Things We're Observing This Month

January 2023

Bound Printed Material We’re Reading

Always put the “normal” looking book on the top of your stack just in case company stops by unexpectedly.

• Names on the Land, Geroge R. Stewart: This book analyzes how places and landmarks were named across the United States. From the earliest inhabitants through the 1950s, Stewart’s exhaustive research illustrates “how close to magic is the power of a name in men’s minds.” It makes us wonder - what sort of magic lurks behind place names like Big Bone Lick, Kentucky?

• Suspicious Minds, Rob Brotherton: Conspiracy-minded people are everywhere and don’t always fit the mold of basement-dwelling tin-foil-hat-wearers (we, for instance, prefer to cover our walls and windows with aluminum space blankets to block out mind-control waves). To prove his point, Rob Brotherton pulls a 2006 quote from former president Barack Obama: “...in distilled form, the explanations of both the right and the left have become mirror images of each other. They are stories of conspiracy, of America being hijacked by an evil cabal.” Thanks, Obama!

• Alchemy & Mysticism, Alexander Roob: 16th century alchemists were so concerned with protecting their sources and methods that they encoded instructions for making ‘gold’ within esoteric “puzzle pictures.” The fantastical depictions often looked like scenes from a Hieronymus Bosch fever dream and were intended to be deciphered only by the worthiest adepts. 

  We suspect that alchemists only pretended to understand each other’s arcane images and symbols in order to appear smart; knowing that no one else understood them any better to challenge their interpretation. 

  The 16th century alchemical text, Rosario philosophum, sums up their approach:

  “Wherever we have spoken openly, we have (actually) said nothing. But where we have written something in code and in pictures we have concealed the truth.”

  (Wait. Since the author wrote his sentence “openly,” are we to conclude that he’s talking nonsense? Alchemy is confusing.)

This picture purports to contain the steps for turning common matter into gold. It’s a convoluted mess, but still easier to follow than most of the instructions from IKEA.

• Alien Invasions!, Michael Stein: Have you ever owned a brand-new book that you couldn’t stop smelling over and over? The ones dripping with that pungent “new book” aroma that invite you to inhale? This is one of those books. In it, various authors take turns tracing the evolution of extraterrestrials in popular culture while identifying many of the sociological and cultural factors that impacted their development.

  New to us was the 1864 French tale, “An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars.” Contributor Ron Miller includes this pseudo-nonfiction account about the discovery of a mummified Martian because of the resemblance it bears to contemporary descriptions of ‘the Grays.’ 

  We couldn’t take our nose out of this book, and not only because of its irresistible fragrance… but partly because of that.

Someone call Whitley Strieber to ID the body!

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Things We’re Reading Online

• UFO Conjectures:  Rich Reynolds relishes in trolling the popular UFO crowd—even taking shots at his own readers from time to time—“I get the idea that many here are not into reading nor are well-read.” It sounds harsh, but his intent is to challenge complacent thinking about a topic that’s barely evolved in the last 70 years. Come for the insightful commentary on UFOs and their implications for humanity, stay for the hilarious destruction of ufology and its subculture! (Yo Rich, can we get an invite to the VIP-only blog?)

• Getting Spooked: Tanner F. Boyle’s blog about the crossover between the intelligence community and UFOs has the makings of a full-length book. It’s like Tom Clancy meets Jacques Vallée, but with more Always Sunny references. Highly readable and original.

• The Weird and Wild West: The Paranormalist provides a boots-on-the-mountain-top perspective of the strange goings-on west of the Mississippi. His first-hand reporting and local knowledge give these regular dispatches an authentic feel. While his profile states that he’s on a mission to document the wacky West, it’s also possible he’s just looking for excuses to explore its gorgeous backcountry. Either way, we all win.

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Things We’re Listening To

• Weaponized: The new podcast by UFO-wunderkind Jeremey Corbell and former correspondent for Art Bell’s Area 2000 show, George Knapp, debuted this month. Their first episode recounts the Bob Lazar/John Lear/Area 51 days through the formation of AAWSAP and AATIP.

  The hosts’ familiarity with each other makes it an enjoyable listen, and the ease with which they toss around a little inside baseball is an added bonus for fans of the real deep cuts.

  For instance, Corbell declares that his “gateway drug into UFOs was John Lear”—an experience we can only imagine must be like skipping cigarettes or booze and going straight to PCP.

  Knapp later refers to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security Ronald Moultrie as “a muckety muck from the Pentagon,” which is both redundant and fairly accurate.

Corbell after a heroic dose of John Lear

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Issue #12