Archive for February 2014

Flying Humanoid, Jersey Devil, Batsquatch…

February 27, 2014

20140226-140407.jpg

– – “Things that fly” might have been considered the unifying theme of a recent Monsters & Mysteries in America episode, one in which the segments again considered content previously aired on such shows as MonsterQuest, with Batsquatch essentially a rehash of a segment already done by Monsters & Mysteries itself.

Now Flying Humanoids have been reported dozens of times, both from across the United States and elsewhere. The occurrences reported on here, however, transpired in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri in Turkey Creek. Two bothers reported that in July of 1998, they had been looking for “a bit of adventure” when an unknown flying fiend was powerful enough to lift their vehicle slightly off the ground and shake it. The humanoid is reported to be tall and hairless, having red eyes and a great wingspan. Brothers Ed and Danny Overton reported that a humanoid flew at their car, causing it to go into a tree. Dan Overton returned to the Turkey Creek area in 2010, where he observed a freshly-dug cave, and heard the growl and sound of something large coming through the woods. Drag mark scrapes were seen, and tree limbs were broken and dropped around them. The humanoid was reportedly seen and pursued, but took off and subsequently disappeared.

The Jersey Devil is a classic cryptid native to the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey with a back story going to 1735 when a Mother Leeds gave birth to an unwanted 13th child and cursed it, wishing for it to be a devil. Be careful what you wish for, as they say, for Mother Leeds reportedly birthed something with the head of a horse, red eyes, and the wings of a bat that grew to be about the size of a small elephant. Considerable hysteria over the creature was reported in 1909, and in more recent times times Paul Pedersen Jr. encountered the devil as a child in 1963 while babysitting his sister at home. Hearing something hopping up the cellar steps, young Pedersen and his sister ran to the front yard to await the return of their father, who found the basement trashed, and removed a coal chute through which it was figured something had gained access to the house. Even more recently in 2008 a woman and her boyfriend while in a car heard screeches and the flapping of wings. Something then hit the top of their car, which was dented as a result.

The last segment of the episode was a recap of the Batsquatch sightings in the Rio Grande Valley area in 1976, with attacks having been reported in Raymondsville and also Hidalgo County near Houston. Please reference the earlier Sheepsquatch, Batsquatch, and Sasquatch post for additional information if desired…

“Aliens Cloned My Husband;” Alien Matrix; Betty and Barney Hill Abduction…

February 25, 2014

abductionThis is primarily a furry blog, but we’ll take a good alien tale as well if we can find one!  Alien stories dominated a recent hour of Monsters & Mysteries in America, presenting a vintage classic alien abduction story as well as newer, further-out variations.  Please note:  these accounts are not presented here as documented facts.

The Betty and Barney Hill story is kind of the gold standard of alien abduction tales.  It occurred way back in September of 1961 in New Hampshire, and was the first reported alien abduction that actually got publicity.  The Hills were both rather stable and ordinary people, with Betty being a social worker and Barney a postman; they were not interested in science fiction, UFO’s, or aliens beforehand.  Returning from a trip to Montreal and Niagra Falls, the couple were on Highway 3 when they observed a falling star that appeared to fall upward, and then come closer.  The Hills then lost consciousness of what transpired, gaining awareness miles away two hours later.  Although they could not account for what occurred during that lost time, some odd things had apparently happened to them that could not be accounted for.  Betty’s dress and its lining were torn, and coated in some pink substance.  Barney’s shoes were unaccountably scraped on the uppers, both of their watches had stopped, and there were circles on the trunk lid of their vehicle.  The couple kept their strange experience a secret for years, although Barney began experiencing symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome as well as insomnia, conditions which adversely affected his ability to perform on the job and which eventually led them to seek professional help.

Dr. Simon, a PTSD expert, employed hypnosis in separate sessions in February of 1964 with Barney and Betty which served to unlock and reveal their long-repressed memories of the abduction night and the missing two hours of time.  Those sessions revealed that on the night of the UFO sighting, Barney Hill had left his car which they stopped upon the UFO’s approach to observe it further, carrying with him binoculars and a handgun.  He could see beings inside the windows of the starcraft, their leader dressed in a black uniform.  Panicking, Barney then retreated to his car, and the couple attempted to flee in it but were stopped or disabled by the UFO, the couple paralyzed and rendered unconscious.  Barney had the sensation of floating, being drawn through the air into the craft, except for his shoes which were dragged, causing the scraping to their uppers.  

