FT409

[maximus otter]

The Immortal Baby!

The Sevenoaks jackal!

Gauguin’s mystery birds!

maximus otter

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Rather soggy FT just arrived.

 

[AgProv]

Rather soggy FT just arrived.

Yes. One thing you really have to watch out for with the paper the FT is printed on: never try to read it in a damp place. (bathroom, for instance, or even with a lot of hot steam, say in the kitchen with a just-boiled kettle nearby). I noticed the pristine flat unspoiled paper of the new mag began to crease and ruck up even without direct contact with liquid - just the vicinity of warm steamy air. (not badly or seriously so - but it was noticeable within a minute or two). This was interesting. If you archive them, as I do, keep in a dry place....

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Yes. One thing you really have to watch out for with the paper the FT is printed on: never try to read it in a damp place. (bathroom, for instance, or even with a lot of hot steam, say in the kitchen with a just-boiled kettle nearby). I noticed the pristine flat unspoiled paper of the new mag began to crease and ruck up even without direct contact with liquid - just the vicinity of warm steamy air. (not badly or seriously so - but it was noticeable within a minute or two). This was interesting. If you archive them, as I do, keep in a dry place....

So I shouldnt read it in the shower?

 

[AgProv]

So I shouldnt read it in the shower?

Better not, it might disintegrate! Seriously, the effect is slight, it doesn't detract from being able to read the mag, it's just a slight observable crinkling effect on the page... but you look at it and think "I'm sure that was perfectly smooth and flat a few seconds ago. And that recently boiled kettle is six feet away. Should smooth glossy paper be doing that?"

EDIT: thinking about it this could just be a "rite of passage" for any new magazine when it's fresh off the press - I can still smell the printer's inks, glorious smell - and it gets actually opened for the first time. Although, and it has to be said, FT's paper feels noticably thinner than many (I've commented on this before and had some interesting answers, thank you) - and it might simply be more susceptible to this effect than most. And I was looking at it in relatively bright, strong, summer daylight. Maybe I just haven't noticed this before!

Justnow, nothing much occurs to me to say about the actual content - but then I tend to "dip" the magazine rather than read it cover to cover. The only immediate observation is one I'm reluctant to jot down as it overlaps the "political" and I really don't want another mention in the "nailed to a tree" thread. (Thinks: ask a mod)

As one who has lived for some time in the general area - I really appreciated the IHTM feature on Haunted Flintshire, especially the events in Flint itself! I wasn't actually born "off fflint" but I lived nearby: Connah's Quay, Shotton, Buckley and Wrecsam. The first unformed observation might be - anywhere living in the shadow of a great mediaeval castle which in its time denoted a contested and fought-over border where two ethnicities, two languages, two cultures collide, - well, you are going to get Forteana. History and geography kind of dictate this.

 

[ghughesarch]

The IHTM which describes the view of sand and sea from the quayside at Wrexham stretches things a bit, if you look at a map.

 

[AgProv]

The IHTM which describes the view of sand and sea from the quayside at Wrexham stretches things a bit, if you look at a map.

I wondered that too; always assuming this is Wrexham and not a story transplanted in from elsewhere (and this is IHTM, a first-person account), I'm wondering if what the storyteller describes might be somewhere out in the "Greater Wrexham" area where there are canals - the Ellsemere Canal runs nearby, for instance. (Set in a place adjacent to the canals, where boat-building or maintainance used to happen, an abandoned boatshop with a slipway) and a disregarded wrecked hull might have been forgotten about?) Or a likely candidate might be the lake at Dyffryn Moss where pleasure-boating happens, and bits of it fit the description.

EDIT - just re-read; it's not an early childhood memory from somebody who might have conflated locations; author clearly said he's 25 and was looking out over actual sea. So when sea is mentioned, and Wrecsam Maelor is a significant distance inland, this is bloody odd. could this be a mis-spelling of Wroxham, which is a long way away in Norfolk? This might just be an editorial error, easily done. (Thinking of how I once confused Northwich in Cheshire with Norwich in Norfolk, for instance.) Otherwise, this could have happened anywhere; nothing else in the story ties it to Wales. Wroxham is on the Norfolk Broads and has a long history of boat-building and maintainence. But Wroxham, Norfolk, is also a long way inland and the Broads cannot in any way be mistaken for sea.

