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Fishies of Fury!

March 4, 2010

– – I, for one, do not worry excessively about piranha, although Frankie the Fish does tend to annoy me because his McDonald’s jingle sticks inside my head.  (–“Gimme back that Fillet-O-Fish!”)

Anyways, MonsterQuest warned in their current episode that reports of piranha sightings have been growing around the country!–Yes, a Piranha Invasion! Even though these suckers are native to South American countries like Brazil, piranha have reportedly been caught every year for the past three years in the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

So MonsterQuest sent their team to this very location where a baited underwater surveying system was submerged, using what they termed a “dead chicken”  as bait.  While the deceased chicken was shredded up a bit, cameras showed that native fish did it rather than piranha.  The science team additionally ran experiments to see if red-bellied piranha could survive in cold water as would be encountered in the Ozark lake in winter.  They found that the piranha huddled together in temperatures from 55 to 50 degrees, and below that point, they lost their equilibrium and would presumably croak.   Parts of the Ozark lake in question are fed by underwater streams that stay warmer,  possibly in the mid-to upper 50’s range in winter so piranha could survive.

The historical perspectives of the show were to me the most interesting, with reference made to a mega-piranha four times the size of the current model which became extinct ten million years ago.  None less than Teddy Roosevelt gave an account of Amazonian piranha back in 1914 which cemented their reputation as ferocious.  An old grainy black and white photo of about that vintage was also shown depicting a human body stripped to the skeleton supposedly by piranha.  Today, there are dozens of documented piranha attacks in South America, with many of the victims having lost pieces of fingers and toes.

With over 40 different species of piranha, some like the red bellied variety may be better able to survive cold water, and there may be a handful of piranha in the Ozark lake, although probably not a lively breeding population.   Nothing to lose sleep over…

…and maybe next week’s episode on a “Lizard Man” may be more interesting!

Categories: animals, anomalies, environmental, strange happenings, television
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Comments: 3 Comments

Frankie the Fish!

February 22, 2010

– – Not to be confused with the Big Mouth Billy Bass fish, a horrendous novelty gift of almost ten years ago, Frankie the Fish is a similar but distinctive item who memorably hawks McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

“Gimme back that Filet-O-Fish/Gimme that fish,” sings Frankie in his own distinctive fashion in a commercial that tends to run through your head over and over again until you’re ready to filet yourself.   Notable is the fact that the two human actors in the ad don’t talk at all, one shrugging off the singing  fish on a plaque and the other displaying surprise.  The sandwich is made from cod and pollock, and originally a taxidermist created a pollock fish with a remote control device to operate his head and tail.  That creation was considered too scary, so the fish was made more toy-like to be less creepy.

McDonald’s sells about 300 million Filet-O-Fish sandwiches annually, 25% of them during the 40 days of Lent.  Frankie himself is quite the spokesfish, with the ad viewed on You Tube more than a million times…


Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, television
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“Scooter’s” Salvation!

February 18, 2010

– – This Minute Maid commercial is priceless!  “Mr. Hill, there’s something wrong with Scooter!,” cry elementary school students in alarm to their teacher.  At first, he’s drowsy and really doesn’t care, only reassuring the kids that he’s kept the store receipt for the unresponsive rabbit.- –Somebody forgot to boost!

Then in an alternate scenario, the teach when alerted slams down some Minute Maid Enhanced Strawberry Kiwi juice, spies floating helium balloons tethered nearby, rubs the balloons on his hair, and then applies the balloons to the bunny in distress, the static electricity acting like a cardiac defibrillator! Scooter is saved, jolted back to life and awakening with his static-charged fur standing on end while the class cheers!

