DeathWatch: Don't Blink

    The.
    Whovians.
    Were.
    Right.
    Being the best friend of two newly-minted Whovians, I am naturally inundated almost daily with stories from the various adventures of the Doctor; one of the beings I have heard so much about is the Weeping Angel. In Doctor Who, if you blink when you are looking at one of these stone angel statues (heads up for the uninitiated, the Statue of Liberty is one), they kind of kill you by sending you back in time to another period.
    So far, I haven't found any stories of that happening in the West State Street Cemetery of Athens, Ohio, but I was intrigued when I heard of the legend that surrounds the "Angel of the Unknown Soldiers," who stands over a grave in the cemetery weeping for the souls of the unnamed dead who are buried in that cemetary, which is said to be heavily haunted.
    No, I don't just mean its head is looking down and its eyes are downcast. I mean, according to legend, this thing actually weeps.
    Legend has it that the angel statue, which is surrounded by an iron fence to protect her, moves; people passing by say that they have seen her stone wings flutter. She got her more informal title, though, because most of the stories surrounding her come from people who have reportedly seen tears streaming down her face. Beneath her eyes, dark stains can actually be seen, but it has never been proven if those are actually tear stains or just marks from dirt and dust that has settled there over the years. 
    I would love to one day get out there and see this statue for myself (it's just one of the many strange goings-on in Ohio, often proclaimed by my father to be the weirdest state in the Union), and I would love to bring my two Whovian friends along--especially the one who is scared to death of the Weeping Angels and for whom I decided to write this post in the first place. (I hope you enjoy this when you read it, by the way.)
    Is she the guardian angel of the lost souls of the West State Street Cemetery? I mean, orbs are oftentimes seen around her, and the cemetery itself is loaded down with disembodied voices, apparitions, and unidentifiable sounds, so...maybe she could be. 
    Does she really move and weep? That's a question, readers, I hope to be able to give you an answer to someday--if I haven't been sent back in time, that is. 

    

Don't blink.

  

