Only For you bill, close your eyes and feel alright!

Adolf Wölfli (1864 - 1930) (occasionally spelt Adolf Woelfli or Adolf Wolfli) was a prolific Swiss artist who is regarded as one of the foremost artists in the Art Brut or outsider art traditions.


Wölfli had a troubled childhood. He suffered abuse and molestation and was orphaned at the age of 10, thereafter growing up in a series of state-run foster homes. He worked as a farm labourer and briefly joined the army but was later convicted of attempted child molestation for which he served prison time. Sometime after being freed he was arrested for a similar offence and was admitted in 1895 to the Waldau Clinic in Berne, Switzerland, a psychiatric hospital where he spent the rest of his adult life. He was very disturbed and sometimes violent on admission, leading to him being kept in isolation for his early time at hospital, perhaps due to his psychosis which led to intense hallucinations.


At some point after his admission Wölfli began to draw. Unfortunately his earliest drawings have not survived, so it is difficult to know exactly when he began his artistic explorations, although his first surviving works (a series of 50 pencil drawings) are dated from between 1904 and 1906.


Walter Morgenthaler, a doctor at the Waldau Clinic, took a particular interest in Wölfli's art and his condition, later publishing Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (A Psychiatric Patient as Artist) in 1921 which first brought Wölfli to the attention of the art world. Morgenthaler's book was revolutionary in many ways as it was not simply a clinical study but argued that a person with a severe mental illness could be a serious artist and had the ability to make important contributions to the development of art.



This may seem a little ironic in hindsight, considering that (as Kay Redfield Jamison has pointed out) many revolutionary artists throughout history have suffered from mental illness or impairment. However, Morgenthaler's book detailed the works of a patient who seemed to have no previous interest in art and developed his talents and skills independently after being committed for a debilitating condition. In this respect Wölfli was an iconoclast and influenced the development and acceptance of outsider art, Art Brut and its champion Jean Dubuffet.


Wölfli produced a huge number of works during his life, often working with the barest of materials and trading smaller works with visitors to the clinic to obtain pencils, paper or other essentials. Morgenthaler closely observed Wölfli's methods, writing in his influential book:


"Every Monday morning Wölfli is given a new pencil and two large sheets of unprinted newsprint. The pencil is used up in two days; then he has to make do with the stubs he has saved or with whatever he can beg off someone else. He often writes with pieces only five to seven millimetres long and even with the broken-off points of lead, which he handles deftly, holding them between his fingernails. He carefully collects packing paper and any other paper he can get from the guards and patients in his area; otherwise he would run out of paper before the next Sunday night. At Christmas the house gives him a box of coloured pencils, which lasts him two or three weeks at the most."


The images Wölfli produced were complex, intricate and intense. They worked to the very edges of the page with detailed borders. In a manifestation of Wölfli's "horror vacui", every empty space was filled with two small holes. Wölfli called the shapes around these holes his "birds."


His images also incorporated an idiosyncratic musical notation. This notation seemed to start as a purely decorative affair but later developed into real composition which Wölfli would play on a paper trumpet.


In 1908 he set about creating a semi-autobiographical epic which eventually stretched to 45 volumes, containing a total of over 25,000 pages and 1,600 illustrations. This work was a mix of elements of his own life blended with fantastical stories of his adventures from which he transformed himself from a child to 'Knight Adolf' to 'Emperor Adolf' and finally to 'St Adolf II'. Text and illustrations formed the narrative, sometimes combining multiple elements on kaleidoscopic pages of music, words and colour.


Wölfli eventually died in 1930 and his works were taken to the Museum of the Waldau Clinic in Berne. After his death the Adolf Wölfli Foundation was formed to preserve his art for future generations, today its collection is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Berne.


Wölfli's work has inspired many composers. Perhaps most notable the Danish composer Per Nørgård who after viewing a Wölfli exhibition in 1979 embarked on a schizoid style lasting for several years; among the works of this time are an opera on the life of Wölfli called The Divine Circus.

Michael Snow

Interior of the Eaton Centre showing one of Michael Snow's best known sculptures, called StopFlight.




Michael Snow (born December 10, 1929) is a Canadian artist, film maker, and musician.


He was born in Toronto and studied at Upper Canada College and the Ontario College of Art. He had his first solo exhibition in 1957. Since then, his work has appeared at exhibitions across Europe and North America.


Snow is also an important film maker, his reputation mainly based on the work Wavelength.


He also has a long-standing interest in improvised music, as indicated by the soundtrack to his film New York Eye and Ear Control. He has played piano in the group CCMC since the mid-1970s.


In 1981, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Thus Spoke Goalbthustra

Metonymy

In rhetoric and cognitive linguistics, metonymy (in Greek μετά (meta) = after/later and όνομα (onoma) = name) (pronounced /mɛ.'tɒ.nə.mi/) is the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity. It is also known as denominatio or pars pro toto (part for the whole).


In cognitive linguistics, metonymy is one of the basic characteristics of cognition. It is extremely common for people to take one well-understood or easy-to-perceive aspect of something and use that aspect to stand either for the thing as a whole or for some other aspect or part of it.


In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated.


When discussing figures of speech, it is often easiest to start with some clear examples. The following are clear, commonly used examples of metonymy:

"A dish" for an entree.

"The press" for the news media.

"Hollywood" for the American film industry.

"The Crown" for the monarchy.

"The pen is mightier than the sword"; pen is a metonym for rhetorical persuasion and sword is a metonym for violent coercion.




Metonymy vs. Metaphor


Metonymy works by contiguity rather than similarity. The printing press produces newspapers (hence, "the press" for the news media); food is presented on a dish (hence "dish"). However, when people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities as they do with metaphor: there is nothing crown-like about the king, or plate-like about an entree. Rather, metonymy transfers a whole set of associations which may or may not be integral to the meaning.


In linguistics, as in rhetoric, the distinction between metaphor and metonymy is important. Two examples using the term "fishing" help make the distinction clear (example drawn from Dirven, 1996).


The phrase "to fish pearls" uses metonymy, drawing from "fishing" the idea of taking things from the ocean. What is carried across from "fishing fish" to "fishing pearls" is the domain of usage and the associations with the ocean and boats, but we understand the phrase in spite of rather than because of the literal meaning of fishing: we know you do not use a fishing rod or net to get pearls.


In contrast, the metaphorical phrase "fishing for information", transfers the concept of fishing (waiting, hoping to catch something that cannot be seen) into a new domain.


Thus, metonymy works by calling up a domain of usage and an array of associations (in the example above, boats, the ocean, gathering life from the sea) whereas metaphor picks a target set of meanings and transfers them to a new domain of usage.

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Metonymy as a rhetorical strategy


Metonymy can also refer to the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it. For example, in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the main character Elizabeth's change of heart and love for her suitor, Mr. Darcy, is first revealed when she sees his house:


They gradually ascended for half-a-mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 43.



Austen describes the house and Elizabeth's admiration for the estate at length as an indirect way of describing her feelings for Mr. Darcy himself. One could attempt to read this as an extended metaphor, but such a reading would break down as one tried to find a way to map the elements of her description (rising ground, swollen river) directly to attributes of her suitor. Furthermore, an extended metaphor typically highlights the author's ingenuity by maintaining an unlikely similarity to an unusual degree of detail. In this description, on the other hand, although there are many elements of the description that we could transfer directly from the grounds to the suitor (natural beauty, lack of artifice), Austen is emphasizing the consistency of the domain of usage rather than stretching to make a fresh comparison: each of the things she describes she associates with Darcy, and in the end we feel that Darcy is as beautiful as the place to which he is compared and that he belongs within it. Metonymy of this kind thus helps define a person or thing through a set of mutually reinforcing associations rather than through a comparison.


Advertising frequently uses this kind of metonymy, putting a product in close proximity to something desirable in order to make an indirect association that would seem crass if made with a direct comparison.

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Synecdoche and Metonymy


Synecdoche, where a specific part of something is taken to refer to the whole, is usually understood as a specific kind of metonymy. Sometimes, however, people make an absolute distinction between a metonymy and a synecdoche, treating metonymy as different from rather than inclusive of synecdoche. There is a similar problem with the usage of simile and metaphor.


When the distinction is made, it is the following: when A is used to refer to B, it is a synecdoche if A is a part of B and a metonym if A is commonly associated with B but not a part of it.


Thus, "The White House said" would be a metonymy for the president and his staff, because the White House (A) is not part of the president or his staff (B), it is merely closely associated with them because of physical proximity. On the other hand, asking for "All hands on deck" is a synecdoche because hands (A) are actually a part of the men (B) to whom they refer.


There is an example which displays synecdoche, metaphor and metonymy in one sentence. "Fifty keels ploughed the deep", where "keels" is the synecdoche as it takes a part (of the ship) as the whole (of the ship); "ploughed" is the metaphor as it substitutes the concept of ploughing a field for moving through the ocean; and "the deep" is the metonym, as "deepness" is an attribute associated with the ocean.

For Lynda Cleary ... All The best!

The labia minora can easily be manipulated in various shapes and forms when it has been properly elongated to its maximum length potential. Just think of it as labial origami, when you have long labia minora, you can create diverse forms or shapes that mimic insects, animals, structures, botanicals, etc.

Origami of the female genitals can be quite an attraction for spectators. Women have been creating shapes and forms with their labia through out centuries. What young girl has not tried to mimic a flower with her labia or the wings of a butterfly? In the past or in the present women have always put on shows to their audience when in a group setting or their mates using their inner vaginal lips.

It is not far fetched to believe or not believe the amazing and fantastic things women can accomplish with their genitalia. Vaginal lips can be used to create incredible eye opening figures mimicking common things we all have come to know through the passage of our lifetime.

Female genitalia are by no means dull or boring as some people would have you believe. A little thought and imagination is all that is needed when performing labial origami. With experience women can easily shape their vaginal lips into curtains, leaves, flowers, bats, dragons, you name it, it can be done and you will never look at labia the same way again.

