Sam Green is part of the cast in this old version of “Old Maid,” along with Mattie Plump, Gussie Gossip, Jockey Jim, Jack Hawser, Tim Conley, Pansy Violet, Charley Washee, and Jennie Smart.  I can’t show you the Old Maid, since she’s missing.  Maybe she eloped with someone from another deck.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

The Ullage Group announces its eleventh event, “Long Island Beyond the Pale.”  We will unearth some of the mysteries, rumors, and folklore that have haunted that troubling region.

Anthony Matt will speak about the Montauk Project, and elaborate on the sources of this mad all-encompassing super-conspiracy.

Doug Skinner will draw from the late John Keel’s notes, to stumble through the knotty webwork of rumors and hoaxes that plagued Long Island in the ‘6os: alien babies, Mount Misery, Men In Black, android bases, and more.

Lisa Hirschfield will spook you with tales of Long Island’s ghostly glitterati, and perform a short selection of Island-centric songs with Doug Skinner.

You can enjoy all this on Sunday, April 22, at 4 pm.  It will be at the usual place, the Jalopy Theater, at 315 Columbia St., Brooklyn.  Admission is the usual pittance, $5.  Directions to Jalopy are over here.

(Posted by Doug Skinner.  The picture above is a photo taken by Jaye Paro on Mount Misery; it first appeared in the July 1969 issue of Beyond magazine.)

“Skeeter,” from Arrco, offered pictures of a variety of bugs and worms, all in this vivacious style.  You collected and discarded cards; if a Skeeter appeared, the first player to slap it got all the discards.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

We return to the Bowery News, “The Voice of Society’s Basement,” for some selections from Dec. 15, 1948.

First, some cartoons by staff artist C. L. Burlew.

Next, a report from Cleveland.

And, finally, something for the ladies.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

“Monkey Shines,” an undated game from Whitman, asked the players to amass a set of four similar cards, and then make the appropriate animal noise.  The other players had to chime in; the last to follow was penalized with a “monkey ticket.”  When a player accumulated three of them, he was the monkey, and the game ended.  There were, apparently, no winners, only losers.  As the instructions state, “no one wishes to be a ‘monkey.'”

Me, I like the elegant design, the curious lettering, and the orange and green color scheme.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Cartoons about hoboes are familiar; less so are cartoons by and for hoboes.  The Bowery News began life as the Hobo News; it was aimed at hoboes, panhandlers, Bowery bums, dishwashers, and barflies, and called itself “The Voice of Society’s Basement.”  It ran poetry, stories, cartoons, photos, and news from the hobo community.  It was a treasure trove of slang; and counted H. L. Mencken among its subscribers.  Here are some excerpts from a 1947 issue (Vol. 1 No. 10, no date).  First, a couple of cartoons by the art editor, Henri La Mothe.

And by staff artist C. L Burlew.

A bit of one of the gossip columns.

And, of course, a few beauty tips.

I have a few issues here; I’ll post more later.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Menko is an old Japanese game, more recently popularized in the west as Pogs.  Players compete to flip over opponents’ cards; each card usually has a picture of a hand as well, to add rock-paper-scissors to the game.

I usually like to give just one example, but these are unusual and fun to look at, so here are more.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

We return to Benjamin DeCasseres for this characteristic prayer, from his book Saint Tantalus.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

I learned yesterday of the death of Phyllis Benjamin, long the President of the International Fortean Organization.  She had been battling cancer; a stroke in January had further debilitated her.  She died last Friday, on March 9.

Phyllis organized many Fortean conventions, under the names of FortFests and FortNites.  John Keel invited me to my first one, where I performed a ventriloquism routine about alien abductions that he’d seen me do at Caroline’s Comedy Club.  I went on to give many talks in the following years.

INFO dwindled as the years went on: due partially to declining popular interest in the subject (rising anti-intellectualism and the reductive scientism of the “skeptic” movement helped), and partially to the internal squabbles inevitable in any group (and which, parenthetically, I avoided).  On my last appearance there, in 2011, Phyllis inducted several of us into the “Fortean Hall of Fame.”  The photo above shows her handing Bob Hieronimus his certificate; I hope he doesn’t mind that I scanned a picture from his site.  Here’s mine.

Like many whose brains are conducted along Fortean lines, Phyllis did many things.  In her younger years, she worked as an illustrator; more recently, as a travel agent.  She was also a poet and playwright; wrote a long-running column, “Nous,” for the INFO Journal; and contributed to the Fortean Times, Fate, and other magazines.  She had been working on a Fortean children’s novel, which, if I remember correctly, had the working title of The Bronx Irregulars.  She adored the work of John Keel, John Michell, and Tom Waits.  I hoped to post here some of her contributions to the INFO Journal, but my box of back issues is in storage upstate.  I’ll add some later.

Her funeral is tomorrow, March 14, at 11 am.  Her husband, Al Rosenzweig, asks that you pray, meditate, or think of her then.

(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Two-headed turtles are not particularly rare.  I’ve seen a couple; films are online.  You can even buy one from a turtle supplier, if you have the money (they’re expensive).

I’ve never seen such a detailed description, though, as the one that appeared in the May 1889 issue of St. Nicholas magazine.  In “A Queer Pet,” E. H. Barbour devoted three pages to the life, behavior, and death of a two-headed painted turtle (called here a tortoise, for some reason) caught in June, 1888, in New Haven, Connecticut.  There are details on eating, sleeping, walking, and swimming, as negotiated by two not particularly amicable heads. [Read more →]