Weird Wednesday

Three fuzzy snaps from the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Weird Weekend held last weekend in the community centre of the North Devon village of Woolfardisworthy (Woolsery for short). Under the logo we have Jon Downes, the director of the organisation - surely just the geezer to hunt man-beasts worldwide - and below him zoological director Richard Freeman with his even furrier friend Orang Pendek. Weird stuff to be sure.

Pretty cool, though. Got to meet fortean supremo Andy Roberts who, incredibly, turns out to have moved about five miles away from me a few years ago; re-met Mike Dash, the former Fortean Times publisher who once offered me a job as a sub-editor on that esteemed journal; the Danish cryptozoologist Lars Thomas; and lots of other interesting chaps. Thanks to Lars' research, they are now convinced that a leopard or two prowls in the woods around the village. The 'Tasmanian tiger' skin he examined turned out to belong to a small African antelope, though. Can't win 'em all. I have high hopes that Mike and Andy will both be writing for Paranormal Magazine in the near future.

Read more about the CFZ at www.cfz.org.uk

Found Friday

Removing the last few sheets of printer paper in my drawer I found this artifact from the days of running my shop, The Emporium. The rather spiffing image is by Jonathan, of course, and in full colour was used for the signboard. What this is doing here, printed in a kind of fawn-grey colour, I don't know. Maybe it was originally intended for fliers.

I'm off to the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Weird Weekend in Devon in an hour, so no more entries till Tuesday. Much weirdness to report on Weird Wednesday, no doubt!

Monstrous Monday

"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" - Francisco Goya's famous engraving. Richard Freeman, of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, has written an article for Paranormal Magazine issue 49 on mistaken monsters and has asked for it to be used to help illustrate the piece. So it seemed a fair post for Monstrous Monday, too.