Tano sees a vision of her future self telling her to stay away from Anakin. The Son also tries to convince Ahsoka about something similar, that Anakin wouldn't rescue her when she was held captive. Through "Sithsoka", she also reveals her subconscious fears and resentments: her frustration towards Anakin's criticality and dissatisfaction. The 4-part Umbara arc in season 4 is one of these (especially since it started right after the Lighter and Softer episodes focused on the Droids), in particular the episode Carnage of Krell. If that doesn't do the job, at the end of season 4, Darth Maul is back and pissed off, and soon enough becomes one of the villains in season 5. And to show how mad he is, especially at Obi-Wan for slicing him in two, he says he'll slaughter a village unless Obi-Wan comes to him. And : Obi-Wan does come on over, only to find out Darth Maul slaughtered the entire village anyway.. Holy. SHIT. Even before that, the Nightsisters trilogy in Season 3. Dooku abandoning Ventress pretty much takes the cake, though many other moments qualify. The Season 5 finale throws one hell of a curveball at us. Ahsoka's name has been cleared, the High Council welcome her back to the Jedi Order, offering to promote her to Knight. We think we're being set up for our little Jedi to take the next step up the ranks... "I'm sorry, Master. I'm not coming back". Ahsoka's faith in the Order has been utterly shattered by them refusing to have faith in her innocence. In response, she leaves the Jedi Order.The end. Season 1, Episode 10 reveals that Gall Trayvis, one of the few senators to speak out against the Empire, was actually in league with them the entire time. He used his transmissions as a front to hide his true intentions: finding and eliminating insurgents. Episode 11 sees Grand Moff Tarkin arrive on the scene, only to behead his most incompetent officers, then predict the heroes' next move. While they succeed in hacking the Imperial communciations, Kanan is captured, and Tarkin destroys the tower after only one transmission. The first season finale is an even BIGGER wham episode. The heroes steal aboard Tarkin's personal Star Destroyer to rescue Kanan. While they get him free, they find the Inquisitor waiting for them. He duels Ezra and Kanan, only to knock Ezra out, causing Kanan to go into an Unstoppable Rage. Kanan then defeats the Inquisitor, driving the latter to suicide. They escape the Star Destroyer, only to have half the Imperial Navy on their tail. But Chopper has gone to get help from another Rebel cell, and rescues them in the nick of time. The episode ends with the reveal that not only did Ahsoka Tano survive Revenge of the Sith, but she has been working for the Rebels the entire time. The final shots of the episode reveal that Palpatine has sent Darth Vader himself to deal with the Rebels. You may wish to take a few minutes to catch your breath after watching the episode. The Season 2 pilot, The Siege of Lothal, is no less brutal — and follows hot on the heels of the aforementioned finale! Darth Vader sets a trap for the rebels which results in the citizens of Lothal turning against them. They are forced to leave, but find that the Empire has cut off their escape. Sneaking into a nearby Imperial base, they try to steal a shuttle, but find Vader waiting for them. He curbstomps them, and they escape only because he lets them. Then they go to Tarkintown, only to find it burned and its citizens arrested. They finally make their escape back to their fleet — only to find that their shuttle was rigged with a tracking device. Vader shows up moments later, and personally tears their fleet in half, killing nearly all their pilots and destroying their command ship. Only Hera's amazing pilot skills enable them to escape. Even worse, Ahsoka and Vader become aware of each other. Ahsoka is so shaken by the revelation that Ankakin is alive — not to mention that he is a Sith Lord — that she faints, and when she wakes up, she denies any knowledge of who or what he is. Vader, meanwhile, lets the survivors escape again, because he wants to use Ahsoka for his own ends. Oh BABY.... Code Lyoko has one in the Season 2 finale, where Aelita's memory is drained, and XANA escapes the confines of Lyoko. Followed by Franz returning Aelita's memory, which almost totally deletes him. Then there's the Season 3 finale, which has William becoming The Dragon for XANA. There's also Xana forcing William to destroy Lyoko completely by possessing his body through the Scyphozoa. He effortlessly slashes through the Lyoko Warriors with his BFS, then floats off the edge of the highest platform to the Heart of Lyoko. William stabs it, and the entire virtual world collapses in on itself, taking the Sixth Ranger with it. Season 4's finale was one wham after another. Jeremie's almost finished the program he needs to kill Xana, but the program isn't going down without a fight. When the Warriors are searching for Franz Hopper in the Ice Sector, the AI attacks and possesses William, who was denied the chance to go to Lyoko. What follows (on Earth) is one of the most brutal beatdowns ever seen on the show. The biggest punch: Jeremie's program can't run because it doesn't have enough power. Franz Hopper sacrifices himself to provide that power and dies. And this time, he doesn't come back. Aelita comes out of the scanner crying. She wasn't the only one. So far, Metalocalypse has three: the season 1 finale, where Dethklok's concert is attacked, the season two finale, where they get attacked again, with the result that their home is burning to the ground and their manager is dying from his injuries, and the season three premiere, where the manager reveals that he had faked his death. Make that four, with the season 03 finale "Doublebookedklok." Let's count the whams, shall we? Offdensen witnessed Selatcia's Mind Rape of General Crozier in the season 02 finale and may have been affected by it somehow, particularly in relation to Selatcia. The Tribunal are highly suspicious of Offdensen and suspect he has knowledge of their mysterious Falconback Project. And finally, Offdensen is keeping Edgar Jomfru tucked away in Mordhaus and is possibly using him in order to spy on or make plans for the Falconback Project. Season 4 had three whams IN A ROW! In "Dethdinner", Pickles announces he's quitting the band after getting fed up with Nathan's bullshit. Then, "Breakup Klok" had Mr. Salacia reveal his true form on Dethklok's final concert, and kills their producer Roy Cornickelson. Finally, "Church of the Black Klok" revealed how Ofdensen survived, that Dethklok are part of a prophecy where they are the Chosen Ones, why Nathan destroyed the record (a prophet that guided him) and Cornickelson's funeral is attacked by the Revengencers with Abigail and Toki getting kidnapped (the latter by former Dethklok member Magnus Hammersmith). Holy shit. In "Dye! Dye! My Darling", the season 4 finale of Daria, tensions between Daria, her best friend Jane and Jane's boyfriend Tom came to a boiling point. The scene where Tom and Daria agree that they can't stab Jane in the back then immediately spontaneously kiss in his car was enough to induce Spit Takes in the audience (a lot of whom declared the series "Ruined FOREVER!" as a result). The episode and thus the season ended with Jane and Tom splitting up, Daria and Jane agreeing they could still be friends but needed to spend some time apart from each other, and with Daria's phone ringing and her answering it to hear "Daria? It's Tom..." In Iron Man: Armored Adventures, the first season finale is one pretty much from start to finish. Everything that could've gone wrong has done so by the end of it. Episode 35 of The Secret Saturdays, "And Your Enemies Closer". Argost turns out to be a cryptid himself, the yeti that killed Drew and Doyle's parents, kidnaps Zak, kills Zak's Mirror Universecounterpart by using the Flute of Gilgamesh to steal his Kur powers; which leaves him with the power to raise a army of cryptids. Naturally, the Holy Shit Quotient was through the roof. "Turning Point." The Green Goblin learns Spider-Man's true identity and proceeds to wreak havoc on his life. Mary Jane is supposedly killed in the ensuing bridge battle. The viewers know that she survived, but she fell through a time-dilation accelerator portal - leaving her lost in a void and quite a Tear Jerker for poor Peter's reactions. Followed up down the line by Mary Jane, quite some time after her mysterious return from this, was revealed to have Hydro-Man's powers. As your mouth is still hanging open from that, we find out why - she's a clone made by Miles Warren, and adding the (also a clone) Hydro-Man's power to turn to water and put himself back together helped keep her stable. Unfortunately, it's not perfect, and she does die when her body eventually degenerated, with Peter just as helpless to do anything about it as before. The Grand Finale of The Spectacular Spider-Man reveals that Norman Osborn was the only Green Goblin, even during season 1 - he'd framed Harry for his crimes and the Norman we saw when "Harry" was elsewhere as the Goblin was in fact the Chameleon. What about the time Harry had the injury the Goblin had sustained? Norman broke his own son's leg. The two part season finale of Ultimate Spider-Man. After a whole season of dancing around it, Norman Osborn finally becomes the Green Goblin as a result of a fusion of both Spider-Man's blood and the Venom compound. At first driven crazy, he regains his sanity, and seeks to revert his son to Venom. While he fails, a ton of shakeups to the Status Quo happen. Dr. Octopus leaves his services forever, the SHIELD Helicarrier is destroyed (for now), Harry loses the Venom symbiote which Norman takes a sample of, Dr. Connors gets one of his arms crushed, Harry hears of how the Green Goblin came from Spider-man and vows revenge, Spider-Man realizes just how important having a team is, and finally, the rest of the SHIELD team moves in with Peter. Whew. "The Sinister Six" to a lesser extent. The Sinister Six is created, which test Peter's strength as a leader. In the end, the team does manage to work together and Spidey gets some Character Development. However, the real WHAM is that, although Spider-Man and his team bring in five of the six, Curt Connors fully becomes The Lizard and runs away, leaving Peter feeling helpless after he tried to save him. In the vein of the "The Sinister Six", "Stan By Me" is another whammer in the Lizard arc. Can be summed up by a sole line by Spidey: "Oh, no. The Lizard part of his brain changed it to drive out Connors? And I just helped! * The Lizard was building a machine that Spidey thought that the Connors part was building in order to drive out the Lizard, so Spidey and company subdue the Lizard and use the machine on him. "Helga on the Couch" from Hey Arnold!. Helga gets sent to a child psychologist, where the truth comes out about why she acts the way she does... It involves inattentive parents, and a sister whose standards she'd never be able to reach in her parents' eyes. By the next episode Tom's out of prison and James Woods has been brought back from the dead, but all the other changes so far seem to have stuck, which is also part of the reason why Joyce Kinney was hired as the new TV anchorwoman. It's not the only Family Guy episode to be a Wham Episode. It's simply titled "Brian and Stewie". The Cold Opening and lack of cutaway gags is a giveaway that something is going to go down. Basically it's about Brian and Stewie locked in a bank vault over a weekend. It had the usual Family Guy antics, including Brian eating Stewie's poop, Stewie drunkenly piercing his ear, and a gun from Brian's safety deposit box ricocheting around the room. It eventually dies down and we're wondering what's about to happen next, then Stewie asks why Brian has a gun. He tells him that it's in case he ever decided to commit suicide as he cannot find a purpose in life, the alcohol meant to be his last drink. Stewie is horrified and admits that Brian is his best friend, and sometimes making another person happy is enough. "Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q." a Darker and EdgierVery Special Episode that dealt with Domestic Abuse in a straight and serious way. Here, Quagmire tries to help his sister overcome domestic abuse and rub out her abusive boyfriend in a confrontation that takes a turn for the worse. "The Life of Brian"—- the one where, as you probably have heard by now, Brian dies—-was this when it first aired, since it ended with Brian Griffin still dead and replaced by Vinny... And then the Christmas Episode a mere three weeks later ended with Stewie preventing Brian's death, and retconing it all off.Seth Green later claimed the whole thing was done for shock value, to remind all the viewers it was a show where anything could happen and likely wood. (Meaning, it was meant to be a Wham Episode with a huge Wham.) Of all shows from of all studios, Filmation's 1987 cartoon Bravestarr has a Wham Episode dealing with drug abuse, but it refuses to do with it what Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue did—sugarcoat it. The episode "The Price" deals with a kid who is turned onto a topical controlled substance called Spin. The perps are caught but the tag is tainted: The boy is found in his treehouse, dead of a Spin overdose. The episode ends with the boy's mother in agonized hysteria, with the final "pro-social message" scene showing Bravestarr laying a wreath at the boy's grave. "A Family Crisis". Octus is Killed Off for Real by an energy-absorbing monster. Lance and Ilana are unable to use Titan. Before that, "The Fortress of Deception". Other people know about Lance, Ilana, and Octus's secret. Such as government agencies. Episode 23, "The Devourer", of Monster Allergy has many revelations. Jeremy is placed under Magnacat's mind control after he is caught spying on the meeting between the Gorkas and Dark Phantoms; under his influence, he sabotaged Zick's teleskates that teleports him in Magnacat's hideout instead of Bibbur-Si to warn Timothy of the evil alliance. Zick has lost his powers including his ability to see monsters because his Dom energy is absorbed by the Dom Devourer, but the bright side is Elena, his best friend who can't see monsters, can finally see monsters. Hurray! The season 2 finale and the season 3 premiere of X-Men: Evolution. For the first two seasons, the show was mostly light, at least when compared to other superhero cartoons. But starting with the end of season 2, the mutants are finally exposed to the world (when before they were hiding themselves) and the show starts going into Darker and Edgier storylines with themes about discrimination, along with the X-Men starting to face larger threats. Kung Fu Panda 2. Unlike the first film, characters die and are actually confirmed dead, unlike any of the possible "deaths" of the first film. Not only that, the threat they face is greater, and we start to learn about a young Po's tragic past. "Between Brothers." Cheetara and Tygra kiss, Grune is sucked into the Astral Plain, and Panthro loses both arms. That is nothing compared to "What Lies Above Part 2.'' After all the time we've grown to love Pumyra and her relationship with Lion-O, she turns out to be working for Mumm-Ra. She helps him get the Tech Stone and Avista makes a crash landing. The one good thing to come out of it is all of the Thunder Cats' friends uniting to help in his fight. The 26th (and final) episode of season 1, "A Day Unlike Any Other" concludes with the Avengers saving Asgard and, by extension, the world from Loki. However... Captain America has been replaced with a Skrull agent by the end of the episode, setting up next season. The next season has "Who Can You Trust?" Nick Fury learns that one of the Avengers is really a Skrull. The viewers have known which Avenger the Skrull replaced since the first season endednote see the entry above, so the shock value derives more from seeing the Avengers' dependability give way to paranoia, which even drives three heroes into quitting the team. By the time the episode ends, the Avengers consist of half as many heroes as in the first season, and Captain America takes the leadership position Iron Man renounced. Finally, the viewers learn that the queen of the Skrulls has made her way to Earth, disguised as one of Nick Fury's agents, Mockingbird. In the first episode of season five, the agents are caught in an attack on ISIS that turns out to be a raid from the FBI, who disband ISIS for never actually being a legally sanctioned spy agency to begin with. Without jobs, the ISIS crew must now find a living in the real world, which they do by attempting, very ineptly, to sell a literal, not figurative, metric tonne of cocaine. Moral Orel season 2 finale, Nature. Clay takes Orel into a forest for hunting where his behavior suddenly gets tensed of getting drunk, berating him, shooting him in the leg, and refusing to heal his leg. This results in season 3 being changed from light to dark. El Manana, Gorillaz' music video in which Moe Noodle apparently DIES. Also the Plastic Beach interviews which show Murdoc to now be mentally and physically abusing 2D quite horribly. The original T.I.E., The Intruder is particularly infamous as this, as it ended the era of the original TOM and saw him replaced by TOM 2. Its sequel, The Intruder II has managed to outdo it: not only has the Intruder came back, it took over TOM 1's body, assimilate SARA and TOM 4 (albeit the latter offscreen), TOM 5 rips his arm off, and the Absolution is destroyed when TOM 5 triggers a nuclear explosion on the ship the Intruder used to lure the ship there. However, they're also earned their happy ending as TOM managed to back up SARA and upload her onto the new ship and she building him a new arm. "Where's Perry? Part 1" ends with Phineas, Ferb, and their friends falling down a deep gorge, Jeremy apparently breaking up with Candace, Perry, and this is the clincher, suddenly vanishing after being hit by several inators at the same time and Linda and Lawrence without dinner reservations, all of which are thankfully resolved by part 2. "Happy Birthday, Isabella" manages to breachStatus Quo Is God by having Stacy learn about Perry's identity and avoid getting her mind erased. "Magical Mystery Cure", in which Twilight rewrites an ancient spell, thereby becoming an alicorn princess. Sweet Celestia, where do we go from here? "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2": Let us count the ways: Twilight's library is destroyed; she faces the Big Bad in a battle of Dragon Ball Z proportions; Discord's Heel–Face Turn is nearly complete; the Mane Six are bestowed with new Elements of Harmony in the form of Rainbow Power; Twilight is dubbed Princess of Friendship; and Twilight is given a brand new castle of her very own, with thrones for herself and all her friends (including Spike). "Crusaders of the Lost Mark": The Cutie Mark Crusaders finally get their cutie marks, thus ending a major plot arc that had been ongoing since season one. Also, they get their Arch Enemies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to undergo Heel-Face Turns. Unlike Twilight's ascension, which was spoiled weeks beforehand and even during commercial breaks both before and during that episode's first run, there was no warning whatsoever that anything like this was going to happen (aside from some hints in "Appleoosa's Most Wanted", and the fact that it was a Musical Episode like Twilight's and the fifth anniversary of the series, that nobody managed to pick up on). Never before has the fandom been blindsided as it was here. The Simpsons took the world by storm (literally) in the episode Simpsoviced when Bart got a new treehouse. WOWOW! Robot Chicken: "Fight Club Paradise" begins with the titular chicken escaping from the Mad Scientist's laboratory (thanks to a maid), and ends with him getting revenge on the Mad Scientist after he abducts and tortures his wife whilst killing some characters (and sparing a fair few including The Nerd) in the process, but what really drives the point home is that for once the season ends with the show not getting canceled! Admit it, for a show that gets canceled after every season but gets renewed by the next, this is an exception (Possibly because the bloodbath caused it to get Adored by the Network). Motorcity: The first episode of the two-part season finale "Vega" is this: Mike asks Julie to lead the burners if "something should happen to him" even though Julie already told Kane she would take over if something were to happen to him, the Duke betrayed the Burners and helped Kane capture Mike, and now Mike is in jail, will be executed and Motorcity is in chaos. The Batman has the season 1 finale, "The Clayface of Tragedy" with Ethan Bennett being Clayface. Grojband has the Mid-season finale/Series Fauxnale "Six Strings of Evil"; Mainly for having a Big Dam Plot, it ends with Peaceville getting flooded, and Trina becoming brainwashed by the possessed music box. TCRI: The Turtle discover the Kraang's headquarters. The Kraang's plan is revealed to be mutating Earth to make it suitable for Kraang habitation, which would kill or mutate everybody else. They summon a giant rock monster from Dimension X that trumps the turtles and has to be taken out by Leatherhead via Heroic Sacrifice - and it still comes back. Finally, the information Donnie retrieved from the headquarters reveals that Kirby O'Neil was just a bystander, and the Kraang's true target was APRIL. "Showdown": Karai is Miwa Hamato, Splinter's daughter, and she doesn't have a clue. Annihilation: Earth - Shredder KILLS Splinter and the Earth is destroyed by the Triceratons' black home bomb. Only the Turtles, April, and Casey are alive, rescued by the Fugitoid. Beware the Batman has episode seven, "Family", where Bruce finds out about Katana's past, fires her and Alfred, is betrayed by Bethanie Ravencroft, and causes a civil war in the League of Assassins between Silver Monkey and Lady Shiva, all of this later revealed to be part of Bruce's master plan to weaken the League and "test" Katana, revealing his identity as Batman to her by the end. Episode ten, "Sacrifice", had Anarky establishing himself as a major threat by messing with the League of Assassins and using the corpse of Ra's al Ghul as a bargaining chip against them. The episode ends with him returning it to Lady Shiva. The mid-season finale, "Fall", reveals that Alfred and Tatsu's father had faced Ra's before, and the latter's betrayal might have forced the former to kill him with the Soultaker Sword. Also, Jason Burr overcomes his brainwashing, only to be a victim of the sword, Ra's is revived again, Batman is captured by the League of Assassins, Katana and Alfred barely escape alive, and the League succeeds in using the Ion Cortex to plunge Gotham into darkness. "Reckoning" brings resolution to the above plot points, but it also has the revelation that Tatsu's father committed suicide by handing over the Soultaker to Alfred so his own soul could be absorbed, leaving Alfred with survivor's guilt. To make up for that, Alfred leaves Bruce and Tatsu to make amends about his past life, which affects Bruce in the long-run. In addition, the commissioner's death leads to Gordon getting promoted and paves the way for Harvey Dent's introduction. In "Animal", Batman's character arc comes to a head as he becomes too unstable without Alfred and too reckless as his Batman persona, causing him to savagely beat and nearly murder Killer Croc. Alfred returns from his quest to help out Bruce once again. "Epitaph", within the first minutes, has Bruce Wayne being killed by Batman himself. This starts a chain of events that reveals Dane Lisslow, recurring character and friend of Bruce's, as the fake Batman, Batman's reputation is ruined as he is successfully framed for Lisslow's crimes and is hunted down by the police as a terrorist, Deathstroke is revealed to have survived the events of "Hero", and Harvey Dent is injured and hospitalized. On top of that, Lisslow might not have even existed in the first place. "Twist" follows up on the events of the previous episode and it lives up to its title as it reveals that Dane Lisslow and Deathstroke are both one of the same, and he has been planning a long, elaborate scheme throughout half of the season to culminate in the destruction of Alfred and Batman. In addition, Anarky "twists" a disfigured and deranged Harvey Dent into getting revenge on those who wronged him, and Gordon quits as commissioner. The season finale (Which also doubles as the series finale), "Alone" features Katana recruiting all of Batman's previous allies as the "Outsiders" against Deathstroke in a final battle. Deathstroke loses his eye and becomes amnisiac, Batman forms a team, Anarky is ready to continue his dangerous game, and Harvey Dent has new plans for Gotham as Two-Face. Regular Show with "Steak Me Amadeus". To keep things brief, Margret reveals that she has been accepted into her dream collage and has to move away, leaving both Mordecai and Margret heartbroken. Clone High has two. The most notable would be the Grand Finale, in which Abe realizes he's in love with Joan, Joan sleeps with JFK, and Scudworth locks them all in a quick freezer with the Secret Board of Shadowy Figures. The second one that might qualify would be "Litter Kills: Literally", which basically revolves around JFK mourning the death of his friend Ponce. "Rick Potion #9", in which Rick and Morty accidentally unleash a Body Horror virus infecting all of Earth and wrecking it beyond repair, then they escape to an alternate universe where they suffered a brutal death very shortly after fixing their version of the problem. They then bury their alternate counterparts, and seamlessly replace them. Morty suffers a huge Heroic B.S.O.D. because of this. "The Wedding Squanchers": It turns out that Rick, Birdperson, Squanchy and other friends of theirs are "terrorists" rebelling against the Galactic Federation. Tammy, Summer's friend and Birdperson's fiancee, turns out to be an undercover agent of the Federation and kills Birdperson, and their wedding turns out to be a sting operation. After Rick forces the family to go on the run with him, the episode ends on a Cliffhanger where Rick turns himself in to the Federation so his family won't suffer because of him and live a normal life on Earth. "Scarecrow": That new enemy that was literally dug up kills several people, survived that fire, and has taken the face of a spaceport tech to continue his rampage across the galaxy. "Heart of Tarkon": Wow, Doc really is a Badass after all. Oh, and the Heart of Tarkon is neither a legend or supersition; it's a Benevolent AI that must be awakened to protect the planet. And...its ancient archenemy was The Scarecrow Entity?! "Armada": Holy Crap! That's a big flotilla of ships headed for Earth! On the upside Their cut-rate starstones led to most of that fleet being destroyed, delivering a devastating blow to the Empire's ability to continue waging war. The Supertrooper Duology: We knew Senator Wheiner was bad, but we had no idea how bad. And what did he try blackmailing Walsh with? Walsh is Goose's biological father! The Care Bears & Cousins episode The Bright Stuff finally revealed Wonderheart's belly badge power. A milder example than the other tropes listed here, but keep in mind that in the previous series Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot, she spends the entire series searching for her power to no avail. Arthur usually avoids this due to its slice of life nature. The end of season 18, "The Last Day", stands out. The main characters graduate from Ratburn's class into fourth grade. Ratburn also switches to being a fourth grade teacher. Mia And Me has one in the episode "My Name Is Varia", the 15th episode of the second season. Mia's rival Violetta obtains a shard of the gem from Mia's bracelet, which brings her to Centopia whenever Mia goes there. All Hail King Julien has "King Juli-END?" that ends on a cliffhanger that sees its main character missing and presumed dead by his friends, in a series that had been an episodic comedy up until then. The Adventures of Puss in Boots spends most of its second season focusing on completing a spell to restore the barrier that protects San Lorenzo. In the Season finale "No?", the spell turns out to have been a fake, and ends up reviving an ancient evil instead. The New Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show abruptly abandons its variety show format at the end of its second season finale as Mr. Peabody travels to the events of a story he was telling, and accidentally creates a time paradox.
