We have a remarkable ability to see patterns where there are none, to see pictures in clouds, smoke, and rocks.  We’re particularly prone to see faces, perhaps because facial recognition is such an important survival skill. “Images d’Epinal,” an old French firm that provided popular prints for generations, has long published pictures with hidden images, […]

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People like strange things; and publishers in the ’50s and ’60s were happy to provide an apparently endless string of strange paperbacks.  Some of the following are reprints from Fate magazine; some are from Ace Books’ “Strange Facts” series.  Many seem to have had the same cover design (please click for enlargements).  For less than […]

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Despite his mental problems, Richard Shaver seems to have had a relatively happy marriage with his wife Dorothy, or Dot.  And he always praised her cooking in his letters. Among my Shaver mementos is Dot’s hand-written cookbook.  I’m intrigued by these recipes for fig wine and rhubarb wine.  They sound like some unusual down-home concoctions.  […]

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This rock came from Richard Shaver’s studio, down in rural Arkansas.  It’s not one of the large rounded stones that he usually identified as rock books; it’s a small flat one.  I’m sure he gazed at it anyway; I invite you to do the same. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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The Ullage Group is particularly fond of the work of Richard Shaver, and likes to return to it from time to time.  This is one of those times; we’ll be posting a few items on Shaver this week. For those unfamiliar with him, I’ll say (briefly) that he was quite active as a pulp writer […]

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There are many reports of Alien Big Cats (ABC’s, as their devotees like to call them) in the fortean database.  This one, which I found in the French daily Libération (July 25, 1994), and passed along to the INFO Journal at the time, seems to have been overlooked.  I was unable to find a follow-up, […]

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A holiday weekend marred by beautiful autumn weather and massive transit disruptions didn’t keep the curious from turning out for the Ullage Group’s presentation, “Straight Talk About Hoaxes.” Anthony Matt’s multimedia exegesis of the 1969 “Paul is Dead” hoax was a rousing success. Original tapes of radio shows and phone calls, furnished by the DJ […]

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  We would like to alert you to the fact that the September issue of Fortean Times contains a substantial tribute to John Keel, including memoirs by Phyllis Benjamin and myself, as well as a number of previously unpublished photos. Anthony Matt and I have also started a tribute site to Keel, at www.johnkeel.com.  There you […]

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I think my high school offered one basic course in psychology, which I did not take. Surely it dealt in stripped-down basics – the classification of emotions, some de-sexualized Freudian theory, and maybe a little Jung thrown in for the artsy kids. I’d like to think, if I’d had the opportunity to take a class […]

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Many people have asked me about a memorial service for John.  We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, here’s a brief poem John wrote when he was sixteen.  It’s called “My Last Wish.” the thing I would like most to do is look upon my friends and hear what they say about me after my funeral ends. We’ll […]

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