Archive for the ‘television’ category

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The Arica Monster…

November 5, 2009

Arica monster– –Destination Truth recently had an episode with a secondary storyline line on the Arica Monster, a supposedly raptor-like creature inhabiting the Northern Chilean desert.  On the desert road, people have reported seeing a dinosaur-like beast keeping pace with their cars, a neat trick.  Described as large, standing on his hind legs, and having leathery skin, the beast is a fast runner with a distinctive three-toed print who attacks with razor-sharp teeth.

Destination Truth often has comic overtones that MonsterQuest lacks (remember the Mongolian Death Worms episode?), and Josh Gates and his team have such a limited budget that they are reduced to pursuing travel arrangements on Orbitz. They tend to take spills and get sick even while thoroughly enjoying themselves.   As for the raptor remnant, expert opinion is that it was a rhea, an ostrich-like bird with a three-toed print…

Categories: animals, anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, extinct species, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
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The “Real” Werewolf on MonsterQuest

November 1, 2009

Gevaudan werewolf– – MonsterQuest recently aired a two-hour episode investigating the killing of over 100 peasants by a werewolf-like creature in southern France during the mid-1700’s.  As the slayings occurred over 240 years ago, extensive speculation and reconstruction was involved as provided by a cryptozoologist and a criminal investigator.

The Beast of Gevaudan slaughtered primarily women and children in an often gruesome fashion, at times decapitating the victims, eviscerating them, or consuming limbs.  The killings began in 1764, and continued for about three years, drawing the attention of Louis XV whose expert hunters dispatched a large wolf but failed to halt the peasant slayings.

That task was accomplished by one Jean Chastel, who used (–what else?) a silver bullet to kill the beast.  Speculation by the MonsterQuest investigators and others has been that the true “werewolf” was in fact a striped hyena, which may have actually been trained to accomplish his mayhem by Chastel himself!

The Beast of Gevaudan will continue to fascinate speculators, and the events form the historical basis for much of the rich present day werewolf sagas, which one hopes will continue for the indefinite future…150px-Woman_&_La_Bete

Categories: animals, anomalies, cryptozoology, furry, historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
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The Abominable Snowman on MonsterQuest!

October 26, 2009

Abominable– – MonsterQuest finally came up with their long-awaited episode on the Yeti on October 25th after previous ho-hum episodes on wild dogs and rats.- – Here at last is a cryptid worthy of consideration!  The Abominable Snowman differs from his North American Bigfoot cousin in being more aggressive and carnivorous; he’s nocturnal, and goes after both people and their livestock in the Himalayas.- – You gotta give the big guy credit for that!

Examined were hair and footprint evidence as well as images from cameras.  The most recent footprint from 2008 was actually regarded to be a hoofprint, kind of a drag-impression in the snow distorted by multiple freeze and thaw cycles.  Fifty-year old hair samples supposedly from the skullcap of a Yeti were also analyzed, and found to be from a deer-like creature.  Picture images from cameras set up at different locations were of the usual birds with perhaps an antlered beast or two thrown in.  Lastly, eyewitness accounts of the Yeti were chalked off as being misidentified bears!

There were some interesting sidebars; apparently, the Nazis had sent teams out in pursuit of the Yeti, and locals led the Nazis to a supposed lair where they shot…a bear! I also loved a scene where an investigative team came upon a slaughtered and partly-eaten goat, perhaps consumed by the Yeti; the lead investigator indulged himself in the treat, which had been lying out for five or six days, and found it to be like jerky…”rather tasty, actually,” he proclaimed.–Anyone else up for five-day old goat, partly eaten by who knows what?–Didn’t think so…

It’s well been pointed out that even known identified species are hard to track over wild terrain, so I’m really not surprised by the lack of Yeti evidence. –And why do we call him Abominable, together with “terrifying” and “ferocious?” – – Doesn’t the Yeti just need a good spin doctor?–Why not as in the Tundra cartoon, come up with an Amiable Snowman?

Categories: anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, furry, rare animal, television, unexplained, unidentified
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Soupy Sales Gone…

October 24, 2009

Soupy Sales— I can’t take the loss of many more of my childhood icons; Captain Kangaroo has passed on, and now also Soupy Sales at age 83.   Soupy in my opinion has never gotten the credit or recognition that he deserved; a comedian of television, radio, and film born Milton Supman, Soupy drew heavily from slapstick and also used word play and improvisation. His comedy wasn’t always sophisticated, but it could be clever and was always funny; taking a pie in the face was a stock in trade, and Soupy estimated that he and his visitors took 20,000 pies in the course of his career.  Soupy was big at the time in the New York area where I grew up in to the extent that kids would imitate him and do his routines.