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 4th, 2006 Now in its fourth month, Asia’s latest "Bigfoot" flap keeps on rolling. What can be learned from how the media is handling the story via the evolving names being used? Are there the hints of ridicule and racism, in the routine being revealed? The Malaysian "Bigfoot," as a labeled cryptid, is slowly merging with various attributed "local" designations that are slipping into the stories. The name that is being picked most often reveals a developing story that moves the examination of the sightings from a more tangible cryptozoological landscape into a media-friendly "legendary status," with a hint of xenophobia. At the start of the year, one name you might have heard in associate with the current Malaysian accounts, beyond "Bigfoot," was "Mawas." For several years, Mawas has been a term for unknown, man-sized hairy hominoids seen in Malaysia. Of course, what is intriguing is that Mawas in nearby Indonesia is most often related to discussions about the orangutan, (Pongo pygmaeus), known from ranges in the wild in Sumatra (Pongo pygmaeus abelii) and Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus). It is interesting to track the evolution of the recent use of "Mawas." On January 3th, for example, the Seoul Times reported that following a one-day expedition, led by Johor National Parks director Hashim Yusof, he said he was compiling "a database on Bigfoot or orang mawas sightings at various spots." One wire service dispatch on January 8th, distributed widely, quoted director Hashim Yusoff as observing: "My personal feeling is that there is a possibility it could be what we call in Malaysia the ‘mawas’ … more of a primate." Then, beginning the middle of January 2006, the term "Mawas" was mostly being employed in lists. Discussing the Malaysian sightings, the media has done this in two ways. One is by noting the "tribal people call the creatures Siamang, Mawas, or Hantu Jarang Gigi." The other is by saying "Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, Yeti or Mawas." [As already mentioned on Cryptomundo, the siamang (Hylobates syndactylus) is a known ape, a form of gibbon, and inappropriate within such a list.] While making waves in the news in January 2000 as Mawas, I don’t see any evidence that this name – which has appeared only about 20 times recently – will become more frequently used to characterize the current 2005-2006 sightings and expeditions. The same is true for the term more popular during the 1960s. "Orang Dalam" or "Interior Man," for the very tall, ten foot hairy Malaysian hominoids may be more correct, but it has not been used except by some blogs, including this one. That leaves us with the name that is being more commonly seen and heard in broadcast media, newspaper and online mentions – "Hantu Jarang Gigi" that is translated as "Snaggle-Toothed Ghost." This moniker usually allows the reporter to either make fun of the "toothy" name, and/or have the creature appear to live in a spooky world of phantoms and folklore. A certain kind of distance ("their legends call it") exists when labeling these encounters with the Hantu Jarang Gigi or "Snaggle-Toothed Ghost." There have been over thirty article appearances of this usage. The current typical radio or news story, therefore, is beginning to characterize these hairy hominoids in more and more generic ways. Let’s look at two current examples, one politically liberal, the other conservative. National Public Radio’s "Living On Earth," on February 3, 2006, did a report entitled "Is Big Foot back? Maybe in Malaysia." The headline writer for Rachel Gotbaum’s report did engage in the small but routine error of making "Bigfoot" into two words. For the record, NPR’s report is interesting, historically, for being straightforward enough, insightful about the habitat, and, well, for being on NPR. Watch what "name" Gotbaum gives for the creatures. Here is the partial transcript of Rachel Gotbaum’s "Note on Emerging Science" report: For several generations, indigenous groups in southern Malaysia have reported the existence of a ten-foot tall, hairy, ape-like creature that walks on two legs. Amid several recent sightings and almost daily media headlines, local government officials have decided to investigate the Bigfoot rumors. The habitat of choice for the Asian Bigfoot is Endau-Rompin National Park, a rainforest roughly the size of the island of Singapore known for its monkeys and gibbons, but nothing that could possibly be confused with the giant biped reported. For the indigenous people of Endau-Rompin, Bigfoot is nothing new. For generations they called the creature the "snaggle-toothed ghost" in folklore and tribal history. Government officials from the state of Johor plan to send two teams of scientists to scour the rainforest in search of the elusive Asian Bigfoot. One team is on a mission to track him down. If they find him, the other team intends to study him. And just in case the government needs some help, 20 members of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators group are lending their special expertise to the search to find out if the truth is really out there. Used with permission of Living on Earth; copyright 2006 Living on Earth. "For generations…in folklore and tribal history"? Where do they find such "facts"? Meanwhile, in the February 11th, 2006, issue of World Magazine, there’s this tidbit, showing how this "new" name for this cryptid is being distributed beyond the usual parameters: On the prowl Based on the eyewitness accounts of a Malaysian local, scientists in the Pacific nation are heading into the countryside on a government-funded expedition to search for Bigfoot. Since the reported sighting of a 10-foot ape, Bigfoot talk has dominated local newspapers. Jungle natives have told stories about large apes for generations, though they’ve been called the "Snaggle-Toothed Ghost," not Bigfoot, Yeti, or his North American cousin, the Sasquatch. "Jungle natives"? "Snaggle-Toothed Ghost"? Oh come on. Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Monday, December 29, 2008 Bigfoot in Humboldt County--Fifty Years or 50,000? The Long Stride of Bigfoot from Humboldt County to the World, or… The Ape-Man Hoaxing the Hoaxers “There were giants on the earth in those days”. (Genesis 6:4) “In the dark of late night/early morning something came down the hillside up from my cabin. Sitting smoking out on my enclosed porch I thought at first it was just another deer coming to eat my lettuce and chili peppers. I heard what sounded like a tripping sound in the brush, some big thing making a crack and crunch in the underbrush, followed three distinct bipedal "whump, whump, WHUMP" footfalls, very heavy, thunderous things, to the degree that I could feel the concrete under my feet on the porch firmly vibrate 40 yards away. This was followed by a heavy crash of something falling into the brush below. This was no bear, sure wasn’t a deer—I’ve seen and heard these critters up on my road. And if human it would have had to have been an incredibly big or obese man. And why would a big human be out walking around in the dark, dead end, dirt road mountainside, middle-of-nowhere woods at nearly three in the morning? I tried to observe it, but it crept back into the woods a little ways beyond the porch light, and then did not move at all. It did not flee further. My flashlight was inadequate in power and batteries to pursue or see it. I stood there at the edge of the woods for about 15 minutes waiting for any sound or sign. None. I didn't want to pursue and scare it off, or get eaten by whatever it was. Then I decided to duck back into the cabin where I could continue listening and looking without being seen. I knew it was still out there. Once inside for a few moments I heard movement, as the thing went down into the neighboring vacant house’s yard. Through the open window I heard two under-the-breath grunting sounds, something like a bear’s growl crossed with a pig’s snort. Quickly outside I was once again unable to spot anything. The next day I saw a depression in the weeds where the thing had fallen down. There were two further depressions in the plants that looked a lot like big footprints. I could see some metal pipe and wooden construction debris under the herbage where the thing had apparently gotten hung up. Whatever it was I cannot say; and whatever it was it was very big, and incredibly sly. It escaped into the dark of night without another trace, but its impact upon the ground and upon me was undeniable. For what it’s worth, it FELT like a sasquatch.” One of the world’s great and last mysteries exists right here, in our Humboldt-area backyard. (The story above occurred on my own hillside on the edge of Willow Creek). With a total county population of less than a small- to medium-sized city elsewhere in California, Humboldt County has a whole lot of open land. Add to this the even more rural surrounding counties to the north and east and you’ve got a veritable lost world, the central heart of which is covered by the Six Rivers National Forest. This land, with its endless convoluted canyons and forests, is habitat for the mystery. Many search the world over for this creature and its hominoid (or hominid?) relatives, but out here in Willow Creek we see Bigfoot every day. It can’t be avoided, with all the statues, a Duane Flatmo mural going up on the new hardware store building, even a “Bigfoot Podiatry” in the phone book. Is this a myth? A chamber of commerce promotional campaign? A misperception of common animals? Fear of monsters resulting in anthropomorphic projection? A need for mystery or a bogeyman? Does it come from primatologist John Napier’s “Goblin Universe?” Or could it be… real? This is a creature that has never left a skeleton behind that has been found by humans, save perhaps for some fossilized teeth and a few jawbones of a possible Bigfoot antecedent (Gigantopithecus blacki) found over in Asia. And yet reports abound. It is seen, but nearly always fleetingly, often only out of the corner of the eye, or as a blur among blurry trees in a hurried photograph. Most consider it a popular delusion, the product of wild speculation and equally feral expectations. It leaves footprints, and large, unidentifiable scat, complexly constructed nests, and a few stray “unknown primate” hairs. And yet stranger, some believe it is associated with UFOs or comes from ancient Lemuria. Others, perhaps the most sensible (and surely the most informed) of them all, argue that it is simply an unverified apelike or manlike primate species living in North America. But wait. Everyone knows Bigfoot (“Sasquatch”) is fake, right? Did you hear about the Georgia Gorilla hoax?—a frozen fur suit! And what about that Patterson-Gimlin film? The guy who wore the ape suit confessed, didn’t he? And then there’s those footprints from around Willow Creek, Orleans and Hoopa—the newspapers said “Bigfoot is Dead” when Ray Wallace passed and his family came out to the press with those false wooden strap-on feet, right? And if Bigfoot is some kind of monster, wouldn’t he be dead by now? I mean, there’s just one of them, right? And what about all those captured “Bigfeet” that suddenly disappear, like that one up in Happy Camp? These are the common questions and assumptions one usually hears. They are repeated ad nauseum by the uninformed, whose sole frame of reference is normally determined by sensationalized television and newspaper stories. But look closer, study that 1967 Bluff Creek film until it becomes hypnotic, read 40 books on the subject like this writer has, talk to the endless witnesses and the dedicated and serious Bigfoot hunters, and you’ll begin, perhaps, to see a different story—the full story, the evidence, and not just the crazy media hype. BIGFOOT AT “FIFTY” “Bigfoot” was “born,” at least as a cultural phenomenon, in Humboldt County. On October 5th, 1958, the Humboldt Times (precursor to the Times-Standard) ran with a story of giant footprints having been found and cast by a forest road-building crew along the northern border of Humboldt County, up on Bluff Creek. Catskinner Jerry Crew, of Salyer, was a churchgoing “stand-up guy,” according to Willow Creek scion and Bigfoot spokesman, Al Hodgson. Following days of strange events such as fuel barrels being tossed off cliffs and bales of heavy one-inch wire and 700 pound spare tractor tires mysteriously being moved around, Crew cast plaster molds of footprints he found around his tractor as he cut the new course up into virgin timbered mountains. On a trip to Eureka he brought a 16-inch example which was viewed by Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times. The rest is history; but what IS that history? There are so many convolutions, competing theories, and conspiratorial hoaxings that the plot begins to enter spy-versus-spy territory. This year is the 50th anniversary of that event, but Sasquatch has been around much longer than that. The term, “bigfoot,” has been in folk and journalistic use since the 1920s. In 1929 anthropologist J.W. Burns, working with Northwest and Canadian Native tribes, was the first to put forth the anglicized term, “sasquatch,” derived from the myriad names nearly every tribe from Alaska to California had for the creature. Newspaper stories about wildman creatures, called Whats-Its, Yahoos, Wooly Boogers, Skookums, Jabberwocks, Forest Devils, an infinite folkloric variety, date back to the 1840s, many remarkably consistent with reports of today. The legends go back to the dawn of human presence on the North American continent (or were brought over the land bridge from Asia), and were being recorded by European Americans as early a 986 A.D. story of Leif Erickson coming to New World and being met and attacked by a band of stone-throwing hairy giant man-like beasts. Jerry Crew just happened to turn up in the Times at the right cultural moment, when the world was ripe for a new mystery, a new noble savage, a relief from the long-dragging wear of the Cold War. As the frontiers closed, and even space was being “conquered,” new symbols of the wild and natural were required. Though rooted in thousands of years of Native American lore (and experience), this Bigfoot business was a new thing to most of America and modern culture. It became the biggest fad since the Abominable Snowman. Few knew before that we had our own version of the ape-man right here in apparently unlikely California. When most think of California they thought of Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, not a wild, unsettled land. The AP news wire picked up the story and it ran front page in papers around the world, carrying the moniker “Bigfoot” with it like a cultural virus. Films like Harry and the Hendersons and The Legend of Boggy Creek (or for that matter the wonderfully bad local masterpiece, “Ape Canyon,” by Jon Olsen), endless documentaries narrated by the likes of Leonard Nimoy, a Six-Million Dollar Man episode, “Messing with Sasquatch” beef jerky ads, a certain kind of monster trucks, Chewbacca, countless roadside statues, and a crafty angle on the tourist trade in Willow Creek ensued. So did countless jokes, hoaxes, pranks, scams, monstrous distortions, exaggerations, and delusions. But what is it out in the woods stirring up all this commotion? Can it be explained solely as human lunacy and pranksterism? Talk to the likes of old-timer, 90-year old Joe Ramos of Willow Creek, who was working in those mountains starting in 1955. It was a “hoax all the way through,” he says, and “It’s been a hoax since the Indians decided to pull the wool over the white man’s eyes.” Do we discount the mundane and everyday reports coming from reliable people? Or do we disregard those Natives who still profess knowledge of the creatures? As sightings and reports occur on nearly every continent, surely not all could be done by jokers—a global hoaxing conspiracy? What about the ancient Indian rock paintings depicting huge hairy, man-like beings? And what of totem poles in Washington bearing sasquatches among other well known creatures? What of old Native taboos barring entrance to certain regions known to be the turf of the Giant Hairy Man (Bluff Creek being one of them)? Old miner’s reporting attacks by packs of gorillas? Likewise, what about the Bigfoot creatures associated with sightings UFOs along the Klamath and Trinity Rivers in 1975-76? What about the Hupa’s Little People? Kamoss? Is this all just an hallucinatory Jungian mass projection of the collective unconscious, a desire for a wild and mysterious revivification? And if so, what is this archetype? Can a myth leave footprints? One might scoff of late, in the wake of the hyperbolic media attention paid to the Georgia Gorilla hoax. Promoted by profit-seeking good old boys apparently led by Northern California’s notorious Tom Biscardi, this “bigfoot corpse” image spread over the internet and was trumpeted in a press conference covered by all the major networks. It turned out to be a Halloween costume with a hollow head, rubber feet, and some opossum guts tossed on its belly for gore appeal. The flap lasted all of a couple of weeks, but generated countless millions of web hits and, presumably, dollars. Biscardi, with his Great American Bigfoot Research Organization--based north of San Francisco with a fleet of a Corvette, glitzy Hummer (that looks like it’s never been off-road), and other techno-gear—is always ready jump on the investigation when the reports come in. He aspires to be the go-to guy on Bigfoot, and P. T. Barnum-like, is always in the press barking out the freak show. His roots go way back to a close association with legendary hoaxer Ivan Marx in the early 1970s. Marx, maker of “The Legend of Bigfoot,” claimed to have filmed 700-pound sasquatches. These, it turned out, depicted Marx’s diminutive wife wearing an ape suit and absurdly prancing, awkwardly frolicking about in a mountain meadow. In 1995 Biscardi rolled in to Happy Camp, up at the extreme north of the state, and set up “findingbigfoot.com,” a pay-for-view live cam site. He claimed that he knew exactly which cave Bigfoot was living in, and had the local witnesses to back him up. With a large camera on a pole, now the whole paying world could see the creature captured live on the internet! Unfortunately, there was no Bigfoot, no home cave, either. Word around Willow Creek had it that the “witnesses” were just jokers trying to drum up attention and tourism for their tiny, remote town. Biscardi pulled a classic bait-and switch, suddenly claiming that someone had captured a live Bigfoot in a nearby county, and he would reveal it to the world. Of course, the creature had been moved by the time he got there, and then disappeared altogether. One of those reporting the captured creature was a Marx family member. The paying web membership was left seriously wanting, and Biscardi was excoriated live on the Coast-to-Coast AM radio show; but no refunds were forthcoming. Bluff Creek road project head contractor, Ray Wallace, was another man who tried to make a living from Bigfootology. Most first-hand accounts of the 1958 road project show that Wallace began his hoaxing after Jerry Crew and the road crew had already seen many instances of footprints. Strange sounds in the woods, and even some sightings of extra-large hairy humanoids occurred, and culverts, 700-pound spare tractor wheels, and heavy 1-inch wire coils were picked up and tossed into ravines. If one compares the “feet” revealed after his 2002 death by Wallace’s family it is easy to see their ungainly and amateurish hackings as fake. Working with a whittler named Rant Mullens, Wallace apparently laid claim to the hoaxing in order to keep his frightened crew from fleeing the job to escape the strange “guardian of the mountains.” Though he did not know Wallace or Crew, Joe Ramos was working in the Red Mountain and Blue Creek area just north of Bluff Creek. He claims similar mysterious and unexplainable vandalism, but also similar pastime fun had with print-making. Though it is undeniable that some of the well known footprints found in famous Bigfoot books were made by Mr. Wallace, it is equally clear that he did not fake all of them, everywhere. And many of the footprints of his time display qualities of a much higher realism than found in the absurd, cartoonish Wallace and Mullens prints. Jeff Meldrum, an Idaho State University anthropological anatomist, observes fine skin detail and working physical features that vary over differing terrains and steps. Observable here are the signs of a working foot, or else an incredibly complex model with moving parts and adaptive anatomical structures. Jerry Crew observed the track line coming down steep hillsides, varying its mode of planting and stride on the ground, pressing so deeply into the soil that one scientist observer estimated the maker’s weight at around 800 pounds. Later attempts by a Wallace family member to replicate the “hoax” by trailing behind a pickup truck failed miserably. A recent editorial in the Times-Standard (James Faulk, August 19 2008) again claims that the whole Bigfoot flap based on Genzoli’s story of 1958 was rooted in a hoax, despite much evidence to the contrary. In an email, Dr. Meldrum told me, “The problem is with those pesky facts: 1) Genzoli was quite convinced in the veracity of Crew's story as indicated by his surviving widow [researcher Daniel Perez interviewed her in 1995], and 2) there are those inconvenient tracks--not Ray Wallace's later and quite transparent carvings, but the very animated tracks. Many casts of those tracks are on display at the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum and have been examined by track experts such as myself." Recently, Meldrum was in Willow Creek doing high-resolution 3-D