Inside the alien craft, Barney and Betty under hypnosis reported seeing creatures that we now think of as alien “grays” who had large, dark eyes and noses unlike the human.  Thorough physical examinations followed of the couples’ extremities and joints, with a long needle inserted into Betty’s navel, a procedure which brought her excruciating pain until the alien leader cast his hand over her eyes, an action which took away the pain.  Barney was likewise examined, and in addition apparently underwent semen extraction.  The couple later awoke in their car, 35 miles away from from where they had been.  A dog traveling with the couple had pushed himself as far under the front seat as possible.  The couple did not mention the event to outsiders for four years until the time of the hypnosis at which time those lost memories were recovered.

On cloning, a second reported encounter was presented from September of 1988 which occurred in New Mexico.  There a Gloria Hawber, a medical secretary, saw a glowing object originally thought to be a hot air balloon from which smaller lights emanated.  Alien beings about 3 to 3-1/2 feet high later materialized through her bedroom walls, and implanted a device in her head through her eyes.  Gloria’s husband, Fred, was not there at the time and was initially supportive of his wife but later manifested a different personality, becoming distant, cold, and abusive.   A few hours later, this changed individual began convulsing, and days later simply disappeared.  It was the contention of Gloria that her husband had been abducted and cloned, and that his changed self that she encountered was essentially a duplicate.  This belief was reinforced by later alien abductions suffered by Gloria, during one of which her actual husband appeared to her on a spacecraft.  The story was one exemplifying those of a growing number of abducted people who contend that aliens are making clones of individuals, and essentially replacing them with the duplicates.

Then in Wiggins, Mississippi the case of Richard and Mary Rogers was presented in which Richard at night following sleep was placed into a kind of military-style alien abduction in which he was cast into a virtual reality testing environment in order to groom him as a “super soldier”  for deployment in alien wars.  Supposedly interested in the human emotional make-up that they lack, human subjects were placed by aliens into a threatening and contentious environment in which weapons would appear in simulated fights against dangerous adversaries.  The alien intent was supposedly to see how humans would react in these situations. Interestingly enough, Richard would awake with real physical wounds and bruises from these experiences…

Fantastic?–Absolutely!   I love this stuff, but don’t bet the rent on the credibility of alien abduction stories…

Sheepsquatch, Batsquatch, Sasquatch…

February 22, 2014

Batsquatch– – Monsters & Mysteries in America is again providing us with some new episodes, which happily gives us something to write about.  In one episode first aired in 2014, a bizarre hybrid beast called Sheepsquatch was profiled, described colorfully as being “a cross between mutton and man.”  This might be a great description for an offbeat underdog wrestler, but refers to a creature sighted in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky.  One encounter detailed occurred in July of 2004 by friends Dakota Cheeks and Ricky Joyce, who while staying in a hunting cabin awoke to find their 150-pound dog with his neck broken.  They later stayed in a camper, and became aware of something pressing against it.  Therafter, they encountered a 9′ tall creature with long, taloned arms that emitted an “ungodly, gut-wrenching growl” at them.  The beast charged, and while they fired at it, the duo apparently failed to hit anything.  Retreating, the friends came back later and found drag marks, while it was uncertain whether the creature was wounded and dragged itself away, or had dragged prey away.– Quite the ambiguous, open-ended account, yes?

