Aug 13, 2025 03:27 AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawfordsville_monster
One great flaming red eye, about 18 feet long and 8 feet wide.
![[Image: 42303423_804.jpg]](https://static.dw.com/image/42303423_804.jpg)
One great flaming red eye, about 18 feet long and 8 feet wide.
Aug 13, 2025 03:29 AM
Quote:Killdeers, starlings, whatever.
Typical backpedaling. Anything BUT what over 100 eyewitnesses say they saw over a two night and day period. Which was some sort of writhing red-eyed serpent with fins and definitely not a flock of birds which they all would be well familiar with.
Aug 13, 2025 03:31 AM
Two local men, John Hornbeck and Abe Hernley, "followed the wraith about town and finally discovered it to be a flock of many hundred killdeer." The Crawfordsville Journal suggested that Crawfordsville's newly installed electric lights disoriented the birds, which caused them to hover above the city. The birds' wings and white under-feathers likely resulted in misidentification.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawfordsville_monster
Aug 13, 2025 03:34 AM
"The citizens of Crawfordsville described a violently flapping "thing" with a flaming red "eye", twenty feet long and eight feet wide. Descriptions of the creature vary, with some accounts suggesting that it had no head, and others describing it as having glowing red eyes and hot breath. Accounts generally agree that it is a large rectangular creature, possibly eel like in appearance, with several undulating fins down the sides of its body.
During a reported second appearance, witnesses described the creature as writhing and squirming, and producing a wheezing sound as if it were in pain. One of the strangest accounts was when a Methodist pastor named Rev. G. W. Switzer and his wife also saw the animal. The creature writhed as though in great pain, "squirmed in agony" and sounded a "wheezing, plaintive noise" as it hovered at 300 feet.
What is strange about the creature is that it has an eye in its mouth, three jaws, and it appears to be a cyclops. It also seems to be eel-like in shape, with feathery protrusions coming out of its sides and back."
During a reported second appearance, witnesses described the creature as writhing and squirming, and producing a wheezing sound as if it were in pain. One of the strangest accounts was when a Methodist pastor named Rev. G. W. Switzer and his wife also saw the animal. The creature writhed as though in great pain, "squirmed in agony" and sounded a "wheezing, plaintive noise" as it hovered at 300 feet.
What is strange about the creature is that it has an eye in its mouth, three jaws, and it appears to be a cyclops. It also seems to be eel-like in shape, with feathery protrusions coming out of its sides and back."
Aug 13, 2025 03:39 AM
Just stop. You've already proven yourself a fool.
Aug 13, 2025 03:19 PM
I think it might have been one of these….
https://pacsentinel.com/batsquatch/
Even has a beer named after it.
Beer or flying Bigfoot, maybe MR has encountered one or both.
Arts and Culture, Oregon. Who knew?
https://pacsentinel.com/batsquatch/
Even has a beer named after it.
Beer or flying Bigfoot, maybe MR has encountered one or both.
Arts and Culture, Oregon. Who knew?
Aug 13, 2025 06:51 PM
It's funny how MR derailed his own thread.
Aug 14, 2025 06:43 PM
(Aug 13, 2025 06:51 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]It's funny how MR derailed his own thread.
Happens frequently.
Has anyone given any thought to Ceremonial Chinese Dragon Kites? Looked it up on Google AI and found that Chinese immigrants settled in Indiana late 19th century. Also dragon kites are traditionally flown during the Autumn festival which runs from about mid August to mid September. Kind of puts Sept 5 1891 right smack in the appropriate time zone for spotting flying eels. Imagine being a Chinese immigrant newly arrived in Indiana and you fly your kite for a couple days during the celebration. Then you learn fellow citizens are spotting flying one eyed monsters with wings and fins. How likely are you to open up and tell the truth to the authorities? Stupid people still believe the monster lived(s) or at least they promote such nonsense.
https://intothewind.com/kites/dragon-kit...p5oSN0jYT2
Aug 15, 2025 10:19 PM
I miss the darker subversive element of being queer.. Of being a bucker of traditional values and normalcy simply for who you were. The dangerous midnight liaisons in back alleys and parks. The forbiddenness and secrecy of what one truly desired. The drugs. The weirdness of it all, as captured in novels by John Rechy and William Burroughs. Lost vagabonds forever condemned to roam the desolate outskirts of society. French author Jean Lorrain understood this all too well:
"Jean Lorrain was the kind of queer icon who didn’t just live in the margins—he etched his name into them with a poisoned quill and a splash of absinthe. At a time when being openly gay was scandalous, dangerous, and often criminal, Lorrain strutted through Belle Époque Paris like a peacock dipped in arsenic. He was unapologetically flamboyant, fiercely witty, and utterly obsessed with the grotesque beauty of decadence. Think Wilde with a darker edge, Baudelaire with better cheekbones, and a penchant for scandal that made him both feared and adored.