EDIT 2 - i've just been remided that up until Beeching, there was a minor rail line out of Wrexham that conected with the coast and the main trunk line, (Holyhead-London) at a very minor port called Connah's Quay. I lived in CQ for a year; I remember the harbour there seemed a lot bigger than it had a right to be and only a small part of the quayside appeared to be in use. with heavy industry, mining and steelworking declining in the Wrexham area, the need for a largely freight line connecting the city to the coast became redundant and the last working part of it was closed in the 1970's. But I',m thinking... the author of the piece remembers Wrexham and the Quay from when he was 25. I'm just wondering if this is another possible conflation - Connah's Quay, recalled several decades later, as if it were a part of Wrexham and not a small seaport at least ten miles away. I can attest the waterfront here had a truly spooky vibe, of something asleep and in long hibernation. Lots of forgotten derelict boats and wrecks, too.

More mystery.

 

[AgProv]

Another thought. "The Reverend's Review" of the film about the film censor who goes off the rails and starts murdering people in inventively horrible ways. Talk about somebody taking her work home with her.

This got me thinking about the great Willie Rushton, one of the founders of satirical mag Private Eye and a comedian, actor and comic writer.

He got so annoyed with the self-appointed Moral Guardian and clean-up campaigner Mary Whitehouse, especially at the way that newspapers were reporting uncritically and treating her as an authority on moral values, that he read her published books and wrote a satirical rebuttal called The Filth Amendment. About 1978, but if you can get hold of it, it's a funny, savagely satirical, comeback on Mary W.

Anyway. Rushton notes the sheer volume of TV and film-viewing that volunteer workers from the NCVL and the Festival of Light were doing so as to support their contention that too much watching of permissive, liberal, left-wing TV will turn the average viewer into a slavering sexually depraved mass-mudering monster who votes for the wrong political party. He asked the obvious question. As they actively seek out and watch more of this material than the rest of is, why aren't they affected by it? Does Christianity confer immunity ? - (or more ikely, their central contention was wrong) Why didn't Mary Whitehouse herself, after exposure to so much corrosive material, want to go out, lead a sexually promiscuous lifestyle and carry out chainsaw murders?

It looks as if this film "Censor" might be a belated sort-of-answer to Willie Rushton's question!

 

[GNC]

You don't understand, Mary Whitehouse and her band of associates WERE corrupt. The greatest sin is seeing sin where no sin exists.

 

[GNC]

Excellent article on the immortal baby, presumably she's still alive? So it might have worked!

Classical Corner excelled itself this issue, it usually contains the only swearing in the mag, but it really went for it this time.

 

[ghughesarch]

I think the simplest explanation (Occam's Razor, etc) is that all of those nicely spooky Flintshire stories are made up.

 

[AgProv]

I think the simplest explanation (Occam's Razor, etc) is that all of those nicely spooky Flintshire stories are made up.

Shame, really. I guess people like Dr David Sutton have to take the IHTM stories on trust as it would be impossible to fact check them - they have to be accepted "as are". And as my locally based friend pointed out, the most obvious Fortean and paranormal location in Flintshire should be given a feature in FT but appears - possibly - to have been overlooked: Plas Teg, the seriously haunted minor stately home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plas_Teg

https://plasteg.com/paranormal/ (Advisory: this is from Plas Teg's own site and cannot be said to be objective)

 

[Okarin]

Just finished reading my copy. I was impressed by the immortal baby story I do think that any group of men going around calling themselves "storks" may be just a tad dodgy. However offering to refund disgruntled members by having them visualise the return of their belongings is genius!

I enjoyed Classic Corner. I do seem to remember watching a documentary about Pompeii which featured some of the more "interesting" graffiti.

How do people on here read FT? cover to cover in one sitting? picking out the sections that interest? for me I normally dip in and out over the course of a week or so. I do read all articles but confess that those that don't interest are skipped through a bit!

 

[stu neville]

I guess people like Dr David Sutton have to take the IHTM stories on trust as it would be impossible to fact check them - they have to be accepted "as are".

Pretty much. Some are obviously bogus, or in some way just don't smell right. We used to get all of the also-rans posted into the IHTM section here, but again some we'd just hoik as you get a kind of instinct, especially when the OP shows up as their answers and reactions can be very telling.

