Twilight Language

Joker’s Card, Jokawild, and Mothman

The Joker is wild. But so are a many other things overlapping with The Dark Knight. This is a Fortean piece, so if you were looking for something cryptozoologically pure, be afraid, be very, very afraid. The posting you are about to read contains twilight language musing and other treks on side streets you may have only rarely been down. Following my posting on “The Dark Knight Curse”, a phenomenon that was even discussed on CNN yesterday, some questioned whether or not the Joker is actually holding a “calling card” with a decapitated head. I was told that in the [...]

The Dark Knight Curse

A Batman beheading? Have people so quickly forgotten a recent tragedy? Heightened awareness of decapitations has occurred in the last few days due to the incidents in Brazil, Dubai, Greece, and, of course, the bus event in Canada (during the showing of The Legend of Zorro). Also, please note earlier The Mask of Zorro features Zorro’s/Diego’s brother’s beheading. In that Zorro movie, the decapitation is done by a sadistic, psychotic Texian Army Captain named Harrison Love. There remains no explanation of why the name “Badger” became the code word given to suspect Vincent Li of Edmonton, Alberta, by the law [...]

Happy St. John’s Day

St. John’s Day The date June 24 is one tied to some of the weirdest happenings. Enjoy the day, and keep a watch out for the unusual to occur. What’s that behind you? Here is a rundown of some previous events on this day: Knights Templars display “Mysterious Head” at Poitiers (1308). Founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). John Cabot discovers North America (1497). Galileo released (1633). “Woman of the Wilderness” utopian community arrives in America (1694). “W of W” angelic visions (1701). Grand Lodge of Freemasons inaugurated (1717). Ambrose Bierce born (1842). Red rain, Italy (1877). Ice [...]

Skoka’s Yeti Gets UK Greenlight

While we’ve seen other models of Yeti, it appears Skoda has settled on one for the United Kingdom. Can America be far behind? Will Yetis haunt the streets of the USA soon? Will any of us be able to afford gasoline by the time they appear? Well, if smaller is better, then the littlest Yeti may be the answer. Shall we begin to call it “Teh-lma,” after the Sherpa word for “small Yeti”? Skoda’s junior 4×4, the Yeti, is going to make production, Autocar has learned. The Czech car-maker will develop the new small 4×4, due on sale in mid-2009, [...]

Celebrity Naming of Cryptids

His name is Bond, Jason Bond. Names are important, and Eastern Carolina University professor of biology Jason Bond has decided to name a new spider he discovered after his favorite musician. You may have already heard the story. It made me wonder after whom various Cryptomundians would name cryptids found to be new species? Heuvelmans? Sanderson? Meldrum? And tied to what cryptids? Bond’s newly discovered trapdoor spider has officially been name Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. Above is a male specimen of Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi living in Santa Rosa Co., Florida. (Credit: American Museum of Natural History) “There are rather strict rules about how [...]

The Monsters of Templeton

Cryptofiction comes in all forms. Today’s selection is a unique book reviewed in the Los Angeles Times. What monsters are hidden there? Like many an excellent chronicler of village life, Lauren Groff gives us early in “The Monsters of Templeton” (Voice/Hyperion: 364 pp., $24.95) an ensemble view of the citizens of Templeton, a place very closely modeled on Cooperstown, N.Y., birthplace of baseball — and Groff. You know what an ensemble view is: an event prompting villagers to come out in force, an opportunity for the narrator’s camera to move from face to face. In Cheever’s “The Wapshot Scandal,” for [...]