From The Book "Allgoal"

I was laying in a chair He thought not really sitting near A quiet Spot Someone must have wondered But not near too quiet of a spot and then there were some things to relinquish in and The Last day Now you Were Caught and thrown Out In some kind of trap you Were Caught in and everyone There Wondered how they Caught you like that What kind of Trap is that now And you saw someone there.. and it will take you forever. Some how Laying in a chair Prodding and Beguiling Frothing and Then the Rest of the summer time laid out The house burnt to a crisp The rest of them were paranoid and the rest of them Let the house go up in flame it seemed like. If they let it be tossed out like that and you guess the time is clear sunny all day and the time is clear sunny all day .. Even in the springtime now I know you can hear me I know you’re down there and I Know they’re up there Giving orders and I know that if they find you to be one thing then they’ll find you to be something else which you’re not. They lay now there on the land and there’s an end to He Once Says He wondered what replaced his face as he was looking around and he was thinking of things that would replace his face. One time Bill Wrapped a Wet cloth Around some ballbearings and that was there in place of his face and that was the time he belonged too What do you do in case of that in case your face is gone what do you do in place of goal … He said… Walking around the neighborhood now .. Everyone is all
“Hey Bill! Merry Christmas Bill Cleary!”
“We Love You, Bill We Love you!”
Even Santa it Seems would have brought Bill Something to become aware of And Wax On and On with even Santa Now Stopping his Sleigh and Bill Only know him bye touch since his face was replaced bye the ball bearings and he is now Well Wait says bill I think I could have heard Something I must have heard somebody saying something to me and them being rude I must have heard them saying something about Who I was .. and where I came from I’m not sure about all of that… Yes Santa Claus is that you?.. “Yes Bill Cleary!”
He Said
They Only Faint now Some of the men up on the porch that one Summer where Bill’s face was replaced by a Cottage And the Rim of his head was the same as it always was It was just that his Head was Then gone the rest of it and it was just that he’d push, Pull and linger forward and he was rocking on something and you Were Wondering what is he going to step over next what line is he going to Cross and the Whole Curfew now it was all lost and you’ve made a fool out of me you’ve thrown it all to the wind he says and what about your regrets now now Bill Bill wait wait I don’t have any he said…. You’ll leave them all there like the stupid stammering clock and the one roundabout and the Whole town is in a hold up because they’ll never be who you are—“Can We Put a Light In there?” Asked one of the Ferryites as they Held bill down on the examination Table “His Face is gone and a Cottage has replaced it.” Bill Cleary the man with a cottage for a face The One who was the villain the one who you love to abuse and the one Who you confide in You like to take things as if they were a grain of salt he said and they held me down on the table and examined me to some extent now I am not sure where my face is and what is in place of my face and you can only give me so much of what Is on my face and this is the greatest thing ever. “What happened to his face?” Someone Said.. another man came forth Holding a Flashlight and trying to shine it inside of the cottage I want to see what is in there He Said I want to see what is in there. The Light shined in his head Caused him to jerk a little bit and Go off .. and he moved up and fell onto the People who crowded him.. and he Even Then came again His Erection Reaching out as if it were a tentacle through his pants and I am having a blast Back at home no one was Laughing Senior Wasn’t Laughing, because he’s dead, Lynda wasn’t laughing because she’s also dead and baby Won’t you make love to me the state of the affair and the bribe and the bible and the time where you made us to be so cautious and the people who never responded and Expounded on their firm belief And the Ones who saw me and betrayed me he thought his face still Held down there With the Glow Coming out of it now When the man’s light struck him it had ignited something as well and you’ve seen us all flirt and the single and the double and the one man on top of the other and the only man was up there far they were in front of the Room they were in front of the room I heard you beat me with a smile and don’t come around here and don’t come around to the song I sing He says…. Moving out now From the examination Room onto the snow covered streets On this Christmas Eve In Wheeling and the men came on the land of god and the land of Hope too and the world he came too and he knew the order of the King the King robbed them too in Wheeling and we’re the only ones who know don’t we know they’ll rob us in wheeling if they do then what are we to do.
The rabbits were tied down there too they were wrapped in ribbons and there was no way of coming out of the ties and there was no way of making these ties into something different There was Mud now and the swamp had cleared and the time had run away too and you should have seen them and you should have become responsible for yourself and what you were doing and then he said good morning how Do you Do? How do I do .. he said and I have really turned my life around now he thought Bill was there as the grass bled into the cuts on his face and there is no way home now and he was free from side to side And the world Of the Alligator now they were all Underneath him and the blues were walking around him and the time and the castle they were all walking around his head.
And the time you spent with him man I cant hear a word he said and man are they Frightening and they are against me as people He said All of the Color Bleeding into his face and no one shine light into there now .. no one should shine light into there now and I will be doing alright til the morning comes he said and I can only wait til then and I can only wait til the daylight and the morning when it’s over and they tried to kill pride and hear a tooth Come through the one that fell into a basket the tooth that fell down he said there must have been a large tooth falling from the sky and I must have heard of the huge tooth and I must have given them a bail of Grass now and the bail where We Through Water in To the Grass and then Lynda and Senior too you know that they are all dead now and you know that they are the only friends who are free friends without him friends without Bill You and your friends bill Cleary Such sinister People and the World Again The tooth Fell down now it was in place of his face the tooth that was in place of his face was the only thing working for him and the only thing working for him and he set out again to face the night and he knew he would never have anything to set himself free with. He said that they had guaranteed a clean break and they had come from a clean break he remembered The way They were shooting the picture and the Way the color was breaking through and he just had us on the land we were landing now and there was a strip of light and we were just plain baked there he knew that he counted us down… There Were Dogs jumping out of the top window of the house and Lynda was down below them too Her Whole Face had become the yard and bill was tossing the dogs down and she was catching the dogs with her open mouth and don’t give me no tip she said don’t give me a tip don’t knock me off a few I don’t need a tip to know which way they move and in case of the handles she has on Me It’s just Lynda Cleary and we know in case I move on to there to move in. I guess they are all there in the light of the day that moves and the light of the day that moves these were all stupid maneuvers and They Only all forgave me he said I never forgave them all in the darkness and a Time where you can forgive people again don’t you want to Take one of them one Way and then Gallop The rest for Free. It was Bye Monday that they’d been down there in Wheeling Talking that they’d remembered who he was that they’d given him this problem as well when they remembered who he was that was when the problem began and no one could start it like that .. no one could start that problem in wheeling no one can start it like it is and Oh I Feel at home he said and they give one to you don’t they and they give one to you and I am sure you feel at home and you rush along real fast now in Wheeling and not to mention a lot of bill cleary per moment and the world the old castle perhome and I feel like I am at home and the roses Were there The roses were blooming and the roses feel as if they are At home and only then will they take me home and only then aren’t you guaranteed for it. They only completed one kind of test the one to test me and the one to test who I am and no one can ever test who I am and they use that as a way to meet people down along the ditch in wheeling you have a handshake some kind of secret one you have something to show us to prove you’re the person that came to be in Wheeling Now we’re playing bye bill’s rules and I will make you all pay and I will make you all pay he says… now as he shouts his face Transforms into something other than it was before before it was that infamous cottage that was in place of nose eyes and mouth and the bridge along his upper lip he knew there were things in place of that too. And there was no reason to make plans with things the bridge across his upper lip and that’s where they live now those fucking assholes It was Lynda and senior he referred to his parents as those fucking assholes he wasn’t sure how he should deal with them he thought they were fucking assholes though for sure if for anything for the way they had fucked him up as they caused him pain and you can take your body all the way over where it’s directly misrepresented and you wouldn’t want now would you there’s some kind of words chosen against him some kind of diversity and some kind of great challenge we’ll never prove who was better as a person He Thought not that you can prove that anyway. Once everyday now there was someone in the way and something else too some rocks he rode over as they bumped against his cottage face he wondered what he could have done and Some moments flashed before him as he saw and Ex Ray of his skull. Tonight I shall be your slave before I possess You said Senior. He said that to his son.. didn’t he.. you’ve had your chance son and you’ve taken your life and what have you done with it. The World in place of Bill’s face now the falling of great Castle The world where you say a prayer for his return and I will cause you pain and no pain at all til you will realize and I will realize too and you feel your love even though it is lonely… it’s the best kind of love Even though….. you have a Love that Seems To Drive Lynda Crazy and push senior over the edge if you need them they’re there if you need Just let them now… now up next to the series of amusements and darling you know how much Bill Cleary Means to you and what he says to you as a person and just let me be here you will know bill’s love and you will know how much he loves you.. and you can see when bill Moves a Mountain and you can say also that he isn’t doing too much for you and you’re not the one that he moves for. I knew the edges of the lines and the colors bill Drew and what he moved for and I knew some way he came my day and there was color too and there was a lot of color and he would really smile and it would happen today .. and how He came to make those Changes and how much they mattered to him in his life his little bit of pain that inch away from Senior and that Inch away from Lynda and they Said we were falling apart and you said you’d kiss my mouth Lynda and you said you’d Kiss me too He said he only wondered who you were and Then it really happens doesn’t it .. All of it Becomes so difficult and who’s blaming you for the fact that you love them.. and who’s The one who turns the reigns on Lynda I know It’s hard to change .. these things these bad days in Wheeling… but bill Seemed to have somekind of Map of everything of all the places where UFOs were supposedly Landing all of the spots in Wheeling and don’t you Know what each cloud contains.
Won’t you make sure you take Bill Cleary there with you as well and you take the room where he knocked all of the Candles over and where He had a smile on his face and the streets are lonely now .. and The time now paved in the hardest gold Bill Painted the most beautiful Like a Little Boy or Bunny Oh Wasn’t Bill our little rabbit. They were like taking a new breath Bill Took one Before he was out of breath Before that and he saw the sky seem hard and the time seemed As if he could do it all again he was some how telling Lynda and senior that he always Loved them and that he didn’t know what to do without them. Come with me now we’ll go forth and all I need Lynda is one Burning night and I need the love I have with you and I have to hold you tight and I know the way I used to be just like you…. Now those castles Which Jot up in Wheeling Oh Bill I Think they’re on to me .. I think they’re saying I ruined it all They’re saying I ruined their lives but Bill What am I to do … Only When they’re Painted into a corner do they come clean Bill Otherwise Bill what should I do … How should I fight my way out of here… with the people who don’t love me as much the people who don’t need me or believe in me How should I fight my way out and how should I unite everything so it all stays one way. All of our time together Will Stay one Way then there’s Like a Medicine Bottle That Bill Like Put his medicine in.. and he’s There and He Got his Pain put away and the sorrow we’ll be the first thing he has to pay and no one runs over there in the light and no One Lets anything shine down on them and no one lets anything shine down in And who are you to say that Bill Cleary made the wrong Decision I am not the one to say that he did and then things will be the same for once and for all but I am not the one to say that he did the wrong thing and I couldn’t take my eyes away from him and all I know was the pain that he put out there on me and I saw him put that pain on me and his mother and his lover Still she’ll roll and forget me and if Bill should come to read our story and you’ve only been waiting here For hours now haven’t you Bill you’ve been waiting here to see what was up and how the hell things happened how they were Going on you waited to See Who He’d bring the Crafts Landed They Came down and lowered Their Platforms and bill Saw men get out of them. They were Tall and Blue and they were Glowing it was at this point That he had the vision of Wolves as well the ones Which circled in and surrounded him where would he go and what would he do as the wolves Circled in and surrounded and he counted bits of Glass in the sand as he lay on a beach near wheeling and there was a solitary ball and he heard it bounce one last time and he’s like where would I find her
Where would I find Her and I am here With my Misery it’s me Bill Can’t you see that I am here alone with my misery don’t you want to be part of it. Then Moving back to the Tall Thin Blue Men Who approached them and could never be tired of him. Someone Slow down now Bill Never Thought that for a minute though As the men walked past and then he Thought it through for a moment why do they not engulf me They Will never engulf me I am immune to the pain they put on me Oh Honey now Where are You.. said bill And it seems Like every time he catches me and I saw her getting in a Taxi He said .. he saw Lynda Scramming from the scene Why did Lynda Scram and why did she want out of her situation and you should have seen how she felt and Who She was and I heard her move around and I hear Move from the time Between here and now with the blue men she let them all do her in .. and I Wanted to Say Lynda .. Cleary is that you.. and everytime I see you talking it’s just the pain you cause me at my disposal and the pain I am And the Over Shape of my pain as well and I am in pain now with these things and the Pain I feel that I am In The Only Bit of Cold of Wheeling now the blue men The Blue Beings Those Blue Beings and they will make sure that I am not alright won’t they said .. Bill they’re going to make sure of it .. I know that.. they’re going to cause me some kind of pain. And it’s growing down there in the country and it’s growing down there with the most amount of pain I figure you can do what you want to do said Bill to Lynda and you can go off and do all of that and never come back and tell me again because I am tired of this Pain I feel immediately with you. It was when they blamed Bill For Death for my death mainly that I couldn’t make it out of And You know that they never ever would do nothing and you know that they would never do me the Same as they Did Bill The blue Men and those transparent Beings The way that they Spring up and the Way that they take advantage of Bill and everyone says Bill watch out are you sure you know what you’re doing now.. are you sure what that you know… how can it be he said..
When he saw a picture of Lynda’s asshole and only to pictures of Sasquatches now was he able to masturbate only then spurting everywhere and Oh He said Do the thing you do make me believe in myself make me Believe in you too Make me believe in the thing you are said .. bill Take me all in.