Now you see why science education must never be neglected, to say nothing of enhanced fruit juices…

Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, humor, television
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“Mothman” on MonsterQuest…

February 12, 2010

– – We’ve posted here before on Mothman, but that was before the MonsterQuest edition.  After all of the humdrum episodes on rats, feral dogs, snakes, and killer bees The Quest has again found a cryptid subject worthy of their consideration!   One wonders why they took this long to get to Mothman…

This cryptid has been drawing attention for decades, and is described as appearing somewhat like a man-bat, standing about 7 feet tall, weighing around 250 pounds, and boasting an impressive 10-15 foot wingspan.  He has prominent red eyes, emits a high-pitched shriek, and can reach incredible speeds in flight, readily keeping up with a speeding car!   I love the re-creations of cryptid encounters that they do on The Quest! One idiot, after drag-racing Mothie in his car, was shown pulling over and chucking rocks at the cryptid!    Impressive was another re-creation that depicted Mothman perched gargoyle-like atop a tall bridge; really great stuff! – -This image alone made the episode for me, but I digress…

Anyhow, reports of the winged creature were previously best associated with sightings in Point Pleasant, West Virginia beginning in 1966 when over 100 encounters were recorded.  In 1967, the Silver Bridge buckled and collapsed in that town, causing 40 deaths and leading to the reputation of Mothman as a “dark angel” of some sort who shows up before local tragedies.   More recently,  Mothman is reputed to have branched out, showing up as far away from his original stomping grounds as Wisconsin.  Other supposed sightings were said to have taken place in New York City prior to the 9-11-01 terrorist attacks; even more recent was a 2009 sighting in Sacramento, California.

Now MonsterQuest tested the theory that Mothman is a known animal, most specifically a barn owl.  Their experiment showed that size estimates of Mothman cut-outs placed in locations varied widely, and were generally over-estimated.  In spite of this, a psychological expert testified that people will have high confidence in a distorted memory image, an image which can be fleeting and further distorted by the fear response.   “Psychological contagion” is also known to cause people to see things once they are reported.   MonsterQuest further demonstrated that the eyes of many animals will glow red as they reflect light at night, including barn owls.

Be this as it may, one is hard pressed to believe that misidentified barn owls account for all of the Mothman sightings.  In the absence of hard evidence, however, the truth as often happens is still out there…

…long live this “dark angel!”


Categories: anomalies, anthropomorphic, cool things, cryptozoology, strange happenings, television, unexplained, unidentified
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“Giant Killer Bees” on MonsterQuest…

February 5, 2010

– – Whenever I hear of killer bees, I think of that wonderful old Saturday Night Live sketch with the original cast and their tacky but hilarious get-ups…bobbing antennae and all!

I’m less fond of the more mundane MonsterQuest episodes featuring such things as feral dogs, underground rats, and yes, killer bees.  It strikes me that the series is stretching for material on such episodes, expanding and sensationalizing what they have.  Killer bees are a rather old saw at this point, and only the beekeeping forums were buzzing about this one.

Don’t get me wrong; bees are awesome insects, kinda nature’s Borg collective.  Like the pythons featured in the previous episode, they’re expanding their range, and can adapt to colder northern environments by doing things like “clustering,” grouping together in the central core of their hives to conserve and share heat.

The episode just lacked the shock and awe factor of the cryptid episodes, and is more like something I’d expect on National Geographic than The Quest…

Categories: insects, Invertebrates, television
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Giant Pythons in America!

January 31, 2010

– – Ah me…as if Florida didn’t have enough to worry about, now it appears that the population of foreign snakes is increasing there!  The burmese python has been  found in Florida, and its an adaptable species that could range much further northward, at least as far to the north as Washington, D.C.

Reptiles in Washington!– -Well, we’ve heard that for some time!  Anyhow, such snakes can survive in temperatures as low as 40 degrees by wintering underground, and environmental conditions could support them northward.  MonsterQuest in their “python” episode found food for snakes in Central Park,  NYC, and a nine foot boa constrictor has been found in Central Park, presumably a pet that was released.   Snakes have come to the edge of population centers by the Florida Everglades, and elsewhere an African green mamba bit a cable TV installer !- -Watch out, Larry the Cable Guy!

King cobras  are also potentially loose in southern Florida.  Where it gets really freaky is over such snakes interbreeding, and producing a monster hybrid with all kinds of interesting capabilities; sounds like a bad Syfy Channel original movie!

MonsterQuest’s conclusion was that exotic snakes in northern areas are going to increase…snake phobics, be advised!


Categories: animal occurrences, animals, environmental, scalies, strange happenings, television
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Sears Optical Raccoon…

January 27, 2010

– – The lady inviting the “Kitty” into her house to snuggle with her in bed needs her eyes checked badly, ’cause what she’s really inviting in is a rather large raccoon, who roams right in, and makes himself at home!   The commercial ends with the raccoon blissfully reclining on the woman’s bed.