computer scans of the large collection at the museum. These prints display details that just could not have been created with uniform, flat, wooden stompers, what Meldrum calls the “transparent fakes” done by hoaxers. Obviously, hoaxing this complex was way beyond the capacity of Wallace, who ended his career operating out of a roadside trailer selling knick-knacks to gullible tourists, promulgating stories of UFOs and captured bigfoot creatures and films he could never produce for scrutiny in the real world. Certainly the myth of Bigfoot lives. The obsessive cable news coverage of the Georgia event by CNN and their ilk proves this. But out in the hills, among those who have lived their lives in the remote mountains of inland Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte and Siskiyou counties--even in my own backyard--there is regular evidence of something much more tangible and alive. If one looks past the craze, actually looks into the detailed reports, the mystery deepens. Despite all the hype and urban legend furor, Bigfoot is seen in the most mundane scenarios by ordinary people. In these reports the creature behaves like a perfectly normal biological creature, its lifestyle perfectly adapted to its environment—IF one can get over the misconceptions. It is a strange phenomenon, but one that fascinates the more one looks past the myth and considers the consistency and potency of the evidence and experience. Bigfoot hunters scour the forests with high-tech modern gadgetry, wood knocking, and howling in the night. Everyday folks and old-timers regularly come in to my Willow Creek bookstore to report sightings and weird occurrences. It’s a mixed bag. The Hairy One also attracts a lot of nuts. IT’S WEIRDER OUT THERE THAN YOU THINK It’s weird out there, he was telling me, this fellow (I’ll keep him anonymous) in my bookstore who’d been living up the hill from my location, in a treehouse, endeavoring to live, look, and smell like a Bigfoot. All the better to find one, he’d say. He’d come up to Willow Creek to seek the cryptid, leaving San Francisco and selling his possessions in order to obtain gear and photographic equipment. Just a few days earlier he had seen two “mermaid-creatures” and a variant form of the river-dwelling serpent the Hupa call Kamoss. This creature came downstream on Willow Creek at night towards his camp, its single eye glowing from within, without reflection, like a headlight. Could this have been a car coming down the nearby highway? He never did find Bigfoot, despite wintering in a tree, and left the area for more fertile Bigfoot fields up in Washington. Yes, it is strange out there in the night when imaginations run wild. But there are other, much more sensible reports. We’ll keep these anonymous, too. A sane and sober father of two is out fishing at a local lake when he looks up to see an upright ape-like creature stalking the opposite shore. A family is driving home up Hwy. 96 when a large, hairy biped stands up along the side of the road and paces down into the forest. Another fellow sees one outside the Hupa-area dump. While out camping in the Trinity Alps area a fellow’s tent is pelted periodically for hours with small rocks hailing down from the forested hillside, and strange wood knocks ring out in the night. Unknown chatter and howls are heard off in the dark mountain distance. Where is the oddness here? A local business owner’s father had the following experience. Early in the morning, arriving to open his shop, the life-long Willow Creeker heard something he had never heard in all his years out in the woods and hills. A loud howling, beastly yell, clearly not human but from no known animal, echoing off the canyon walls up from the river across Hwy. 299. This was strange, but he had a business to run. A short time later a government worker, either Forest Service or Fish and Game, came into his shop with an air of panic and wild-eyed excitement. Camping down on that same area of the river bar he had been awakened by the same ominous howl. Looking out his tent flap he saw a big hairy “creature,” walking along the bank. Walking? Yes, upright, walking, bigger than a man, and taller. at about seven feet. This was NO bear! One customer told me that he had seen a family of Bigfoot (two large males, a female, and a juvenile) when he was a child back in the 1950s, at a Willow Creek area rural country dance. The several other kids at the dance, playing on the perimeter of the property, saw them, too. The creatures watched from the edge of the forest for a while, with obvious interest in what the playing human kids were doing. Nothing else happened. They just retreated slowly back into the woods. This fellow, a former logger seemed an utterly sensible and down to earth chap. It took much coaxing to get him to tell his story. Quite more frequently someone tells of having seen a Bigfoot in their yard, perhaps eating from the blackberry bushes, seeing one crossing the road or a creek, or digging in a trash can. A woman working one of the forest fire lookout stations in the area is said to have seen a big hairy biped moving through some underbrush off Friday Ridge Road. This was after some footprints and a peculiar semi-woven nest made of bay tree leaves was found in the area. Sean Fries, and investigator out of Weaverville, was with his girlfriend up on Aikins Creek when they heard a noise in the brush. Not seeing anything, she took a photo, and upon getting the image on their laptop they noticed a strange brown form behind some trees. When enhanced digitally this form showed features that looked surprisingly like the head and upper torso of a humanoid creature. They returned to the spot and found that, when viewed from the same location and angle, the brown form was no longer there. A recent book, “The Hoopa Project,” written by ex-cop, David Paulides, recounts dozens of encounters out on the reservation, the strangest of which has a woman meeting a Bigfoot out in her yard, talking to him (he only grunted back), and then leaving him a loaf of bread. These stories are so down to earth and every-day that one wonders, why would someone make them up? These are not exactly exaggerated “fish tales” nor folk legends. Sightings are occurring all the time out there. The Hoopa Project participants even signed quasi-legal affidavits declaring their veracity. A forensic artist was hired to do “crime scene” reconstructions of the creatures. They looked surprisingly… human, and generally quiet consistent. Then there is the Patterson-Gimlin film, shot up on Bluff Creek in 1967. It has never been proven to be a hoax, and never convincingly replicated, though many doubt it. The supposed ape suit has never been produced for the public to see. Bob Heironimus, who claims to have been the man in the suit, could not even describe the route to the film site (he was more than 25 miles off course, about an hour’s drive on those roads) in Greg Long’s book, “The Making of Bigfoot.” If studied frame-by-frame, rather than the one famous image which coincidentally looks the most suit-like, fascinating details emerge. Muscles ripple and flex, the huge, hunched back, ape-like face, the flexing feet and hands--all are very convincing if looked at with an attentive and open mind. Al Hodgson, the middle-man for so much of Bigfoot history in Willow Creek, tells me that he didn’t fully and really believe in the creature until one day in his church’s Bible study group. A woman he’d known and completely trusted for decades, one whose sanity and sincerity he put in the highest regard, told him, “You know, Al, I saw one of those.” She wouldn’t lie or exaggerate. “My family has already given me enough trouble about it,” she said. I asked Al why, with all that evidence piling up right before his eyes for all those years, he was never convinced. “The evidence piled up for me in just one woman,” he said. Though he’s never seen one, sometimes this kind of proof is enough. THE RESEARCHERS: BIGFOOT LIVES! “These guys don't want to find Bigfoot--they want to be Bigfoot.” Many a Bigfoot forest researcher visits with reports of strange encounters or sightings, observations through thermal imaging gear, blobs captured on a digital camera. If anything, Bigfoot is more active now, and certainly more widely seen and reported, than at any time in its long history. Thousands of sightings have been logged since the days of John Green’s 1970 “Sasquatch File, and from upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, New Mexico, not just the Pacific Northwest. Just look at the website of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO.net), the most skeptical, professional and scientifically-minded investigative group out there and you’ll see the extent of this activity. As our ability to document and communicate about the encounters grows, so do the reports, a far cry from the day when witnesses were afraid to be assumed insane for seeing such a thing. Surely not every one of these thousands is a hoax or hallucination. It was hard not to believe in Bigfoot, despite my innate skeptical reserve, after a three-hour interview with James “Bobo” Fay, Humboldt County’s top Bigfoot investigator. You may have seen him recently on the History Channel show, “Monster Quest.” Anyone who has heard his call blast will attest to the living presence—not only could he be Bigfoot with his large stature, but he seems to understand the inherent nature of the Big Hairy One. He has encountered many strange things out in the woods, and has seen the creatures a half a dozen times. His conviction goes beyond belief: he KNOWS it is real. Having worked extensively in the woods as a logger and at other jobs, Bobo has been all over Humboldt County, collecting countless reports and stories of Sasquatch encounters. He has worked with the Natives who tell him that this is no mere legend. Drawn to Humboldt in the mid-1980s, following Bigfoot’s allure, he eventually met Eurekan, Irwin Supple, then in old age. Back in the 1940s, after serving in the war, Supple was one of the first few to blaze in his jeep the old mule and wagon road up to Fish Lake, above Bluff Creek. While hunting for deer up there he encountered eight foot tall “gorillas,” heard (and later recorded) their strange chatter, whistles and knocks in the night, and eventually was able to leave food for them. They would leave gifts in return, usually small things like piles of pine cones or a fish. Though Supple continued in the Bigfoot field until the early 1990s, his main significance is how early he started. He was looking for Bigfoot in the field long before it was widely known as such, and while Ray Wallace was just a lad. Who could have been hoaxing Supple? Old logger Joe Ramos, when asked if he thought Bigfoot was all a practical joke, said it was surely 99% a hoax. This, I asked, despite the oil drums picked up and thrown about, heavy equipment tampered with? What about that 1%, then, I asked. Shaking his head, “Believe what you want to believe,” he said. “Who can say what is real?” Perhaps it is in that one percent that the mystery lies? Perhaps that is all the room it, and Bigfoot, need to live? Meanwhile Bobo and his “California Crew” associates are still out looking every chance they have to get away from jobs and families, their techniques increasingly refined, the sense of closing in on the mystery palpable. He feels it is only a matter of time before certain proof is found or filmed. I asked Bobo about the public’s indifference to the evidence and their inability to get past the crazy label placed on bigfooters. “They’re shaking their heads at me, and I’m shakin’ my head at them,” he says. “It’s REAL, end of story.” "He's a monster, he'll eat anything, alive, dead, fresh, rotten.... He's a survivor... mobile, quick, fast, and strong.... Anybody who sees a slow Sasquatch is not in the ball park.... He's got no limits, climbs any mountain, swims any river. He's got no barriers.... Not an endangered species, that’s us.... He can pull down big game on the run or by stealth, like a cougar.... He can lay down a light track or spring like a deer.... Has a lot of humor, yet restraint.... Rocks cars and cabins, but lets folks go.... We agonize, he couldn't care less.... An opportunist at the top of the food chain, in great shape--he's got it made! Adapted to cutover lands, lives a good rugged existence.... He's got no need for wages, lives off the fat of the land, and pays no taxes!" -Jim Hewkin, retired fish and game professional from Oregon, quoted in: Pyle, Robert Michael. Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide Steven Streufert is the proprietor of Willow Creek’s Bigfoot Books used book store, as well as one of the founding acolytes of the Church of Bigfoot, Scientist. (Oh yeah, Bobo says to say that Mike Wilson is going to look "really stupid" when the truth finally comes out). The account at the beginning of this article is my own story. I can't explain it at all, save with a sasquatch hypothesis. I live at the top of Panther Road, in a cabin at the dead end of the road, near the top of the ridge which is just across from Brush Mountain Lookout's ridge and Friday Ridge Road to the South. There have been numerous recent Bigfoot incidents reported out there lately. (Below, the burn pile behind which the creature stalked, the dense forest beyond, from which it came.) “If we found the Klamath giants, we would grasp some essence of the titanic knot of rocks, waters, and trees, as Beowulf and Gilgamesh grasped their ancient lands by defeating Grendel and Enkidu. But the Klamath giants also have become more than shaggy, beetle-browed projections of human desire. We begin to see in them the possibility of a consciousness quite different from our own, of a being that may be very close to us in hominid origins, but that may have evolved in mysterious ways. We imagine an animal that somehow has understood the world more deeply than we have, and that thus inhabits it more comfortably and freely, while eluding our self-involved attempts to capture it.” --David Rains Wallace, The Klamath Knot
Suggestions by friends (Facebook) : \|Global fraud : Global hope by Paul Hellyer\| Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes the way one perceives reality. For me, and I venture to say many others, Communion is such a book.Read this book. If you come away believing it, you'll be a changed person. If you come away believing it's fiction, you'll have read one hell of a story. ABDUCTIONS by Edith Fiore : This book was published in various different hardcover and paperback editions between 1989-1997 as "Abductions: Encounters with Extraterrestrials" and also as "Encounters". The author is Dr. Edith Fiore, a qualified and practicing clinical psychologist based in California and experienced in hypnotic regression therapy. It details 13 different case histories of apparent alien abduction from Dr. Fiore's files. The Day After Roswell by united states colonel Philip J. Corso : Everything from what actually happened in the deserts of New Mexico to the political and military scramble to not only cover it up but also to prepare a defense against it. Colonel Corso, I salute you - it takes a man of exceptional courage to jeapordize such an outstanding military career to do what's right. George Adamski - A Herald for the Space Brothers : Mr. Aartsen's exploration of Adamski's life was not simply biographical but sought to show the influence upon Adamski's life of teachings he recieved from the Masters of the Far East and the teachings of the "Space Brothers". Pulling from a variety of Adamski's writings and those of other writers (from Helena Blavatsky to Benjamin Creme) Adamski was clearly shown to have been on a spiritual mission -- one that mankind has yet to grasp. "...a refreshing look... Aartsen succeeds admirably with his main aim of presenting information about Adamski's life, experiences and philosophy that many would not have known about." -Michael E. Salla, PhD, Exopolitics Institute, Honolulu, August 2010 "Gerard Aartsen does an invaluable service in bringing [Adamski's lesser known writings] to our attention in this scholarly book." -Phyllis Power, PhD, Share International magazine, Vol.29, No.7, September 2010 Vril: The Power of the Coming Race (1870) : Vril is a substance described in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 novel The Coming Race, which was later reprinted as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. The novel is an early example of science fiction. However, many early readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called "Vril" was accurate, to the extent that some theosophists accepted the book as truth. Furthermore, since 1960 there has been a conspiracy theory about a secret Vril Society. Other Hollow Earth Books : Timothy Green Beckley's Subterranean Worlds Inside Earth : Is the earth hollow? Is our planet honeycombed with caverns inhabited by a mysterious race? Are there civilizations of super beings living beneath the surface of the earth? Are the resdents of this subsurface world friendly, or do they hav our domination in mind? Here are strange and unexplainable legions of the "Wee People," the Dero, and long-haired Atlantean giants as encounterd by cave exlorers and miners trapped far beneath the earth. The Smoky God by Willis George Emerson : The Smoky God tells the allegedly true tale of a Norwegian sailor Olaf Jansen’s discovery of an entrance to the hollow Earth. After discovering the entrance at the North Pole, Jansen remained with the inhabitants of the underground world for two years. First published in 1908, The Smoky God is an early classic world in the hollow Earth genre. The Secret World by Ray Palmer : In the mid l940s Ray Palmer was the editor of a science fiction pulp magazine titled AMAZING STORIES. One day he received in the mail an unusual manuscrit from a PA iron worker by the name of Richard Shaver who claimed that he would hear voices coming from beneath the ground. Below our very feet he claimed existed an unseen world of strange demented beings who controlled surface and caused us to hear voices, go insane, kill each other, start wars ... and in general cause us to think and go mad. The Dero were supposed a race of beings who had been driven underground in the days of Atlantis and were now in charge of "beam rays" which they used on unsuspecting humans to create "unpure" thoughts and deads. Palmer -- who later is said to have "created" the flying saucer mystery and for years edited FATE magazine -- published Shaver's "rants" in AMAZING STORIES and in the months ahead thousands of individuals wrote in saying they too heard voices and know of the existence of the cavern world and the Dero. Messages From the Hollow Earth by Dianne Robbins : Dianne Robbins continues her connection to the civilizations of Inner Earth, the Elementals and Nature Kingdoms for over 25 years. Her authentic work connects our hearts to the hearts of Beings in advanced civilizations, Whales, Dolphins, the Tree People, the Crystal Nation and Earth’s Elemental Kingdoms. In service to Earth, Dianne continues to provide her channelings to keep people informed of the vital link between our surface world and other realms of existence who share our planet with us. As we merge our consciousness with these other realms, our perceptual range expands and our inner sight opens. Finding Lost Atlantis Inside the Hollow Earth by Brinsley Le Poer Trench : British House of Lords member searches for the lost Atlantis inside ihe Hollow Earth! In addition to being the author of numerous books on UFOs and extraterrestrial archeology, Brinsley Le Poet Trench was for several decades the editor of the prestigious British Flying Saucer Review. But, his greatest influence came about as a member of England's House of Lords. Trench, who held the title Earl of Clancarty, long campaigned in the Halls of Parliment for the Crown to "come clean" on matters related to close encounters. While the Earl strongly endorsed the theory that aliens have been coming here since the dawn of creation, toward the en of his career, his ideas took on a stranger turn, encompassing the notion that an ancient "pre-Noahan" civilization existed in what we commonly refer to as the Lost Continent of Atlantis. Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures by WM Michael Mott : CAVERNS, CAULDRONS, AND CONCEALED CREATURES is the first book of its kind in terms of truly going in-depth to examine the striking similarities between folklore, religious, mythic, "new age," fictional, and first-hand witness or historical accounts of cryptid and reptilian figures. Drawing from scientific facts, folklore and comparative mythology, and anecdotal sources, it is demonstrable that the structure of our planet, the history of our species, the underlying truths disguised as our myths, legends, folklore and " pop culture " imagery, are not quite what we have been led to believe. The Earth itself is much more stratified and complex in structure than we have realized, and our species has perhaps experienced, through the ages, encounters and conflicts with "others," non-human intelligences or beings of various types who have seldom been our friends. Memories and accounts of these encounters have come down to us in the form of folklore and mythology, often viewed with superstitious terror or awe through the conditioned lenses of religions, religious interpretation or "folk traditions." Such encounters are continuing today. The theories put forth in this book are based on two types of evidence: very strong circumstantial evidence based on folklore, mythology, religion, legends, archeology, geology, and related areas, and first-hand or witness accounts, both ancient and modern. Often these two areas of source material or even anecdotal evidence overlap.