Then we have Batsquatch (not in any way associated with Batman), who haunts the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  In January of 1976, ten different witnesses including police officers and fisherman reported seeing the creature within a two week time frame.  Batsquatch stands eight to ten feet tall, and has a bat-like wing span.  In January of 1976, brothers David and John Daut were traveling in a small car when the creature appeared on the road in front of them.  As it refused to yield and forced them to stop, they were in the process of backing up when the beast took three or four steps towards their car before flying over it, making loud flapping noises in the process.  Batsquatch has a head like a dog or wolf, and intense red eyes.  A second account presented the case of a man who stepped outdoors and was grabbed from above by Batsquatch; while he managed to beat the creature off, the back of the jacket that he was wearing bore rips as if from talons.  In Hidalgo County near Houston, a father and son team were hunting deer and in a tree stand when the father reported being snatched by an avian humanoid; the son shot at the offending beast, which released the father, who suffered broken ribs and related injuries.  It was speculated on the show that Batsquatch may be a surviving type of pterodactyl…very cool if so, and certainly the very stuff of which Syfy Channel movies are made!

Lastly and most familiar to us, the show presented a segment on Sasquatch of the American Pacific northwest.  In a rather current and fascinating encounter from 2010, hunter Justin Smeja and a friend while in the Sierra Mountains saw a Bigfoot standing about 6-1/2 to 7 feet tall.  They fired at the unfortunate beast, apparently hitting him.  The wounded creature staggered away, and was met by two juveniles, engaging in what the hunters described as “deaf chatter” with them.  The creatures then split up with the hunters in pursuit; Smeja reports encountering and shooting one of the poor juveniles thereafter.  As he watched the creature expire, Smeja was taken by its humanoid characteristics and stricken by remorse, as a result of which he and his friend buried the Sasquatch rather than retaining its body.  Reports of the incident caused Bigfoot hunter Derek Randles to encourage Smeja to find and return with the body.  This Smeja attempted to do, but could recover only a patch of hair with attached hide and flesh.  This tissue was taken to a lab, where analysis reportedly found the tissue to be that of a genetic relative of humans, with Bigfoot speculated to be the result of breeding between a male primate and a human female in the distant past…I’m glad I wasn’t a chaperon  on that date!

As for Derek Randles the Bigfoot hunter, he had his own encounter in August of 1985 when he and a hiking friend went off-trail in Washington state.  A large rock was thrown at the duo to be followed by a second, each cast intentionally and landing about ten feet away.  The hiking partners wisely exited stage left at that point, with Randles looking behind himself at one point, and spying Bigfoot.  It was Randles belief that Bigfoot did not intend to harm him but only scare him off, and that perhaps in going off-trail he and his companion had ventured too close to a family group of Bigfoot or their habitat.  Out of this encounter was born the Olympic Project, which seeks to obtain crystal-clear images of Bigfoot in a natural environment.  The automatic motion-sensor type cameras deployed in this project have so far managed to take mostly images of well-known wild animals, together with some partial images of body parts that just might be connected to a Bigfoot…or not!  

Again, I could die happy if we’d have conclusive, verifiable scientific proof of the existence of any of these cryptids or others in my lifetime.  An alien would be awfully nice, too… *sighs*

The Bear is Boarding!- -The Labatt Blue “Undomesticated” Commercial

February 19, 2014

labatt

– – One of the coolest anthropomorphic bears that I’ve seen in a long time appears in the Labatt Blue Big Game XLVIII commercial, “Undomesticated.”  We are shown breathtaking, pristine mountain scenery clothed in winter white down which erupts a snowboarding bear!  Truly a master of the snowboard, this bear makes it look easy as he travels down the slopes to the pulsating percussive electronic stylings of Dillon Francis’ Masta Blasta  (the Rebirth).  His impressive run ends with a leap at a ski lodge where fellow fanciers of winter sports cheer and toast his stellar performance over bottles of Labatt Blue…

…and yes, the bear  even gets the girls at the end, flanked on either side of a hot tub by scantily-clad lovelies!  We are told to get up, get out, and get Undomesticated!   I’ll never be fully domesticated, but I love my creature comforts…

AAA “Accident Rewind” Commercial With Beaver…

February 17, 2014

accident rewind

– –  Beavers are known for being industrious, and apparently at times they’re a bit evil as well!  In an AAA insurance commercial, we are shown a family of four riding along in a red SUV as birds chirp when they spy a beaver gnawing at a tree.  “Daddy, Daddy, look…a beaver!,” cries one girl from the back seat.  “Oh, he’s so cute!,” chimes in the mother, riding shotgun in the front seat.  “Oh, no no no no no!,” redundantly corrects the father.  