Liberated Bye bill's Love

Champ or Champy is the name given to a reputed lake monster living in Lake Champlain. The creature's existence has never been authoritatively documented. While most authorities regard Champy as legend, some believe it is possible such a giant creature does live deep in the lake. The state government of Vermont has put Champ on its Endangered Species List, so that, if such an animal does exist, it would be protected by law.




Contents
[hide]

1 Lake monster

2 History

3 Recent sightings

4 A skeptical perspective

5 References

6 See also

7 External links






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Lake monster


When people hear phrases like “sea monster” or “lake monster”, they often think of mythical giant squid-like creatures or some kind of merfolk out in the middle of the ocean. Many may think of “Old Nessie” from Loch Ness in Scotland. However, the lore of lake monsters also exists in North America. According to legend and eye witness accounts, such a monster dwells in Lake Champlain, a 125-mile-long body of fresh water that is shared by New York and Vermont and juts a few miles into Quebec, Canada.[1]


Champ is highly revered by many in the area and has become a revenue-generating attraction.[2] For example, the village of Port Henry, New York, has erected a giant model of Champ and holds "Champ Day" on the first Saturday of every August. Champ also became an official minor league baseball mascot in 2005, when the Vermont Expos of the New York - Penn League renamed themselves the Vermont Lake Monsters in its honor.

[edit]




History


According to some sources, the first European account of Champ was made in 1609 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain—the founder of Québec and the lake's namesake—who spotted the creature as he was fighting the Iroquois on the bank of the lake.[3] However, a leading authority calls that claim a fabrication. Champlain's actual account describes a large native fish that most likely was a gar, rather than the "20-foot serpent thick as a barrel, and a head like a horse," as described in recently embellished retellings.[2]


Long before that, however, two Native American tribes, the Iroquois and the Abenaki, talked of such a creature and celebrated its existence. The Abenaki gave it the name "Tatoskok."


Sightings varied over the years, but the next most important sighting came in 1883 when Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney claimed that he had seen a “…gigantic water serpent about 50 yards away” [4] from where he was on the shore. He claimed that he was so close that he could see “round white spots inside its mouth” and that “the creature appeared to be about 25 to 30 feet in length”. Mooney’s sighting led to many eyewitnesses coming forward with their own accounts of Champy sightings. Mooney’s story predated the public Loch Ness controversy by 50 years. Since that report, there have been more than 240 recorded sightings.


The reason some scientists believe that “Champ” may be a plesiosaur like “Old Nessie” is because the two lakes have much in common. For example, like Loch Ness, Lake Champlain is over 300 feet deep. Also both lakes were formed following the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago and both lakes support fish populations large enough to feed a supposed sea or lake monster (Krystek 1).


“Champ” became so popular that the late P. T. Barnum, in the early 19th century, put a reward of $50,000 up for a carcass of “Champ”. Barnum wanted the carcass of “Champ” so that he could include it in his epic World’s Fair Show (Krystek 3). Sightings continued through the 19th and 20th centuries, but no remains or any other physical evidence has ever been recovered.


The most remarkable photo of a Champy appearance was taken in 1977, by amateur photographer Sandra Mansi[1]. The photo appears to show what Champy defenders say is a plesiosaur-like neck and body sticking out of the lake.


According to Mansi, she heard her children screaming and turned toward the shallow water by the shore where they were playing. Seeing the creature, she took the photo as her fiancée, Anthony, grabbed her children. Mansi had several photo experts examine the picture and they concluded that the picture has not been tampered with in any way. Those experts also stated that they believe it to be a living creature (Champ 2). Mansi later showed the photo, which is similar to the famous "Surgeon's photo" of the Loch Ness Monster, to Joseph W. Zarzynski.


Zarzynski—founder of the Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation and a Wilton, New York Social Studies teacher—took the photo to Gorge Zug of the Smithsonian Institute’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology. Zug states that the creature in the photo does not resemble any creature or animal living in Lake Champlain, that he knows of (Hall 1).


However, not everyone finds the photograph nor the account credible. Nickell reports that the entire bay of the lake where the photograph reportedly was taken is no deeper than 14 feet. It's hard to explain how a giant creature could swim, let alone hide, in such shallow water.[2]


The creature has become so famous and so much a part of life in Vermont and New York, that both states passed laws to protect the moster. The creature was put on the endangered species list only as a precaution. The law will protect the creature if anyone eventually does come upon a “Champ.” Quebec has not placed “Champ” on its list of endangered animals. [5]

[edit]




Recent sightings


Champ reportedly can be seen in a video [2] taken by fishermen Dick Affolter and his stepson Pete Bodette in the summer of 2005.[3]. In the video, something appears under the water near the fisherman's boat and some Champ defenders are calling it the best proof the monster truly exists. Although two retired FBI forensic image analysts, who reviewed the tape, said it appears authentic and unmanipulated, one of them added that "there's no place in there that I can actually see an animal or any other object on the surface."[4]

[edit]




A skeptical perspective


While many Champy believers claim there's a remarkable consistency in reports, skeptics see otherwise. According to Nickell, the Affolter-Bodette account is just the latest in a long list of Champ sightings that describe a "chameleonesque creature that is black, gray, brown, moss green, reddish bronze or other color, and is between 10 and 187 feet long, with multiple humps or coils as well as horns or a mane or glowing eyes or “jaws like an alligator”—or none of those features."[6]


Skeptical authorities like Nickell attribute such varied sightings to imaginiative interpretations of real sightings of large fish like garfish or other sturgeon, schools of fish, and other acquatic animals. "For example, otters, swimming in a line, can mimic a single long, serpentine creature moving in an undulating fashion," he writes. "Other Champ suspects include wind slicks, boat wakes, driftwood, long-necked birds, and many other possibilities. A contributing factor is 'expectant attention,' the tendency of people who, expecting to see something, are misled by anything resembling [what they are looking for]."

The Best Idea Bill Ever Had!

Jordan Belson (1926–) is an American artist and filmmaker born in Chicago, Illinois; he has created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented, abstract films spanning six decades.


Jordan Belson studied Abstract Expressionist painting at the University of California, Berkeley. While he was there he saw the "Art in Cinema" screenings at the San Francisco Museum of Art. Inspired by this, Belson began creating his own experimental art films, beginning with Transmutation in 1947. He was the recipient of a grant from the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, which later became the Guggenheim (Oskar Fischinger recommended him to the MoNOP curator Hilla Rebay). Much of his work evokes a mystical or meditative experience.


In 1957 he began a collaboration with sound artist Henry Jacobs at the Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco, California, for a few years. Together they produced audio-visual lightshows at the Planetarium, the Vortex Concerts, with Belson as visual director programming kinetic live visuals, and Jacobs programming electronic music and audio experiments. This is a direct ancestor of the "laserium" shows that were popular at planetaria later in the century.


Belson created special effects for the Hollywood feature "The Right Stuff".


Belson is still making films and fine art today. His latest film "Epilogue" was commissioned for the Visual Music exhibition at the Hirshhorn/Smithsonian, and completed in 2005. It was produced by Center for Visual Music [1] with support from the NASA Art Program. The New York Times praised its "lush and misty optics".

Those Who Say they Do it in wheeling, well those are the ones who never will be

Retired Wisconsin Farmer Builds Hitler Memorial


Theodore Junker, a retired Wisconsin farmer, has built a memorial/museum to Adolf Hitler on his 20-acre farm in Millard, Wisconsin. He talked about the notion for years, and finally is ready for people to come and see it.

Junker's "attraction" has reportedly ignited a firestorm of controversy among his family, Wisconsin politicians, some local residents ... and just about everyone else who hears about it. But Junker, who is 87, is calm about it.

"When people are, for 60 years, one-sided informed, then you bring the other side, there will be controversy," he said in German-inflected English. "I can understand that they disagree. You don't change in one day. But most people are nice."

Junker came to America in 1955. He was a German soldier on the Eastern front in World War II. "I lost a lot of friends, so I feel obligated to build them a memorial. And since I did this, then I thought, since I highly believe in Adolf Hitler, I thought I make also a big room of honor of Adolf Hitler."

Junker's museum is small -- 40 feet long by 50 feet deep by 12 feet high -- and was described by one reporter as a bunker built into the side of a hill. It has two rooms: one to set the facts straight -- in Junker's opinion -- about the war, and the other to do the same with Hitler.

"Outside, where I have a memorial, there are marbles where everything is inscribed. What all got lost during the war. Most people don't know that more people died after the war than during the war. In the camps. The other thing that they don't know is that 17 million people was driven away from their homeland. This all is inscribed."

"Downstairs, in the Hall of Honor, I have also some inscriptions. What Hitler did. What they tell, that he started the war, it's not true. Everything what they say, he was a dictator and so on, I prove this is not all true."

According to Junker, aside from the inscriptions, there isn't much to see. American and Nazi flags. A couple of book shelves. Some chairs. A framed picture of Hitler on a stand.

Still, Junker hopes people will visit. "I am glad when people are coming. And I don't mind when they don't agree. Don't make any difference. You don't have to agree with your neighbor. But don't start fighting, that's all."

Understandably, local authorities aren't happy about the publicity the museum/memorial is suddenly attracting. But it's on Ted Junker's property, and since he doesn't charge admission there may not be much the town can do about it.

This won't be America's first Hitler attraction -- you can gawk at der Fuhrer's typewriter or his tea service, captured by WWII GIs and exhibited in various museums. But it's unique in its cluelessness regarding public reaction to a pro-Hitler memorial.