Abrams stands at attention for The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Cynthia Rylant, illus. by Jen Corace, a new version of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale; The Museum by Susan Verde, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds, a picture book that celebrates visiting the museum; How to Be a Cat by Nikki McClure, in which a kitten learns all things feline; Henry’s Hand by Ross MacDonald, starring two best friends: a monster, and his right hand; and Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss, illus. by Yuko Shimizu, the true story of how Kenichi Zenimura introduced the game of baseball to Japanese internment camps during WWII. Amulet cleanses its palate for Like Tuna on a Milkshake by Julie Sternberg, the sequel to Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, in which Eleanor is off to summer camp; An Army of Frogs: A Kulipari Novel by Trevor Pryce, illus. by Sanford Greene, a chapter book from pro football player Pryce; In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters, about a teenage girl who sees a ghost during the frightening confusion of the 1918 flu epidemic; My Summer of Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald, in which sisters Lucy and Sunny try to keep the Old Mill Pharmacy – now spa – running smoothly; and The Origami Yoda Doodle and Activity Book by Tom Angleberger, a companion to the Origami Yoda series. Appleseed is shovel-ready with Dig In by April Jones Prince, illus. by Michelle Berg, in which some industrious mice have a busy day on the construction site; Animal Print Shop: I Love Your Face by Sharon Montrose, featuring detailed portraits of baby animals and text about unconditional love; Up Close by Gay Wegerif, a name-that-animal board book; and The Jellybeans Board Book by Laura Numeroff, illus. by Lynn Munsinger, a story of friendship with a ballet-recital backdrop. Albert Whitman heads into spring with Three Bears ABC by Grace Maccarone, illus. by Hollie Hibbert, a nursery-tale-meets-concept-book project; Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, illus. by James Daugherty, an illustrated interpretation – originally published in 1947 – of the famous speech; In Search of Goliathus Hercules by Jennifer Angus, a debut fantasy about a boy who, while traveling the world in search of the mythical titular creature, discovers he can talk to insects; Baby Parade by Rebecca O’Connell, illus. by Susie Poole, featuring babies on the move, and Mystery at Blue Ridge Cemetery by Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide Pierce, illus. by Sophie Escabasse, a new Spotlight Club mystery involving rubbings from Civil War-era tombstones. ALBERT WHITMAN TEEN Albert Whitman Teen rolls out the welcome mat for When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon, starring a popular, rugby-playing teen who just happens to be gay; and debut novel Being Henry David by Cal Amistead, in which a 17-year-old finds himself at Penn Station in New York City with no memory of who he is or why his only possession is a worn copy of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Annick raises the curtain for Showtime: Meet the People Behind the Scenes by Kevin Sylvester, about the people who make a theatrical production hum; Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Helped Solve History’s Mysteries by Elizabeth MacLeod, featuring wonders of modern forensic science; Arabs Thought of It: Amazing Inventions and Innovations by Saima Hussain, which profiles the achievements of Arab peoples; Follow the Money: Where Does It Go? by Kevin Sylvester and Michael Hlinka, a look at the cost of everyday items; and War Brothers by Sharon McKay, a graphic novel about a boy forced to be a child soldier in Ugandan rebel leader Kony’s army. Barefoot checks its scuba gear for A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea by Jessica Law, illus. by Jill McDonald, a cumulative tale about underwater life; A Farmer’s Life for Me by Jan Dobbins, illus. by Laura Huliska-Beith, a look at a farm family’s everyday activities; Animal Stories 3: The Hungry Wolf – A Story from North America by Lari Don, illus. by Melanie Williamson, in which a clever lamb tricks her way out of a wolf’s jaws; Ruby’s Baby Brother by Kathryn White, illus. by Miriam Latimer, in which a big sister adjusts to a new sibling’s arrival; and Chandra’s Magic Light by Theresa Heine, illus. by Judith Gueyfier, about two sisters determined to to replace the unsafe kerosene lamps in their house with solar lighting. Bloomsbury serves for match point with The Academy, a new series by tennis star Monica Seles set at a sports academy for super-talented and super-rich; Chick ’n’ Pug Meet the Dude by Jennifer Sattler, in which a big mutt ambles onto the turf of pals Chick and Pug; Jessica Day George's Wednesdays in the Tower, a sequel to Tuesdays at the Castle, about the unusual discovery Princess Celie makes in her magical citadel; The Quirks: Welcome to Normal by Erin Soderberg Downing, starring Molly, a girl who relishes her normalness among family members who have magical abilities; and Hidden by Marianne Curley, in which a girl is on the brink of discovering she is not human, but rather, a stolen angel whom the heavens want back. BOYDS MILLS PRESS Boyds Mills waves the checkered flag for Speed by Nathan Clement, a picture book featuring a stock car race; Last But Not Least Lola by Christine Pakkala, first in a series of chapter books starring second grader Lola Zuckerman; Shine, Baby, Shine by Leslie Staub, a picture book celebrating the parent-child bond; and Uh-Oh, Dodo by Jennifer Sattler, in which a baby dodo bird explores the world with his mother. BOYDS MILLS PRESS/WORDSONG WordSong is all smiles with Face Bug: Poems by J. Patrick Lewis, photos by Frederic Siskind, illus. by Kelly Murphy, which pairs close-up photos of bug faces with humorous verse; and Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich, illus. by Matt Hahurin, which gives the points of view of the princess, the pea and all sorts of other fairy tale characters. Candlewick goes wild for Feral Nights by Cynthia Leitich Smith, a dark fantasy adventure for teens featuring werepossum Clyde and other characters from the Tantalize quartet; Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun by Liz Kessler, about half-mermaid Emily’s icy and perilous journey to a strange land; The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman, illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline, a picture-book immigration tale; Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis, an illustrated middle-grade novel starring the comical title character, and Zebra Forest by Adina Gewirtz, a debut middle-grade novel in which a fugitive upends everything two siblings think they know about their family. Nosy Crow proceeds with caution for Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley, illus. by Nicola O’Byrne, in which a bedtime tale is interrupted by a furious crocodile; Baby and Me by Emma Dodd, spotlighting all the things one does to take care of a baby; Dinosaur Zoom! by Penny Dale, a picture book filled with dinos and vehicles of all shapes and sizes; Pip and Posy: The Big Balloon by Axel Scheffler, about Posy’s plan to cheer up Pip when he loses his big red balloon; and The Princess and the Peas by Caryl Hart, illus. by Sarah Warburton, starring a finicky eater who is diagnosed with a case of “Princessitus” and sent to live at the palace. Templar Books blasts off with King of Space by Jonny Duddle, featuring a small child with big ambitions; Art for Baby: Faces by various artists, a collection of color images of faces by some of the world’s leading modern artists; FArTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith, in which a boy tries to realize his father’s dream of flying after his father does not return from war; Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali, about a native of Tierra del Fuego who was brought to England for a year to be “civilized” by the captain of the HMS Beagle; and Matilda and Hans by Yokococo, starring a pair of feline friends. Toon Books can hardly wait for Barry’s Big Surprise by Renée French, a graphic easy-reader featuring funny pals Barry and Polarhog; and Benjamin Bear in What Goes Up Must Come Down by Philippe Coudray, the comic-strip formatted account of Benjamin Bear’s adventures walking on water, riding a square bicycle, and taking a dip under the sea. Charlesbridge wags its tail for War Dogs: Churchill and Rufus by Kathryn Selbert, the true story of Winston Churchill and his faithful poodle companion; Global Baby Girls by The Global Fund for Children, a board book featuring photos of baby girls from around the world, which will help raise funds for charities that support girls; The Market Bowl by Jim Averbeck, an original folktale set in contemporary Camaroon; Pinch and Dash and the Terrible Couch by Michael J. Daley, illus. by Thomas F. Yezerski, in which two friends decide where a very large couch will eventually live; and Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves and Other Female Villains by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple, illus. by Rebecca Guy, profiles of 26 women from history notorious for their bad reputations. Chronicle calls “all aboard!” for Steam Train, Dream Train by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld, a bedtime book for train lovers; Mommy! Mommy! by Taro Gomi, in which readers follow two chicks on a barnyard search for their mother; I Scream! Ice Cream! by Amy Krause Rosenthal, illus. by Serge Bloch, a book of silly and clever wordplay; Seagulls Don’t Eat Pickles by Erica Farmer, illus. by Jason Beene, first in a new chapter book series about nine-year-old Fish Finelli, who’s challenged by a bully to find a pirate treasure; and The Falconer by Elizabeth May, the tale of a well-bred young Victorian lady leading a double life as a Falconer, a female warrior who hunts and kills faeries. Disney-Hyperion brushes up on mnemonics for Poems to Learn by Heart by Caroline Kennedy, illus. by Jon Muth, a collection of classic poetry designed to encourage reading, memorization, and recital; A Big Guy Took My Ball!: An Elephant & Piggie Book by Mo Willems, a spin on playground bullying and comparisons; WARP: The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer, first in a new Oliver Twist meets The Matrix time-travel adventure series; Kingdom Keepers VI by Ridley Pearson, in which five guardians must thwart villains Maleficent and the Overtakers; and The Odd Squad: Bully Bait by Michael Fry, an illustrated fiction title about a team of hopeless oddballs that morphs into an empowered group ready to face whatever middle school dishes out. Disney Press does the time warp with Tomorrowland by Michael Siglain and Bryan Q. Miller, illus. by Kelley Jones and Hi-Fi Design, featuring two science cadets in 2125 who win “golden tickets” to travel 24 hours into the future; Happy Halloween, Buddies!, first in a new tie-in series to the Disney Buddies movies starring golden retriever puppies; Monsters University Fearbook, a yearbook inspired by the Disney-Pixar film Monsters University; Blooming Bows by William Scollon, in which Aunt Minnie must repair Millie and Melody’s posy costumes before the big pageant; and Minnie & Daisy B.F.F.: Much Ado About Juliet by Calliope Glass, which finds Minnie and Daisy competing for the lead in Mouston Central’s production of Romeo and Juliet. Eerdmans has a blueprint for spring with The Hens Build a Wall by Jean-Francois Dumont, about the chickens’ approach to dealing with an unfamiliar hedgehog; When No One Is Watching by Eileen Spinelli, illus. by David Johnson, which encourages readers to celebrate the joys of a good friendship, regardless of whether anyone’s watching; Nasreddine by Odile Weulersse, illus. by Rébecca Dautremer, a tale featuring the titular folklore character from the Middle East; A Girl Called Problem by Katie Quirk, in which a 13-year-old African girl named Shida (which means "problem" in Swahili) is determined to overcome misfortune and make a better life; and Bully.com by Joe Lawlor, about a brilliant student who is wrongly accused of cyber bullying, and then pulls out all the stops to find the real culprit. Egmont USA greets the season with Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison, starring a teen girl who is contacted by a ghost to solve his murder; BZRK, Book Two by Michael Grant, a continuation of the nano wars over the fate of free will begun in Book One; My Homework Ate My Homework by Patrick Jennings, a middle-grade novel about a girl who has far-fetched excuses for accidentally losing the class pet; and Cloneward Bound: The Clone Chronicles, Book 2 by M.E. Castle, a humorous middle-grade adventure set in Hollywood. Enchanted Lion takes cover for Thunderstorm by Arthur Geisert, which follows the course of a Midwestern thunderstorm passing through a small farming community; Me First by Michaël, illus. by Kris Giacomo, a comic story about a duck that always wants to go ahead of everyone; and My Father’s Arms Are a Boat by Stein Erik Lunde, illus. by Øyvind Torseter, in which a boy who is unable to sleep climbs into his father’s arms and ponders the big questions of his life. HarperCollins goes to the head of the class with The School of Good and Evil, a debut novel starring BFFs Agatha, a witch-girl, and princess-wannabe Sophie; Big Nate Flips Out by Lincoln Peirce, the fifth comic adventure novel for sixth-grade detention king Nate Wright; Seven Wonders Book 1: The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis, in which a 12-year-old boy with six months to live is offered a mystical reprieve; Love Wins: Teen Edition by Rob Bell, a YA adaptation of Bell’s bestseller examining questions of heaven, hell, salvation, and compassion; Requiem, the culmination of Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy, about a society in which love is seen as a disease; and Charlie Goes to School by Ree Drummond, illus. by Diane deGroat, in which Charlie the Ranch Dog sets up a class for his friends. Amistad welcomes spring with Darius & Twig by Walter Dean Myers, about two Harlem teens: Twig, whose running will take him far, and Darus, a writer, who’s still seeking a dream of his own. HARPERCOLLINS/BALZER + BRAY Balzer + Bray knows mum’s the word with House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, which kicks off a fantasy series about the Pagett family, their mysterious house, and a magical inheritance; That Is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems, the story of a hungry fox who meets a plump goose; The Fairy Bell Sisters #1: Silver Saves the Fairy Ball by Margaret McNamara, first in an illustrated early-chapter series about Tinker Bell’s five little sisters and their adventures; The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd, the debut title in a gothic suspense trilogy inspired by The Island of Dr. Moreau, starring Moreau’s daughter Juliet; and The End Games by T. Michael Martin, in which 17-year-old Michael tries to protect his younger brother from the horrors of a post-apocalyptic West Virginia. Collins is angling for teacher’s pet with How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids by Thomas C. Foster, an accessible homework helper; and Coral Reefs by Seymour Simon, an eco-friendly nonfiction picture book. Greenwillow gets its jar ready for The Lightning Catcher by Anne Cameron, first in an action-packed tween series about friendship, the wonder of science, and extreme weather; I Represent Sean Rosen by Jeff Baron, in which middle schooler Sean Rosen sells a movie idea to a motion picture studio while pretending to be a grown-up – and his own agent; Amelia Bedelia Means Business by Herman Parish, illus. by Lynne Avril, which finds Amelia taking on lots of jobs to earn money for a new bicycle; Giant Dance Party by Betsy Bird, illus. by Brandon Dorman, about a girl who teaches a gaggle of giants how to cut a rug; and Arclight by Josin McQuein, a debut teen fantasy/thriller. HarperFestival wriggles into spring with Diary of a Worm: Teacher’s Pet by Denise Cronin, illus. by Harry Bliss, a tale about finding the perfect birthday gift, marking Worm’s I Can Read debut; Charlie the Ranch Dog: Where’s the Bacon? by Ree Drummond, illus. by Diane deGroat, an I Can Read title in which Charlie is upset when a visiting dog takes over his turf; Pinkalicious: Pink-or-Treat by Victoria Kann, about Pinkalicious’s efforts to save her favorite candy-filled holiday from being canceled by a power-outage, and Fancy Nancy: Apples Galore by Jane O’Connor, illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser, an apple-picking adventure. HarperTeen stocks up on eye of newt for Spellcaster by Claudia Gray, first in a new series about a young witch who battles dark forces in a small town; Wasteland by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan, a dystopian teen novel set in the dry wasteland of Prin; Towering by Alex Flinn, a dark, modern retelling of Rapunzel; Revolution 19 by Gregg Roseblum, about a futuristic world controlled by robots; and an as yet untitled illustrated novel by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, based on the Zits comic strip. HARPERCOLLINS/KATHERINE TEGEN BOOKS Katherine Tegen Books keeps the beat with Pulse by Patrick Carman, a fantasy-adventure trilogy set in 2051 featuring teens who can move things with their minds; Septimus Heap, Book Seven: Fyre by Angie Sage, the final installment of the series, in which Jenna is crowned and Septimus realizes his destiny; Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley, about a 13-year-old girl who develops multiple personalities to deal with the trauma of being kidnapped and abused; Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza, first in a sci-fi thriller series about a teen who discovers she is an experiment in artificial intelligence; and Light by Michael Grant, the sixth and final book in the Gone series, which culminates in the destruction of FAYZ. HARPERCOLLINS/WALDEN POND PRESS Walden Pond Press dons its armor for The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle by Christopher Healy, illus. by Todd Harris, in which eight fairy-tale princes and princesses band together to recover an enchanted sword; Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, the debut title in a middle-grade series featuring monotreme detectives Rick Zengo and Corey O’Malley; The Fellowship for Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson, in which middle schoolers prove their theories about extraterrestrial life in our galaxy; The Girl from Felony Bay by John Thompson, about a southern girl who tries to prove the innocence of her father, who has been wrongly accused of a crime; and The Fourth Stall Part III by Chris Rylander, the final chapter in the Fourth Stall saga that finds Mac and Vince struggling to stay out of the organized crime business. Heyday knows the moral of the story with Aesop in California by Doug Hansen, which features Hansen’s California-set retellings of Aseop’s beloved fables. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT HMH is coming up roses with Lois Ehlert’s Growing Garden Gift Set by Lois Ehlert, which contains copies of Growing Vegetable Soup, Eating the Alphabet, and Planting a Rainbow, and a bonus poster; The Little Prince 70th Anniversary Gift Set by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, containing a hardcover copy of the original book packaged with a recording of the text read by Viggo Mortensen; A Porcupine Named Fluffy by Helen Lester, illus. by Lynn Munsinger, one of the first titles in the new Laugh-Along Lessons series of 8x8 paperbacks; and Where Is Curious George?: A Look and Find Book, and Curious George Dance Party, a tie-in to the PBS animated show about the mischievous monkey. Clarion pirouettes into fall with Tallulah’s Toe Shoes by Marilyn Singer, illus. by Alexandra Boiger, about a determined young dancer who is sure she’s ready to dance en pointe; Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger, illus. by Cece Bell, the comical “true” story behind a favorite, though confusing, patriotic song; The Meanest Birthday Girl by Josh Schneider, an early reader about a mean girl who gets her comeuppance when she receives an unusual birthday gift; Tides by Betsy Cornwell, a YA debut that weaves Celtic lore about selkies into a mysterious story about family secrets and love; and The Caged Graves by Dianne Slaerni, in which a young woman in 1867 returns to her hometown and discovers that her mother’s grave is in an iron cage outside the cemetery. Graphia cranks up the oxygen tank for Breath by Jackie Morse Kessler, the final installment in the Riders of the Apocalypse series of YA fantasy titles; and Confederates Don’t Wear Couture by Kate Strohm, in which Libby tours the South with best friend Dev and a group of Civil War re-enactors. Harcourt has a ticket to ride with The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny) by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illus. by Stacy Innerst, an account of how the Fab Four’s sense of humor and musical talent inspired Beatlemania; The Center of Everything by Linda Urban, a middle-grade novel about donuts, a birthday wish, and making things right with the one you love; Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden, in which Cricket Cherpin tries to figure out what to do with his life before he turns 18; Nugget and Fang, featuring the unlikely friendship between a minnow and a shark; and Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde, which gives the story of the princess and the frog a new twist. Houghton Mifflin makes the grade with The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau, a dystopian novel in which teens are tested to see who will become society’s new leaders; Dark Triumph: His Fair Assassin Book 2 by Robin LaFevers, the further exploits of Sybella, Death’s assassin in 15th-century France; Happy Birdday, Tacky by Helen Lester, illus. by Lynn Munsinger, a celebration of the penguin character; Lenny Cyrus, School Virus by Joe Schreiber, illus. by Matt Smith, a middle-grade novel with comic illustrations starring a boy who shrinks himself to the size of an amoeba; and Animals Upside Down: A Pop-Up Book! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, an introduction to animals that spend quite a bit of time upside-down. Sandpiper hits the road with Celebrating California, Celebrating Texas, Celebrating New York, and Celebrating Florida, the debut entries in the new 50 States to Celebrate series of leveled readers that highlight history, geography and tourist attractions of the various states. Holiday House turns on the flower power with My Beautiful Hippie by Janet Nichols Lynch, about a teenage musician in 1967 Haight-Ashbury; See Me Dig by Paul Meisel, an I Like to Read title that finds some spirited dogs being chased by pirates after they dig up a treasure; The Frazzle Family Finds a Way by Ann Bonwill, illus. by Stephen Gammell, starring a disastrously forgetful family who come up with a strategy for remembering things; Dirty Gert by Tedd Arnold, a picture book about a dirt-loving girl; and Becoming Ben Franklin, about the coming of age and impressive accomplishments of one of America’s founding fathers. Kane Press sorts out the season with The Case of the Superstar Scam by Lewis B. Montgomery, illus. by Amy Wummer, in which Milo and Jazz investigate mysterious emails that start arriving when a teen idol comes to town to film a TV show; and four new titles in the Mouse Math series by Eleanor May and Daphne Skinner, illus. by Deborarh Melmon, featuring mice Albert and Wanda, who live in the walls of a People House. KTeen Books scans the night sky for Othermoon by Nina Berry, second in the YA Otherkin series, which blends paranormal and fantasy; Moonglow by Michael Griffo, which kicks off a YA trilogy starring Dominy Robineau, a teen cursed to become a werewolf; Invisible by Marni Bates, a look inside the world of a teen girl whose life is changed by a story she writes; A Touch of Scarlet by Eve Marie Mont, a contemporary spin on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter; and Survivor by James Phelan, the continued adventures of Jesse, hero of the Alone trilogy, who explores New York City for answers and a way home. Dafina ushers in the season with Sweet 16 to Life by Kimberly Reid, a third installment of the Langdon Prep series starring Chante, who tries to balance prep school life and life in the ’hood; Reality Check and an as yet untitled novel by Kelli London, two new entries to the Charly’s Epic Fiascos series, about 16-year-old Charly St. James; Get Ready for War by Ni Ni Simone and Amir Abrams, second in the Hollywood High series chronicling the glitz and scandal surrounding four seniors at a private high school in the Hollywood Hills; and Nikki Carter’s as yet untitled next entry in the Fab Life series, about two cousins experiencing the drama-filled world of hip-hop. Kingfisher serves up a spring list with Basher Basics: Creative Writing by Simon Basher, a guide designed to encourage young writers, and Lifesize: Ocean, highlighting facts about sea creatures and images of the ocean environment. Kingfisher also introduces three new series: the Lift Me Up and Lift and Explore lines, featuring lift-the-flap interactivity; and the Picture This! Amazing Information Right Before Your Eyes books, which make complex concepts more accessible to young readers. LEE & LOW Lee & Low sets a spring table with Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell, about colorful ingredients in Grandpa’s famous entrée; As Fast as Words Could Fly by Pamela Tuck, illus. by Eric Velasquez, in which an African-American boy uses his typing skills to face down a challenge at his predominantly white school in the 1960s south; How Far Do You Love Me? by Lulu Delacre, a celebration of the enduring love between adult and child as seen in cultures around the world; Sunday Shopping by Sally Derby, illus. by Shadra Strickland, about an African-American girl and her grandmother who use Sunday newspaper ads as a springboard for their imaginary shopping sprees; and The School the Aztec Eagles Built by Dorinda Nicholson, which recounts the role of Mexico’s Eagle force in WWII. LEE & LOW/TU BOOKS Tu sets the alarm for Awakening by Karen Sandler, the second title in the Tankborn teen fantasy series; and New Worlds by Shana Mlawski, a fantasy-adventure set during the Spanish Inquisition, which lands a boy on Christopher Columbus’s voyage – with a half-genie. Carolrhoda gets nothing but net with Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy, illus. by Joe Morse, a look at the inspiration behind the game; Cookie, The Walker by Chris Monroe, about a dog who decides to try walking on her hind legs; My Crocodile Does Not Bite by Joe Kulka, in which a boy brings his pet croc to school; and Something to Prove: Rookie Joe DiMaggio vs. the Great Satchel Paige by Rob Skead, illus. by Floyd Cooper, an untold story from African-American history about heroes of America’s pastime. Carolrhoda Lab gives the thumbs up to The Twelve-Fingered Boy by John Hornor Jacobs, first in a trilogy that finds Jack and his “supernumerary digits” on the run from Mr. Quincrux; Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson, the sequel to Ultraviolet, which follows Tori’s adventures on the road with her parents; and Sin Eater’s Confession by Ilsa J. Bick, an unflinching look at what it means to be a gay teenager in America. Darby Creek bites into the Big Apple with Mallory and Mary Ann Take New York by Laurie Friedman, illus. by Jennifer Kalis, in which fashion contest winner Mallory tries to make sure her BFF Mary Ann can share in her cool prize; Blow Out by M.G. Higgins, a new entry in the Counterattack series about an elite girls’ varsity soccer team in North Carolina; Change of Heart by Norah McClintock, which joins the Robyn Hunter Mysteries series starring a sleuthing Canadian teen; The Alliance by Gabriel Goodman, part of the Surviving Southside urban teen fiction series; and Spider Stampede by Ali Sparks, the debut title of the Switched series starring two boys who’ve been turned into bugs by a mad scientist neighbor. Graphic Universe rounds up a search party for Your Pajamas Are Showing! by Vincent Caut, illus. by Michel-Yves Schmitt, first in the Where’s Leopold? series about a six-year-old boy who can turn invisible; William and the Lost Spirit by Gwen de Bonneval, illus. by Matthieu Bonhomme, a graphic novel that blends medieval fantasy and folklore into a coming-of-age story; The Red Ruby by Lars Jakobsen, the latest in the Mortensen’s Escapades series about a secret agent who travels through time; He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Robin Mayhall, illus. by Kristin Cella, a new horror-romance in the My Boyfriend Is a Monster teen graphic novel series; and The Bark in Space by Trina Robbins, illus. by Tyler Page, which joins the Chicagoland Detective Agency series about weird goings-on. Millbrook takes the mound for Baseball Mud by David A. Kelley, illus. by Oliver Dominguez, a nonfiction picture book about the Baseball Rubbing Mud developed to take the shine off brand-new baseballs; Breezier, Cheesier, Newest, and Bluest: What Are Comparitves and Superlatives? by Brian P. Cleary, illus. by Brian Gable, a humorous word-usage guide; and several newcomers to the Cloverleaf Books – Community Helpers nonfiction series, including Dentist by Bridget Heos, illus. by Kyle Poling; Librarian by Gina Bellasario, illus. by Ed Myer; and Veterinarian by Gina Bellasario, illus. by Cale Atkinson. Little, Brown stays up late for The Dark by Lemony Snicket, illus. by Jon Klassen, in which a boy who’s afraid of the dark tries to conquer his fear; Awesome Dawson by Chris Gall, about a boy inventor-turned-superhero who saves his town by extolling the joys of reusing, repurposing, and recycling; Loki’s Wolves by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr, the debut book in the Blackwell Pages fantasy series, set during the Norse Apocalypse; Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger, a YA novel about a girl who discovers her finishing school is actually a spy training center; and Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff, starring a teenage boy with no name or history – the perfect soldier-assassin. LITTLE, BROWN/LB KIDS LB Kids gallops into spring with My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle’s Crystal Empire, an original story about the popular horse characters in a format that includes journal pages; Barnyard Baby by Elise Broach, illus. by Cori Doerrfeld, a novelty board book with rhyming text; Count My Kisses, 1, 2, 3 by Sandra Magsamen, a debut title in the I Love Learning series that features abacus-style beads and a die-cut handle; Pinwheel by Salina Yoon, an interactive novelty book with colorful spinning wheels on every spread; and Transformers Rescue Bots: Meet Chase the Police-Bot, a Level 1 reader starring Transformers that work side-by-side with the people of Earth. Poppy is ready to play with Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green, the first title in a new YA series about teen girls who are receiving mysterious dares; This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith, in which romance sparks when a teen movie star accidentally sends e-mail to a total stranger; How to Be a Star by M. Doty, a Surviving High School series entry about Kimi’s rise to stardom via a viral music video; Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin, in which two very different girls become friends during a summer in glitzy East Hampton; and The Grass Is Always Greener: A Belles Novel by Jen Calonita, featuring the arrival of Izzie’s estranged Aunt Zoe. MACMILLAN/FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX FSG swigs some Pepto Bismol for The Barftastic Life of Louie Berger by Jenny Meyerhoff, a humorous middle-grade novel about friendship and stagefright; The Fury by Alexander Gordon Smith, a thriller about what happens when humans turn into bloodthirsty savages; and Boom! Boom! Boom! by Jamie Swenson, illus. by David Walker, a rhyming picture book about overcoming stormy-night fears with help from some friends. Margaret Ferguson Books digs into spring with The Treasure of Way Down Deep by Ruth White, the sequel to Way Down