LandWatch: Oh, For the Love of God, Jersey

    So today I learned about another strange, freaky creature that was reportedly first spotted in New Jersey, my wonderful home state. Joining the list capped by the Jersey Devil (or Leeds Devil, if you're being particular), mutant pineys, and Snooki is the Grinning Man.
    This entity, was allegedly seen for the first time in New Jersey in the 1960s. He is described as being over six feet tall, without any hair and with beady eyes that are set far apart in his large, domed head and he always wears a gigantic, "hideous, shark-like grin." (Mysterious Universe) Another disturbing this about this guy is that people who see him don't describe him as having a nose or ears. His skin is decribed as either greenish or tan (but how tan--this is, after all, Jersey) and he apparently wears "a shiny metallic-like set of green overalls." (The Paranormal Files)
    But I can't just blame Jersey for this creey guy running around--he's also been spotted in West Virginia, near to where the Mothman sightings occurred. In fact, John Keel, the paranormal investigator and author of "The Mothman Prophecies," is widely regarded to be the first investigator to mention the entity in his book The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings. In the book, he gives an account of the first alleged sighting, which took place on October 11th, 1966, around 9:45 at night in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Walking home on New Jersey and 4th Street and then turning on a road adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike, two boys named James “Jimmy” Yanchitis and Martin “Mouse” Munov felt nervous because "they had heard that a neighborhood woman had been chased by a “tall, green man” earlier that evening in the same area." (Mysterious)
    Jimmy saw him first. The Grinning Man was standing in scrub brush on the other side of a fence behind Mouse and he seemed to be staring at a house across the road, ignorant of the boys. Jimmy described him to both Keel and the police:“He was strangest guy we’ve ever seen…He was standing behind that fence. I don’t know how he got there. He was the biggest man I ever saw.” (Mysterious)
    When Jimmy told Mouse what he was seeing, Mouse turned and saw "a huge figure clad in a green, one-piece suit that seemed to be reflecting the streetlight above." (Mysterious) In his report to the police, Mouse said: “Jimmy nudged me and said, ‘Who’s that guy standing behind you?’ I looked around and there he was…behind that fence. Just standing there. He pivoted around and looked right at us…then he grinned a big old grin.” (Mysterious)
    The boys ran. Hell, if I saw a giant man in a shiny one-piece suit staring out from behind some bushes and grinning, I'd run too, gathering details for this blog be damned. I mean, I love discovering new information to share with you guys and all, but come on....
    Amazingly enough, there was a UFO sighting that took place at the same time 40 miles north of Elizabeth; this led people to believe that the Grinning Man had come from that UFO, but I don't know if I believe that; if the UFO sighting took place at the exact same time, how could some being from aboard the ship have been seen outside the ship at the exact same time 40 miles away?
    I know, I know. Beam me up, Scotty. 
    And, as I said before, the Grinning Man was also spotted in West Virigina; a man named Woodrow Derenberger was driving in an area about 40 miles (what's up with the whole 40-mile thing?) from when Mothman was sighted in 1966 and heard a crash before seeing a vehicle pull up beside him, a vehicle that was "pouring fire from both ends and was similar to a kerosene lamp in shape." (The Paranormal Files) Like in the New Jersey case, the man who stepped out of this strange vehicle was wearing shiny green overalls (maybe the aliens are going with the Pa Kent look now), except in this case he allegedly spoke to Derenberger telepathically about UFO sightings in the area after introducing himself as "Idrid Cold" (The Paranormal Files), producing a more solid link, if it's true, to UFO activity than present in the original New Jersey sighting. According to the Paranormal Files website, however, "this UFO connection is only present in the Derenberger case." 
    The Grinning Man has also been spotted right in Point Pleasant, causing some people to draw a connection between him and Mothman.
    To me, this guy sounds like some sort of alien life-form, different from the typical "grays" in appearance and certainly actions; as far as I know, nobody has ever claimed to have been abducted by the Grinning Man. And if it is true that the Grinning Man tried to speak to Derenberger about UFO sightings in the area, perhaps he is trying to gather intelligence on his fellow aliens' activities--although that begs the question, why would he have to talk to an earthling to find such information out?
    I don't know, fellow weirdos. I guess I just have to chalk this one up to an unknown for now (even more unknown than normal, I mean). In the end, I guess what it means overall is that Jersey just got a little bit weirder.   

   

DeathWatch: We Have an Exorcist!

    I found this to be extremely fascinating when I saw it on Yahoo News the other day, and so I decided to share it with you.
    As you may or may not know, Pope Francis has a bit of a problem with the devil. That shouldn't be all that surprising, considering he's, you know, the pope, but he tends to mention the Lord of the Flies quite a lot--on March 14th, in his first homily as pope, he warned the cardinals in the Sistene Chapel that "he who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the Devil." Since then, he has said similar things a handful of times--but recently, it seems he did something more than talk about it.
    At the end of one of his masses, Francis blessed several wheelchair-bound members of the faith, as per usual, but one of them had traveled to Rome from Mexico and was, according to the Reverend Juan Rivas, who brought him there, possessed by the devil. When Francis put his hands on the man's head--note: That's a typical position for an exorcist to use, according to the Reverend Giulio Maspero--the man "heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair." (Yahoo) 
    Maybe AP English has finally cracked my sanity and I'm seeing symbols everywhere, but besides the fact that Francis used a typical exorcist position and the results that came of that, let me point out that the man heaved six times. Perhaps that's nothing more than symbolism or a coincidence, but it's a--ha ha--hell of a coincidence, considering the biblical connotation surrounding that number. 
    The Vatican, of course, is downplaying the incident, stating that Francis "didn't intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him." (Yahoo) However, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth, "a leading exorcist for the diocese of Rome, said he performed a lengthy exorcism of his own on the man Tuesday morning and ascertained he was possessed by four separate demons."
    So, did he really do it? There is also speculation that he "did not mean" to perform an exorcism but only a prayer to "liberate" the man from the control of the demons or devil, but even that would be astounding in itself.
    And while reading that article I learned something else that's pretty damn amazing, too: "Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 — near the same spot where Francis prayed over the young disabled man Sunday."

