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McAvennie

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Mar 13, 2003
Messages
3,996
Report that the Loch Ness Monster has been seen in the Thames. I will take a moment to just rant at the utter idiocy of what passes as 'journalists' these days, if it is in the Thames it is clearly not the fucking Loch Ness Monster...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nster-swimming-Thames.html?ito=chromelessDM_0

Two videos at the link, there is certainly something there but it seems almost too static in the first clip, maybe just the angle but oddly doesn't seem to be moving. The second video is one of those badly filmed where you see something but by the time it focuses all the action is over. Suggestion the second clip is close to early April in release, with all that goes with that stigma.

Is there any historic references to a beast lurking beneath the green aqua of the Thames?

Certainly whales have been seen as far as central London in the Thames, and we have other threads on giant catfish. Would military test any smaller submarine in such a built-up area? Or is this just CGI, or the most prosaic of all, waves from an out of sight boat?
 
Apart from the odd small whale, no.

The DM seem to historicaly have had a lot of activity in promoting nonsense in loch ness (Its not all the Inverness courier...)
 
Report that the Loch Ness Monster has been seen in the Thames. I will take a moment to just rant at the utter idiocy of what passes as 'journalists' these days, if it is in the Thames it is clearly not the fucking Loch Ness Monster...
Au contraire. I once watched a documentary about a man who lived in a police box where the LNM travelled from Loch Ness to the Thames.

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Skarasen

(But yes I agree, it does my head in too)
 
Report that the Loch Ness Monster has been seen in the Thames. I will take a moment to just rant at the utter idiocy of what passes as 'journalists' these days, if it is in the Thames it is clearly not the fucking Loch Ness Monster...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nster-swimming-Thames.html?ito=chromelessDM_0

Two videos at the link, there is certainly something there but it seems almost too static in the first clip, maybe just the angle but oddly doesn't seem to be moving. The second video is one of those badly filmed where you see something but by the time it focuses all the action is over. Suggestion the second clip is close to early April in release, with all that goes with that stigma.

Is there any historic references to a beast lurking beneath the green aqua of the Thames?

Certainly whales have been seen as far as central London in the Thames, and we have other threads on giant catfish. Would military test any smaller submarine in such a built-up area? Or is this just CGI, or the most prosaic of all, waves from an out of sight boat?
The bloody monster has broken Covid lockdown! Before you know it the beastie will be on Bournmouth beach kicking up a fuss.
 
I've watched the video on the Daily Mail page a few times. There is a definite moment when whatever it is rises further out of the water, and there is then a splash some distance back, consistent with a tail fluke breaking the surface. I'm inclined to believe it is a small cetacean.

I doubt it is an April fool joke because it isn't done well enough and isn't silly enough.

As for the "Nessie" thing. This is an example of two-stage stupidity: (1) the presumption that any unknown creature in Loch Ness would be a single specimen rather than a breeding population, and (2) that any unknown creature sighted anywhere else in the world must be Nessie. It doesn't matter in any real sense as it is just bubblegum journalism, but nevertheless it is irritating.

The equivalent would be a headline like "Roswell alien seen flying over Warminster".
 
...and (2) that any unknown creature sighted anywhere else in the world must be Nessie. It doesn't matter in any real sense as it is just bubblegum journalism, but nevertheless it is irritating...

To be fair - and with a nod to the fact that yes, journalists can be lazy, and yes, some people are thick as mince - I think this, rather than being primarily either of those things, is maybe just another example of a process which happens across the board, and which we're all probably guilty of collaborating in without even really thinking about it.

Nessie has basically become a generic trademark, in the same way as Aspirin, Google and Hoover (Bigfoot too, I reckon). It might annoy Alan Partridge when someone refers to a public address system as a Tannoy - but I can't say that kind of thing exercises me very much.
 
To be fair - and with a nod to the fact that yes, journalists can be lazy, and yes, some people are thick as mince - I think this, rather than being primarily either of those things, is maybe just another example of a process which happens across the board, and which we're all probably guilty of collaborating in without even really thinking about it.

Nessie has basically become a generic trademark, in the same way as Aspirin, Google and Hoover (Bigfoot too, I reckon). It might annoy Alan Partridge when someone refers to a public address system as a Tannoy - but I can't say that kind of thing exercises me very much.

Bigfoot is a Dyson man....
 
To be fair - and with a nod to the fact that yes, journalists can be lazy, and yes, some people are thick as mince - I think this, rather than being primarily either of those things, is maybe just another example of a process which happens across the board, and which we're all probably guilty of collaborating in without even really thinking about it.

Nessie has basically become a generic trademark, in the same way as Aspirin, Google and Hoover (Bigfoot too, I reckon). It might annoy Alan Partridge when someone refers to a public address system as a Tannoy - but I can't say that kind of thing exercises me very much.
I take your point to some extent. It does no one any harm and causes no real confusion for all ballpoint pens to be "biros", all vacuum cleaners to be "hoovers", all cola drinks to be "coke", and even for information to be found "on Google" rather than "with Google". I could even understand someone referring to "Bigfoot" as "a sort of American yeti".

By extension, if "the entire breeding population of an unknown species of megafauna" is called "the" monster, that makes a sort of sense.

If these journalists asked, "Has the Thames got its own Nessie?" it would fit that general pattern. However, "Nessie was seen in the Thames" is a bridge too far for me.

