Books

Making the Grade in a Plethora of Titles

Back in 1983, a few people did notice when the book above was published. Otherwise, it won’t be called a classic. Today, it’s good that at least one reviewer is enjoying it so much that he has given me a letter grade for the expanded, updated 2007 edition. When I was in school, I had mixed feelings about getting a high letter grade. What was the teacher trying to tell me? Was I almost perfect or didn’t I say what I wanted to say? Was I above average but not excellent? Was I pretty darned good, but need not get [...]

Otter Nonsense

Otters, of course, are responsible for a few misidentifications of Lake Monsters in bodies of water worldwide. In my The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (co-authored by Patrick Huyghe), the fact that people do make mistakes when viewing mundane mammals on lakes and lochs is acknowledged. Otters, nevertheless, have never been seen as the root of all Lake Monsters accounts, as seemed to be expressed on CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now” last week by the guest skeptic. Otters are hardly in vogue any longer. Even Bernard Heuvelmans’ theory of the “super-otters,” as [...]

Hey, Disney: Where Are the Yeti Books?

A reader Joshua Cutchin sends along the following email to Cryptomundo today: I just returned from a visit to Walt Disney World, where I rode Expedition Everest for the first time. While I enjoyed much about the ride (the Yeti was portrayed in a very realistic manner of a white snowman), I have one glaring issue to take with the attraction. Several books by Loren Coleman are on display in the queue line’s “Yeti Museum”, as well as some of the older literature as well. Yet, at the attraction’s gift shop, there is not one book on hairy bipeds to [...]

The Lord God Bird Trailer

The Voice of America has announced that a new documentary film is in production about the ivory-billed woodpecker. The title of the new documentary by George Butler is The Lord God Bird. This film’s title, of course, reflects the name of the bestseller that appeared just as the news of the new video was hitting the media – Phillip Hoose’s The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004). However, Phillip has confirmed that his book is not the foundation of this documentary. The VOA’s low-key release follows: A North American bird believed to have [...]

CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now” Tonight

I will be a guest on CNN tonight, Friday, June 1, 2007, between 8-9 p.m. ET, on Paula Zahn Now, discussing the Gordon Holmes Nessie footage. Yes, this video is exciting a lot of people, but I wish it would have happened some other week, from a purely personal point of view. As the producer was trying to convince me to come on the show via emails and several calls – my first priority, after all, is that it’s my son’s senior prom this evening – she says: “There is a tremendous interest in the story (the most popular story [...]