Let's Get It Started...

    I really didn't know what "Watch" to post this thing under, considering neither I nor anyone else seems to have a concrete idea of what these things actually are, so I'm just leaving it as an open classification; make of it what you will as I introduce you to the Black-Eyed Peas Kids (BEKs).
    I was watching an episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America a couple of weeks ago and came across Brian Bethel recounting what is, apparantly, one of the most widely-known acounts of an encounter with the BEKs. While he was sitting in his car one night, somebody knocked on the window; he looked up and saw two male children standing there, appearing to be between the ages of 14 and 10. They asked him if they could get into his car to get a ride home, and he began to feel afraid as they repeatedly asked him to let them into his car and grew more agaitated with each refusal, a hallmark of BEK encounters. The one who was speaking mentioned that they couldn't get into the car unless he let them in, which was strange enough. He did not want to let them into his car, sensing that something was wrong, even as they tried to reassure him that everything was all right, even going so far as to say, "Don't worry, Mister, we don't have a gun." Bethel, however, reports that the tone of the words was far from reassuring; it was more like, as he put it, "Mister, we don't need a gun."
    The two children were wearing hoods, and so only after they had asked several times to be let into his car did he notice that their eyes were entirely black, including their "iris and sclera," which terrified him futher. He then noticed that his hand was close to the door lock, though he had not moved it there, and surmised that they were somehow mentally controlling him. Once they began shouting at him to let them in, he sped away from the parking lot; he looked back once and saw that they were gone.
    There have been many other such stories, and this intrigued me. What also intrigued me was the various theories that have been floated around about what these BEKs actually are, while in the case of most other strange or creepy encounters there is usually just one or two possible explanations that people come up with to justify what they saw. Some of these theories include:

• Demonic possession or demons--The all-black eyes, according to some people, could indicate some sort of demonic being trying to lure people in by impersonating children who need help.
• Aliens or alien/human hybrid children--The black eyes, which are often described as reflective, can also be found in many alien-abduction or -encounter accounts, a hallmark of the "grays" especially.
• Vampires or some sort of vampiric entity--The inability to enter a house or car unless invited in is a large part of vampire legends, and the intense fear the sight of these BEKs create in their victims could be a way for the beings to drain these emotions and "feed" off them the way a vampire supposedly does.

    Most of the BEK encounter stories out there occur the same way or close to them same way each time. Somebody--usually alone, in all the accounts I've read--is either driving, walking, or in their home when they see these children or they knock, such as on the car window or house door, and if the door is open or the driver asks what they want they say they need some sort of help, like they need to call their mother, need a ride home, or need a lift somewhere; in one account I read, a BEK knocking on a woman's door said his brother needed to use the bathroom.
    Soon after the BEK first approaches them, the victim begins to feel overwhelming terror, which is why some people think these things are demonic in origin. Occasionally they may feel they are being controlled by the children, such as in Bethel's case, and as the primal fear mounts the victims deny the children entrance--if they're smart--and the children begin to become more and more agitated and agressive with each refusal. Most sightings take place in the evening or at night. Honestly, what probably freaks me out most of all about this phenomena is something that Bethel pointed out in his Monsters and Mysteries interview: There are no stories from people who have let them in.
    The BEKs also seem to, in some instances, act as omens or even cause horrible events; after encounters with them, many victims have reported getting into car accidents, illnesses or deaths in the family and sometimes falling ill themselves, and other similar problems. 
    Some have tried to explain the sightings as children and teenagers wearing all-black sclera contacts to pull pranks on people; however, as David Weatherly (author of a book on the phenomena, Black Eyed Children) and others have pointed out, these contacts are extremely expensive, running to about $260 for two contacts; how could children and teenagers afford to buy multiple sets (usually two children are seen in each instance), and why would they spend so much money on a prank like this? 
    Weatherly himself thinks these children are alien-human hybrids. I honestly don't know what to think, except that they're pretty damn scary. Until someone figures it out once and for all, I leave you with a warning: The next time you're alone, in your car or in your home, and the sun has set and someone sets to tapping on your window or knocking on your door, make sure to check their eyes before you let them in, escpecially if they're children. After all, if you let them in...nobody knows what happens after that.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