Father knows best, apparently.  We are given a close-up of the beaver, who emits a sound between a growl and a hiss, and drops the tree directly at the family’s SUV!  Fortunately, it’s technology to the rescue!  Dad hits a switch inside the vehicle, and the car is instantly protected by a surrounding, shimmering shield, like those deployed by Star Trek spacecraft against enemies.  The tree is halted harmlessly by the energy field!- – I’d give anything to have one of those!

Sadly, though, 24th century technology isn’t here yet.  “Until there’s an impenetrable force field to protect your car from woodland creatures, there’s the next best thing…insurance from AAA!,” declares the announcer.  I don’t understand why we woodland creatures are getting a bad rap here, but if I can’t get a force field, I’m willing to settle for a Jetson’s flying car.  The future is taking too long to get here…*sighs*

Body Slammed By A Lowland Gorilla!

February 10, 2014

body slammed

– – In another of their memorable and comic commercials in which one event leads to another, DirecTV tells us the sad tale of someone who pays too much for cable, causing him to feel down.  When you feel down, you stay in bed…and when you stay in bed, they give your job (in this case, zoo keeper) to someone new.  When your job is given to someone new, that someone has a lot to learn…and when someone has a lot to learn, mistakes are made…like failing to secure a cage, which results in a gorilla escaping behind the new keeper’s back.  When mistakes are made, you get body slammed  by a lowland gorilla when you leave your bed to get the paper….a gorilla named “Jimbo!”

We are admonished not to be body slammed by a lowland gorilla, but rather get rid of cable, and upgrade to DirecTV.  Depression is a terrible thing, and so is being mowed down by a rampaging gorilla.  – -I’ll take their word for it!  One can, I am told, profit from the mistakes of others…

Mr.Peabody & Sherman…

February 8, 2014

Peabody– – I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised that a movie is being made of Mr. Peabody & Sherman, since movies and sequels have been made of The Smurfs and The Chipmunks.  If there’s a chance that parents are familiar with the original subject, a movie treatment serves to introduce children to the character, and film makers hope that a profitable franchise is born.  

Now The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show was a gem in the 1960’s, and has already been subjected to a movie treatment.  Besides introducing us to Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose, the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show had other unrelated ‘toon features that included Dudley Do-Right and Peabody’s Improbable History segments.  Mr. Peabody was a talking, bespectacled, intellectual white dog who in a role reversal had an adopted boy, Sherman.  Through use of a time machine, Peabody and Sherman would travel back in time in episodes to encounter memorable historical figures, teaching Sherman of their significance and at times benevolently influencing the turn of events.  

Based on these memorable offbeat characters, Mr. Peabody & Sherman is an American 3D computer-animated adventure-comedy produced by DreamWorks Animation, and involves Sherman’s misuse of the WABAC time machine with subsequent efforts by Peabody and Sherman to put things back on track before the space-time continuum is destroyed, a problem common in science fiction.  As with the original shorts, the film is described as sweet-natured and amusing, with enough witty touches to keep adults entertained as well.  In theaters March 7th…

Doritos Breakroom Ostrich…

February 4, 2014

doritos ostrich

The 2014 Superbowl was not especially memorable for either football or commercials, but the Doritos ad featuring an ostrich was cute.  The  short spot began with an office boss dressing down two employees for eating all of the Doritos in the breakroom, plus making an awful mess.  One of the two employees just so happens to be be a full-sized ostrich…

…the crime scene itself is then recreated, as we are shown the balding male employee scarfing down every Dorito in sight, and indeed making quite a mess in the process; he would seem from the wrappers to prefer the nacho flavor variety.  The ostrich appears in the doorway and observes the spectacle, casting a disapproving gaze and then backing out; the man says nothing.  When the boss is then confronting the duo and telling them that the offense has been narrowed down to one of them, the human shamelessly says that the ostrich is “obviously” the culprit, at which point the ostrich does a memorable and wide-mouthed gasp!  Obviously, some humans are capable of anything

…and darned if I don’t have an incredible desire to eat some Doritos right now, although I prefer the ranch flavor…ranch, Mmm!