Maybe I just don't like journalists being paid more than me for writing with less care and imagination. (Exit grumbling bitterly.)
 
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Nessie has basically become a generic trademark, in the same way as Aspirin, Google and Hoover (Bigfoot too, I reckon). It might annoy Alan Partridge when someone refers to a public address system as a Tannoy - but I can't say that kind of thing exercises me very much.

I totally agree with this. Nessie as any weird water thing, Bigfoot as an icon for wild things, and (here in the states) chupacabra as any weird dead thing. Cryptozoology as pop culture has entirely surpassed its status as a field of study.
 
To be fair - and with a nod to the fact that yes, journalists can be lazy, and yes, some people are thick as mince - I think this, rather than being primarily either of those things, is maybe just another example of a process which happens across the board, and which we're all probably guilty of collaborating in without even really thinking about it.

Nessie has basically become a generic trademark, in the same way as Aspirin, Google and Hoover (Bigfoot too, I reckon). It might annoy Alan Partridge when someone refers to a public address system as a Tannoy - but I can't say that kind of thing exercises me very much.
Knowing me, knowing you. A-ha. Tannoy is a speaker brand. I guess they're known for their PA systems in the UK?
 
Knowing me, knowing you. A-ha. Tannoy is a speaker brand. I guess they're known for their PA systems in the UK?

Yup. I think they're a British firm. Known for PA systems, but they also do standard speakers - I own a pair, in fact.
 
Yup. I think they're a British firm. Known for PA systems, but they also do standard speakers - I own a pair, in fact.
I own a pair too, in fact. Use them as PC speakers.
 
Report that the Loch Ness Monster has been seen in the Thames. I will take a moment to just rant at the utter idiocy of what passes as 'journalists' these days, if it is in the Thames it is clearly not the fucking Loch Ness Monster...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nster-swimming-Thames.html?ito=chromelessDM_0

Two videos at the link, there is certainly something there but it seems almost too static in the first clip, maybe just the angle but oddly doesn't seem to be moving. The second video is one of those badly filmed where you see something but by the time it focuses all the action is over. Suggestion the second clip is close to early April in release, with all that goes with that stigma.

Is there any historic references to a beast lurking beneath the green aqua of the Thames?

Certainly whales have been seen as far as central London in the Thames, and we have other threads on giant catfish. Would military test any smaller submarine in such a built-up area? Or is this just CGI, or the most prosaic of all, waves from an out of sight boat?
Not so much the River Thames, but certainly the Dregpike (sometimes spelled "Dregpyke") of Cumbria is supposed to resemble a giant pike with horse's legs and mane and inhabits the rivers and water bodies of the Lake District.
 

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Not so much the River Thames, but certainly the Dregpike (sometimes spelled "Dregpyke") of Cumbria is supposed to resemble a giant pike with horse's legs and mane and inhabits the rivers and water bodies of the Lake District.

Twiggywitch:

What are the bibliographic details for the book from which you posted that page image?
 
Looks like it might be from a book of hunting reminiscences, rather than one specifically about weird stuff. I found one Lakes based book on the Internet Archive that looks like the right era for the style - Foxhunting on the Lakeland Fells, by Richard Clapham - but the type settings, page number and heading don't match. Seems to be about stag-hunting, anyway.
 
And where's the "respectable snap" taken by the "Kodak fellow"?
 
Not so much the River Thames, but certainly the Dregpike (sometimes spelled "Dregpyke") of Cumbria is supposed to resemble a giant pike with horse's legs and mane and inhabits the rivers and water bodies of the Lake District.
Haha. A fairly typical "chimera" made up of disparate parts.

My stepfather tells me that when he was a young lad living on the outskirts of Nottingham, his brother told him that if he searched carefully along the bank of the Trent he might find the nest of a "fan tailed water rabbit" — and he confesses that he believed him.
 
Not so much the River Thames, but certainly the Dregpike (sometimes spelled "Dregpyke") of Cumbria is supposed to resemble a giant pike with horse's legs and mane and inhabits the rivers and water bodies of the Lake District.

Just out of interest, I opened the OS map of the area, and plotted the rough route of the stag hunt:

Cumbria-Dregpike-Fortean-01.jpg


Penrith, Cumbria at top dead centre; Ullswater at middle left

1) "...down Lowther Park..."

2) "...almost as far as Whale..."

3) "...towards Skivsgill [actually "Skirsgill"] Hill..."

4) "...over crest of Riddingleys Top..."

5) "...down to tumuli and standing stones..."

6) "...Elderbeck..."

7) "...towards Pooley Bridge..."

8) "...intending to head to Bowerbank..."

X) "...watched from safety of Eusemere Hill..."

OS Landranger 90 (1:50;000) covers the area.

maximus otter
 
Looks like it might be from a book of hunting reminiscences, rather than one specifically about weird stuff. I found one Lakes based book on the Internet Archive that looks like the right era for the style - Foxhunting on the Lakeland Fells, by Richard Clapham - but the type settings, page number and heading don't match. Seems to be about stag-hunting, anyway.
I think you're right. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of these kind of Stag and Fox Hunting gazetteer-type records of hunts being printed - sometimes privately - in the 1800s and early 1900s. Difficult to say for sure which one - there quite a few candidates on the internet Archive...
 
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