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This Was A Bad Day. (Part 1)

19 Jul

July 19, 2016

It did not pay to get out of bed. It began with a sunburn and a ROTNAC encounter, continued with a dead car battery, and ended with me limping around due to a torn muscle in my left leg.

And I may have accidentally become a sexual predator.

It was a bad day all around.

The day began with high hopes. Saarah and I were selling some old things at a local flea market. We did the same thing last year and had a great spot in the shade of a big leafy tree. This year we were set up in a different place against a bright white wall. We started in the shade but after a couple of hours not only was the sun beating down on us, but it was reflecting off the wall behind us and we were getting it from all angles. I spent a lot of time fidgeting and trying to press as close to the wall’s diminishing shade as my belly made possible. But hey, if you’re making money, who notices a little sunshine and heat? Me.

Setting up our table, I had to go back and forth to my car through a crowd of people who were gathered at the entrance waiting for the flea market to open. Have you ever wondered who would line up for the opening of a local flea market in a churchyard next to an old trailer where most people are selling dirty rotary phones? It isn’t pretty. But it turns out there was a celebrity among them! Believe it or not, ROTNAC was there. I kid you not. (And stick around. I have a suitably weird story about him in the next part.)

Imagine this but with more boxes of old floppy disks and broken lamps.

Imagine this but with more boxes of old floppy disks and broken lamps.

Well, it was crowded and I had to thread my way through the people at the gate. As I was going out, I had to avoid a vendor coming in pushing a shopping cart full of used sneakers and boxless VHS tapes. (See what you missed? You could have gotten that boxless VHS copy of Short Circuit you never wanted.) Problem was, I was on the edge of a slope, where the sidewalk ramps down at an angle to the street. As I moved around the guy’s cart, I accidentally stepped off the edge, and just lost my balance so I stumbled a little to the right. Didn’t fall over, just tilted and quickly regained my balance. But there was a catch.

When I stumbled, my hand automatically shot out to try and grab something to catch myself, and it (there is no better way to say it, I swear) went right in between the buttocks of a woman in a sundress. Hard and fast. Went right up and in there. Pretty far up.

Uh oh

Uh oh

The woman let out a high pitched “OOOOHHHH!” I got my hand back fast as a flash and said the first thing that came to mind, which was “whoa! Slippery over here!” Then I kept on going like nothing happened and I wasn’t going to end up on the sex offender registry. I smiled at some random people as if to say “I’m a normal guy! Nothing to see here!” I somehow managed not to run like a scared rabbit. 

On my way back I came in through another gate.

And not long after, I had an encounter with ROTNAC, who may have muttered something anti-Semetic in my ear.

TO BE CONTINUED

Sigh. There's no picture in the world that can make this better.

Sigh. There’s no picture in the world that can make this better.

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The Problem With Coast To Coast AM and George Noory

30 Jun

June 30, 2016

I make fun of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory a lot. A LOT. In case you don’t know the show, here is their own description:

Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 600 stations in the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Guam, and is heard by nearly three million weekly listeners. With hosts George Noory, George Knapp (weekend), and guest weekend hosts, it is the most listened to overnight radio program in North America. A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena. Coast to Coast AM is overnight talk radio with daytime ratings.

What that leaves out is that it is not nearly as popular or respected as it was under Art Bell, who created it. It also leaves out that under George Noory the show has become a joke. You’ll see why soon.

Art Bell was a critical questioner and listener. He had as guests experts in major scientific fields as well as those involved in fringe paranormal research. But no matter who he had on, he asked probing and intelligent questions and did not let anyone who made outrageous claims go unchallenged. George is just the opposite. Not only is he himself ill-informed  about most of the topics he addresses, he rarely asks follow up questions and never, ever challenges a guest about anything said. Even callers with ridiculous claims are given a “gosh, wow!” by George. Ghost of Hitler got off a UFO and had a picnic with Bigfoot on your front lawn while you danced with pixies and made sandwiches? “That sounds like some afternoon. Do you think they chose you intentionally or do you live in a UFO hot spot?”

The big issue is that George is totally uncritical and unquestioning. He is open to anything and will never, ever say a negative word about anything or anyone.

I debunked a UFO claim on their Facebook page the other day.

C2C crap

I’m not an expert on UFOs. I’m just a guy with an interest in things who has read some books. Surely the host of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, a “media phenomemon” who has been delving into the mysteries of the paranormal for 13 years, would be more knowledgeable than me. Surely someone on his staff would do some research on an alleged UFO photo before posting it on their website. Surely they wouldn’t be powned by a noob like me, right?

Nah, that’s giving them too much credit. No one checks anything. No one bothers. They put anything out there no matter how fake or stupid. (And you should really see some of the stupid stuff on their page.) I saw that photo and immediately knew it was fake. I recognized that UFO from one of the most famous pictures in all of UFOlogy. It is lifted from one of the McMinnville, Oregon photos from 1950.

mcminnville01

Not just a similar object, but the same exact photo. Same lighting. Same silhouette. Same everything except that the doctored photo is so badly done it is a lot blurrier. (To be fair, some of that blurriness came when I enlarged it. Go to their page for the original.) I saw their post, recognized the photo, googled “UFO over farm house” and found that picture in under 20 seconds. The giveaway that it is the exact image is the way the light- and possibly the grain of the photo- makes the left top edge of the object appear to be pointed. Look closely in the Facebook post, it’s there too. I didn’t need any computer skills, I used my own two eyes!

And if you think that it looks like something hanging from a wire, that’s the common claim of debunkers.

That picture dates back to 1950. It is over 65 years old and has been reprinted in books all over the world since then, not to mention the internet. But did the “media phenomenon” recognize it? Nope, no one even bothered to look into it for a second.  It took me to discover that it was a doctored picture? Way to go George Noory.

 

 

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