The memorial is planned to open on June 25.

These Surely Must Be Some Of Bill Clearys Greatest hits

The skunk ape is a type of cryptid that is often considered a type of bigfoot, but is actually a pongid, or great ape. They are often reported to be similar to an orangutan or a gorilla. They are also known as Napes.


Many photos taken of the skunk ape look suspiciously like orangutans that inhabit primate enclosures of the more lavish zoos of Miami and Orlando, conveniently for their photographers. For instance, if one were to take a picture of an orangutan in its habitat enclosure and simply make sure that one did not capture structures such as bars or windows in the photo, one would have an excellent picture of a Skunk Ape that would be difficult to refute.


The most famous such photographs were taken anonymously and mailed to the Sarasota Sheriff's Department in Florida in the year 2000. These photos are known as the Myakka Skunk-Ape photos. Some claim that the photo is fake, others that it is a man in a suit made of yak hair with a mask, and still others claim that it is an orangutan. Few people believe that it is a photo of a Skunk Ape. In 1998, Ochopee, Florida Fire Chief Vince Doerr photographed an alleged skunk ape.


There is the unsettling possibility that there might actually be small populations of (or a few lone) wild orangutans in remote areas of Florida that are descended from orangutans who escaped from international airports or from captivity as exotic pets. Note that orangutans in captivity test higher on cognitive skills tests than all other hominids save humans; the high intelligence and natural intuitive powers of an orangutan would not preclude an ability to evade capture or detection in a remote or inaccessible region of swamp land. The term "skunk-ape" was coined by David Shealy who heads the Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee, Florida.

A Great Unknown worthy of knowing

How does it happen that a filmmaker once lauded as "the American avant-garde cinema's supreme erotic poet" vanishes entirely from the cultural landscape? Gregory Markopoulos was complicit in his own disappearance from the histories of modern art and cinema, where by any reasonable standard he belongs in the very forefront.


In 1967, after nearly two decades of brilliant, innovative filmmaking, Markopoulos and his lover, Robert Beavers, abandoned the U.S. for Greece. They not only left physically; they also prohibited the distribution of the films in America, refused interviews, and demanded the excision of a chapter on the director in P. Adams Sitney's seminal Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde from later editions. It was only after his death (from lymphoma in 1992), and in fact only in the last year or so that Beavers, a vigilant guardian of Markopoulos's work, has allowed it to be shown in the U.S.


Seeing these films after 30 years of unavailability gives us a welcome chance to reevaluate this uniquely gifted artist. Born in 1928 in Toledo, Ohio, Markopoulos starting making movies at age 12. His subjects were classical and romantic: novels by Dickens, Bronte, and Hemingway. By the age of 18 he was well versed in cinema aesthetics and those whose work made the greatest case for cinema as art: Josef von Sternberg, Jean Cocteau, Bunuel. If we say he was influenced by these auteurs, it isn't to imply that he was derivative. His 1947-1948 trilogy Du sang, de la volupte, et la mort (Of Blood, of Pleasure, and of Death) already shows formal innovations that set his work apart and would continue to do so — specifically, the flash-cut, where the screen goes dark briefly between shots, creating a kind of trance state in the viewer. Later, he would expand this device to stunning effect with in-camera superimpositions, double-exposures, and the breathtaking "strobe-edit" where images flash on and off sometimes apart from, sometimes within other images. These strategies are part of Markopoulos's elliptical, imagistic approach to the narrative, where the viewer is seduced into participating in what's occurring onscreen in a way that's impossible in linear narrative.


Homosexual and lesbian themes appear in Du sang and other early films. Swain (1950), inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man's ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape. The handsome Markopoulos appears in several of his own films, and stars in this one. By the early '60s, with works like Twice a Man (1963) and later, The Illiac Passion (1967), his celebration of the male body and an incorporation of homosexual imagery into a wider aesthetic fabric reaches its peak. Both films draw again on classical sources — the former the myth of Hippolytus and Phaedra, the latter Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound. The imagery in The Illiac Passion is striking in its hypnotic repetitions, particularly in a sequence where a man repeatedly attempts to walk, but finds himself unable to move, perhaps trapped in the director's powerful mise-en-scene. The filmmaker isolates portions of the nude male body to fragment the viewer's perception, then flashes images of the whole man in naked splendor. Warhol regular Taylor Mead adds some amusing moments as a kind of demented bird-figure in a pink tattered dress, but most mesmerizing is the recurring motif of the romanticized male in a posture of longing. In one highly charged sequence, a beautiful man lies in a bathtub holding a scarab, which he slowly kisses.




Markopoulos's power as cinematic inventor extends to his soundtracks. In The Illiac Passion, he reads from Thoreau's translation of Prometheus Bound but he "edits" the words just as he does the images, repeating phrases as if they were chants, with the repetitions alternating with silences.


By the time of the short Ming Green (1966), Markopoulos had brought his formal innovations to an extraordinary level of clarity and simplicity. This brief film, a paean by the filmmaker to his New York apartment (the title refers to the color of the walls), dazzles the viewer with its use of the strobe-edit and the superimposition, bringing an empty, quiet space to gorgeous, glittering life.




A year after Ming Green, Markopoulos moved to Europe, where he continued to make films, some of which have yet to be developed. Like the classical sources that inspired his work, Greece held the promise of something he couldn't find in America, a kind of artistic purity without the demands of commerce or the more subtle pressures from a fickle avant-garde. He and Robert Beavers developed the idea of a pure exhibition space — an open-air field in the Greek countryside — in which to show his films. This concept, despite its practical difficulty, is in keeping with the poignant perfection of Markopoulos's artistry, and represents the same uncompromising ideal that drove his work.

New Poetry

Some new poems which i wrote for a friend of mine ... To Be Included in a yet untitled collection

Jessica Again
There were streets and no sounds though
Light On the other end
Now
Shooting off in beams –in the way that it sees the whole city you’re supposed to watch the night as it passes bye
She
Is not supposed to need anyone I remember that was one point of it …
Some other kind of light shot through you wanted to kill yourself he said and the night they made you go you weren’t Able to live after that…
And We’re All sweet Here And we’re all friends
How
Can you keep it up so long
And how can you have friends
When you feel like life is so meaningless
And here is the day You Live
Bye
Afterwards You won’t Live again
And you won’t Live the way you did here
And you think you’ll die bye me and live for me
But
I never wanted you to live for me ….

I sat near a door and Looked at the plants
I thought of dots faded in some cage
And there was some transparency as well
And the Times and the Days too
You knew they went like that
There was nothing valuable That will be
And the day To Let you
Stay up here
And her Mouth was swollen from chewing on the insides of this
And the world was written with the magic finger
And you served the lines on your own face
And no bad feelings Linger
And he said he hated her and was disgusted bye
Her
And he Tossed her out and she was excited though to
Be on her own
And I guess I have to go over here
To Live without you
And I guess I have to Come Down there
And Take a few shots from some rifle
And you will stand As you were there
The Answers to all my prayers
And no one Walked in a Friend on the last bit of rope
She placed some things
New
With fear now down bye her feet
And no one lies to regret everything and you want
To
Feel excited
Again
Once Some Man came over to the table
And
Recommended The Way to Do something
And you were here For us
He said …
Too
“Tell everyone make sure they come back.”
And
“Can you stand this, How?”
And If they want you in the world they welcome you in
And I will talk to you about sex
And I will talk to you about revenge
He said as well
And then he welcomed himself
Into her
Vagina
Again
And then They Were all wrapped around the whole world
As one thing
I mean that was when they were in wheeling.

Pretty well at being the fork in the road and she was pretty well at being the little bear and everything was Understood
Did you do the wrong thing
Or the right thing
And how was the world disappointed with you
In
Any way that you weren’t disappointed with it as well
And the Russians
Said Jessica
What will they do about the astronauts
And what will you do
You were a Little down weren’t you
Won’t you be a little down
When you tell me I am the same as I existed here
And you were never going back
And he came up on my back and
Came on
He said he saw holes in her face and her hair pulled out as she was raped everynight and I am never going back
You
Hear me
You hear me say
And I am never going back again
And no One waits to Criticize me
Or take me
Home from here
And you only ever wait to see yourself as one image
And
Then He wondered how Come no one
Worth
Anything Ever Came out of Wheeling
That was one of his thoughts when he was running down bye the
Water
How Come no one from here
Seems Like someone
Who isn’t From Wheeling
I
Hope they’re all like you he said..
And he said I hope they are all like you ..me I am just like
Those kids from Wheeling
The ones who got raped and The ones who don’t have
Regret
But then why did you give up so easily
She just lost you
And she just lost hope
You say wheeling
Is just a place made of hope
But I say it is a
Place made of regret
And I feel some charred burning things
And I see the same scene of failure
My failure
To be a full person in wheeling
The same echoes from
Far away
And I used to call them up and
Ask
Why No one Good came from there
And
I used to ask
What I would do if someone came around me
And stuck a board up my ass and
Fucked me
Bye using there hands
With something attached to them
God
I hate you
I said to the people
Who held me down there
And I knew what was going to happen in the rest of my life
And it’s just the same world in wheeling where we
Have a war of ourselves and we have a sea of failures
He says
Wheeling
Wheeling
And The sea of failures That places imagines All of the obvious bits of pain and it imagines the gasps of Ghosts
And the Men Who Beat off to videos of aerobic Instructors
Hey
Didn’t you hear eli hubbard found a new piece of cash
When he was in prison
And it Imprisoned him
He
Took well to the knife Which cut
His side
The one That Split him
In
Half
Didn’t You hear?
I
Heard
And the light shined on me
And you knew about the pain I faced in my life
It started in the basement
In the cellar
And the Chanting that came
From
A
Hole in the Floor
OK
Now just get up and walk away
Don’t make me say stupid things
Nothing you say
Will stop me from being the
Person who I am
And
I Am afraid of People
Who find something to live
For in Wheeling
Other than the fact
That it’s where eli hubbard has died.


A Little Bit Of Jesus Makes me Right, Alright!
We see them pull up in Cars near the road In West Virginia and Then We put our hands near a bow and no one respects us either and Then .. there’s no one who respects them much and a Little Vote They Got made them say he was alright and it was just a mystery. And the world No One Would let You slaughter Him… You could send them all down to the cellar and you could send them all down to where the dogs prayed too … Where the one dog was walked bye on a leash in front of the bus stop that morning in wheeling When I was sitting there with Amber Reed and she was trying to catch a bus somewhere.

Well The sun had to set that Way Since Amber Reed Was leaving
And you had to be the heroine of all of That
I Could recall when I later told her
And you have a special Place for me
Making sure You never stood on the lights of the City
But
Will you tell all of your children
And will you tell them all about me
How you left me behind
I want you to tell them about that
You know tell them how much it hurt me

More cars pulled into a lot in Wheeling more of the same ones which wrote about retribution they all will tell you to hang Your head and cry and there’s things which are undependable and you have made friends with those things and you have made friends with the people the boys who used to be girls but now they won’t be girls no more.