Deep, in which Ruby tries to save her town by finding a legendary buried treasure; Zero Tolerance by Claudia Mills, about a middle school student facing expulsion over a misunderstanding regarding a school policy; and Papa’s Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming, illus. by Boris Kulikov, an illustrated chronicle of Lodner Phillips’s quest to invent a submarine. Frances Foster Books brings out the flavors of fall with Salt by Helen Frost, a novel in verse about two boys – one settler, one Native American – whose friendship is endangered by the War of 1812; Second Impact by David Klass and Perri Klass, M.D., about a boy who sustains serious head injuries while playing football, told in alternating voices by a brother-sister writing team; The Zarene Alphabet by Elizabeth Knox, in which Canny discovers that the symbols she has seen all her life are a form of magic; This Is Our House by Hyewon Yum, a story that follows a family though seasons and generations as their house becomes a home; and Please, Papa by Kate Banks, illus. by Gabi Swiatokowska, a picture book in which the polite “magic” word really does some magic. MACMILLAN/FEIWEL AND FRIENDS Feiwel and Friends sees red with Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, a futuristic take on Little Red Riding Hood and the second volume in the Lunar Chronicles; Oh So Tiny Bunny by David Kirk, about a small rabbit that dreams big; Kid Picker: A Kid’s Guide to Picking: From “Junk” to Found Treasure by Mike Wolfe with Lily Sprengelmeyer, a how-to book from the star of the History Channel show American Pickers; Home Sweet Horror by James Preller, illus. by Iacopo Bruno, the debut title in a new chapter-book thriller series; and Otis Dooda: Strange but True by Ellen Potter, illus. by David Heatley, an illustrated chapter book series-starter about a boy who lives in a very unusual New York apartment building. Henry Holt floats into fall with Bubbly World by Carol Snow, in which Freesia’s carefree island life is a virtual reality; The Invented Life of Locke Jenkins by Mary Pearson, the conclusion to the Jenna Fox Chronicles; Down the Yukon: Bo at Ballad Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill, illus. by LeUyen Pham, a pioneer story set on the banks of the Yukon; Some Monsters Are Different by David Milgrim, which looks at what set monsters apart, and what they all have in common; and the second in the Grisha trilogy, the sequel to Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. Christy Ottaviano Books hits a high note with Sing by Joe Raposo, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld, a visual interpretation of the beloved “Sesame Street” song; Another Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc, an underwater adventure from the creator of A Night at the Museum; Who Said Women Can’t Be Doctors by Tanya Lee Stone, illus. by Marjorie Priceman, a biography of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female medical doctor; Arnie the Doughnut Saves the Day by Laurie Keller, a chapter book starring the tasty-looking hero; and My Life as a Cartoonist by Janet Tashjian, illus. by Jake Tashjian, third in the “My Life…” series, in which Derek’s plan to help a new classmate backfires. Priddy Books straps on a backpack for My First Day at School by Roger Priddy, a first reader book about this early childhood experience; Schoolies School House by Roger Priddy, a book that unfolds to create a school house; Pop-Up Little Lamb by Roger Priddy, a novelty title featuring five pop-ups; Sticker Doodle Do! by Roger Priddy, a mix of photographic and illustrated doodling activities packaged with 200 stickers; and Hello Baby Play and Learn Activity Center by Roger Priddy, a large-size board book that contains an interactive play bar. Roaring Brook Press slathers on the sunscreen for Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Summer Vacation by Tommy Greenwald, illus. by J.P. Coovert, in which Charlie Joe Jackson wreaks havoc at an academic camp; Freshman Year by Bridie Clark, in which the reader decides which risks the characters must take in pursuit of social status, adventure, success, and love; 100 Questions You’d Never Ask Your Parents by Elizabeth Henderson and Nancy Armstrong, a manual that offers honest, reliable answers to sex questions; How to Bicycle to the Moon and Plant Sunflowers: A Simple but Brilliant Plan in 24 Easy Steps by Mordicai Gerstein, a picture book guide; and Winterblood by Marcus Sedgwick, a tale that intertwines seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries. MACMILLAN/ROARING BROOK/FIRST SECOND First Second Books blasts off with Astronaut Academy: Reentry by Dave Roman, in which something is stalking the halls of the Academy and making off with the hearts of the students; Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen, illus. by Faith Erin Hicks, about two unlikely best friends who take on the cheerleaders in a no-holds-barred battle over school funding that leads to a robot death match; Odd Duck by Cecil Castellucci, illus. by Sara Varon, a tale of two duck pals who each realize they are a little odd; Poseidon by George O’Connor, new to the Olympians series; and Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani, illus. by Maris Wicks, a non-fiction graphic novel. Neal Porter Books jumps into the ring with Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales, a picture book featuring Niño, world champion Lucha Libre competitor; Grandma and the Great Gourd by Chitra Divakaruni, illus. by Susy Pilgrim Waters, about a grandmother who hides in a giant gourd to avoid danger; If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano, illus. by Erin E. Stead, in which a boy learns exactly what he must do to catch a glimpse of the elusive aquatic mammal; Ben Rides On by Matt Davies, a humorous story about a boy, a bully, and a bicycle; and The Things I Can Do by Jeff Mack, showcasing the book that young Jeff makes of all the things he can do all by himself. Square Fish knows the endgame with Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith, the final title in the Escape from Furnace series; a Ninja Meerkats title by Gareth P. Jones, starring the “small, furry, deadly” critters; a reissue of Why Noah Chose the Dove by Isaac Bashevis Singer, illus. by Eric Carle, trans. by Elizabeth Shub; and reprints of Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos and Cool Cars and Trucks by Sean Kenney. Orca makes a splash with Marine Life of the Great Bear Rainforest by Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read, a look at the diverse aquatic life in the largest rainforest in North America; Little You by Richard Van Camp, a board-book lullaby for newborns; Allegra by Shelley Hrdlitschka, a YA novel in which Allegra falls for her music teacher and must deal with the fallout, and Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust by Leanne Lieberman, about a teenage girl who rebels against her family and her faith. Rapid Reads is on the case with Dirty Work by Reed Farrell Coleman, a Gulliver Dowd Mystery; and Sunset Key by Blake Crouch, a Letty Dobesh Mystery. Penguin marches into spring with Puppy Parade by Jill Abramson and Jane O’Connor, a picture book about a puppy named Scout; Guppy Up! by Jonathan Fenske, about an extraordinary fish that drives and plays the drums; On a Farm by Alexa Andrews, illus. by Candice Keimig, a leveled reader about life on a farm that also contains photographs; A New Friend by Wiley Blevins, illus. by Ekaterina Trukhan, a leveled reader featuring dog and cat buddies; and Nellie Sue, Happy Camper by Rebecca Janni, illus. by Lynne Avril, in which the star of the Every Cowgirl series goes camping. Dial can take the heat with Dragonbreath #8: Nightmare of the Iguana by Ursula Vernon, in which Danny forges into the nerdy world of his best friend’s brain to try and conquer the cause of his pal’s nightmares; Obsidian Mirror by Catherine Fisher, a sci-fi fantasy/adventure that kicks off a new trilogy; Betty Bunny Didn’t Do It by Michael Kaplan, illus. by Stephane Jorish, in which the title character learns the consequences of crying wolf; Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems by Marilyn Singer, illus. by Jossee Massee, featuring a poetic form where the poem is the same when presented forward then backwards; and Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko, the final book of the trilogy that began with Al Capone Does My Shirts. Dutton is not like the others with The Different Girl by Gordon Dahlquist, in which the lone survivor of a shipwreck mysteriously arrives on an island where all the girls look identical and are tasked to learn in sync; 17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma, about a teen who sees visions of girls who disappeared once they turned 17, and wonders whether she’s next; and The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory Galloway, starring a bored, self-absorbed boy who commits suicide and later wakes up alive, physically unharmed – 39 times. PENGUIN/GROSSET & DUNLAP Grosset & Dunlap heads for the hills with What Was the Gold Rush? by Joan Holub, illus. by Tim Tomkinson, first in the new What Was…? series of easy readers that offer accounts of historical events; The Doodles of Sam Dibble by Judy Press, illus. by Michael Kline, the debut title in a chapter book series starring a mischievous third-grader who chronicles his misadventures via doodles and stories; Beast Keeper by Lucy Coats, the kick-off to a new series featuring the stable boy for the mythical creatures of Olympus; Agatha Mistery: #1 The Curse of the Pharaoh by Sir Steve Stevenson, illus. by Stefano Turconi, in which the headstrong titular character jets to exotic locales to solve mysteries; and Treasure Chest: #5 Brave Warrior by Ann Hood, which finds time-traveling twins Felix and Maisie meeting up with a young Crazy Horse in a Sioux village. Nancy Paulsen Books is nuts about Ol’ Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein, about one fierce and funny mama protecting her babies; Dream Friends by You Byun, in which a shy girl’s imaginary friend gives her the courage to make a real one; Kiara Rules by Lyn Miller-Lachmann, featuring a girl with Asperger’s syndrome who struggles with tough choices when she learns the dangerous truth about her new neighbors; Everyone Sleeps by Marcellus Hall, about (almost) the entire animal world falling asleep, and Twenty-Six Pirates by Dave Horowitz, an alphabet-book companion to Twenty-Six Princesses. Philomel is all tied up with Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff, in which an 11-year-old orphan discovers that her fate involves an old peanut butter recipe and a thief on a mission; Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, about a teen girl who tries to break away from the lure of the clandestine underworld of New Orleans’s French Quarter; Otis and the Puppy by Loren Long, which finds Otis the tractor facing his fear of the dark to find a lost puppy; The Invisibility Curse by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan, a romance about a boy who is invisible and the one girl who can see him; and Runner by Ben Scott, a post-apocalyptic novel in which teens must survive a near-uninhabitable Earth. Poptropica sails into the sunset with Cryptids Island by Max Bralier, a book based on Poptropica.com’s Cryptid’s Island game, in which players earn rewards from an eccentric millionaire for finding mythical creatures. PENGUIN/PRICE STERN SLOAN Price Stern Sloan is over the moon for Adventure Time: Lumpy Space Princess’s Guide to Love, starring Cartoon Network’s royal purple glob from Land of Ooo; My Pet Polar Bear and My Pet Giraffe by Mark Iacolina, two board books about unusual pets doing not-so-unusual things; and The Apple and the Butterfly by Iela and Enzo Mari, a reissue of an Italian wordless picture book in which a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. Puffin lights a tiki torch for Stranded,by Survivior Host Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts, the debut title in a series about four stepsiblings who have to learn to work together when they are shipwrecked on a deserted South Pacific island; Ways of Being With by Robin Palmer, about a girl’s complicated relationship with her TV actress mom; and Demonosity by Amanda Ashby, in which Cassidy learns from the spirit of a medieval knight that she and must battle demons to keep the Black Rose safe. Putnam bundles up for Frozen: The Other Land Chronicles, Book One by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston, a new fantasy series by this husband-wife team; Code: A Virals Novel by Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs, in which the Virals must find and defuse a bomb hidden in a geocache; Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu, the high-stakes-thriller sequel to Legend; Orleans by Sherri Smith, a gritty futuristic tale set in the hostile city of the title; and The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson, sequel to The Name of the Star. Razorbill has the blues with The Indigo Spell: A Bloodlines Novel by Richelle Mead, in which Sydney begins to embrace the mysterious magic within her; The Ultra Violets by Sophie Bell, about four spunky BFFs who accidentally end up on the wrong side of a genetics experiment; How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller, a chilling tale about an academy that turns out sociopaths; The Ruining by Anna Collomore, about a young nanny who slowly descends into madness after moving in with her employer’s deceptively perfect family; and The Ghastly Dandies Do the Classics by Ben Gibson, an illustrated compilation of classic tales retold by monsters. Viking breaks out some polish for Tarnish by Katherine Longshore, a Tudor tale of love, lust, and power featuring a teen Anne Boleyn; The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, in which Emeline struggles to balance the value of what she has against the allure of the wider world; Crap Kingdom by DC Pierson, about a teen boy whose dream of being whisked away to a magical fantasy world comes disappointingly true; Tea Rex: Tea Party Manners for Very Special Guests by Molly Idle, a collection of helpful and humorous tips; and Octopus Alone by Divya Srinivasan, a picture book that follows the underwater adventures of a shy cephalopod. Random House gets heavy with The Weight of the Stars by Tessa Gratton, the first book of the Songs of New Asgard fantasy series, which features an alternate universe inspired by old Nordic religions; Dualed by Elsie Chapman, set in a world where citizens must prove their worth by killing their Alts – twins raised by other families; Giddy-Up, Daddy by Troy Cummings, about a father who gives the best horsey rides; Robot, Go Bot! by Dana Meachen Rau, a graphic novel that kicks off the Step Into Reading series’ new Comic Readers line; and Icky Ricky #1: Icky Ricky by Michael Rex, the debut title in an early chapter book about a kid whose madcap messes get him into uncomfortable situations. Robin Corey Books breathes the rarified air up there with The Elites: Privileged Positions by Quinn Xi and Emily Flint, about a middle-class girl swept into the privileged, no-rules life when she gets a scholarship to a Swiss boarding school; Wedgieman to the Rescue by Charise Mericle Harper, illus. by Bob Shea, a Step Into Reading title that finds Wedgieman defending the local playground against a villain named Bad Dude; Not That Tutu! by Michelle Sinclair Colman, illus. by Hiroe Nakata, about a girl’s enthusiasm for her favorite article of clothing; My Mom Is the Best Circus by Luciana Navarro-Powell, which celebrates a working mom as a multitasking household wiz;, and Bean Dog and Nugget: The Ball by Charise Mericle Harper, first in a new graphic novel series for beginning readers. Delacorte pulls out an autograph book for Starstruck by Rachel Shukert, first in a trilogy about three teen girls trying to make it to the top during the golden age of Hollywood; Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson, a companion to Hattie Big Sky starring resilient orphan Hattie, who goes to San Francisco to follow a dream of being a newspaper reporter; Grotesque by Page Morgan, an interpretation of gargoyle lore, which kicks off a new YA trilogy; The Year of Luminous Love by Lurlene McDaniel, about three best friends planning their lives after high schooland Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder, an adaptation for young people of Kidder’s book about the Harvard doc with a mission to transform healthcare on a global scale. Knopf goes radio silent with Doug Unplugged, featuring a rebellious robot who wants to go outside and explore; Lunch Lady and the Video Game Villain by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, in which Lunch Lady tries to catch a crook who is disrupting the student council election; Mojo by Tim Tharp, a YA mystery thriller; Toys in Space by Mini Grey, a look at what happens when toys are left in the garden at night; and Far Far Away by Tom McNeal, a Brothers Grimm-inspired mystery thriller. Wendy Lamb Books spices up the season with Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff, in which a girl in 1944 runs away, guided by a ghostly voice; Vote by Gary Paulsen, which features goof-up Kevin Spencer’s run for class office; Zigzag #8: Zigzag Zoom by Patricia Reilly Giff, illus. by Alisdair Bright, about a challenge to see who’s the fastest runner at the afternoon center; and Calvin Coconut: Extra Famous by Graham Salisbury, illus. by Jacqueline Rogers, which finds Calvin and his pals hired as extras in a zombie movie. RANDOM HOUSE/SCHWARTZ & WADE Schwartz & Wade Books straps on a helmet for Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle by Chris Raschka, a simple how-to book filled with the highs and lows of trying to master this skill; Bluebird by Bob Staake, in which a shy boy befriends a brave bird; The Beginner’s Guide to Running Away from Home by Jennifer LaRue Huget, a step-by-step guide narrated by a boy who decides to fly the coop; Water in the Park: A Book About Water and the Times of the Day by Emily Jenkins, illus. by Stephanie Graegin, a look at a hot summer day at a city park; and The Mighty Lalouche by Matthew Olshan, illus. by Sophie Blackall, a historically inspired picture book about a humble postman who boxes his way to victory over fierce competition. RUNNING PRESS KIDS Running Press Kids plates a fall list featuring Lidia’s Kitchen Through the Seasons by Lidia Bastianich, illus. by Renée Graef, a picture book in which the chef-author shares her memories of growing up on a farm; Tiny Pie by Mark Bailey and Michael Oatman, illus. by Edward Hemingway, in which a hungry elephant comes upon a mouse doing a cooking show, complete with a pie recipe from Alice Waters; Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres Sanchez, about a girl who tries to understand her crush’s suicide by retracing her steps the last night she was with him; Coda by Emma Trevayne, about a teen who fights against the Corporation that controls every aspect of his life in a high-tech, postmodern world; and The Color of Rain by Cori McCarthy, a fantasy in which 17-year-old Rain struggles with how to save herself from an underground slave trade – and her younger brother from madness. ST. MARTIN’S GRIFFIN Griffin crackles with Inferno by Sherrilyn Kenyon, fourth in the Chronicles of Nick series; Mystic by Alyson Noel, a new Soul Seekers title about a girl who can navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead; Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, a debut YA novel about two misfits who fall in love; and If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch, another YA debut, starring two sisters who have been raised in a trailer deep in the forest and are suddenly thrown into the world of school, clothes, and boys. Arthur A. Levine Books takes wing with The Bird King: An Artist’s Notebook by Shaun Tan, a book of sketches, artwork, and personal reflection; The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson, illus. by Axel Scheffler, in which a snack-stealing bandit gets his comeuppance; The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson, a tale of love, death, and technology set in the tropics of a futuristic Brazil; and A Corner of White (The Colors of Madeleine, Book 1) by Jaclyn Moriarty, the first title in a trilogy that features two characters exchanging letters across worlds. Cartwheel wakes up with Good Morning, Sunshine! by Sandra Magsamen, a novelty book featuring a tasty breakfast; Can You See What I See? Out of This World by Walter Wick, the ninth search-and-find title in the series; Uh-Oh, David! Sticker Book by David Shannon, an activity title starring the mischievous little boy. Chicken House works the runway with The Look by Sophia Bennett, about an aspiring super-model whose sister is diagnosed with cancer; Freaks by Kieran Larwood, featuring a strange cast of crime fighters including Sheba the Wolfgirl, Monkeyboy, and Sister Moon; and Muncle Trogg #2: Muncle Trogg and the Flying Donkey by Janet Foxley, a new adventure for the titular littlest giant. Graphix plays with fire with BONE: Quest for the Spark #3 by Tom Sniegoski, illus. by Jeff Smith, in which Tom Elm and friends race against time to find the final piece of the Spark. Orchard puts the kettle on for Sophia Grace and Rosie’s Princess Tea Party by Sophia Grace Brownlee and Rosie McClelland, featuring the precocious young cousins from England who are YouTube singing sensations and frequent Ellen DeGeneres Show guests; Lucky Ducklings by Eva Moore, illus. by Nancy Carpenter, a picture book about the rescue of five baby ducks; and The Lamb and the Butterfly by Arnold Sundgaard, illus. by Eric Carle, which finds the title characters trying to understand each other’s perspective. Point pitches the big top for That Time I Joined the Circus by J.J. Howard, about a girl who joins a traveling circus attempting to find her estranged mother; Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg, in which a girl who’s tired of being a wallflower, and jealous of the family time spent on her sister’s pageants, joins the beauty game; and Unbroken: A Ruined Novel by Paula Morris, about Rebecca’s return to New Orleans, where she gets drawn into a mystery involving a troubled ghost. Scholastic Nonfiction swings for the fences with a Roberto Clemente biography by Luis Clemente, the first authorized bio of the Pittsburgh Pirate; Andrew Jenks by Andrew Jenks, the story of the documentary filmmaker and MTV star; Scholastic Discover More: Sharks and Scholastic Discover More: Puppies & Kittens by Penelope Ardon, two photographic titles for younger readers; and Profile: The Vietnam War by Daniel Polansky, featuring accounts from six critical players in the controversial war. Scholastic Paperbacks calls the exterminator for Infestation by Timothy Bradley, in which a boys’ reform school in the desert is attacked by giant ants after an earthquake; A Dog and His Girl Mysteries Book 1: Play Dead by Jane Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens, featuring a retired police dog and his girl as a mystery solving team; Deep Dive #1: Cephalox the Cyber Squid by Adam Blade, first in a deep-sea adventure series that pits Max against four aquatic monsters; and Monstrous Stories #1: Night of the Zombie Goldfish by Dr. Roach, which kicks off a series of illustrated monster stories for early readers. Scholastic Press expresses excitement about Exclamation Point by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illus. by Tom Lichtenheld, a tale of standing out, fitting in, and self-discovery; The Very Beary Tooth Fairy by Arthur A. Levine, illus. by Sarah S. Brannen, which begins with a curious bear’s loose tooth; Starring Jules (as Herself) by Beth Ain, about a girl who is between best friends when she gets discovered and needs someone to help her with a big audition; Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce, a new Circle adventure that takes mages Briar, Rosethorn, and Evvy to the forbidding land of Yanjing; and Hold Fast by Blue Balliett, in which a girl and her family are forced to seek help at a city shelter when her father disappears. SIMON & SCHUSTER Simon & Schuster pushes the ‘up’ button for Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans, a debut novel about a heroine trying to topple corrupt angels in the afterlife; Again! by Emily Gravett, featuring a young dragon and its favorite book; They Call Me a Hero by Daniel Hernandez, the story of the intern whose efforts help saved the life of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords when she was shot in Tucson; and Chemical Garden #3 by Lauren DeStefano, the conclusion to the fantasy series. SIMON & SCHUSTER/ALADDIN Aladdin watches the clock for 33 Minutes: Countdown to an Epic Smackdown by Todd Hasak-Lowy, a humorous school story; Beyonders #3: Chasing the Prophecy by Brandon Mull, the final volume in the bestselling fantasy series; Girl Meets Ghost by Lauren Barnholdt, starring a 12-year-old medium; and Hardy Boys Adventures #1: Secret of the Red Arrow by Franklin W. Dixon; and Nancy Drew Diaries #1: Curse of the Arctic Star by Carolyn Keene, relaunches of these classic series. SIMON & SCHUSTER/ATHENEUM Atheneum seeks inner calm with Peace by Wendy Andersen Halperin, a picture book about the true path to world harmony; Panic by Sharon Draper, about one moment and one bad decision that change everything; and Red Hat by Lita Judge, a companion to Red Sled that finds a playful crew of baby animals getting into some mischief. SIMON & SCHUSTER/BEACH LANE Beach Lane Books makes a wish with Happy Birthday, Bunny! by Liz Garton Scanlon, about an animal celebration; and I Love You Nose! I Love You Toes! by Linda Davick, a playful appreciation of the human body for very young readers. SIMON & SCHUSTER/LITTLE SIMON Little Simon puts up neighborhood fliers for The Critter Club #1: Amy and the Missing Puppy by Callie Barkley, first in a new early chapter book series; Galaxy Jack #1:Hello, Nebulon by Ray O’Ryan, which begins a chapter book series starring out-of-this-world characters; and Pretty Costumes and Pretty Patterns by Hannah Davies, illus. by Beth Gunnell, two titles that encourage readers to color and customize the pages. SIMON & SCHUSTER/WISEMAN Paula Wiseman Books sticks out its tongue for Lick by Matthew Van Fleet, an interactive novelty book; Wee Rhymes: Baby’s First Poetry Book by Jane Yolen, illus. by Jane Dyer, a collection for babies and toddlers; and Do Not Open!: There Are Monkeys in This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt, illus. by Matthew Forsythe, a picture book filled with monkeys, alligators, and more. SIMON & SCHUSTER/SIMON PULSE Simon Pulse takes cover for Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger, a paranormal romance; Visions #1: Crash by Lisa McMann, first in a new YA series; Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick, a suspenseful teen novel; The Program by Suzanne Young, set in a world where teen suicide is an epidemic; and Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey, a romance set in Victorian London in which a teen girl unravels the mysteries of a secret society. SIMON & SCHUSTER/SIMON SPOTLIGHT Simon Spotlight addresses fall with Dear Know-It-All #5 by Rachel Wise, in which Samantha is thrilled with her assignment to review the school play for the school newspaper; Cupcake Diaries #12: Alexis Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice by Simon Coco, featuring the fallout from the arrival of a mean girl; and Croods Movie: The Croods Movie Novelization by DreamWorks Animation, a tie-in to the comedy feature set in the prehistoric era. Simply Read weighs anchor for Dream Boats by Dan Bar-el, illus. by Kirsti Anne Wakelin, featuring children riding through their dreams on boats; Murilla Gorilla by Jennifer Lloyd, illus. by Jacqui Lee, the debut title about the messiest, hairiest, and hungriest detective around; and Spark by Kallie George, illus. by Genevieve Cote, about a young dragon who can’t control his fire. Sleeping Bear walks the plank for No Pirates Allowed Said Library Lou by Rhonda Greene, illus. by Brian Ajhar, in which a pirate and a parrot turn the quiet Seabreezy Library upside down; In Andal’s House by Gloria Whelan, illus. by Amanda Hall, about a boy in India who comes from a family consider to be Untouchables by the caste system; Jasper’s Story: Saving Moon Bears by Jill Robinson and Mark Bekoff, illus. by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, starring a rescued Asiatic black bear; and Finnegan & Fox: The Ten Foot Cop by Helen L. Wilbur, illus. by John Manders, the story of a policeman and his horse, Finnegan, part of the NYPD Mounted Unit. Fire needs a counter-spell for Cursed by Kate and J.R. Angelella, about a girl who comes to believe the curse on her family when she’s pulled into a world of voodoo and demons; Emblazed by Jessica Shirvington, in which Violet is forced to turn over the key to hell to one who has saved, then betrayed her; How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler, a tale about a friendship at stake the summer before two girls’ senior year; My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks by Marc and Maya Silver, an advice book for teens featuring stories from real kids; and Sucks to Be Me by Geoff Herbach, in which nerd-turned-jock Felton faces life changing decisions during his senior year. Jabberwocky fires up the oven for The Cupcake Club: Winner Bakes All by Sheryl and Carrie Berk, in which the Club competes in a Battle of the Bakers on live TV; Funny Bird by Jennifer Yerkes, about an unassuming bird who believes that adorning himself with flashy feathers will win him friends; My Epic Fairy Tale Fail by Anna Staniszewski, the follow-up to My Very UnFairy Tale Life, which finds Jenny challenged to three impossible tasks in the Land of Tales; This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh, featuring a homeschooler’s account of her daily life; and Wonder Light by R.R. Russell, the story of a troubled girl banished to a misty, haunted island where she must save the last free unicorn herd. Sylvan Dell goes green with Nature Recycles: How About You? by Michelle Lord, illus. by Cathy Morrison, which explores how animals in various habitats use recycled material to build homes, protect themselves, and get food; and Ferdinand’s First Summer by Mary Holland, a photo essay that chronicles a young fox’s first few months of life. Walker waddles into spring with Penguin on Vacation by Salina Yoon, starring a penguin that plans a getaway after tiring of cold and snow; the launch of an as yet untitled series by Simone Elkeles, about the lives and loves of high school football teammates; Hysteria by Megan Miranda, in which a girl who killed her boyfriend in self-defense is suspected of a murder at her new school; Stung by Bethany Wiggins, a futuristic fantasy thriller in which a bio-engineering experiment involving honeybees goes wrong; and Regency Witches by Alyxandra Harvey, a tale set in 1804 in which three cousins discover their family lineage of witchcraft. Zest Books saves the last dance for The Prom Book: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need by Laruen Metz, an advice title focused on the big event; A Girl’s Guide to Fitting in Fitness by Erin Whitehead and Jennipher Walters, featuring practical tips; Super Pop: Pop Culture Lists to Help You Win at Trivia, Survive in the Wild, and Make it Through the Holidays, a collection of edifying top 10 lists; Secrets of a Straight-A Student: A Guide to Studying Better and Stressing Less by Lesley Schwartz Martin, a compendium of helpful techniques; and How to Lose Everything by Philip Matthies, the true story of four teens who find a small fortune in an abandoned house in 1994. Zonderkidz plans an escape route with Captives by Jill Williamson, first in a series of dystopian/apocalyptic novels starring three brothers; Avenger by Heather Burch, final volume in the Halfling trilogy about half angels; Always Daddy’s Princess by Karen Kingsbury, featuring a special father-daughter relationship; The Chained Deep by Christa Kinde, second in a quartet about a girl who discovers she can see angels that live among us; and The Skull Creek Mystery by Eddie Jones, in which a young man begins to question everything around him, including his faith.