The woman in this hilarious and brilliant Sears Optical commercial needs to be more careful, ’cause raccoons don’t have the best of reputations…  😉

Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry perspectives, humor, television
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The Hillbilly Beast!

January 22, 2010

– – Not to be confused with Squidbillies or The Beverly Hillbillies, the Hillbilly Beast hangs out in rural Kentucky, with stories circulated about him for decades or longer.  In  fact, good ole Daniel Boone is reported to have killed a ten foot tall hairy beast that he called a “Yahoo,” not to be confused with the popular website portal and search engine!   In a worthy episode, MonsterQuest went in search of this cryptid.

Also known as “the hairy beast of the forest,” the Hillbilly Beast is reputed to stand eight to ten feet tall, and is a powerful, flesh-eating beastly creature who is covered with matted brown hair and makes strange howling cries at night. Recent eyewitness reports have matched legends, and many encounters with the beast have taken place near water.

Led by a professional animal tracker, the MonsterQuest team went to Henderson, Kentucky where they attempted to capture the beast’s vocalizations using “call-blasting,” projecting pre-recorded sounds out.  A high frequency response was provoked which set off coyote vocalizations.   Analysis of the recording yielded 15 or 16 known vocalizations but 20 to 30 unknown ones!   An unusual tooth was also discovered which could not be directly analyzed as its owner kept it as a “sacred object.”  An analysis of a picture of the tooth noted unusual flutings to it, but little more could be determined in the absence of the actual artifact.

A blurry September of 2009 camera trap image thought to possibly be the hillbilly beast was upon analysis determined to be a bird landing!

Most interestingly, a rock was chucked at team audio expert Joe Fox from across a river during the investigation!

While the Hillbilly Beast is felt by some to be a misidentified black bear, it may also be argued that the sheer number of hunters and locals reporting sightings make it unlikely that such is the case.  The MonsterQuest conclusion was that the study “calls for more investigations like this.”–What could be safer?

Categories: animals, anomalies, cryptozoology, furry, mysteries, strange happenings, television, unexplained
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Dino and Baby Puss…

January 17, 2010

– – Forget that dinosaurs didn’t live happily alongside cavemen, and that there was no genus “Snorkosaurus;”   just relax and enjoy the presence of Dino (pronounced DEE-no) the dinosaur on The Flintstones. Acting more like a labrador retriever than a reptile, Dino barks, slobbers, romps, and cavorts, especially when Fred Flintstone arrived home from a long day at the slate quarry…

The cat on The Flintstones, BTW, was called Baby Puss, and was basically a saber-toothed tiger, who was more than smart enough to lock Fred out of the house when he attempted to put Baby out for the night.   Sadly, Baby Puss was largely seen during the closing credits…

Categories: animals, television
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Monster Sharks on MonsterQuest

January 15, 2010

– – I, for one, was rather disappointed when MonsterQuest chose to kick off their new season with an episode on great white sharks, hoping instead for a thought-provoker on some cryptid, even if they had to re-visit one covered previously.   Now I know that great whites are awesome predators, but they’re not quite in the same category for me as say, Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil.  I don’t want MonsterQuest to become Wild Kingdom.

The points were well-taken, however, that sharks are not just mindless eating machines, but rather show evidence of premeditated attacks which they can adapt to circumstances.  Additionally, sharks have been known to engage in practice attacks in which they kill but don’t eat their prey.  Sharks are, in short, more sophisticated beasties than we give them credit for being, and there’s much about them that we don’t yet know.

The “shark cam” was successfully attached and interesting, although the device was overbuilt and didn’t remain on for as long as hoped due to the drag factor.  The device shows much promise with a re-design and a smaller housing.

As a horrifying sidebar, a Zimbabwean tourist was recently killed off a Cape Town South African Beach by a great white shark described as being “longer than a mini-bus.”   The shark attacked the victim three times, with others bathers only about 15 meters away.  Remains are not expected to be found.   A raised black flag (pictured) reminds bathers that beaches around Cape Town remain on full alert following the attack…

Categories: animals, television
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