Soupy had furry elements; two of the visitors to his shows were dogs called White Fang and Black Tooth, who appeared at his door as giant shaggy paws with felt triangular claws.  White Fang spoke with unintelligible growls and grunts which Soupy repeated back to his audience in English; Black Tooth was also unintelligible, but was into giving loud and sloppy kisses to Soupy off-camera.   Then there was Pookie the Lion, a hip character prone to appearing in Soupy’s window who you could understand. – -Soupy even had a novelty dance record and song called The Mouse which was wildly popular in the mid-1960’s!- –Hey!–Do the Mouse, Yeah! I last saw Soupy on game shows, those last retreats of celebrities past their popularity prime.  Even then, he was funny, using his improv talents to transcend the medium and material that he had to work with.

As Soupy was influenced by the Marx Brothers, so he also influenced other comedians including Andy Kaufman and Paul Reubens; if you twist and press Soupy’s persona, you get Pee-wee Herman!   Soupy was an earlier prototype of the cheerfully demented childrens’ TV show host, filled with manic energy.   All of these comics realized that much comic inspiration can be drawn from childhood, which can be darker and more twisted  than many realize…

Thank you, Soupy, for all the laughter and the furry undertones!   To quote lyrics from The Mouse, “every cat in the neighborhood will be in shock.”

Cats, you see, loved Soupy Sales, and will miss him as will I…


Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry heroes, furry spirits, humor, television
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Goat Renaissance!

October 19, 2009

Goat– – Goats are going through a bit of a renaissance lately…there’s a wonderful new Thera-gesic arthritis commercial with an old woman extolling the virtue of goat tears (“Takes the pain riiight away”), and now there’s a George Clooney movie with goats,  Men Who Stare At Goats.

I’ve always felt that goats have been under-rated for years; they’re intelligent, whimsical, and can make good pets, too.  Perhaps our trendy celebrities will take to championing and adopting goats.- -See, goats aren’t so baaad…

Categories: animals, furry, movies, television
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“Alien Cover-Up” on MysteryQuest

October 15, 2009

aliens– – MysteryQuest’s “Alien Cover-Up” episode promised much, and delivered little.   We’ve traveled this ground before, and seen it better covered;  Area 51, Groom Lake, and the hyper-reactive camouflaged security dudes.– –Now UFO Hunters, reportedly canceled…that was a show!

Watching some of these shows, one almost gets the impression that the producers are desperately trying to cobble together enough material to fill the hour…I mean, they even threw in some filler about the figures on the Plains of Nazca!   It’s  interesting, but as usual, nothing new is revealed by the end of the hour, and you wind up feeling cheated…been there, done that, heard it before.

What I’d like to do is have a bunch of us appear in fursuits by the security perimeter of Area 51, and when the high resolution cameras are trained on our presence, launch into a choreographed performance of Rick James’ Super Freak!

Categories: aliens, television
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My Wish List…

October 11, 2009

monarch– – I’d  really like to have a costumed arch-nemesis; no plain-clothes nemesis for me, thank you very much…those with a costumed arch-nemesis tend to be memorable, like Batman.  People remember the Joker or the Riddler, but almost certainly wouldn’t remember the Freemason or the Certified Public Accountant. An arch-nemesis has a history with you, in many cases arching you for years; it’s a love/hate thing, really.  A arch-nemesis should be colorful but not competent; you don’t want them to actually do you in (for further exploration of the complex relationship one may have with a costumed arch-nemesis, catch the Venture Brothers on Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network).

What about henchmen?–If you have henchmen, they’ll have to go through them to get to you, and maybe your enemy will wear themselves out.  Henchmen give you extra time to get away, bargain, plea, or just work up to a good cry.  Plus if you have henchmen, you’re giving others work in this depressed economy.

Could I possibly get a sidekick?–Batman, Aquaman, and the Green Arrow have one.  I don’t think Marvel superheroes have sidekicks as much; Wolverine would probably kill his. – – Cancel the sidekick; I’d probably be arrested, especially if it was some teenaged guy in tights.   Maybe the sidekick would write a tell-all book, and we’d split the profits and get rich.  Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of whatever’s in second place.