V.25 No.16 \| 04/21/2016 Tel Aviv Graduate Visits Page 1 Press Release [ Mon May 9 2016 11:00 AM ] Sharon Nir, graduate of Tel Aviv University in Israel, will be at Page 1 Books at 6:30pm on Thursday, May 12, to talk about and sign her memoir of moving to the United States, The Opposite of Comfortable. The book is described as such: "Sharon Nir, a young mother and successful businesswoman, is faced with the most difficult decision of her life; should she abandon her career and her place of birth, Tel Aviv, to follow her husband, who has been offered a once in a lifetime opportunity—a surgical fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City? In this heart-breaking and riveting memoir, Sharon shares her difficult but extraordinary journey of discovery: from her move to New York City, where she experiences loneliness and the shock of not having a career and the traumatic events of 9/11, to her return to Israel, the difficult relocation to Jerusalem and the discovery of a challenge her son has to face, through the baffling and grueling process of legal immigration in the United States, a journey that will force Sharon to question every certitude. What does it mean to lead a full life for a woman in the 21st century? The Opposite of Comfortable seeks to answer this difficult question while celebrating the strength and resilience of the female spirit." Nir was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. She holds a Bachelor of Art degree in Language and Literature from Tel Aviv University, and an MBA in Marketing and International Management from Northeastern University, MA. As a system analyst and marketing manager in the high tech industry, Sharon developed the first Knowledge Management system in Israel and enjoyed a successful high-tech career when at the age of 29, she decided to follow her husband as his career took him to New York City. In 2009, the family immigrated to the United States. Sharon, her husband and two children reside in Albuquerque. Page One Books is located at 5850 Eubank NE, Suite B-41, in Albuquerque's Mountain Run Shopping Center (southeast corner of Eubank and Juan Tabo). The Nir event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 294-2026 or visit www.page1book.com. V.25 No.17 \| 04/28/2016 The Daily Show Inundated with the Arts Section By Maggie Grimason [ Tue May 3 2016 12:35 PM ] Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to two artists visiting (or soon-to-be visiting) Albuquerque: Jess X. Chen and Gregg Deal. Jess X. Chen is a multi-disciplinary artist whose mediums include video, mural work, paintings and poetry. She will be visiting the Tannex with Demian DinéYazhi as part of their joint poetry tour: Solastalgia. Here is where I will begin to flood you with an immersive multimedia experience. Not only can you read interviews (that I got to conduct (!) straightens tie) in upcoming issues of the Alibi, but you can watch these artists speak out on important issues on alternately funny and cerebral platforms. Jess X. Chen recently delivered her first TED Talk about migration as imagination. Enriched by her poetry, her talk is visceral and powerful. I also had the pleasure of speaking with Gregg Deal, an artist from Colorado who not only premiered his first short film at last weekend's Rezilience, but threw up a mural at the Peace and Justice Center of Leonard Peltier. Gregg works in a multitude of public art mediums--murals, performance art and more. His works are visual pieces of activism and always express his Indigenous heritage. He is an outspoken critic of the Washington Redskins racist mascot and participated in a great, biting panel for The Daily Show on the topic. You can watch both of these artists do their things in the videos above. You can also watch Jess X. Chen perform her poetry on Monday, May 9 (along with Demian! And a performance by the brilliant Discotays) and also get thee to the Peace and Justice Center (202 Harvard Dr. SE) to see Gregg's mural on the west facing wall. Inside, you can buy shirts with the same images, the proceeds from which will go to the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. V.25 No.10 \| 03/10/2016 Is Home Here? Sunday, Mar 20: Stories and Songs: Immigrant and Refugee Artists By Megan Reneau [ Fri Mar 18 2016 11:00 AM ] A performative talk with artists and cultural workers who have made their home in Albuquerque. V.24 No.15 \| 4/9/2015 Somos 1 ABQ By Carolyn Carlson This week: Immigration, the Open Space Trust Fund, and other issues. V.24 No.10 \| 3/5/2015 Linked in Love Breaking borders at Celebrate Solidarity! By Mark Lopez Immigrants navigate remarkable risks and struggles. Hear their stories and celebrate their triumphs at Celebrate Solidarity! V.23 No.46 \| The Daily Word in immigration, bombs and a reincarnated marine By Mark Lopez [ Fri Nov 14 2014 9:17 AM ] In Myanmar, President Obama gave a talk on immigration and said he can't “stand by” and wait for Congress to act. A Dallas teacher was forced to resign after posting “racially charged” tweets laced with derogatory statements about the Michael Brown shooting. According to the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of new marriages in the US are remarriages. Police in Los Angeles arrested 23 people outside a Walmart who were protesting low wages and “its retaliation against employees who pushed for better working conditions.” A woman who owns a horse ranch in Placitas found a dead horse in a storage room on the facility. It's not exactly The Godfather, but it's enough to make you lose your lunch. Seven years later, the case of the missing man who left his severed penis on a doorstep is still unsolved. A former teacher, Albuquerque Public Schools and two principals are being sued for a string of sexual abuse allegations. Some kids see ghosts. Some kids have imaginary friends. This one thinks he's a reincarnated marine. V.23 No.45 \| 11/6/2014 photos by Adolphe Pierre-Louis In Search of Voices for the Voiceless By Randyn Charles Bartholomew A child, alone, leaving a war-torn country. La Llorona as ally. Dark social elements combine with humor and magical realism to evoke a modern fairy tale in ¡Bocón! V.23 No.40 \| The Daily Word in a cryptid sighting, an ear canal insect and voting By Geoffrey Plant [ Tue Oct 7 2014 12:19 PM ] Absentee voting for the New Mexico general elections starts today. This woman is searching Albuquerque's west mesa for her missing sister. New York City water really does make the best bagels. A prominent Santa Fean was attacked at his home. Thou shalt probably not preach Jesus stuff when in uniform. Doug Ford has a good chance of winning the Toronto mayoral race. Here is disturbing video of a large hideous insect being pulled out of a man's ear. US border with Mexico is now only "the last line of defense" against illegals. CNN needs writers with better aptitude for metaphor. The Daily Word in the Balloon Fiesta, dispensary woes and a cancer ball By Mark Lopez [ Fri Oct 3 2014 8:50 AM ] Police in Thailand take alleged killers to the scene of the crime to reconstruct the murder. Two Louisiana teachers are accused of having a three-way with one of their students. New York is attempting to pass a bill that limits its involvement with federal immigration organizations because their policies are too “anti-immigrant.” After many abortion clinics in Texas shut down due to a law that was signed last year, the appeals court is now allowing the state to enforce new restrictions. Officials in Dallas, Texas, are cleaning and sanitizing the apartment of a Liberian man who was diagnosed with Ebola. The BioPark Aquarium is attempting to replace fish that were poisoned when an employee was trying to get rid of a parasite in their tank. About $50,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from a dead man's apartment in Albuquerque. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta kicks off this weekend y'all! The Alibi's got the schedule and more for ya. That's a giant ball … I mean testicle. A man is pushing a 6-foot teste across the US to raise cancer awareness. V.23 No.31 \| The Daily Word in border bills, CIA spies and a penis cloud By Mark Lopez [ Fri Aug 1 2014 8:52 AM ] A three-day truce between Israel and Palestine was interrupted after Israel reported one of their soldiers went missing in the southern Gaza Strip. The House Republican leadership will present a new border bill today that “further tightens a 2008 trafficking law.” The FBI are assisting authorities in Oregon in trying to find a mother who went missing seven days ago. Former president Bill Clinton says he had the chance to kill Osama bin Laden hours before the 9/11 attacks. After an internal investigation, it was confirmed that the CIA spied on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Bernalillo County deputies took down an alleged drug and prostitution ring on Second and Alameda streets. A nationwide warrant has been issued for a Las Cruces teen accused of voyeurism. Teenager Tony Day is expected to plead guilty for the 2012 murders of his adoptive mother and her daughter in Tucumcari. V.23 No.29 \| 7/17/2014 Sins of the Past, Crimes of the Present Mass graves and the impending border crisis By Erika Wurth Erika Wurth discusses the connection between a mass grave in Canada and a detention center for children in New Mexico. V.23 No.27 \| The Daily Word in Doritos Roulette, Sarah Palin opened her mouth and Insane Clown Posse fans are a "gang" By Geoffrey Plant [ Tue Jul 8 2014 1:57 PM ] A Mason Jar exploded in the Jemez Mountains. New Mexico made the top of another list, this time for slowest internet speeds in the nation. Obama is asking Congress for 4 million dollars to help deal with all the unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the US-Mexico border. Insane Clown Posse's lawsuit over their "gang" status was tossed out. "Doctor Death" Jack Kevorkian's Deathmobile (a bubble window VW microbus, a real deathtrap!) was purchased from a Detroit pawnshop. One fifth of Detroit is slated for demolition. Three new species of mushroom were found in a package of dried mushrooms from China. If you live in Canada you can try the new Doritos flavor: "Doritos Roulette". V.23 No.26 \| The Daily Word in "The View," medical marijuana and forgotten dough By Mark Lopez [ Fri Jun 27 2014 9:05 AM ] Twelve-year-old Charlie Bothuell V, a Detroit boy who has been missing since June 14, was found alive in his parents' basement. The Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law that banned protesters within 35 feet of abortion clinics. German parliament “cuts ties” with Verizon Communications Inc., after allegations that the US was spying and that the firms were handing over data. What's “The View” to do without Walters, Shepherd and McCarthy? Doctors are baffled at the diseases states list as being eligible for medical marijuana prescriptions. Because of impairment fees, the State has a nice little nest egg that they completely forgot about. KOB4 obtained audio recordings of interviews with APD officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez from two days after the fatal shooting of James Boyd. Two APD officers are being credited for “a big save” after talking a man down when he screamed that he had a gun and wanted to be killed. A facility to open in Artesia, N.M., that will house women and children who've entered the US illegally to escape gang violence and poverty in Central America. V.22 No.49 \| 12/5/2013 An Education Without Borders Winning photograph speaks volumes By Genevieve Mueller [ Tue Dec 3 2013 4:37 PM ] Winner of the 1st Annual International Education Week photo contest encompasses history and place. V.22 No.46 \| The Daily Word in the postal service, Van Damme's split and New Mexico immigration By Mark Lopez [ Fri Nov 15 2013 11:15 AM ] Mr. Ford can't fight the fever … “to lose some powers” has gotta be rough. Police have identified the passenger who fell from a small plane that was flying over the Atlantic. Patsy Davis' body was exhumed from her frontyard after her husband lost a court battle to keep her in her wanted resting place. The postal service lost $5 billion this past year. An abortion protester named Rives Grogan was arrested yesterday for shouting at people near Zimmerman Library about religion and abortion. He's being charged with disorderly conduct and public nuisance. And that's not counting his Veterans Day stunt. Today is the last day for early voting in the special election. The election itself happens on Nov. 19. US attorneys have prosecuted 5,999 people for immigration offenses in New Mexico so far this year, the fastest rise among the country's 94 judicial districts. And you thought you could do the splits? Taoist QiGong Class at Open Space Visitor Center A class on the basic alignments to increase qi through the body. Santa Fe Community Farm Stand at Santa Fe Community Farm Get Scared • rock • Scarless • metal • Novellas Sencillas • The Other 99 • Morella • post-rock, ambient at Blu Phoenix VenueMore Recommended Events ››
"For every square mile that man has walked on the Earth, three hundred square miles exist that have never been touched by human feet — but MAY INDEED HAVE BEEN TOUCHED by the hooves, paws, tentacles, and horrid tongue-foot-pads of the CRYPTIDS." — John Hodgman Venture out into the waters and woodlands of New England, and there's a chance you'll bump into "Champ," America's own Loch Ness Monster, who allegedly plies the muddy ripples of Lake Champlain. Or, perhaps, the Gloucester Sea Serpent. Or the Granite State Bigfoot. Or Connecticut's Winsted Wildman. Dare you wander into the dark-woven forests of Maine or the eerie and unexplored Hockomock Swamp, smack in the middle of the Bay State's allegedly supernatural "Bridgewater Triangle"? You well may. After all, could what's living in there be any scarier than what's living out here? We find ourselves in a world where presidents swindle their countries into wars, governors shake down children's hospitals, and con men abscond with $50 billion from their investors, many of them charities. Is it any wonder that some people spend hefty chunks of each day dreaming of a world inhabited by unseen creatures untouched by the mean banality of mankind? Can it be a coincidence that the field of cryptozoology — literally, the study of "hidden animals" — has evolved from a discipline cloaked in shadows and pooh-poohed by science into a full-fledged pop-cultural explosion? In short: the world of late has gone cryptid crazy. At the Museum of Science, the "Mythic Creatures" exhibit (on display through March 22) delves into the folkloric and ethnozoological aspects of cryptids, from the Kraken (Norwegian sea beast) to the Chupacabra (Latin American livestock muncher). In Egleston Square, the 826 Boston writing center — a chapter of the San Francisco workshop established by Dave Eggers — disguises itself behind a think-tank named, fancifully, the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute. (Slogan: "We exist because he exists.") Even Harpoon Brewery's new line of high-octane beers is called the Leviathan Series — named for that gargantuan but seldom-seen creature of the lower depths. That's to say nothing of the new books by the likes of tweedy fabulist John Hodgman, a son of Brookline whose latest almost-true almanac, More Information Than You Require (Dutton), devotes space to discussion of the Pope Lick Monster and Mongolian Death Worm, and delves even deeper into the hollow-earth netherworld of the mole-men. Or the forthcoming Beasts! (Fantagraphics), which features stunning, full-color portraits of more than 90 cryptids, demons, and sprites — from the Ajattar (a grotesque Finnish dragon lady) to the Yuki-Onna (a cruel snow harpy from Japan) — by such comic book artists as Peter Bagge, Kim Deitch, and Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale. Or the popular TV shows that revel in the unexplained — be they documentary (MonsterQuest, Destination Truth) or fantastical fiction (Lost, with its polar bears pawing through the jungle brush). Or Quatchi, the Sasquatch mascot of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Or even, we suppose, the politically disillusioned Minnesota citizen who, in this past fall's US Senate race, given the choices Norm Coleman and Al Franken, preferred to vote for "Lizard People."
\|Habitat\|\|Richtersveld, South Africa\| \|First appearance\|\|Something in the Water\| The Grootslang is a legendary cryptid that is reported to dwell in deep caves in Richtersveld, South Africa. It made its first appearance in Something in the Water. In the show it is depicted as a elephant with four tusks, horns and a spiked tail. It's color appears to be green. In the legend, its similar to a large serpent, the creature is supposedly 40 ft. long and 3 ft. wide, according to witnesses. In Dahomey, it is known as an elephant with a serpent tail which the show based it on. Meat: The Saturdays led it to an area having it chase some dragging meat. The legend also says it eats meat. The cave is known as the “Wonder Hole” or the “Bottomless Pit.” Supposedly, it connects to the sea, which is 40 miles away. According to local legend, the cave is filled with diamonds. So he may be the guardian of the diamonds.
Taking our interview today is one of my favourite Fortean wordsmiths, Neil Arnold, whose books include Monster and Mystery Animals of Kent; both available from CFZ press. Neil is a regular contributor to Animals & Men and will be talking at the next Weird Weekend on the ghost of Bluebell Hill, possibly the most famous phantom hitch-hiker in the world. So, Neil Arnold, here are your 5 Questions on… Cryptozoology: 1) How did you first become interested in cryptozoology? My interest began when, at the age of around nine, I saw a movie entitled The Legend Of Boggy creek. It may have been on TV or one of those dodgy copies my uncle used to pass around! It was a docu-drama concerning a man-beast said to prowl the river bottoms of Arkansas. To this day that film terrifies and inspires me. It is a cult movie now and responsible for films such as 'Blair Witch...' I was also influenced by a book called Monsters & Mysterious Beasts by Carey Miller, which is an alphabetical listing of strange creatures such as basilisk, vampires, Nessie, yeti, Bigfoot. I also recall the old Arthur C. Clarke television programme and the brilliant TV series The Nightstalker, starring Darren McGavin. 2) Have you ever personally seen a cryptid or secondary evidence of a cryptid, if so can you please describe your encounter? Although 'big cats' are not cryptids, I have on three occasions seen a black leopard; twice in 2000 and last year, possibly the same individual. I have also seen a lynx, which was filmed, and two sandy-coloured cats, one a puma; I'm not sure what the other was. I have collected a lot of evidence for these animals: paw-prints, hair samples etc; but certainly my own sightings have been a privilege. 3) Which cryptids do you think are the most likely to be scientifically discovered and described some day, and why? The Giant Squid...the ocean depths hide so many secrets and I believe some real monsters are down there. Also, the thylacine seems to be the ideal candidate for most likely cryptid to be found. It clearly never became extinct in the first place but if these animals are found, the tourist industry may go up the spout! And finally, Bigfoot...out there somewhere in the Pacific northwest, in my opinion, lurks a very real creature awaiting discovery. The vast forests mean that searching for such a beast is, at the moment, like searching for a needle in a haystack, but one will show up, just like the Mountain Gorilla at the beginning of the 1900s. 4) Which cryptids do you think are the least likely to exist? Some cryptids are a sum of many parts, but none of these parts are flesh and blood possibility. Many 'monsters' exist as legend, part hoax, part campfire tale, part misinterpretation. The Jersey Devil, Mothman, Bray Road beast, Chupacabra; none of these are cryptids...they are zooform, cultural dreads and local belief, but not flesh and blood creatures. It doesn't matter how many see them, or for how long they seem to be around, there is no flesh and blood creature behind the facade. 5) If you had to pick your favourite cryptozoological book (not including books you may have written yourself) what would you choose? I enjoy books that tell a great story. Too many crypto books and Fortean books regurgitate material time and time again. My favourite are: Hunting The American Werewolf and The Bray Road Beast, by Linda Godfrey, Out Of The Shadows by Tony Healy and Paul Cropper, Chupacabra & Other Mysteries by Scott Corrales, Richard Freeman's Dragons: More Than A Myth?, Owlman & Others by Jon Downes, Strange Creatures From Time & Space by John Keel, Smokey & The Fouke Monster by Smokey Crabtree, White Things by Kurt Mccoy, The Locals by Thom Powell, From Flying Toads...by Karl Shuker, and some of the monster books I read as a kid.
