Via the wonderful reporters at Reuters, news comes to us of a meeting between an elderly Croatian farmer, Jako Vrancic, and four ‘extra-terrestrials’ earlier this month, close to the coastal town of Sibenik. Mr. Vrancic — described as down-to-earth by his friends — was working in a field, when an ‘iron-shaped spacecraft’ quietly landed beside him. Four wee child-sized creatures emerged, and conversed with Mr. V in a ‘broken form of Croatian’. He offered them ham and dried figs, but they said they weren’t hungry.
CROATIAN?
I have to admit, I’m a little bit riled by the title of the report: ‘Aliens speak Croatian — who’d have thought?’. Well, why wouldn’t they? If they can speak English to people in the U.S., Great Britain, Ireland and other English speaking countries, or French to people in France, why shouldn’t they speak Croatian? There would appear to be an assumption within our English speaking populations that if we are to be visited by extra-terrestrials, then they should certainly speak English.
Now whether this idea is born of Hollywood’s sci-fi machine, or general cultural chauvinism, I’m not sure. But surely a creature who might be able to travel from some other point in space or time and can immediately speak English, could learn Croatian just as easily? Incidentally, as far as I’m aware, this is the third Croatian UFO report in the last 12 months, as recorded in Joseph Trainor’s ‘UFO Roundup‘. (Reuters Tuesday 13th January 1998).
The Sunday Times (Britain) of January 18th divulged a strange tale concerning the apparent housecall made to the Kent, U.K., residence of the former Tory home secretary Michael Howard on March 8, 1997.
On the night in question, several people including Sarah Hall, a reporter for the Folkestone Herald, witnessed a UFO in the immediate vicinity. She was driving along Donkey Street in Lympne, near Hythe, at about 3am when she heard a ‘strange humming’ and stopped her car. Ahead of her a huge triangular craft hovering above a field.
Ms. Hall said that “it had a large dome at one end and lots of bright lights around the sides and looked quite shiny. I had no idea what it was. I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. After a few seconds it shot off and stopped 500 metres away. It then moved and stopped four times before flying off.”
Eight other reports were lodged with local Ufologists, including two firemen who reported a similar object above Howard’s house.
Hall wrote a report for the paper, but when the story was published, the event had ‘moved’ to a different location. Her employers have allegedly refused an give an explanation. When, in a later article, Hall suggested that Howard’s house was involved, the Tories complained, and she had to stop writing about it. Apart from some odd comments from ex-ministers, the Tory party have declined to comment on the incident. Now *there’s* a story I’m sure will grow with time.
YET MORE GLOBSTERS
In response to last week’s desperate plea for Tasmanian Globster pictures, Jason Hellwege came up with the goods, and has temporarily placed photographs and quicktime movies online for your viewing pleasure.[Link now dead – try here instead »]
AND YET MORE CULTS
Blathers 1.34 and 1.35 dealt with recent cultish goings on. It seems to be a happening time for cults, with Hoh-Ming Chen and his 150 followers in Garland Texas reckoning that ‘God would be reincarnated as man on March 31 at precisely 10 am local time/11 am at his modest house on Ridgedale Drive’. I’m sure at a coffee morning would be in order for the event.
Albert Reynolds, former Irish Taoiseach of Ireland, has been hanging out with Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church a.k.a. ‘The Moonies’. Mr Reynolds defends his actions by mentioning that the late Mother Teresa, the former US president, Mr George Bush, and the former British prime minister, Mr Edward Heath, has also associated with the Church. (The Irish Times Monday, 5th January, 1998)
Dr Richard Seed, the aptly named U.S. physicist at the centre of the current cloning controversies, has been offered money and support by The Raelians, previously mentioned way back in Blather 1.5, for their plans to start a cloning business.
Seed has claimed that he will have a cloned human developing inside a womb by mid-1999. However, Dr Ian Wilmut, the British embryologist who cloned Dolly the sheep, reckons Dr Seed is heading down a “dangerous” path. “To produce Dolly we had to use 277 embryos. A quarter of the lambs died within a few days because of underdevelopment. Lambs are one thing, but it could be worse with humans.” (The Sunday Telegraph, 11th January 1998)
Nineteen members, 16 adults and three children, of the ‘Isis Holistic Centre’, a cult recently spoken about in this publication, tried for a second time to ‘do themselves in’ on the 23rd of January at a farm on the island, but were arrested by police, after a tipoff via Interpol from a relative who had received a ‘goodbye’ call. (Reuters)
It’s all *go* around here.
FOOT IN MOUTH
Last week, I went to great lengths to criticise Tom Morten (The Scotsman ) for his dismissive comments concerning, as he called it, ‘crypto-zoology’. I quoted a lengthy treatise on the meaning of the word ‘cryptozoology’. Unfortunately I attributed the piece to Ben S. Roesch, whereas in fact it was authored by Loren Coleman, and appears on Ben’s website. Apologies all round for that gaffe.
A WORD FROM THE MAGONIANS
Some news from Magonia’s Mark Pilkington:
We’ve now got Kevin McClure’s excellent Abduction Watch newsletter on line, essential reading for anyone interested in the tattered fringes of ufology – “Protecting the universe from the scum of the earth.” One of the best spotlights on extreme UFO matters out there, recent issues have featured in depth reports on the “Unknown Soldier” story featured by Kevin in the latest FT; Tony Dodd’s suspect animal mutilations and Derrel Sims, Alien Hunter (TM)’s ultraviolet abductees.
Beam it down from Magonia
Also, an interview with American psychic, occultist, playwright and ufologist Eugenia Macer.
Meanwhile in the paper world, issue 62 is about to roll off the presses:
– Martin Kottmeyer checks out alien big-heads
– Matt Graeber links ink-blots, cave art and UFOs
– John Rimmer tells ETH proponents “Put up or shut up”
Magonia Online
Dave (daev) Walsh
23rd January 1998