What would have put it all in Motion
He said
What would have been the small bit of Jesus which you manufactured the
Epic Sunset
The way Amber Reed didn’t like things unless she addressed for them
To be done in a certain way and
If you did anything outside of that way
She’d ridicule you
And put you down and make you feel as if you’d annoy her
Or invaded her space as if you’d taken some part of
Her privacy which meant so much to her
Since she was such a private person and
You made her life public how could you have done such a thing
She would make you wonder and she would make you feel
Like a villain as well
She’d put you out to be the villain sure enough you’d believe
That you were the villain you’d believe that you were the person
Who was at fault
Never would you think that it could be amber reed
Who was at fault
And who
Insulted most people and made everyone
Feel Like they Were bad people
They were bad people
Said amber reed and you were a bad friend
To me
She said you let me down
And made me feel
Like you didn’t me
You
Treated me so bad
Can’t you bring some kind of
Integrity to the Situation
God, you’re worse than my father
Telling me things that I should do
And they maybe you should
Read these facts
Examine them then run away from Wheeling.
But we were only in a basement with switches against our legs and
You rode the Penny The Way Grammy Rode it
So hard and so Fast
And the Swollen Rod the way the rod
Gets swollen
And please don’t roll out of wheeling tomorrow
Thinking you’re one big man
Who changed everything for Everyone
So Long Said Amber Reed I’ll
See you when you get out of here she was saying as
She was standing against the car Her Father
Was about to take her away
In
Good luck.










































Daphne Even Then
There was once a war he could tell
There were boats because at least they had something to battle
And there were also ships and there were also
Visions of warfare too
The same People who smelled Like Dwarfs
Were the ones who caused war In Wheeling
In
Wheeling you’re the cause of war and I am having a delay
Now
He says
And then Somemore
If you need some more to move the space
You’ve already done so much for us
And the world will never be there
And I will run from here and then he
Only ever Came as the eclipse
A Couple of strings of light
Cutting across and making it all seem so unreal and
So unimportant and nothing is the sequel to these things
And these memories of hope in Wheeling
And The Countless memories of what was balanced
His
Genitals Smelled a Bit
Her
Cunt was wet
And his ass stunk too
Down in Wheeling
He’ll only ever kill you down in there
They’ll go to one thing and say you’re that
And we Quit
But they never really tell you what you are
And they never really tell you how you
Could
Make your life better believe me in Wheeling
There would be a lot of ways to do so
The way you could for one thing is get
The hell out of there
And get away from being beaten down all the time … Some People Like Andy Reed never saw Those Options for themselves or if they did then they never examined Them Please tell us andy reed how we should fuck your Head open if you can instruct us on how to do so then we’ll know there’s no one alive who lives the same as you and who instructs you too
Who you instruct so well in doing certain things
And How did you get us to do these things Just bye Being yourself
You could fuck it all up that way
And you could never understand when it happens like that
As they shred things in Wheeling
And there was a habit at looking at Pictures of Wheeling
While thinking about Eli Hubbard
Beating Off IN Prison
After
He’d committed murder it
Was only fitting that he’d do himself in next
He was the one who would do himself in And no one Except him
Was the one Person Who
Wondered
About
Things In Life
And bill’s here and he’s still acting fucked up
As he does things
As fucked up as things
Were these were the most fucked up
Things of all
All of you put blame on me for something
Which I didn’t even do
And you can only Blame Me For One Thing
And you can only blame Eli Hubbard as well
He’s the different kind of victim and he’s the one to blame
Though I am sure of that…

You are all victims in This Wheeling
This scope of Your Only hate
And dislike
He only hates her as the one person in
His Life The victims of everything bad in wheeling
All the time without hope coming down on me
Just one step
Away From that
But no step away From anything else


























I didn’t Live Just Die
To Make Sure Eli Hubbard Dies as An Old Man
To Make Sure he’s always In Hell
And to find out
If he’s doing any thing better than that

Not Much felt different
They can all cause their pain to
Be part of us
One Time nearly on a couch
Though
They asked him to go away
And some people take care of
Him now there was science
You
Must know
You must know

Bill Cleary Seemed to feel different
Where time has fallen off
And the sun became the most voluminous circle
But
Where should we meet
Meeting no one
Other than meeting me in secret
Just days
He says where he surmised the volume
What do you want past the secret
The lord Never gave to him
He only gave way where he embarked upon something
Foreign Amber Reed was all spare parts now
As she Lay Broken and she could never beat the clock
I remember that I just felt violent
And there was not a point in seeing
How long she even reclaimed to
React
And There’s no where She has to go
She just wants to BE fancy and now
We know no one at all knows us

They all just seemed as if they were false men upset about something they could never change anyhow
And I couldn’t see what the point was
And the words they all came out wrong
And the world broke up
Now
The fight between Eli Hubbard
The one for his life
When he was being torn apart by the dogs
And now he’ll never come out of
Anything
He Once Thought he would have come out
Of
What can He Rise above and how can he lived
His Life down with the worst part of Life
And under his feet
He just can’t be tired and
The grass
He only stood now
Therein The Spiral The Free Ring in Wheeling
The
Dash
And kick around Heaven and
Tonight
He wanted to think he’d never be wrong again
And that he would only
See himself smile through the color of pain and
Then with no reason he would have Cause for
The alarm he took next to himself in life
And then he’ll break them into
And the time he will break
Them For The World
He will break them
All can’t you see how they
Will all kill me
He Never knew that
He’d be killed bye
Them
And never know that
God
Seemed to wear a Gown
And not too much was there
To make a promise
That he’ll never Even Come
From here again
Bye any Circumstance
He thought he was safe
He thought he was in the clear
And the time he was safe he
Was next to the net
He was going to drop in
Off
Bye the edge of all of
The time he had regrets in
Wheeling
In some other kind of Zone
Now
Where time is spewing out of me
Managing to Make me feel like a fool
And then just make me
Play plain dumb and
The world
Will wreck me
Because
Of Eli Hubbard’s disease
And because I got hit on the head too hard
And never was I without the feeling
That they would Leave me
I knew I was done for The first second I laid
Eyes
On
Them
Without
Warrant
And companion
Eli Hubbard Was the Safe Bet to
Cause pain
I heard he never causes it now
And you can only surmise them
All
He said
And I am only the one
Person who
Stood near the steps
Who heard all of the sound
Rush out of there
Listen to me
Listen To me now
Shouted Eli Hubbard
He was surprised to hear silence
To Find out that it was not a guarantee
That anyone Would Shout Back
He
Sees
That no one replys



The Meal for a Day (to Jessica Silver)
Fey Was down among the rocks now the coarseness the bleak home never ends As Andy Reed Screams for a Reward and the blacker edges of home and the people who never say a word and come on Now Won’t they be happy for you won’t they be satisfied in life as well Weren’t you one of the people who was never happy and you can see who you are and you’ll be there too He once said and you said they’re the only ones… “I Think You should do whatever you think you should do depending on your own happiness.” I Remember Her saying to me .. That was what Jessica Said, I Haven’t done this in a long time now I remembered me saying and Then Just some kind of Obsession Won’t One way be correct for me Can’t something come out of another and no one can marry anyone else And can anyone See who you are as people He Wondered That, I wondered too.

Scraping Sweat Off From me Barely Just catching a Bus
I remember
I’ll be there
I Will be there bye 5:30
Aren’t you late
I remember her saying
And I said I was
Though just barely
Then What Do you want to Do
I can remember myself saying
What do you Want to Do
He said
I want to Come to here Oh Remember
Then we’re Crossing a Few Streets
Over
I Must have bumped into someone
And they Said that they didn’t see me after I said
First that I didn’t see them
And I knew for Sure no one
Would like down with these ideas
And I lose my mind over you
And I lost my mind from the first time
Onwards
Then I See a Bug on your Back
And I knocked off a spider
I saw Jessica Crossing from the Bridge
I want to Live in that house I remember
Her exclaiming what a bad rundown place
And I can’t ever think of another place
Too
See how bad and run down all of that is
And I saw something that I didn’t realize before
And there’s something you’ll understand
And is it possible to make a living this way and
When I saw you first I knew you’d come together
I saw you there and
I never want to say again that I Saw you in the darkness
I saw you in The Color of Course
The Color of Life
A different Life
Even if you’ll Lose your mind
For me
You’ll lose your mind this way as well
And another letter from her
Again

No!
Do Not Start out that way
Maybe we can all fall in a love like this
Walking under a bridge now
We saw the Sign Where The Moon’s got a hole cut in it
And we’re going to find some people
Who ignore us who don’t like us at all
And the spelling has improved though since
They didn’t Like us before
They Still want us bye their Side
And You Know she’ll run and kiss your lips
And Just something about it is Different
And Then just something about it
And You Can See your arms around her
And you can see the time he kept around her
Too
And I Look in her Eyes
I sat next to her
I saw Her Back
As straight as a board
And the time where you think you’re in love
And The Way They are on the time to get
There They Always Say don’t start out that way
And you say you’d die now if you ever go away and
I feel that touch and I feel the pain of her going away
And I feel the real pain at the reality
And the core of it all and I will know that
You will take me for my Life
And you will take me for Granted Too many times
Again
Where we set at certain places
And where you let the darkout of day light
And you let the one who cooperated be the one who
Was just a friend
But I want to know if you’ll hurt her
Or if you’ll take the brightness out of it
And you’ll take the brightness out of dark
And then you’ll take them for a
Time Where they’re only falling over one another
And you see that they’re upset about something other than you
And then there’s a letter Where you disclosed it all
He said he wanted her now
Then he may want her later on
And you may need him again later on
And then sometime some other day
You’ll make them bleed
For her
And you’ll need a whole ocean
He says
One that looks Good too
And I’ll be certain of it
And there’s a group of Detractors and
The Room up above
And the one person who was
Down here
Didn’t feel so alone
And didn’t feel so In Love
What will you do when you’re near me
And what will I do when you leave me
And I will leave you too
And sometimes
You’ll find something else
Once sitting next to her
Straight back and all
Where she turned over to me
And said how much she loved this
And then she’s Walking in the Rain and
The cloud above
And You’re wishing for her now
And then the room where they pot the plants
And the room where nothing will do and
The room where nothing
Else
Has a granted fact
Again once they have that skill and once you have
That skill to Expect the room
And the stars kissing her too
And the only time she’s laughing now
Moving back Under the bridge Crossing another Place
Putting a face on them
And figuring that they’re something else
The one thing about you that moves them
Is not what you thought it was
And what a Hassle to Feel Your heart broke forever
I
Bet you’d leave Her For Something different and I wondered
What it could be what if you want nobody else
And what if they all hold me the way they did before
And they all
Dined Like Pigs once
What about Virgins
Before
When you hold her down you only whispered
Tenderly when you were
Shouting
About how you were born to be together
Moving deeper down now into the earth
God about to be Blessed
And you say it all for work
Your head in a basket
Jesus Still Crying

