Call of Duty: Ghosts Xbox 360 Cheats - Game: Call of Duty: Ghosts - Game Description: The CoD series is back in 2013 with Call of Duty: Ghosts, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. 'Ghosts' looks like it could potentially be the "darkest" title in the series to date. Watch out for it on 5 November 2013! DLC 3 Easter Egg Hunt cheat for Call of Duty: Ghosts on Xbox 360 These are the Cryptid Egg sacks that must be shot in a credited game. See DLC 1+2 link above for pertinent information. Maps: Pharaoh. Center north building, inside. It is out of the map, past the flames, near a column just north of the eastern north room (by secret room). Pharoah Bonus 1: Care Package hidden room; to open the secret room in the northern building, you must turn 3 torches in the map (X prompt on screen when close to them): 1. SW building, 2. Middle East building, 3. North building, west wall. Then head to the eastern end of the north building (by Cryptid Egg), go through the door. Once you capture the care package, the door will slowly close. If you stay, you will get burned to death by fire jets. Pharoah Bonus 2: there are breakable jars around the map filled with scarabs (bugs). Once broken they are basically temporary land-mines; anyone who walks into their perimeter will be consumed. Departed. North east corner, behind red urn with white stripes, must be breached (prebreached in Safeguard Mode). Departed Bonus; middle north building is breachable. Mutiny. Middle of ship, look in center grate in the floor for the egg. Favela. Outside of map in the east. Can be seen through gate at ground level by the tombstones or from the roof of the eastern building. Pause game, view map: up = north, left = west, right = east, down = south. Have fun egg hunting! Game Name: Call of Duty: Ghosts Cheat Name: DLC 3 Easter Egg Hunt Submited by: Unmazing on Wed, 04th June 2014 01:54 PM - Best Classes - DLC 1 & 2 Easter Egg Hunt - Extinction: Constant Electric Knife Use - Extinction: Feral Sight All Game, POC Map - Extinction: Loading Bar Speed Boost - Extinction: POC Propane Trick - Extinction: POC Scorpion Bomb - Extra Squadmates - Hidden Ladder on Flooded - Infinite Tactical Glitch - List of Primary Weapons - Prison Break Spots - PRO - Quiet Trophy - Sleeping Beauty Achievement - Solution for Lobby Glitch - Trophy/Hypno Knife/Flare Placement Strategy - Unlimited Gun Glitch - Unlimited Guns - Weapon Tiers Guide
V.25 No.10 \| 03/10/2016 The Daily Word in pregnant dinosaurs, sainthood and Merrick Garland By Renee Chavez [ Wed Mar 16 2016 12:56 PM ] Dahling, your neighborhood is just sooooo charming. #TrumpUniversityMascot is the best hashtag game ever. The food industry doesn't want you to know which products are genetically modified. Gross. Also gross: a video of molten copper being poured over a Big Mac ... to no effect. Ready for the real life Jurassic Park? Scientists have discovered a fossilized pregnant T Rex! N.M. has a serious opiate abuse problem so the government has awarded the state $1.7 million for health centers and treatment providers. Divers in Indonesia found endangered animals trapped in underwater cages. The Ferguson City Council has unanimously agreed to a DOJ overhaul on its police force and municipal court system. Mother Teresa may be coming up on sainthood but she was no saint. V.19 No.30 \| 7/29/2010 The Daily Word: in Harmonious Pizza By Robert Maestas [ Wed Jun 10 2015 11:41 AM ] honey, can you print me a pizza? the wheels on the bus...are powered by WHAT? the universe, or something like it algorithmic nostaligia machine pick a belief, any belief the ancient wisdom of information technology history as a two way mirror the world as chorus, in harmony’s tune you probably shouldn’t litter V.22 No.22 \| The Daily Word in China's fire, the Chavez case and bites on the buttocks By Mark Lopez [ Mon Jun 3 2013 10:08 AM ] You have the right to remain silent, now take this cotton swab and swirl it around your mouth for a spell. Michael Douglas says that you can get throat cancer from an STD. Who'd have thought? A fire at a poultry plant in Dehui, China kills 119 and injures 50. Three storm chasers killed in Oklahoma; among them was veteran storm chaser Tim Samaras. After a lengthy SWAT standoff, police have arrested a father and son in connection with the murder of 8-year-old Sunni Reza. New Mexico fire crews hope to have two fires (Pecos and Tres Lagunas) fully contained by the end of Monday. The Levi Chavez trial breaks ground almost six years after the shooting of his wife, Tera Chavez. Tonight, we say "NO!" to fireworks! Man arrested for aggravated battery after biting his wife's butt. V.21 No.48 \| 11/29/2012 The Long Road Group show weaves together science and mythology By Leigh Hile Four artists were called to the desert. They retrace their paths and their DNA in Creation / Migration: Stories of the Journey at FreeStyle Gallery. V.21 No.36 \| The Daily Word in the DNC, jobs, junk DNA, the environment and VMA fashions By Jessica Cassyle Carr [ Fri Sep 7 2012 10:09 AM ] The decision between Barack and Mittens hinges on competing myths of the American consciousness. Only 63.5% of Americans have a job or are looking for one. Nobody wants a PC; bad times for Intel. New "iPhone 5" to be unveiled on Wednesday—what cool new extra will it offer? Carbon-cutting in New Mexico may be done on a voluntary basis. The coral reefs of the Caribbean are almost dead. Junk DNA is unveiling mysteries of the human body. What does the use of "Tu" on Twitter (rather than the formal "Vous") mean for the French language? Stainless steel appliances are passé—what's the next big trend? Tips on booking a vacation. A review of the fashions at last night's VMAs. Weather: Highs in the low '90s today, dipping to the '70s tomorrow. Thunderstorms may happen through tomorrow. High temps cruise in the mid-'80s in the first half of next week. V.20 No.31 \| The Daily Word with an upcoming Anonymous attack, Ted Bundy's blood and a Chinese landlord scorpion attack By Tom Nayder [ Wed Aug 10 2011 10:33 AM ] Anonymous is gearing up to attack Facebook this November. The Congressional Supercommittee has been chosen. North and South Korea exchange fire. President Obama can't catch a break. FBI agent discusses the West Mesa buried bodies case. Missouri high school bans Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5. America is not ready for President Rick Perry. Recently discovered vial of Ted Bundy's blood may help uncover more murders. The Onion is starting a paywall. Probably not a good idea to heckle Aziz Ansari. Chinese landlord releases thousands of scorpions to chase away his tenants. Thomas the Imperialist Tank Engine. Tim Heidicker (of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) saw a UFO. Six things that were probably built by aliens. V.19 No.14 \| 4/8/2010 Cryptid Alert: Oriental Yeti Captured. By Nick Brown [ Tue Apr 6 2010 12:20 PM ] The poor creature you see before you, wallowing in its urine, is the Oriental Yeti: a hairless bear-like creature with the tail of a kangaroo and the voice of a cat. It wails mournfully as it awaits its DNA testing. Study hard, little ManBearPig. Good luck on your test. Third Annual Jewish Film Festival at Jewish Community Center The Midnight Orchestra, the story of the son of a once famous Jewish musician, Marcel Botbol. Directed by Jérôme Cohen Olivar. Comic Convention Collectibles Weekend at Barnes & Noble, WestsideMore Recommended Events ››
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 24th, 2006 Roger Knights, the intellectually-aware Bigfoot correspondent to many, has followed a comment to my original “Bigfoot, Not Bigfeet” posting that deserves to be addressed separately, with room for more comments, here. He writes: The Bords were as knowledgeable as anyone, and they used “Bigfeet” as the plural in their Casebook, and retained that usage in the version republished last year. (E.g., in the title of Ch. 7, on p. 121.)…A much better indication of a natural (unaffected) plural is the case of the Blackfoot tribe of Indians. The natural tendency of English-speakers is to refer to a group of them as Blackfeet. (Including you, hypocrite lecteur.) I Googled and found, near the top of the list, an informational website that regularly used phrases like, “The Blackfeet used dogs to drag travois,” etc. If Blackfoot/Blackfeet, then Bigfoot/Bigfeet. Insistence on avoiding a plural form that comes naturally to the English-speaking population is what might lead them into the error of thinking that only one of the critter exists. End of Knight’s comment. Nothing comes so naturally to humans as an examination of their own being. Humm, hypocrite lecteur = hypocrite reader? LOL Okay, thusfar we have Ivan T. Sanderson, from Scotland, cleverly using “Bigfeet” as the chapter title (“The Appearance of Bigfeet”) in his 1961 book, and the Bords, like Sanderson, also from the U.K. (Wales), copycating him by using “Bigfeet” as a chapter title (“Phantom Bigfeet…”) in their 1982 book, and yes, now their 2005 reprint, Bigfoot Casebook Updated. (BTW, in the modern scanning-based publication of out-of-print Bigfoot books, it is more trouble than it is worth, financially, to change words like “Bigfeet” found embedded in the text of old volumes being reprinted.) I’m North American (and even a bit Native American), and frankly, “Bigfeet” sounds too strange for my ears and won’t be coming out of my pen, unless I am convinced by more compelling arguments. I’m not yet so inclined, to date, by anything I’ve heard. The Blackfoot/Blackfeet debating point, for example, does not fly. The precedent of the Blackfoot and Blackfeet cannot be used to justify the use of “Bigfeet” for more than one Bigfoot. Blackfeet and Blackfoot are two names for different groups of Indians. The southernmost group of the Blackfoot Confederacy are technically called the “Blackfeet” and are the “Piegans” or “Pikuni” branch of these Natives, located in western Montana. The recent posting at Cryptomundo about “Blackfeet Bigfoot,” for example, are about these group’s Montana sightings. The Pikuni are always referred to by the use of the seemingly plural form “Blackfeet.” Meanwhile, the two other branches of the Blackfoot Confederacy are the “Siksika” and the “Kainah” (or “Blood”) and these residents of Canada are always referred to by the use of the visually and seemingly singular term “Blackfoot.” Thus you actually have two different groups of the Blackfoot Confederacy up north calling themselves “Blackfoot,” alone or in multiple situations. Therefore, many Blackfoot are not always Blackfeet. It depends on where they live. In Montana, one individual in the Pikuna group is a Blackfeet. In Canada, a group of Siksika are Blackfoot. Sorry, but I feel Roger Knights is confusing the names that people have given to themselves, as Native Americans and Native Canadians, which are their preferred names, and tried to apply it to our cryptid name-discussion here. But it is apples and oranges. However, I tend to agree wholeheartedly with something that Roger Knights said earlier in this discussion, elsewhere: “I think violating the usage established for ‘foot/feet’ serves mainly as a sort of marker or ‘shibboleth’ of insider-hood at present.” Or as I mentioned too, as Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, wrote in 1999: “Cognoscenti rarely use the plural ‘Bigfeet’.” I’ll still go that calling more than one Bigfoot with the silly-sounding name “Bigfeet” clues me into people that are not close to our field of study, in more ways than one. Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Ten Urban Legends That Deserve A Proper Movie Adaptation We’ve all heard them at one point in our lives. The hook on the car door. The killer in the backseat. Alligators in the sewers. We’ve all had our share of urban legends being passed down to us by our grandparents, parents, friends, and neighbors. They frighten us, but also raise a certain intrigue as to how they came to be. These tales of folklore have multiple variations in how they are told and who and what are involved in them so there is never a definitive version of a story. As a result, these tales are great fodder for movie adaptations especially in the horror genre since most of these stories have a rather gruesome origin. In actuality, various urban legends have already been adapted into films such as Alligator (alligators in the sewers), The Pine Barrens (A film about the Jersey Devil that is currently in development by Darren Lynn Bousman), and of course the Urban Legend films. However, there are numerous other urban legends from around the country that just beckon to be exploited by the horror genre. Here are ten urban legends that have the potential to make for some pretty interesting and potentially scary movies if done well: 10. The Slender Man It is a well-known fact that this urban legend is more myth than truth. It actually originated on the Something Awful forums as a made up creation. However, the story behind this ominous figure has plenty of potential for some creepy imagery and suspense. The Slender Man is essentially a tall man with long limbs who wears a business suit and has no face. There are numerous videos about this urban legend on Youtube (including a creepy series titled Marble Hornets), but an actual movie would be extremely creepy if done right. The Slender Man mostly preys on young kids and mostly appears in isolated areas like woods, fields, or alley ways. Whoever sees him apparently goes crazy and paranoid. It can work as a psychological thriller or suspenseful slasher and the focus on kids can be a welcome departure from the usual horny teenagers. 9. Humans Can Lick Too… This is probably one of the creepiest urban legends out there. It consists of a woman alone in her home with her dog. The woman is nervous due to being alone, but she is comforted by having her dog at her side. She heads to sleep, but she keeps waking up due to a dripping noise in the bathroom. Thinking it’s just the faucet, she ignores it and every once in a while drops her hand by the side of the bed to let her dog lick her hand to reinforce her safety. She does this several times until the morning when she has had enough and heads to the bathroom only to find her dog skinned and hanging in her shower with the dripping being the blood dripping from the corpse. One the wall, a message written in blood stating “Humans can lick too..”. That alone can be a great thriller a la When a Stranger Calls. Just the creep factor in the licking aspect alone can be very frightening. 8. Boy Scout Lane This is another urban legend that relies on mood to really get under your skin. A group of boy scouts head down a trail in the woods for a camping trip and they all die by various means depending on which story you hear. Some versions say they die because of a forest fire caused by a prank. Others have the bus driver kill the scouts and others have the bus crash and everyone die. This can be another Blair Witch style film (in concept) where the woods become a character itself and rely on sound and darkness to build the tension. 7. Dover Demon This is more cryptid than urban legend, but cryptids are easily the oldest form of urban legend there is. This creature is in a way the Jersey Devil of Massachusetts. It’s a creature believed to travel dimensions so there’s the sci-fi horror element right there. Just keep it away from the SyFy Channel. 6. The Crying Baby Criminal This urban legend I find to be a fascinating one because it’s not something we see often especially with murderers. A killer plays a recording of a baby crying to lure in his victims. It can actually work as a horror comedy under the right hands. Some other versions of the story have recordings of crying dogs to lure people in. Just food for thought. 5. Roanoke Colony The infamous Roanoke colony disappearance remains one of the most mysterious unsolved mysteries in history. How can an entire colony disappear off an island with no signs aside from a carving of “Croatoan” in a tree? While there could be many reasons as to why the colony vanished, there’s nothing that a little twisting of the story couldn’t do to help amp up the mystery. 4. Resurrection Mary This tale is actually pretty sad in comparison to the rest of the stories on this list. It tells the tale of a young woman named Mary who was killed in a car crash. Her parents buried her in a cemetery named Resurrection Cemetery. The legend goes that if you drive alongside the road to Resurrection Cemetery that Mary will appear in a white flowing dress and a ghostly glow and attempt to hitch a ride to the cemetery. When the driver reaches the cemetery, she gets out and disappears into the night. This has potential to not only be a creepy supernatural tale, but it can be manipulated into a romance of sorts. Have a man who after an experience with Resurrection Mary decides to find out what happened and attempt to give her a peaceful rest. 3. The Smith Sisters This story is yet another urban legend where kids are put into peril which is a rarity nowadays due to the ever present cliche of keeping the kid out of harm’s way. This urban legend tells the tale of a boy who receives a mysterious e-mail from two girls who claim to be his sisters despite being an only child. The e-mail claims that the sisters were murdered in the exact same house and room that our protagonist lives in right now. The boy finds out through several other e-mails that they are indeed his sisters and that their killer was never caught. He refuses to believe it and he is later discovered skinned alive similarly to the two sisters from the e-mail. This tale can not only feature more kid characters actually doing something other than scream and be annoying, but the subject matter and idea is creepy and plays to the youth’s over dependence on technology. 2. Bloody Mary This urban legend has mostly been relegated into straight to DVD territory with some lackluster titles that don’t fully take advantage of the story. I think we all know the story behind Bloody Mary and she has been adapted to film before, but once again it was all straight to DVD cheesefests. An actual serious look into the Bloody Mary legend can be very scary if they go for a serious tone rather than a cheesy slasher tone that most movies seem to go for. 1. The Bunny Man This is an urban legend that not many people know about unless you live in the state of Virginia or are an urban legend freak like myself. The story of The Bunny Man is so rich with gruesome imagery and creepy potential that it practically is begging to be made into a movie. The legend goes that mental patients were being transported to another facility in the 1920s. The bus they are riding in crashes and most of them escape. The police capture most of the escapees except for two inmates. A few days later, one of the inmates is found gutted in the woods surrounded by dead bunnies. In the coming months, bodies begin turning up ranging from children to seniors being gutted and hanged from a bridge with a railroad running on top of the tunnel. The legend remains now that if you head to the Bunnyman Bridge at night the ghost of a man in a bunny suit carrying an ax will murder you. That right there is fodder for some gruesome fun to me and maybe a potential slasher icon if they did it right. The story has numerous different versions that can be adapted in many ways from a supernatural ghost story to a deranged slasher tale. If any urban legend needs to be made into a movie, this is it.
Tag Archives: cryptids & humanoids alliance against defamation LOS ANGELES, CA – Musician Chris Brown has posted a video on YouTube, declaring that he is not a monster. LOS ANGELES, CA – Lil’ Kim may be performing on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars” with human dancer Derek Hough, but insiders revealed that Kim spent weeks practicing with a mutant dancer! BLUE MOUNTAINS, OR – After a spate of high-profile Twitter accounts were hacked, the world’s most famous cryptid became the next victim. HOLLYWOOD, CA – In order to redeem her public image, Miley Cyrus has recorded a duet with Fatfoot for charity. LOS ANGELES, CA – ABC has fired Bigfoot from the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” as an act of minimizing on-air interspecial relationships.
What kind of science news are you looking for today? Do you want to hear about ancient Greek murder caves? Korean unicorn caves? About those crazy little eyeless fish that swim around in silt-black underground lakes as if to say that eyes are for chumps? You're in luck; all of those things have been discovered this week. For the last forty years, archaeologist Giorgos Papathanassopoulos has been almost single-handedly excavating a giant cave that might have helped serve as the inspiration for the mythic ancient Greek underworld Hades [that] once housed hundreds of people...before it collapsed and killed everyone inside. In the last few years, however, he's invited the contributions of other researchers, and recent digs at the site, named Alepotrypa, suggest that hundreds of people lived year-round just outside the mouth of the cave, making it one of the largest European Neolithic settlements ever found. Researchers now believe that the cave was occupied for thousands of years, used as a shelter, a cemetery, and a temple before collapsing around 5000 years ago. Researcher Michael Galaty gave interviewers an explanation of the conditions of the cave before its destruction: "You have to imagine the place torchlit, filled with people lighting bonfires and burying the dead," Galaty said. "It was quite like a prehistoric cathedral, a pilgrimage site that attracted people from all over the region and perhaps from further afield." If this does not satisfy your craving for mysterious corpse-riddled caves (and it should not, your capacity for that type of discovery ought to be boundless), Germany's Der Spiegel magazine has just published an excellent report on recent attempts to use 3-D imaging to map the cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula. Many of them are littered with the remains of perfectly preserved human remains, although no one knows whether the bodies arrived there by coincidence over time or all at once. A 10,000-year-old boy lies next to an 8,500-year fire pit that looks as fresh as if it had been used "the day before yesterday." Further afield, conservation group Fauna & Flora International has discovered a tiny "eyeless, scaleless" loach fish that lives exclusively in a series of underground rivers on an island in Vietnam's Ha Long Bay. Termed "the swimming dragon," it cannot survive outside of its tiny freshwater habitat, blindly moving in endless circles in the unseeing dark, unable to swim out into the open sea. You may find yourself unsure whether to envy or pity this tiny, flameless water-dragon; this is normal. Allow yourself to experience both emotions. And of course no roundup of cave news this week would be complete without a mention of the recently uncovered North Korean unicorn cave. State archaeologists have announced the existence of a "unicorn's lair" just outside of Pyongyang. According to the Korean Central News Agency: Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668). The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words "Unicorn Lair" stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392). The news is less of a discovery than a reminder to North Koreans, then: the unicorn lair is exactly where everyone thought it was, the bulletin points out. No news is good news when it comes to historical cryptid dwellings. The "Unicorn Lair" sign is still up, so everything's copacetic. [Image via AP]
KEY LARGO, FL – Manigator flees arrest at a McCain rally where he bit a man he claimed was “Un-American.” During a rally for the Republican presidential candidate, proceedings were halted by a sudden commotion at the back of the open air venue. A young Latino man was flailing hysterically at what appeared to be a small alligator biting his pants, while screaming “I told you man, I’m Puerto Rican!” After being shaken loose, the creature yelled back, “Damn Mexicans, taking our jobs!” He then went on to make lurid passes at several of the campaign’s interns. The small cryptid slurred much of his speech and witnesses say he smelled of cheap whiskey. Police and wildlife officers arrived on the scene shortly thereafter to apprehend the manigator. However, he avoided capture for thirty minutes while shouting expletives about being denied free speech. Eventually he was able to slip under a fence and make a run back to the swamp. Police tracked Manigator through the swamp for hours, following a trail of menthol cigarette packs and frequent yells of “Get ‘er Done!” The human-reptile hybrid is still at large.