 

[catseye]

Just finished reading my copy. I was impressed by the immortal baby story I do think that any group of men going around calling themselves "storks" may be just a tad dodgy. However offering to refund disgruntled members by having them visualise the return of their belongings is genius!

I enjoyed Classic Corner. I do seem to remember watching a documentary about Pompeii which featured some of the more "interesting" graffiti.

How do people on here read FT? cover to cover in one sitting? picking out the sections that interest? for me I normally dip in and out over the course of a week or so. I do read all articles but confess that those that don't interest are skipped through a bit!

I like to dip in and out of my copy of FT to make it last longer. I absolutely hate that feeling when you read the last article and lay the magazine down, knowing that there's no more strangeness until next month.

 

[AgProv]

Pretty much. Some are obviously bogus, or in some way just don't smell right. We used to get all of the also-rans posted into the IHTM section here, but again some we'd just hoik as you get a kind of instinct, especially when the OP shows up as their answers and reactions can be very telling.

be interesting if Man Who Recalls Being On The Beach At Wrexham, North Wales showed up here!

 

[staticgirl]

I would also love to know if Immortal Jean is still alive but the info about how she refused to talk about it suggests there was bad feeling, perhaps shame. I wonder if her caregiver at the Mansion missed her terribly when she was given back to her mum.

 

[GNC]

I would also love to know if Immortal Jean is still alive but the info about how she refused to talk about it suggests there was bad feeling, perhaps shame. I wonder if her caregiver at the Mansion missed her terribly when she was given back to her mum.

I doubt she would remember anything about it, never mind wish to discuss it. Maybe someone will ask her after this article is published?

 

[staticgirl]

Being given away voluntarily by your mum is a Big Thing to deal with, even if it was for the best of reasons. It's happened to someone in my family and decades later it still affects them even though they still had contact with each other. I expect Jean may have wanted to put it behind her as much as possible and focus on her own family. I hope she had/has a happy life.

 

[GNC]

Being given away voluntarily by your mum is a Big Thing to deal with, even if it was for the best of reasons. It's happened to someone in my family and decades later it still affects them even though they still had contact with each other. I expect Jean may have wanted to put it behind her as much as possible and focus on her own family. I hope she had/has a happy life.

Yeah, if she doesn't want to talk about it? Let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[Hexmaster]

I would also love to know if Immortal Jean is still alive but the info about how she refused to talk about it suggests there was bad feeling, perhaps shame. I wonder if her caregiver at the Mansion missed her terribly when she was given back to her mum.

Not that she would have anything particular to tell about a time she probably has zero memories of.

Also on the so-so article about a marvelous subject: I assume Schafer being "qualified as a medical doctor" is bogus.

 

[AgProv]

Read the disclaimer in the current FT410 about the "Wrexham" IHTM and that the originator of the story had been back to clarify - it wasn't Wrexham, it was actually on the coast between Connah's Quay and Mostyn (a former mining town two or three miles along the coast where a now largely defunct port loaded coal). Quite pleased with that as I suggested CQ as a plausible location. And we raised it here, ghughesarch and me....

 

[catseye]

I'm just reading 409 now (because I have to wait until the new month's has arrived before I can finish the previous month...I think I may be a bit odd...) and am reading about Gaugin's birds. The white bird looks like a goose to me. Is there, perhaps, the slight possibility that Gaugin just...ummm....wasn't very good at drawing birds?

 

[Nosmo King]

I'm just reading 409 now (because I have to wait until the new month's has arrived before I can finish the previous month...I think I may be a bit odd...) and am reading about Gaugin's birds. The white bird looks like a goose to me. Is there, perhaps, the slight possibility that Gaugin just...ummm....wasn't very good at drawing birds?

He was an 'Impressionist', it an impression of a bird

 

[GNC]

He was an 'Impressionist', it an impression of a bird

Maybe the duck that said "You bloody fool" was doing an impression of Gaugin.

 

[AgProv]

Another thought. "The Reverend's Review" of the film about the film censor who goes off the rails and starts murdering people in inventively horrible ways. Talk about somebody taking her work home with her.

This got me thinking about the great Willie Rushton, one of the founders of satirical mag Private Eye and a comedian, actor and comic writer.

