I discussed YouTube a few days ago, coining the word “Tubesquatch.” Before the week was over, I’d been Youtubed myself. I guess the lesson is, be careful about what you write. Ha.

The following is the clip from CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” for June 1, 2007, on Nessie, which was run in the final moments of her program. It was originally scheduled to be five minutes long.

What happened is typical for the fate of a combined human interest-animal-mystery teaser held to the end of such a program. Especially it seems in live news talkshows, such segments are squeezed for time.

Joe Nickell and I hardly had two minutes to unfold any kind of a good exchange, and my audio seems to have been cut out for my final response to Nickell’s global view of lake monsters. Oh well. It definitely expanded the viewers and discussion of the Nessie footage to a wider mainstream audience.

Too bad the beautiful night and setting along the Fore River in Portland, Maine, was hidden in the evening darkness. Nevertheless, here it is, with images from Bill Appleton’s Cryptomundo-based stablizations of the Gordon Holmes Nessie video.

My author friend Jerry Clark noted that what was operating here, in counterpoint to my view, was: The Nickell principle: “We will take up an existence by its otters.”

Coincidentially, another good friend, Patrick Huyghe emailed me: “Joe was otterly ridiculous.”

Yes, it seems to be owls as the answer for Joe Nickell to debunk any strange cryptid seen above ground level in the southern USA, and otters to explain everything mysterious in any lake throughout the world. Ah, if life was so simple.

The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep (NY: Tarcher/Penguin, 2003).

Thanks to goochcamper for the uploading the clip to YouTube.