I’d also like to have minions, followers who hang on your every word and do your bidding.  No one’s done my bidding to this point in my life, so I figure I’m overdue.  In this category, I’d like to have a cat’s-paw, which should not be confused with a rabbit’s foot; some of my best friends are cats, and I’m not into the amputation of bodily parts.  A cat’s-paw is kinda like a chief minion or tool that acts in your behalf.–Wouldn’t that be cool?

…and why don’t we have manservants anymore?–If you want something, a manservant is there to get it for you, and wait on you hand and foot.  I’d like to have someone wait on my feet, and a manservant sounds classy; kind of like a gentleman’s gentleman.  You’ve gotta love the redundancy of that!

So I’m gonna ask Santa for these things; I’d be satisfied to get any of them.  If that doesn’t work, maybe I could get some of that federal stimulus money, ’cause these things would be stimulatin’ to me, woo!    😉

Categories: cool things, furry, humor, just plain stupid, Off-topic, television
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Stuck On You!

October 4, 2009

gecko– –  Well, the Geico Gecko has a great Cockney accent, and the SoBe beverages lizards have dance moves to make the late Michael Jackson proud…but scientists for years have been fascinated with the gecko, because of his uncanny ability to climb the smoothest of surfaces and hang there, by a single toe if necessary.

A Pennsylvania professor has found that a gecko’s toes have millions of very small hairs, each one-tenth the width of a human hair.  At the end of each hair are hundreds of saucerlike structures called spatula. Weak forces of attraction hold each spatula to a surface, and the combined force from millions of hairs create a powerful bond that enables the gecko to stick to nearly anything.

Hopes are to commercialize on the gecko’s adhesive ability …a good bet, since the gecko has been commercial gold, already!     Thriller Dancing Lizards

Categories: animal oddities, animals, science, television
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Sal’awa on “Destination Truth”

October 1, 2009

salawa– – Destination Truth in a recent new episode featured Chernobyl but had a secondary story on about the Sal’awa, described by highly emotional eyewitnesses as a canine monster about the size of a dog but with hind legs that are somewhat longer than the front legs, a large muzzle that resembles that of a hyena, and imposing sharp teeth.

Reports of the Sal’awa first appeared in Cairo, Egypt in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with a resurgence of sightings then beginning in 1996.  In 2008 in Aswan, the creature supposedly attacked a 3-year-old baby girl and a 57-year-old man, who died after reaching the hospital.

The Destination Truth team interviewed a number of eyewitnesses, including a mother who claimed the creature would have killed her child had she not beaten it off.  The investigators also tracked an unknown creature through a sugar cane field, complete with bouncing camera images and spooky green- or yellow-tinged lighting, popular since The Blair Witch Project. While some impressive growls were recorded, and a footprint was seen and copied  that was later identified as canine, the only image recorded was that of…an Egyptian fox!–Yuppers, my kind is everywhere!

While even the Destination Truth people downplayed the likelihood of a Sal’awa existing, the Egyptian people who have reported it may have been responding to a large feral dog or a hybrid of some kind…

Categories: animals, cryptozoology, furry, television, unexplained, unidentified
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“MysteryQuest’s” Bermuda Triangle

September 25, 2009

Bermuda Triangle– – The History Channel has mounted a triple threat, featuring episodes of MonsterQuest, Nostradamus Effect, and MysteryQuest run back-to-back.  The Bermuda Triangle offering on MysteryQuest was a first run episode, examining the legendary disappearances of boats, planes, and personnel in the 500,000 square mile area that extends between Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda.

Now a number of things have been blamed for the disappearances, including (of course) UFO’s/USO’s, rogue waves in the case of boats, and perhaps most intriguingly, “electronic fog” attaching itself to planes.  Electronic fog is supposedly created when solar energy combines with thunderstorm activity; the fog generated is said to travel with the aircraft as it moves, effectively blinding it and making it difficult to fly out of the disturbance.

The case of Bruce Gernon was examined, a survivor of a Bermuda Triangle encounter on December 4th, 1970 when he felt that a cut developed in the fabric of time, causing him to time travel…

Categories: anomalies, mysteries, strange happenings, television, unexplained
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