I recently came across new information on the 'Maryland Dogman'...so I decided to update the orginal past: Back in May of 2011 I posted a narrative describing the Snallygaster, legendary beast from my neck of the woods in Maryland. Another cryptid from this region is the Dwayyo...not as well known as the Snallygaster, but just as terrifying to those who have encountered the creature. In the late 18th century, the Pennsylvania Dutch started to settle on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line in Carroll, Frederick & Washington Counties. Not long after setting down their new roots, tales of the Hexenwolf started to circulate. The description of this beast was similar to the Dwayyo...'a mammalian biped with features similar to a wolf, but the stance and stature of a human.' These farmers raised livestock for food and revenue, so it was important that their domestic animals be protected from the beast. Decorative five-pointed 'barn stars' may mean numerous things, such as a builder's mark or bringing luck, but I have been told that the real reason for these stars was the belief it was a talisman against baneful spirits or other dark entities. There is no reference as to the success of the 'barn stars'...but sometimes a bit of non-conventional intervention can go a long way. The first mention of the name ‘Dwayyo’ or 'Dewayo' comes from a sighting in 1944 in West Middleton, Frederick County, Maryland. Witnesses heard the creature make ‘frightful screams’ and there were footprints attesting to the claims of the sighting. The creature had first come to prominence after a story ran in the Fredrick News Post in November of 1965. Reporter George May wrote in the article, “Mysterious Dwayyo Loose in County” that a young man, named anonymously as ‘John Becker’ heard a strange noise in his backyard which was situated on the outskirts of Gambrill State Park. Upon going out to investigate the noise he initially saw nothing, so he headed back in. It was then that he caught site of the creature. Something was moving toward him in the dark, Becker was quoted that “It was as big as a bear, had long black hair, a bushy tail, and growled like a wolf or dog in anger.” The thing quickly moved toward him on its hind legs and began to attack him. He fought off the creature and drove it back into the woods, later calling police to report the incident. In the Fall of 1976 another sighting of the Dwayyo took place in Fredrick County near Thurmont, between Cunningham Falls State Park and Catoctin Mountain National Park. Two men drove off route 77 and unto a private road so they could ‘spot deer’ by their headlights in order to see how thick the native population had become before deer season. To their surprise, they did not catch a deer in their lights but instead a large animal ran across the front of their car. They described the creature as, “at least 6 ft tall but inclined forward since it was moving quickly. Its head was fairly large and similar to the profile of a wolf. The body was covered in brown or brindle colored fur but the lower half had a striped pattern of noticeable darker and lighter banding. The forelegs (or arms) were slimmer and held out in front as it moved. The back legs were very muscled and thick similar to perhaps a kangaroo. This was not a hominid type creature; it did not have the characteristics of an ape. It was much more similar to a wolf or ferocious dog however it was definitely moving upright and appeared to be adapted for that type of mobility. I was particularly impressed by the size and strength of the back legs, the stripes on the lower half of the body and the canine-wolf-like head.” - from The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the U.S.A. (Unexplained Presents) Later in 1978 two park rangers were near the Cunningham Falls area when they encountered “a large hairy creature running on two legs”. \|A rendition of the Dwayyo witnessed in West Middleton, Maryland\| Paranormalist Robin Swope relates an anecdote from a witness who says she was driving on Coxey Brown Road near Myersville, Maryland late in the summer of 2009 when she had an strange feeling. It was as if she was being watched. The road was lined with trees, she was on the outer edge of Gambrill State Park, and the forest was beginning to grow thicker. According to her, as she turned on Hawbottom Road, where her friend lived, the feeling became overwhelming. The hairs on the back of her neck rose in terror as she sensed the unseen eyes upon her. She wanted to stop the car and take her breath, she was afraid that she would veer off the road and hit a tree because she her nerves were getting so unsteady that she began to shake. But she knew that whatever was watching her, and following her was out there, and she took what little comfort she had by being safer inside her rust rotted car. Still, to prevent a wreck, she slowed down as she headed south, and that was when she saw the creature. At first it was a blur to the right of her periphery vision. Something that was moving through the trees, a shadow that flickered as it went in and out of sight on the edge of her vision. It was a brown smear of color that popped out in contrast to the dull dark grey trees that she passed. Whatever it was, it bobbed through the underbrush and between the trees to keep pace with her car. She thinks at the time, she was going around 25 miles per hour. She then slowed down once more to take a good look to her right, and make sure that she was not seeing things. As her car slowed to a crawl, the brown blurry smear of color seemed to bound out of the woods closer to the road. With a massive leap the hazy color became flesh as a huge dog-like animal on two legs emerged from the foliage. Then it leaped, arms outstretched with claws grasping the wind. Instinctively she stepped on her gas pedal with all her might. The squeal of her tires seemed as if her car too was screaming in horror at the thing that emerged from the dark looming forest. She did not look back. She didn’t want to know if the thing was following her. She didn’t feel the eyes upon her anymore. She was too shaken to really feel anything at all. When she made it to her friends house, she sat in the driveway shaking as she looked around to make sure the creature had not followed her there. The house was also in the woods, at the opposite side of the State Park. When she felt safe, she made a mad dash for her friend’s door, and banged on it frantically. He did not know what to make of her story. The witness knew he did not believe her. He had lived in the woods all his life, and had never encountered what she had seen. He assured her that it must have just been a dog, perhaps a rabid one at that. Her mind was playing tricks on her. But the young woman knew what she had seen that late summer day. It was no dog. It was something out of a horror movie come to life before her eyes. Though she told nobody what she felt it really was, she called it a werewolf. That is until after she did some research in the local college library and came up with the name that others had called it when they too saw the forest come alive. She had encountered the Dwayyo. 'The Dwayyo' - Ghosts & Legends of Frederick County Frederick News Post The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings Monsters of Maryland: Mysterious Creatures in the Old Line State examiner.com - Pastor Robin Swope The Dragon Keeper's Handbook: Including the Myth & Mystery, Care & Feeding, Life & Lore of these Fiercely Splendid Creatures Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, 2 Volume Set Weird Maryland: Your Travel Guide to Maryland's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the U.S.A. (Unexplained Presents) Tales of Mountain Maryland: with a special section on the C&O Canal
The Iliamna Lake Monster is said to roam beneath the waters near the small Alaskan village of Iliamna. The lake monster is known to the locals as “illie” and has reported sightings going all the way back to the 1940′s. The unknown cryptid is reported to be anywhere from 10-30 feet long with a square shaped head. The monster has been reported to use its head to hit things such as small boats. The most recent reported sighting of the creature was in 1988 when several locals seen the creature from land and water. “Possible photo of Alaska’s Iliamna Lake Monster” Some believe the creature in Lake Iliamna may be similar to other lake monsters like Ogopogo from Lake Okanogan or Nessie from Loch Ness although disputed by some because descriptions of illie don’t seem to match the serpent like descriptions of these other lake monsters. Some believe this creature may possibly be a large White Sturgeon a theory put forth by biologist Jeremy Wade from the popular Animal Planet show “River Monsters”. A new theory has now been put forth by scientist that this creature and some other lake monsters in the region may actually be sleeper sharks. Sharks in Loch Ness has been a long standing hypothesis for explaining the creature seen there but the suggestion of them possibly being sleeper sharks is a new twist. These sharks can exceed 20 feet in length and weigh upwards of 4 tons and could possibly use these lakes as a food source. The abundance of salmon in both lake Iliamna and Loch Ness could possibly lure in these sharks. There are still many unknowns about these creature and some people already discount this theory all together but expeditions are planned to both Lake Iliamna and Loch Ness this year and in 2013 to try and get video of these sharks in the lakes or of the lake monsters themselves.
Dungeons & Dragons, naturally, has a panoply of them. The most common kinds are divided into good and evil by color; the metallic dragons are good, and the chromatic (red/blue/green/white/etc.) dragons are evil. There are also many weirder kinds, such as fairy dragons, gem dragons, planar dragons, and the extremely rare and powerful "epic" dragons. And, of course, some of these can not only shapeshift into humans, but breed with humans whilst transformed, giving us half-dragons. There's the dragon type, which features creatures with draconic traits that don't quite measure up to "true" dragons. And then there's the Eastern dragons... Let's just say that there's a reason that dragons get title billing second only to "Dungeons". An editor of Dragon MagazineLampshaded this trope waaaaay back in issue #52, writing that "There are as many varieties of dragon as there are people to think them up". Dragons are also powerful spellcasters in D&D, to the extent where many "spontaneous" arcane casters—that is, those who don't have to study or prepare spells—are said to be descended from dragons, as dragon blood can influence a line for a thousand generations. Interestingly, D&D dragons in general seem to combine features of Eastern and Western dragons. Gold dragons have been looking Eastern since 1st edition AD&D at least, possibly earlier. The queen of the evil chromatic dragons is Tiamat, who has five heads (one of each color) and a wyvern-like stinger. In the cartoon series, she was a secondary threat to Venger. The good dragons have Bahamut, the Platinum Dragon. Neutral dragons have Chronepsis, the Anthropomorphic Personification of complete indifference. And those are all descended from Io, the other True Neutral god of all dragons. It's not for the usual reasons, the players actually build the dragons how they want them The Draconomicon is a Sourcebook for 3rd Edition D&D, dealing entirely with different types of dragons, dragon society, dragon characters, etc. Dragon Magazine, in its final print issue, revealed the mightiest of all the epic dragons: the Time Dragon. These dragons are so powerful that a wyrmling has 44 Hit Dice. A Great Wyrm has almost a hundred, and is, among other things, immune to any effect that is not instantaneous thanks to its connection to the timeline. It does not die of poison, disease, or age. It does not need to sleep. It can travel through time at will. Its breath weapon ages you or expels you from time itself. They are described as keeping their lairs in places so distant in space and time that they are virtually unreachable. And if that were not enough, a Time Dragon rarely deigns to converse with anything less than a god... and sometimes, not even then. One of the things that makes the Time Dragon so scary is that because of the way that it ages, it can reach the Great Wyrm stage within minutes of being hatched. 4th edition is apparently going to release several, seeing as the most recently released version was for chromatics only. Chronepsis is now connected to the Raven Queen, the goddess of death; deep, fang, and sand dragons are now chromatic rather than "dragons from nowhere", there are fairy dragons the size of halflings, and then there's the Squamous Things, which are what happens when dragons are hatched in Far Realm-tainted areas...<Shudder> Dragons in the Eberron setting live on their own continent of Argonnessen and spend their time studying the Draconic Prophecy- a worldwide natural phenomenon that can be used to predict and manipulate the future- and engaging in manipulative plotting. As part of Eberron's drive against Always Chaotic Evil, all bets are off when it comes to predicting a dragon's alignment through its appearance. Dragons in the Mystara setting have their own civilization, complete with dragon temples, dragon villages, and dragon shopkeepers, high in the Wyrmsteeth Mountains. Mystaran dragons, like those of Eberron, are not strongly tied to their alignments ... which is a good thing for everyone, as the only metallic varieties found there (barring Fanon Discontinuity) are gold. Mystaran dragons also answer to their own Immortal dragon rulers — one for each of Basic D&D's three alignments plus the Great One, who oversees them all. It's implied in several places that these are positions more than necessarily individuals; were something permanent to happen to, say, Diamond the Star Dragon, who rules over all Lawful dragons, he would be replaced (eventually) by a suitable successor who would adopt both the name and the title. Way back in second edition, there was a setting called Council Of Wyrms - basically, a planet ruled by dragons. Demihumans are the dragons' servants, whilst humans are the barbaric savages and murderers thereof. The player characters are indicated to be agents of the Council - young dragons from all the D&D dragon types, given to the Council as eggs and bound to act as investigators and troubleshooters. In Dark Sun, unlike any other D&D campaign world, all dragons are the result of evil sorcerer-kings transforming themselves into dragons to increase their power. They use and consume even more life-force energy (thereby changing the world into a barren desert) than they could do if they remained in human form. The Dragonlance setting features mostly traditional western dragons in the typical D&D color scheme, but the Fifth Age introduced a number of Great Dragons. Heavily implied to be immigrants from some other world, they were immensely larger and stronger then Krynn's native dragons and had the ability to absorb the life energy of dragons whom they killed. This led to a decade-long purge where the Great Dragons (and one or two natives who learned the knack) slaughtered their rivals and set up a series of fiefdoms, even using the captured life energy to reshape large chunks of the continent to environments more to their liking. Malastryx, the greatest of red dragons, burnt Kendermore to a cinder and turned the grasslands into massive volcanic mountains. Likewise, large chunks of desert were made into swampland, and islands with heavy forestation turned to frozen tundras. The two major elven kingdoms, traditional temperate forests both, were made into a sweltering overgrown jungle and a twisted mockery of life beyond the reach of light and hope, respectively. Pathfinder, formerly part of D&D, has the same Chromatic and Metallic Dragons, although they naturally look different now that it's a separate game. In addition to these, there's also the savage Linnorms; Wyrms (typically with only two arms for limbs) that normally live up in the cold North, Oriental-style Imperial Dragons, tiny Fairie and Pseudodragons, the Jabberwock, and even a Dinosaur-like African cryptid, to name a few. Palladium's Rifts and related games feature almost as many dragons, based on Western, Eastern, and Mythological sources, plus their own imaginations, from Hydras to Chiang-Ku to Ogopogo (based on a real-life Canadian legend) to Crystal Dragons. Unfortunately for would-be heroes, these are not color-coded, although there are some species that tend to generally be nicer than others. It even allows you to have a young hatchling dragon (as young as "just hatched a few minutes ago") as a playable character. While the story in which it is based on is far too nebulous in the description to be explicitly dragons, The Hunting Horrors and the Haunter in the Dark from Call of Cthulhu are clearly dragonoid in appearance, and are even labeled as such in the d20 version of the Game. Dragons in the Iron Kingdoms resemble the traditional Western versions superficially, but cleave a little closer to Eldritch Abominations in the details. They aren't "alive" in the same sense as other creatures; instead, their life force is concentrated into a small, nigh-unbreakable stone located inside their heart, and unless that stone is consumed by another dragon, a "dead" dragon can simply resurrect itself (if it wants to — at least one dragon in the setting currently finds it more useful to remain in rock form and manipulate others into doing his bidding). If that weren't enough, exposure to a dragon's blood or body parts causes severe, painful mutations in the victims, and a dragon can also simply shed its own blood to create dragonspawn: blind, soulless monsters that only vaguely resemble the beast that spawned them. Dragons in Warhammer are intelligent, though it is unclear exactly how intelligent, and whether they can speak. The setting also has wyverns, raised by Orcs. They are about as smart as horses and are smaller and less powerful than true dragons. Said dragons are also said to be the oldest living things on the planet, dating back to an age before the Old Ones came and made the planet warmer. The oldest dragons are sleeping, waiting for the days when the world will cool again, while the younger ones can sometimes be roused by powerful magic or great heroes to fight alongside them. As to the speech thing: The Old World Bestiary from the 2nd edition of the Warhammer roleplaying game lists the ability to speak multiple languages under a dragon's skill sets. In the Old World of Darkness, dragons were immensely powerful Mythicals which were variously described; while it is never clear, they appear to be either the (non-)Anthropomorphic Personification of everything humanity fears and/or doesn't understand, or avatars of deities outright. There are probably more than one type, but since only Changelings and the most powerful of archmages could ever encounter them (and even then often only realized it after the fact), the whole thing is shrouded in mystery even by White Wolf standards. The only dragon clearly shown is Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, who either lives in the volcano of the same name or is the volcano itself; she appears in human guise to warn a wandering group of Kithain of an imminent eruption, because she's trying to maneuver them into an encounter with the native faerie folk. The Mokole werelizards from Werewolf: The Apocalypse are arguably dragons depending on how one defines them. They can shapeshift (obviously), have access to powerful magic, and have inspired dragon legends everywhere outside Europe (where they are rare). In the New World of Darkness dragons are the legendary predecessor inhabitants of Atlantis, who left for parts unknown before humans came to inhabit the island. Items theorised to have been dragon bones are purported to have had the property of allowing one to attempt Awakening at will (as opposed to the period covered by known history, in which Awakening appears to be a mostly random process). As well as an entire 'Draconic' kith that Changelings can take after, although it also covers devilish themes. In Dragon Dice, dragons can be summoned by any of the available races via magic. Once summoned, they appear to closely resemble Western drakes (winged) and wyrms (ground bound) - they have all of the characteristic toughness, strength, breath weapons, and even a weak spot on the belly. They are different from the typical fantasy dragon in that they seem to lack significant intelligence or magical ability - once summoned, they will attack anything in their vicinity that isn't a dragon of the same color, and never use magical abilities. In Castle Falkenstein, dragons are evolutionary descendants of pteranadons and other ancient flying lizards, having gained immense magical powers along the way. While some still behave like classic dragons, demanding virgin sacrifices (albiet with a sexual twist) most are more civilized, using their magic to shapeshift and court human women. This goes over surprisingly well given their tremendous wealth, a decided virtue within the game's Victorian setting. As a side note, their evolutionary origins also gives them surprisingly brittle bones. GURPS has a recently released sourcebook detailing dragon stats, physiology and abilities. They also appear in a few campaign settings. In GURPS Technomancer there are two kinds of dragon. Blue dragons are intelligent, friendly Western dragons, who work for the US Air Force as self-aware aircraft (their scales are green; "blue" refers to their employment. The "red" dragons are really of the same color, but they worked for the USSR). Black dragons also work for the USAF, but have been genetically engineered into Magitek stealth fighters. Dragons in Talislanta are HUGE, aggressive, wingless, and mostly non-sentient or uncommunicative. They hatch out as larval "wyrmms", then metamorphose into their adult forms (land dragons, sea dragons, kaliya [multi-headed], or crested dragons). Land dragons are sometimes tamed and used as living tanks by saurans. In the lesser-known (and discontinued) RPG Fire Born, the PCs are dragons. During character creation, the player creates both a humanoid, weaker modern version, as well as a high-powered dragon form which is played during flashbacks to a prior life. In Exalted, there are at least three types. The Five Elemental Dragons are souls of the Primordial Gaia, who inhabit Creation's geomancy; the Lesser and Greater Elemental Dragons are elementals who have developed sufficiently in power that they assume draconic form; and the Dragon Kings are humanoid dinosaurs. The Unconquered Sun's most well known form besides his humanoid one was the golden dragon he adopted when he was worshipped by the Dragon Kings. There're also two draconic Yozi: the Ebon Dragon and Oramus, the Dragon Beyond the World. Don't forget "mere" mortal beasts either; apart from the "natural" examples - such as Tyrant Lizards and "River Dragons" - there are also the results of genetic engineering - amongst others, "Beasts of Resplendent Liquid"; immortal dinosaurs that eat poppies and piss heroin - and creatures affected by the Wyld - e.g. Snow Wyrms, 200-foot monsters that look like traditional eastern dragons but behave more like traditional western dragons. The big lizards flying around, burning crops and acting cranky are in fact just the dreams made manifest of the real sleeping Dragons. True Dragons are so large and awesome that they have typically been mistaken, for the last several hundred years, as mountain ranges. Needless to say, you don't want to wake one up... The world also has Dragonewts, humanoid reptilians who are immortal, and grow over the centuries in size, wisdom and power, until one day they die and reincarnate as True Dragons - in fact they need to die and reincarnate several times for this to happen, but they always retain all the memories from their previous lives. They form the oldest and perhaps the most aliennote many aspects of their culture were based on Jidai Geki Japan, which was original and fresh back then civilization in Glorantha. The parent dragons mostly let the dragonewts fend for themselves, but on one famous occasion when enemies tried to destroy the one place in the world where dragonewts can be reborn, the dragons took a hand. The resulting "Dragonkill Wars" weren't named for what happened to the dragons... and ever since, wars against dragonewts have stopped short of trying to exterminate them. Even worlds that wouldn't traditionally have dragons, like the Gothic Horror plane of Innistrad, getthreevarieties. Mark Rosewater, the head designer, has said that dragons are incredibly popular with a certain player base, so much so that their creative team works hard to fit them into every setting. Flat-out encouraged by Legend. "Dragon" is a racial track - about one-third of a character class that also defines the character's race - which is Medium (humanoid) size, has wings, and gains several improvements to its durability as it levels up. A combination of feats and tracks from other classes can be used to build dragons in a variety of ways based on this template - the classic huge fire-breather (Juggernaut feat and Elementalist [fire] track) is just one of many, many combinations. The Dragons of The Splinter are shape-changing where-creatures, as are most other sentient beings within the universe that they inhabit. Instead of breathing fire (though that is well within the scope of their power) they alter the very fabric of reality with their world-breathing.
It's been 5 years since the outbreak that wiped out 85% of the world's population, but the war between Re-Animates (Re-Ans) and Humans wages on. Most of the major cities are still ... See full summary » A westerner named Casey, studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja. Travis and his team travel to China in search of what isn't supposed to exist ... their mission to capture a Cryptid which is wreaking havoc in a remote village and they need to do this ... See full summary » John looks to take down Luc Deveraux after a home invasion claims his wife and daughter. The fight pits John against Andrew Scott and an army of genetically enhanced warriors; meanwhile, he must contend with a UniSol in relentless pursuit. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Two former para-military operatives, Johnny and his police detective friend Peter, search Bangkok to find the killers of Johnny's beautiful daughter Angel - Leaving carnage and retribution throughout city. Even clichés can be nice to watch. So while the title is talking about a "stranger/foreigner", the plot itself is actually pretty common. You might have seen similar stories told and some even in a better fashion (hopefully). But this still is a lot of fun, if you let it. There are some nice little visual tweaks here and there and the editing style is all over the place too. It might not be your taste, but you can't fault the movie for trying. Scott Adkins delivers again and you can see why he sort of revives the 80s action movie style almost by himself. He has that kind of charisma and I don't mean that in a degrading way. The dog sub story is good and even Christian Slater isn't a big letdown as he was in his last couple of movies ... 1 of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?
CHENGDU – Word has spread of the mythical creature, the “grass mud horse”, which is rumored to live in the Chinese desert. But what is it truly? The New York Times has just published an article explaining what they believe to be the origins of the “grass mud horse”. Apparently, in protest of severe censorship, Chinese citizens “created” a list of 10 mythical creatures with names that sound similar to Chinese profanities. One of these animals is the grass mud horse, or cao ni ma. The cao ni ma live in the Gobi Desert, where they have adapted to the harsh conditions. Their arch-nemeses are the “river crabs”, whom they do daily battle with. Weekly World News protests this ill-informed article! It is well known the grass mud horse do indeed exist. This is clearly a conspiracy led by the Chinese government itself to fool outsiders into believing they do not have a cryptid “problem”. Footage has been shared world-wide of this mythical beast, even accompanied by the voices of children singing worship.