His novels and short stories are drenched in perfume, velvet, and venom. He wrote of opium dens, drag balls, and aristocratic depravity with a gaze that was both voyeuristic and vengeful. Lorrain didn’t just describe Paris’s underbelly—he seduced it, mocked it, and made it shimmer with queerness. His characters were often gender-fluid, morally ambiguous, and dripping with erotic tension. He gave voice to the outcasts, the aesthetes, the men who loved men in secret salons and smoky cabarets. And he did it all while wearing eyeliner and feuding publicly with other literary giants.
Lorrain’s #queerness wasn’t coded—it was couture. He flaunted his relationships with young men, wrote openly about same-sex desire, and cultivated a persona that blurred the line between author and character. He was a master of the mask, but never one to hide. His dandyism wasn’t just fashion—it was rebellion. In a society obsessed with conformity, he made art out of excess and identity out of artifice."
#fyp #BelleÉpoqueParis #JeanLorrain #queerhistory
"Jean Lorrain was the kind of queer icon who didn’t just live in the margins—he etched his name into them with a poisoned quill and a splash of absinthe. At a time when being openly gay was scandalous, dangerous, and often criminal, Lorrain strutted through Belle Époque Paris like a peacock dipped in arsenic. He was unapologetically flamboyant, fiercely witty, and utterly obsessed with the grotesque beauty of decadence. Think Wilde with a darker edge, Baudelaire with better cheekbones, and a penchant for scandal that made him both feared and adored.
His novels and short stories are drenched in perfume, velvet, and venom. He wrote of opium dens, drag balls, and aristocratic depravity with a gaze that was both voyeuristic and vengeful. Lorrain didn’t just describe Paris’s underbelly—he seduced it, mocked it, and made it shimmer with queerness. His characters were often gender-fluid, morally ambiguous, and dripping with erotic tension. He gave voice to the outcasts, the aesthetes, the men who loved men in secret salons and smoky cabarets. And he did it all while wearing eyeliner and feuding publicly with other literary giants.
Lorrain’s #queerness wasn’t coded—it was couture. He flaunted his relationships with young men, wrote openly about same-sex desire, and cultivated a persona that blurred the line between author and character. He was a master of the mask, but never one to hide. His dandyism wasn’t just fashion—it was rebellion. In a society obsessed with conformity, he made art out of excess and identity out of artifice."
#fyp #BelleÉpoqueParis #JeanLorrain #queerhistory
Aug 27, 2025 02:05 AM
"When chocolate first reached Switzerland in the 17th century, it was not the sweet comfort food we know today. It was exotic, dark, and suspicious. Priests even warned parishioners that drinking too much of this bitter brew could tempt the soul just like wine or lust. In certain folktales, chocolate was whispered about as a devil’s bargain, something that stirred passions and weakened restraint.
Yet at the same time, merchants claimed it was powerful medicine. They boasted that it gave strength, sharpened the mind, and even improved virility. The push and pull between indulgence and morality played out in village squares and pulpits alike, giving chocolate an almost mythical aura.
What fascinates me is how quickly the story flipped. By the 19th century, pioneers like Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé transformed chocolate into something entirely new by creating milk chocolate. What was once branded as a sinful temptation became a source of national pride. Switzerland went from warning its people against chocolate to becoming the global symbol of it.
To me, that transformation is remarkable. It feels like Switzerland made peace with its “devilish” indulgence and then turned it into its sweetest identity. Whenever I bite into a square of Swiss chocolate, I can’t help but think about that history. Something once feared as dangerous is now celebrated as the very heart of Swiss culture."
Yet at the same time, merchants claimed it was powerful medicine. They boasted that it gave strength, sharpened the mind, and even improved virility. The push and pull between indulgence and morality played out in village squares and pulpits alike, giving chocolate an almost mythical aura.
What fascinates me is how quickly the story flipped. By the 19th century, pioneers like Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé transformed chocolate into something entirely new by creating milk chocolate. What was once branded as a sinful temptation became a source of national pride. Switzerland went from warning its people against chocolate to becoming the global symbol of it.
To me, that transformation is remarkable. It feels like Switzerland made peace with its “devilish” indulgence and then turned it into its sweetest identity. Whenever I bite into a square of Swiss chocolate, I can’t help but think about that history. Something once feared as dangerous is now celebrated as the very heart of Swiss culture."