    All right, I know this particular story takes place last summer, but I still find it interesting enough to write about. This story takes place up in Washington state, ten miles south of the Grand Coulee dam, in a field owned by Cindy Geib and her husband Greg. 
    A four-part crop circle appeared and was first noticed on July 24th, 2012; however, it was not the first crop circle ever to show up there: according to the local NBC affiliate, KHQ-TV, every couple of years new crop circles show up in Lincoln County. 
    Commenting on the previous circles, Lynne Brougher--the public affairs officer for the dam--stated that "there was no good explanation of how they got there." 
    That ended up applying to the new one, too; there was no sign that anybody had walked through the wheat field either to or from the design, causing Cindy Geib to comment that "It's hard to walk through the crunchy wheat and knock it down." 
    It's hard to dismiss it as hoaxers when somebody makes a statement like that. After all, humans have proven time and again that they're, when you get down to it, idiots, and idiots tend to leave traces, especially when they're idiots who like to spend their free time knocking down wheat into funny patterns (case in point: one hoaxer, during the crop circle craze, pressed the crops down to say "We are not alone," when, if he had wanted people to think aliens had done it, he should have said "You are not alone"). I mean, it is really hard to walk through wheat and not leave a trace; how do you cover your tracks at that point? 

     

    There it is.  

    While researching this particular crop circle, I found out that it was formed following an "active crop circle season in England" (Open Minds). Many crop circles show up in England; that was where the whole thing started, way back when. Actually, a lot of weird stuff happens in England, so they better hope they can actually back up their claims that they could defend themselves from an alien invasion (see my post "Can Britain Defend itself From Aliens?").

    But I'm getting off track. My point is that I think it's kind of weird how circles keep showing up in this county, yet without any traces of human hoaxers. The only thing that bothers me is how I can't find a single overhead still image of the thing--did nobody think to go up and photograph it?

    And come on, when anybody official, even just a public affairs officer, mentions that "there was no good explanation for how they got there," you know something's going on.

Up in the Sky

    I know this isn't exactly unexplained; almost everybody knows by now what this fiery object in the sky was, but it's still pretty dang amazing, and to see it you need to watch the sky, so I feel like it's appropriate to blog about it. This giant meteorite that blew through Russia sent out a sonic boom and shock waves that smashed glass and caused damage to both buildings and over 1,000 people. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about or want to know more, here's an article about it:
     http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorite-idUSBRE91E05Z20130215
    And for anybody interested in video, YouTube has more than enough to satisfy that interest, like this video from RussiaToday: 
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Omh7_I8vI
    I've seen video of this thing one of the million times it was on the news; it was pretty freaking scary. A lot of people mentioned how they thought it was the end of the world and you know what? I would have, too.

No, the Aliens Haven't Gotten Me

    If that's why you thought I haven't posted in a while, no, nothing as exciting as that has happened. And the government didn't tell me to stop posting or anything like that.
    The thing is, I've been busy typing and editing my first book, and I have only limited times on the computer to do that, which means if it comes down to a choice between blogging and typing another chapter...sorry, guys, Star Baby's gotta do what Star Baby's gotta do.
    I'll do my best to get done typing and editing soon and get back to you guys, 'cause I know you all wanna know my thoughts on the whole ancient-aliens-were-fairies thing (and if you didn't, I bet now you do), and believe me, I want to share them. But until then, live long, prosper, and keep watching the sky, since I'll be too busy watching my scene breaks and spelling.