Fictitious Against Wheeling The Ones Who Came Under The Sun
Everything that does not go on here is what goes on there
And when they are all done fighting when you’ve
Packed it all in to the place
Of home and infamy
Which you call Wheeling you did so without a care or worry
And you fell In Love and Gave your heart away
Who Will You give your heart away too
They’re all those men against us Wailing
And all of those men against us
Screaming out
And the Lucky are the few with a sworn
Desire and I ran it straight into your arms
And I could see the faces of men who
Were so fancy Free
And when they held bill
Tenderly
And I can never see the originality of her
They’ll
Turn around and say they love us
Not the boys with their hearts buttered up
Just the ones who say goodbye
And the ones
Who sang as if it were a Love Song
The ones
Who showed us how much
They loved us
And There Must have been A Festival of Colors in Wheeling
And you turned your Love onto Me
Now
And you turned your Love onto me as a Person
And I could only have them Break Free From
Their Own Longings the ones They Will
Keep
Oh Wheeling and the golden River and Wheeling
And the promiseland and the Way that you all suffer
Does it make you Think that you’ve got something
Else that you want to give me
And the new days when they find you under A stone
All the time you’ve pleaded and what have you lost me to
The Way where you pleaded the undercurrent that you
Stripped me with and the world accusing me I remember it
All I still would have had to prevail and do it for myself
And in the March Of Wheeling
The Time of the sky
Cutting me where everyone who Lives also must
Day the sunset against Our Cells
And The time of day we feel
That cloth that covering and the
Prison where some one is waiting
For me
And you only can feel the drift of the time
And the little bit of your life
A Little Bit of a Ghost Don’t you think
When they count you down In Wheeling
I guess they’ll all take a real gamble
They Say they can’t Lend their Confidence Then
What will they lend then if they don’t Lend that
I figured they can at least lend me that
If not
I would have had to count my loses up
In the water which runs under the bride
In
Wheeling
Only
They’ll clear me as a Member
Free the heat
And sought after days
Only Wheeling Knew The Winter





















\

i know bill he's the one and i've spent three seasons trying to pretend that lynda never knew

The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. Locally, it is known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie ("tazzy") Tiger or simply the Tiger. Although it is only one of many Australian mammals to have become extinct following European settlement of the continent, it is the largest and by far the most famous.

Like the tigers and wolves of other continents (both placental carnivores and therefore not closely related to the marsupial Thylacine), the Thylacine was a top-level predator, and in size and general form quite closely resembled the Northern Hemisphere predators it was originally named after.

Contents [hide]
1 Physical description
2 Pre-History
3 First Discovered
4 Extinction
4.1 Official Searches
4.2 Official Extinction
4.3 Sightings
4.3.1 Recent claimed sightings
4.4 Rewards
5 Known Behaviours
5.1 Habitat
5.1.1 Tasmania
5.2 Diet
5.3 Other behaviours
6 Modern research and projects
6.1 Cloning project
6.2 International Thylacine Specimen Database Project
7 Tasmanian Tiger in Popular Culture
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
10.1 Cloning project



[edit]
Physical description

Taxidermy specimen of Thylacine at Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, EnglandThe Thylacine resembled a large, short-haired dog with a stiff tail, which smoothly extended from the body like that of a kangaroo. It was about 100 to 130 cm long including its tail of about 50 to 65 cm, and had a very large gape. It was a yellowish-brown in colour with sixteen to eighteen dark stripes on its back and rump, hence its common name: "Tasmanian Tiger." The Thylacine's pouch opened to the rear of its body. In at least two male specimens a scrotal pouch, unique amongst marsupials, was also documented.

One unusual feature of the Thylacine was the ability to open its jaws to a surprising extent. Although it is most unlikely that the gape was as wide as some reports have stated (~180°), it was still the widest of any known mammal. This capability is captured in part of a short black-and-white film sequence dating from 1936 which shows a captive Thylacine in a zoo.

[edit]
Pre-History
Fossils of Dickson's Thylacine (Nimbacinus dicksoni), the oldest ancestor of the Thylacine, found in Riversleigh, Australia date back 23 million years ago, during the Miocene epoch. This thylacinid was much smaller than its more recent relatives. The largest species was Thylacinus potens from the late Miocene, which grew to the size of a wolf. In late Pleistocene and early Holocene times, the Thylacine was widespread on the mainland. After traders from the islands to the north of the continent introduced the Dingo about five thousand years ago, the Thylacine was unable to compete and the population began to shrink. It is uncertain when the last mainland Thylacine died, but it may not have been until about a thousand years ago.

[edit]
First Discovered
The animal was rare (and by today's standards vulnerable) even when the first Europeans arrived in Tasmania. It was first described in 1808, 5 years after first settlement of the island. [1] They numbered as little as 3,000 at first settlement, with the heaviest distributions in the North East, North West and North Midlands regions of the state.

[edit]
Extinction

The extinct Thylacine at Melbourne Museum, a work of taxidermy
Reconstruction of Thylacinus potensIn Tasmania, where there were no Dingos, the Thylacine survived until the 1930s before it was wiped out. The extinction is popularly attributed to the relentless efforts of farmers, government-funded bounty hunters (with over 2,000 scalps officially taken between 1888 to 1912) and, in its final years, collectors for overseas museums. However, in reality there were most likely multiple factors, including competition with wild dogs (introduced by settlers) and a distemper like disease (that also affected many captive specimens at the time) which was believed to have led to a sharp drop in the population around 1908, when far fewer bounties were taken. In any case, the animal had become extremely rare in the wild by the 1930s.

The last captive (captured in 1924 with mother and siblings), referred to as Benjamin (although it was a female specimen) later died in the Hobart Zoo on 1936-09-07. She is believed to have died from neglect, suffering exposure to the cold and no access to sheltered sleeping quarters. [2] A short black-and-white film was made of the captive pacing back and forth in its enclosure. The photographer was bitten on the buttock whilst taking the photograph.

Farmer Wilf Batty shot and photographed the last known wild Thylacine in 1930 in Mawbanna (believed to be a male), in the North East of the state. [3]

[edit]
Official Searches
The results of various searches indicate a strong possibility of survival of the species in Tasmania into the 1960s. Searches by Dr. Eric Guiler (considered a leading authority on the species) and David Fleay in the north-west of Tasmania found possible footprint evidence and heard presumed vocalisations as well as anecdotal evidence from people presumed to have sighted the animal but no conclusive evidence of continued existence.

[edit]
Official Extinction
The Thylacine held the status of Endangered Species until 1986, when it was declared extinct by international standards. Since 1936 there remains no conclusive evidence of the species' continued existence.

[edit]
Sightings
Although there is almost no doubt that the Thylacine is extinct, the animal has taken on cryptid status, as sightings are still occasionally claimed in both Tasmania and other parts of Australia. Of the mainland sightings, by far the most frequent, along with the Gippsland phantom cat, are in the Gippsland region of southern Victoria. [4]

There have been several alleged photos produced as evidence, but many of these are believed to have been faked.

In contrast, sightings of the Red Fox (introduced as early as 1864) in Tasmania are taken seriously. This is despite only minimal evidence (2 carcases, a scat sample and possible footprints) of the species existence in the state [5] [6]. While the Fox Free Tasmanian Taskforce receives continued government funding, all funding for the searches of the indigenous Tasmanian Tiger has ceased. The elusiveness of the fox in the vast Tasmanian wilderness gives some hope of the continued existence of the Thylacine.

[edit]
Recent claimed sightings
Despite many sightings being instantly dismissed, some alleged sightings have generated a large amount of publicity.

In 1982 a researcher with the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Hans Narding, observed at night what he believed to be a Thylacine for three minutes at a site near Arthur River in the state's North West. The sighting began a year long government funded extensive search. [7]

In January 1995, a Parks and Wildlife officer reported observing a Thylacine in the Pyengana region of North Eastern Tasmania in the early hours of the morning. No trace of it was found. [8]

In February 2005, a German tourist claimed to have taken digital photographs of a Thylacine he saw near the Lake St Clair National Park, but the authenticity of the photographs has not been established. [9]

[edit]
Rewards
In March 2005, Australian news magazine The Bulletin, as part of its 125th anniversary, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live Thylacine. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005 no one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm, but this is also unclaimed.

In 1984, Ted Turner offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the Thylacine. However, a letter sent in response to an inquiry by Thylacine-searcher Murray McAllister in 2000 indicated that the reward had been withdrawn. [10]

[edit]
Known Behaviours
Surprisingly little is known about the thylacine. A few observations were made from captivity, but only limited or anecdotal research of the animal in the wild.

[edit]
Habitat
It is said that the Thylacine preferred to inhabit dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands, and grasslands in continental Australia. Fossils dating back 2,200 years ago and aboriginal rock paintings suggest the Wolf might have lived throughout Australia and New Guinea. A mummified carcass was discovered in a cave in the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia, dated to around 3,300 years old provided physical proof of the animal's existence on the mainland. [11]

Scientists generally believe it became extinct in mainland Australia about 2000 years ago (and possibly earlier in New Guinea) attributed to competition from invasive Dingos. Evidence to this effect comes through the discovery of thylacine fossils in close proximity to Dingo fossils. It is believed that the two species may have even fought for the same prey.

[edit]
Tasmania
In Tasmania it preferred the woodlands of the Midlands and Coastal Heath, which became the primary focus of British settlers seeking grazing properties for their sheep.

Like the Tasmanian Devil and its marsupial prey, the Thylacine was a nocturnal and crepuscular hunter, spending the days in a nest of twigs and bark in small caves or hollow tree trunks. It typically retreated to the hills and forest during the day for shelter and hunted in the open heath at night.

Breeding season was in winter and spring and a female would produce up to 4 cubs (typically 2 or 3 per litter), carrying the young in a pouch for up to 3 months and protecting them until at least half grown.

[edit]
Diet
The Tasmanian Tiger ate a variety of foods but mainly meat because it was a carnivore.

Analysis of the skeletal frame and observation in captivity points to it singling out a target animal and doggedly pursued the target until it was exhausted. Although some studies believe that the animal may have hunted in small family groups, with the male lying in waiting to ambush while a female herded the prey in the male's general direction. ([12] and Guiler)

Prey included kangaroos, wallabies, and various small animals and birds. After European settlement the Thylacine was believed to have also opportunistically preyed upon farmers' sheep and poultry. In captivity, Thylacines were fed on dead rabbits and wallabies, which they devoured entirely, as well as beef and mutton.

Some researchers suggest that the Thylacine may have primarily devoured the blood of its victims, coining the term vampire dog and claiming a preference for the nasal, throat (jugular), stomach (kidney and liver) and groin regions, with the remaining carcass left for devils to scavenge[13].

[edit]
Other behaviours
Like their relative the Devil, the tiger is believed to have possessed an acute sense of smell which enabled it to track prey for many miles. [14]

Those that saw the animal in the wild are said to have described it having a strong and distinctive smell[15]. It is possible that the animal, like its relative the Devil, which is known to give off a smell when agitated, had a similar behaviour.

