Pop Culture

Again, Bear Lake

I enjoy reading stories about new sightings of Lake Monsters as much as the next guy, but what is up with retreading stories from the 1800s, so often? There’s been another local Utah article written about the Bear Lake Monsters. It revisits the same old stories that you perhaps have read before. What I find surprising is they hardly ever talk about the Utah Lake Monster sightings that are known from the 21st century, as documented elsewhere and mentioned by, for example, Karl Rose. There is no disputing that evidence for the Bear Lake Monsters was established by early leaders [...]

Yeti Crab And Beyond: New Marine Species 2006

The media attention is high today for the Sloan Foundation’s year six census of marine life, so I’ll keep this short. You can read one of the stories here, from CNN, and another here in The Hindu. At last count, I found over 200 versions of this story appearing in newspapers and online sites around the world. Courtesy © Ifremer / A. Fifis Press Release; click on image for larger view. The Yeti crab photo is getting recycled. (Click on the hyperlink for more about it.) Here’s a summary of the findings from the 2006 research: Shrimp, clams and mussels [...]

The Real Lost World Screens

A reminder: The Real Lost World airs tonight on Animal Planet – December 10th and then again on December 17th, 2006. It screens on Discovery HD Theater on December 14th, and in Canada on OLN Cable, December 17th, 2006. The documentary’s director Peter von Puttkamer was also the director of the successful 2002 series, Monster Hunters, and my all-time favorite “people” documentary about the quest, Sasquatch Odyssey: The Hunt for Bigfoot. This image of the movie poster may be clicked on to enlarge.

Need $20,000? Wanted: CZ Family!

Are you a cryptozoologically-involved family and interested in being on ABC-TV’s program “Wife Swap”? I’m serious. An ABC producer just contacted me and wants help in finding such a family. Here’s some info the producer sent along: In case you are not familiar with the show, the premise of “Wife Swap” is simple: for two weeks, two wives from two different families exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover what it’s like to live a different woman’s life. The show airs on ABC on Monday nights at 8pm Eastern – family hour! It offers a positive experience [...]

Exhibition Closes Forever

On December 20th, 2006 Over at Boing Boing, David Pescovitz has added his comments to the growing chorus of praise for the apparently out-of-print Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale. Pescotvitz writes: I have the catalog and it’s quite wonderful. Of course, there are reproductions of the artists’ works from the exhibition and provocative essays, but taken as a whole, the catalog’s look, feel, and organization offers its own sense of curiosity, wonder, and mystery. Boing Boing also links to Craig Heinselman’s review and more. Artist Michelle Souliere with Mark Swanson’s Yeti at Bates. The photographs on this page were [...]

Review: Cryptozoology Out of Time Place Scale

This image of the front cover for the book may be clicked on to enlarge it. The following is a contributed review sent in to share with you, by Craig Heinselman, Editor CRYPTO. The photographs, most by Luc Demers, are scans I’ve added to the review from the book. Cryptozoology Out of Time Place Scale Mark Bessire and Raechell Smith, editors JRP / Ringier, 2006 ISBN: 3-905770-07-5 & 978-3-905770-07-0 $29.95 The door opens at the office of the Federal Wildlife Commission’s Department of Cryptozoology, situated near the offices of the Bureau for the Investigation of Paranormal Phenomenon and the National [...]

Making Time with a Monster Hunter

Click on the above image for a full-framed view of Loren and some hidden friends. Publisher and editor David Lineal’s monthly paper The Skeleton News will hit the Chicago streets on Friday, December 1, 2006. Included in the issue is an interview with yours truly, Loren Coleman. They do not publish online, and instead maintain a humorously skeletal webpage. Because of that, David passes along his interview, and the article’s illustration (above by Chicago artist named Becca Taylor), for the readers of Cryptomundo. All the flattering but too generous (e.g. "great" and "foremost") descriptors are Mr. Lineal’s. Blush, blush. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [...]

2006’s Top Ten White & Black Squirrels’ Hot Spots

Here are two new fun lists for 2006. They represent my top ten choices (each) of white and black squirrels’ hot spots tied to their sightings and appearances. White squirrels are infrequently albino (with pink eyes) and more often near-albinos (with dark eyes). The more numerous melanistic and near-melanistic (often looking brown) squirrels are celebrated as black squirrels. The guidelines and criteria for these sites’ rankings on my lists are via a complex and comprehensive formula based on the significance of the population, media attention they are demanding, local interest levels, and my personal biases. One of Olney’s Finest. 2006′s [...]