He got so annoyed with the self-appointed Moral Guardian and clean-up campaigner Mary Whitehouse, especially at the way that newspapers were reporting uncritically and treating her as an authority on moral values, that he read her published books and wrote a satirical rebuttal called The Filth Amendment. About 1978, but if you can get hold of it, it's a funny, savagely satirical, comeback on Mary W.

Anyway. Rushton notes the sheer volume of TV and film-viewing that volunteer workers from the NCVL and the Festival of Light were doing so as to support their contention that too much watching of permissive, liberal, left-wing TV will turn the average viewer into a slavering sexually depraved mass-mudering monster who votes for the wrong political party. He asked the obvious question. As they actively seek out and watch more of this material than the rest of is, why aren't they affected by it? Does Christianity confer immunity ? - (or more ikely, their central contention was wrong) Why didn't Mary Whitehouse herself, after exposure to so much corrosive material, want to go out, lead a sexually promiscuous lifestyle and carry out chainsaw murders?

It looks as if this film "Censor" might be a belated sort-of-answer to Willie Rushton's question!

On this theme: the eminently watchable and original stage magic duo Penn and Teller did a TV series simply called Bullshit!, where they challenge ideas which have otherwise been absorbed, uncritically, into the public consciousness and passed on as given truths by a mass media that should know better. Available on line - well worth a watch and often looks at things of Fortean interest: they do a far better job at being skeptical than a dozen Randis, coming from the same place (top-end stage magicians using their skills to debunk the more obvious hoaxes and delusionals). And with more humour and where merited, respect for the material.

They do an episode where they look at the socially accepted truth that violent computer games predispose children to sadistic violence. As this is the USA, they tested the proposition by taking kids who routinely use heavy weapons to cause gory mayhem on screen - and, under safe supervision, exposed them to the real thing.

The experimental sample were so off-put by a taste of the reality - real guns are heavy, cumbersome, create so much recoil that they are physically painful to fire, and are excruciatingly noisy even with ear-defenders - that they all swore "never again" and remained perfectly normal kids after the experience. Especially when they discovered that even with static targets thet are not actually firing back that it was a hell of a lot harder to actually hit anything.

i'll try to find the show online; the title makes it an edgy proposition to mainstream TV providers...

 

[gordonrutter]

On this theme: the eminently watchable and original stage magic duo Penn and Teller did a TV series simply called Bullshit!, where they challenge ideas which have otherwise been absorbed, uncritically, into the public consciousness and passed on as given truths by a mass media that should know better. Available on line - well worth a watch and often looks at things of Fortean interest: they do a far better job at being skeptical than a dozen Randis, coming from the same place (top-end stage magicians using their skills to debunk the more obvious hoaxes and delusionals). And with more humour and where merited, respect for the material.

They do an episode where they look at the socially accepted truth that violent computer games predispose children to sadistic violence. As this is the USA, they tested the proposition by taking kids who routinely use heavy weapons to cause gory mayhem on screen - and, under safe supervision, exposed them to the real thing.

The experimental sample were so off-put by a taste of the reality - real guns are heavy, cumbersome, create so much recoil that they are physically painful to fire, and are excruciatingly noisy even with ear-defenders - that they all swore "never again" and remained perfectly normal kids after the experience. Especially when they discovered that even with static targets thet are not actually firing back that it was a hell of a lot harder to actually hit anything.

i'll try to find the show online; the title makes it an edgy proposition to mainstream TV providers...

They also did an episode on Cryptozoology where they dressed up as Jon Downes and Richard Freeman (both CFZ) who had been guests on the show talking about, I think, Nessie.
edit to add pic.

 

[ChasFink]

To anyone who has read 411 and 412:

I just got through reading Brian J. Robb's article on James B. Schafer and the immortal baby, and noticed some out of date information about the current status of the Idle Hour/Peace Haven estate. Have there been any updates in those later issues? If not, I will write to the magazine.

 

[GNC]

To anyone who has read 411 and 412:

I just got through reading Brian J. Robb's article on James B. Schafer and the immortal baby, and noticed some out of date information about the current status of the Idle Hour/Peace Haven estate. Have there been any updates in those later issues? If not, I will write to the magazine.

I don't think there have, but write to them anyway, I'd like to read that letter.

 

[ChasFink]

I don't think there have, but write to them anyway, I'd like to read that letter.

Done.