[edit]
Modern research and projects
[edit]
Cloning project
The Australian Museum in Sydney began a project in 1999 reminiscent of the science fiction movie Jurassic Park. The goal was to use genetic material from specimens taken and preserved in the early 20th century to clone new individuals and restore the species from extinction. In late 2002 the researchers had some success as they were able to extract usable DNA from the specimens. On 2005-02-15, the museum announced that it was stopping the project after tests showed the specimens' DNA had been too badly degraded by the ethanol preservative.

In May 2005, Professor Michael Archer, the University of New South Wales Dean of Science, former director of the Australian Museum and evolutionary biologist, announced that the project was being restarted by a group of interested universities and a research institute.

[edit]
International Thylacine Specimen Database Project
The International Thylacine Specimen Database (ITSD) was completed in April 2005 and is the culmination of a four year research project to catalogue and digitally photograph, if possible, all the known surviving specimen material held within museum, university and private collections of the Thylacine.

[edit]
Tasmanian Tiger in Popular Culture
The Thylacine has been used extensively as a symbol of Tasmania. The animal is featured on the official Tasmanian Coat of Arms. It is used in the official logos of Tourism Tasmania (using the mystery of the tiger to draw tourists) and the Launceston City Council. The plight of the Thylacine was featured in a Wilderness Society campaign titled we used to hunt Thylacines. The animal is featured on Cascade Brewery beer products and television advertisements. A popular video game features a Tasmanian Tiger character called Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. The animal is the mascot for Tasmanian Tigers state cricket team.

Bill Cleary Lost From View?

Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc.) is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era. The first recorded claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack occurred in 1837. Later alleged sightings were reported from all over England, from London up to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London and later in the Midlands, where they peaked between the 1850s and 1880s.


Many theories have been proposed to ascertain his nature and identity, none of which have been capable of completely clarifying the subject. The phenomenon still remains unexplained.


The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and his capacity to perform extraordinary leaps, to the point that it became the topic of several works of fiction and much speculation about possible paranormal origin

Description


Spring Heeled Jack was described by alleged victims as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire". One of the reports claimed that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight fitting white garment like an "oilskin". Many stories also mention a "Devil-like" aspect. Spring Heeled Jack was said to be tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman, and capable of making great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe blue and white flames from his mouth and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. At least two individuals claimed that he was able to speak in comprehensible English.

[edit]




History

[edit]




Early reports


Picture from a penny dreadful of Spring Heeled Jack jumping over a gate.




Isolated accounts of a strange leaping man were in circulation as early as 1817 1, but the first widely recognized report occurred in September 1837 in London. A businessman returning home late one night from work told of being suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the considerably high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a muscular human male with devilish features including large and pointed ears and nose, and protruding, glowing eyes.


Shortly after this incident, a group of passers-by claimed that a character by the same description had leapt out of the darkness and attacked them2. He allegedly grabbed a woman, who managed to get away after getting her coat ripped, followed by her companions. One of them, however, a barmaid named Polly Adams, tripped and fell behind. Hours later, the police discovered her still lying in the same spot. According to her statement, the assailant tore off the top of her blouse and, after grabbing her naked breasts, deeply scratched her belly with his claws, leaving her unconscious and bloodied but still alive.


Later, in October 1837, a girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant, after visiting her parents in Battersea. On her way through Clapham Common, according to her later statements, a strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilising her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws, which were, according to her deposition, "cold and clammy as those of a corpse". In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene of the assault. The commotion attracted several residents who launched an immediate search for the aggressor, but one could not be found.


The next day, the leaping character allegedly chose a very different victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a modus operandi that would become typical of future reported: he jumped in the way of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control and crash, injuring him seriously. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by jumping over a nine foot-high wall while babbling with a high-pitched and ringing laughter.


A few days later, another woman reported being attacked near the Clapham churchyard. For the first time, police investigators discovered evidence at the scene of the crime: two footprints about three inches deep, which implied that they may have been made by someone who had landed from a great height. [citation needed] Upon a closer inspection, some curious imprints were found within the impressions, which suggested that the attacker had been wearing some sort of gadget on his shoes, "perhaps some kind of compressed springs" in the opinion of a present police officer.[citation needed] In spite of its importance, the lack of forensic investigators in those days made the police forget about such evidence,[citation needed] and instead of making plaster casts of the impressions, they simply allowed the weather to erode them. Gradually, the news of the strange character spread, and soon the press and the public gave him a name: Spring Heeled Jack 3.

[edit]




Official recognition


A public session at the Mansion House, London (c. 1840).




A few months later, on January 9, 1838, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House an anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he had withheld in the hope of obtaining further information. The correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote:

"It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.


At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses.


The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent." 4



Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience confirmed, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing, tell dreadful stories of this ghost or devil". The matter was reported in The Times and other national papers the next day, and the day after that (January 11) the Lord Mayor showed a crowded gathering a pile of letters from various places in and around London complaining of similar "wicked pranks". The quantity of letters that poured into the Mansion House suggests that the activities of Spring Heeled Jack were common knowledge in suburban London by that time. One writer said he had ascertained that several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened into "dangerous fits", and some "severely wounded by a sort of claws the miscreant wore on his hands". Another correspondent affirmed that in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died of fright, and others had had fits; meanwhile, another reported that the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath, but the police were too frightened of him to act.


The Lord Mayor himself was in two minds about the affair: he thought "the greatest exaggerations" had been made, and that it was quite impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth", but on the other hand someone he trusted had told him of a servant girl at Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's skin; he was confident the person or persons involved in this "pantomime display" would be caught and punished 5. The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible for the attacks, and rewards were offered. Many individuals, including Admiral Edward Codrington decided to join the search, but to no avail: he was never caught. Furthermore, he seemed to have grown bolder, and his attacks multiplied.

[edit]




The Scales and Alsop incidents


Spring Heeled Jack as depicted on an early penny dreadful.




Perhaps the best known incidents involving Spring Heeled Jack were the alleged attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales 6 and Jane Alsop. The Alsop report was widely covered by the newspapers, while a single paper covered the Scales' report, presumably because Alsop came from a comfortably well-off family whereas Scales came from a family of tradesmen. This coverage by newspapers fuelled the collective hysteria surrounding the case.


It was reported that, on February 20, 18-year-old Jane Alsop opened the door of her father's house in the district of Bow to a man claiming to be a police officer, who asked her to bring a light because he and other policemen had "caught Spring Heeled Jack in the lane", but this man then attacked her, tearing at her dress and hair until other members of her family ran to help her. She told the Lambeth police investigators that "he was wearing a kind of helmet, and a tight fitting white costume like an oilskin. His face was hideous; his eyes were like balls of fire. His hands had claws of some metallic substance, and he vomited blue and white flames."


A second story comes from February 23. Once again a black-cloaked figure allegely knocked on the door of a house, this time in Turner Street, off Commercial Road. When a servant boy answered the call, the visitor asked to speak to the master of the house, a Mr. Ashworth. The boy turned to call his master when he noticed that the man standing at the doorway had glowing red eyes. In a state of panic, he screamed, attracting the attention of the neighbours. With an angry and frustrated groan, Spring Heeled Jack waved his clawed fist at the boy's face and darted over the nearby rooftops. At the following interrogation by the authorities, the child claimed that he had noticed what a significant piece of evidence: as Spring Heeled Jack was turning his back at him, he observed that he had a golden embroidered letter "W" on his shirt beneath the black cloak, much like a coat of arms.


The Scales report is as follows: Five days later February 28, 1838 7, 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of the district of Limehouse. Lucy, slightly ahead of her sister, was half way along Green Dragon Alley when a character, which had been waiting at an angle in the passage while she approached, appeared and attacked her. The figure breathed fire into Lucy's face and then bounded away as the girl fell to the ground, seized by violent spasms which lasted for several hours. Four witnesses attested that the attacker escaped by leaping from the ground to the roof of a nearby house on a single jump. A few days later, on March 6, Lucy's and her sister made their deposition at Lambeth–street police court in company of their brother, William. 8.

[edit]




The legend spreads


The Times reported under the heading "Outrage at Old Ford" the alleged attack on Jane Alsop. This was followed up (see Palmer's index to The Times) with the account of the trial of one Thomas Millbank, who, immediately after the reported attack on Jane Alsop, had boasted in the Morgan's Arms that he was Spring-heeled Jack. He was arrested and tried at Lambeth Street court. The arresting officer was Jonas Lea, who had earlier, as a PC, arrested William Cawder, the Red Barn murderer. Millbank had been wearing white overalls and a greatcoat, which he dropped outside the house, and the candle he dropped was also found. He escaped conviction only because Jane Alsop insisted her attacker had breathed fire, and Millbank admitted he could do no such thing. Most of the other accounts were written long after the date. Contemporary newspapers do not mention them at all.


Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny dreadful (1886).




After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the moment. His alleged exploits were reported in the newspapers and became the subject of several penny dreadfuls and plays performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. But, as his fame was growing, reports of his appearances became less frequent, while spreading over a large area. In 1843, however, a wave of sightings swept the country again. A report from Northamptonshire, in Hampshire, described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia, where reports of attacks to drivers of mail coaches became common.


Although there were stories of terrified citizens and, on some occasions, injuries of various sorts, so far there were no reports that Spring Heeled Jack had ever killed a person. However, that changed in 1845. That year, the figure was allegedly seen at Jacob's Island, Bermondsey, a low class slum of decaying wooden houses and full of pestilent ditches, which had been immortalised by Charles Dickens as the lair of Fagin and his band of child thieves in Oliver Twist. He was said to have cornered a 13-year-old prostitute named Maria Davis on a narrow bridge that crossed one of the foulest ditches in the neighbourhood, called Folly Ditch, breathed fire into her face and hurled her into the stinking waters below.[citation needed] Police, hearing the story from alleged witnesses, dragged the ditch and recovered the girl's body. The verdict at the subsequent inquest was one of death by misadventure but the inhabitants of the area branded Spring Heeled Jack as a murderer.

[edit]




The last reports


In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring Heeled Jack was reported again in several places distant from each other. In November 1872, the News of the World reported that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance". The editorial pointed that it was no other than "Spring Heeled Jack, who terrified a past generation". Similar stories were published in the Illustrated Police News. In April and May of 1873, there were numerous sightings of the "Park Ghost" in Sheffield, which locals came to identify as Spring Heeled Jack. These incidents culminated with thousands of people gathering each night to hunt the ghost.


Aldershot Barracks – North Camp, Central Road as it looked in 1866.




This news was followed by more reported sighting, until in August 1877; one of the most notable reports about Spring Heeled Jack came from a group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks. This story went as follows: A sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure bounding across the road towards him, making a metallic noise. The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure vanished from sight for a few moments. As the soldier turned back to his post, the figure reappeared beside him and delivered several slaps to his face with "a hand as cold as that of a corpse". Attracted by the ensuing noise, several men rushed to the place, but they claimed that the character leapt several feet over their heads and landed behind them. According to their testimony, Spring Heeled Jack simply stood there, watching them and grinning, apparently waiting their reaction with glee. One of the guards shot at him, with no visible effect other than to enrage his target; some sources [citation needed] claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, merely used to make warning shots. The strange figure then charged towards them and spat blue flames at them from his mouth, making the guards desert their posts in panic and then disappearing into the surrounding darkness.


There were several more alleged attacks of Spring Heeled Jack on guards at Aldershot. All these sightings concurred in the description: tall, muscular complexion, wearing a helmet and a white tight fitting oilskin suit.


After these reports, a massive spree of Spring Heeled Jack's sightings poured in from all England. In Lincolnshire, he was allegedly seen leaping over several houses, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob supposedly chased him and cornered him, and just like in Aldershot a while before, residents uselessly fired at him. Many witnesses claimed that the shots did hit him, sounding as they were hitting a hollow metallic object, like an "empty bucket". As usual, he was said to have made use of his leaping abilities to lose the crowd and disappear once again.


Modern view of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, Liverpool.




By the end of the 19th century, the reported sightings of Spring Heeled Jack were moving towards western England. In September 1904, in Everton, in north Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack allegedly appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, in Salisbury Street. Witnesses reported that he suddenly jumped and fell to the ground, landing behind a nearby house. When they rushed to the point, so the story goes, they faced there a tall and muscular man, fully dressed in white and wearing an "egg shaped" helmet, standing there waiting. He laughed hysterically at the crowd and rushed towards them, making several women gasp in dismay. Clearing them all with a gigantic leap, he disappeared behind the neighbouring houses.

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Theories


The fact that no one was ever caught and identified as Spring Heeled Jack combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period of time he was reportedly at large have led to all sorts of theories to determine both his nature and identity. While several researchers seek a rational explanation to the events, other authors echo themselves in the more fantastic details of the story to propose different kinds of paranormal speculations.

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Sceptical positions


Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford (1840).




Sceptical investigators have repeatedly deprecated the stories of Spring Heeled Jack.


The simplest of explanations offered is that the reports were nothing but mass hysteria that developed around various legends of a boogeyman or devil that had been around for centuries. Some sceptics maintain that it is nothing but an exaggeration of the tale of a certain mentally ill zealot who danced and leapt over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him 9.


Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on 10. It is worthy of note that, following his reported appearance and for the years that followed, the press, the authorities, and most of the general public considered Spring Heeled Jack to be not a supernatural creature but rather an individual (or perhaps more than one person) with a macabre sense of humour who delighted in scaring and molesting women. This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager. A popular rumour that was in circulation as early as 1840 pointed at an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main suspect of being behind the events. The responsibility of the Marquess has been accepted by several modern authors, who suggest that a humiliating experience with a woman and a police officer could have given him the idea of creating the character as a way of "getting even" with police and women in general 11. Said authors speculate that he could have designed (with the help of friends who were experts in applied mechanics) some sort of apparatus for special spring-heeled boots, and that he may have practised fire-spitting techniques in order to increase the unnatural appearance of his character. Lastly, they point at the embroidered coat of arms with a "W" letter observed by the servant boy at the Ashworth incident, a notorious coincidence with his title's name.


Indeed, the Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis'', and it is also known that he was present in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. Unfortunately, The Waterford Chronicle was able to report his presence at the St Valentine's Day Ball at Waterford Castle, which means that he has a cast-iron alibi for the attacks on Jane Allsop and Lucy Scales, which are at the centre of Jack's authenicated history. But he was, nevertheless, pointed as the perpetrator by the Rev. E. C. Brewer in 1880, who attested that the Marquess "used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example" 12. In 1842, the Marquess of Waterford married and settled in Curraghmore House, Ireland, and reportedly led an exemplary life, until he died in a horse riding accident in 1859. Meanwhile, Spring Heeled Jack remained active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers to the same conclusion as Brewer's: the Marquess may well have been responsible for the first attacks, while it was up to other pranksters who occasionally imitated him to continue the task.


Skeptical investigators are unanimous in asserting that the story of Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumours, superstition, oral tradition, sensationalistic publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his reputed skill in avoiding all attempts of apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public. This became especially true with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring Heeled Jack had suffered no effects from aging. As a result, a whole urban legend had been built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fuelled this popular perception in a vicious circle 13.

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Paranormal conjectures


A wide variety of explanations have been proposed by authors who support the paranormal origin of Spring Heeled Jack. Due to the inherent nature of the phenomenon, such theories are speculative and bereft of any proof. The following are just a few:

A common hypothesis proposes Spring Heeled Jack as an extraterrestrial entity, somehow stranded on Earth. Supporters of this theory believe this would explain his non-human appearance and features, (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorous breath), his jumping ability (by suggesting that he may have been native of a planet with greater gravitational pull, like astronauts experienced on the Moon), strange behaviour (which could have been altered through Solipsism Syndrome or as a result of breathing the gases present at the Earth's atmosphere), and his longevity.14


A visitor from another dimension, who could have entered into this plane through a wormhole or dimensional gate.15


A demon, accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by practitioners of the occult (a theory that has been incorporated into the RPG "Feng Shui") 16, or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.17



The supporters of the paranormal explanations usually refer as proof of their claims that no human could have ever used a gadget to leap the way Spring Heeled Jack was said to, by pointing that in the 20th century, the German Army experimented on the subject with disastrous effects. Allegedly, such experiments gave an estimated 85% rate of failure, with broken legs and ankles on the testers. They conclude that there was no possibility for an individual to succeed where an official warfare project failed, especially considering that the former had preceded it by many decades.18 It might be worth noting that there currently is a comparable device being marketed 19, but this gadget requires modern, state-of-the-art carbon fibre springs.

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Spring Heeled Jack in popular culture


Spring Heeled Jack on a penny dreadful cover page (c. 1904).




The vast urban legend built around Spring Heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture. The Oxford English Dictionary recounts that, in late Victorian times, his name had become a general term for a street criminal who leapt upon people to rob or frighten them, and then relied on his speed in running to make his escape. It cites a Cheshire source from 1887 as an example, where maids who had just been paid their yearly wage were said to be afraid to go out carrying much money, since "there are so many of these spring-heeled Jacks about" 20 . For decades, especially in London, his name was equated with bogeymen, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring Heeled Jack would leap up and peer in at them through their bedroom windows, by night.


However, it was in the field of fictional entertainment where the legend of Spring Heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, due to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Almost from the moment the first incidents gained public knowledge, he turned into a successful fictional character, becoming the protagonist of many penny dreadfuls from 1840 to 1904. Several plays where he assumed the main role were staged as well.


The most notable fictional Spring Heeled Jacks of the 19th and early 20th centuries were:

A play by John Thomas Haines, in 1840, Spring-Heeled Jack, the Terror of London, which shows him as a brigand who attacks women because his own sweetheart betrayed him.

Later that decade, Spring Heeled Jack's first penny dreadful appearance came in the anonymously written Spring-Heeled Jack, The Terror of London, which appeared in weekly episodes.

W. G. Willis' 1849 play, The Curse of the Wraydons, where Spring Heeled Jack is a traitor who spies for Napoleon Bonaparte, and stages murderous stunts as a cover.

A 1863 play, Spring-Heel'd Jack: or, The Felon's Wrongs, written by Frederick Hazleton.

Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London, a penny dreadful published by the Newsagents’ Publishing Company c. 1864-1867.

Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London, a 48-part penny weekly serial published c. 1878-1879 in The Boys' Standard, written either by veteran dreadful author George Sala or by Alfred Burrage in his pseudonym of Charlton Lea.

Spring-Heel Jack; or, The Masked Mystery of the Tower, appearing in Beadle's New York Dime Library #332, 4 March 1885, and written by Col. Thomas Monstery.

a 1889-1890 48-part serial published by Charles Fox and written by Alfred Burrage in his pseudonym of Charlton Lea.

a 1904 version by Alfred Burrage. 21

a remake of The Curse of the Wraydons, written in 1928 by surrealist Swiss author Maurice Sandoz, which served as base for a movie that bears the same name in 1946. 22



The early works invariably presented Spring Heeled Jack as an arch-villain, but remarkably, his figure experienced a metamorphosis throughout the years, and his role was completely swapped to a superhero. The first penny dreadful to introduce such a change was the 1860s edition, and this variation was adopted by all the publications that followed, reaching its highest development in Burrage's 1904 version.


Spring Heeled Jack, depicted on a modern comic (2003).




In these stories (which take place in 1805, after Napoleon Bonaparte has conquered Europe), Spring Heeled Jack is Bertram Wraydon, a young and handsome lieutenant of the British Army, heir to £10,000 a year, who is unfairly framed for treason by his evil half brother Hubert Sedgefield. After escaping from his prison, Wraydon returns seeking revenge on the villains, assuming a secret identity and an odd-looking costume with mane and talons, fighting against evil and helping the innocent. He has a secret lair, where he has hidden what he managed to save of his inheritance, selflessly using it to fund his heroic activities. These include the design of a spring mechanism that allows him to leap over thirty feet, and a device to breathe flames at evildoers. He even has a trademark which he leaves at the scene of his actions; a letter "S" that he carves with his rapier after his mission is accomplished.


Although lacking durable literary value, the Spring Heeled Jack series exerted an important influence as a predecessor of modern day pulp magazine and comic superheroes, taking into consideration that they were written twenty years before the first Zorro adventure and more than half a century before other fictional characters like Batman or the Lone Ranger were created. Such lasting influence and its consequent cultural importance were, for most part of the 20th century, practically forgotten.


However, a renewed interest in the legend of Spring Heeled Jack has sparked in the last years. Several English comic characters were based directly on him since the early 1970s, like Jumping Jack, the Leaping Phantom, Spring-Heeled Jock and Spring-Heeled Jackson 23.


Even to the present day, the tale continues to attract the imagination of writers, like Philip Pullman (author of the best-selling trilogy His Dark Materials), who published his novel Spring Heeled Jack – A Story of Bravery and Evil in 1989 (ISBN 0440862299). Best-selling author Stephen King also wrote about a modern-day Spring Heeled Jack in his short story Strawberry Spring.


Recently, several comic authors like Ver Curtiss 24, Kevin Olson and David Hitchcock 25, have made Spring Heeled Jack the protagonist of different comic adventures. These series, which are set in a shady and postmodern environment, once again give him the role of a superhero.


The story has also provided inspiration for music artists. Singer Morrissey's song titled "Spring-Heeled Jim" was released on his 1994 album Vauxhall and I and reappeared the next year on the World of Morrissey album.26. Other musicians have named their bands after the legendary character, including the English duo Spring Heel Jack and the American ska group Spring Heeled Jack USA.


The most recent example is in a quest in the 2006 video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in which the main character is sent to collect the "Boots of Springheel Jak," which greatly increase the character's jumping ability and speed.