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The Joe Simonton / Alien Pancakes Case (Wisconsin; 1961)

Bannik

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No, thank you very much. Great site!

I always loved the Joe Simonton case. I'm surprised he's never been mentioned on this board.

Most of the rest I've never read about before.

The embedded link is dead. See later post for the content from the MIA webpage.
 
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...which brings to mind another episode (at least, I think it was Project UFO) ...

... damn, can't remember his name offhand, but it was the guy who received some buckwheat pancakes from some aliens who he described as 'looking like Italians'. In the show, the aliens were shown as what we might imagine Jawa to look like with their hoods off: dark, featureless, with two little glowing dots for eyes.

Damn, that was a great TV show.
 
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That would be Joe Simonton.[*] Although it sounds as though the show made the humanoids more 'alien' looking than he actually described them. (BTW, according to Joe, they were clad in knitwear rather than the tight-fitting jumpsuits which seem to be fashionable among most aliens.)

[*] Link is dead. See later post for the content of the MIA webpage.
 
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graylien said:
Why bring cavemen into it? Could you (I mean 'you' generally, not any poster in particular) reverse-engineer a TV set or a laptop? I know I couldn't! What proportion of the population really understands half the gadgets we use every day?

I think the original point of the caveman analogy was that even the most technically savvy caveman would have no clue what the television was. He might not even realize that it was artificial at all. I think of that scene out of the original Terminator where we see children gathered around a television set, only to find they are using it as a fireplace.

The point is, there may be evidence of alien technology on earth right now but we fail to recognize it as technology. I keep thinking of Paul Simonton's 1961 encounter with a UFO in which its human-like occupants gave him four pancakes in exchange for water. What if those pancakes had contained the sum total of their civilization's knowledge? God knows Paul may have poured Log Cabin on a thousand centuries of wisdom...

S
 
Skeptical01 said:
The point is, there may be evidence of alien technology on earth right now but we fail to recognize it as technology. I keep thinking of Paul Simonton's 1961 encounter with a UFO in which its human-like occupants gave him four pancakes in exchange for water. What if those pancakes had contained the sum total of their civilization's knowledge? God knows Paul may have poured Log Cabin on a thousand centuries of wisdom...

Yes, but considering Joe Simonton ate one of the pancakes, had they been filled with cosmic knowledge presumably he'd have absorbed some of it, or else mutated into some kind of post-human hybrid. Instead he merely complained that they tasted of cardboard.
 
graylien said:
Instead he merely complained that they tasted of cardboard.

Wow - he really did experience the future 40 years ahead of time. You can go to supermarkets now where, thanks to modern food technology, everything tastes of cardboard.
 
wembley8 said:
graylien said:
Instead he merely complained that they tasted of cardboard.

Wow - he really did experience the future 40 years ahead of time. You can go to supermarkets now where, thanks to modern food technology, everything tastes of cardboard.

Surely you meant alien. 8)
 
wembley8 said:
graylien said:
Instead he merely complained that they tasted of cardboard.

Wow - he really did experience the future 40 years ahead of time. You can go to supermarkets now where, thanks to modern food technology, everything tastes of cardboard.


I'd be more impressed if they gave him futuristic time-saving breakfast foods like these!

Of course, anybody that cooks me pancakes is ok in my book.
 
Indeed, it might be that cooking someone pancakes is the intergalactic gesture of peace.
 
This reminds me of a famous Sci-Fi story by Kilgore Trout.

Source
A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives conversed by means of farts and tap dancing.

Zog landed at night in Connecticut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a house on fire. He rushed into the house, farting and tap dancing, warning the people about the terrible danger they were in. The head of the house brained Zog with a golf club.
 
I've always been puzzled by old Joe Simonton's description of his visitors. If memory serves, he thought they "looked like Italians" but they must have only looked Italian. Italians are not known for bland or boring food. Maybe they were hoping to score some maple syrup in their thermos bottle.
 
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Pancake.jpg

It's very rare i get to say this, but my wife makes much nicer pancakes than these.
 
I always loved this story, even though I don't believe it. It's very reminiscent of folk tales of encountering the Little People and being offered faerie food (which is invariably awful). :)
 
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I always loved this story, even though I don't believe it. It's very reminiscent of folk tales of encountering the Little People and being offered faerie food (which is invariably awful). :)
Maybe the awful food is why they're always grumpy?
 
Yes...great tale from the old days...most ufo 'buffs' know this one well.,..I even think that Dr Hynek investigated that case at one time...but I don't recall his take on it. It does indeed sound more like a Fairy tale than a visit from space aliens....so it goes into the high strangeness bucket where all these weird cases get placed. Real or not? Who knows...? ;)
 
Well the story is played for laughs, but the farmer has a feeling of sincerity (to me at least). It's not unlike the older English chap, who was by the canal when a flying saucer landed and offered a look on-board (sorry to forget the details). Neither protagonist appears to have had anything to gain and probably both regretted sharing the incident.

A connection with faerie folklore is attractive but it's also intriguing how the feel of such visits echoes the airships of the 19th century - clearly out of place but with a quaint friendliness and apparent lack of purpose. All adding to the high strangeness factor.

So different to the more distant and menacing triangles of today - which have a military flavour.
 
Thanks, that's the fella - allegedly an enthusiastic teller of tall tales. Looking forward to reading the article!
 
Two great stories and strangely, the interior of both space craft seems to have been of a dark metallic nature (described as "wrought iron" / "unfinished metal" respectively).
 
There are some really weird tales out there over the decades...ufo tales that are more akin to fairy and elves tales than actual space alien encounters (however one defines those) beings.
Dr Vallee's books Messengers of Deception , Invisible College, Dimensions and Confrontations have some very interesting tales in them.
He has commented on this aspect and indeed was one of the first ufologists/scientists to make a connection to 'so-called 'fairy tales' from mankind's past.
 
I've read Jacque Vallee's books with interest and quite a lot of faerie literature too - many faerie tales and first hand anecdotes.

Parallels I can see are:

  1. Time in faerieland passes very differently
  2. The places have interior lighting (under a hill for example)
  3. The faerie host often moves at night
  4. People go missing - sometimes return - sometimes don't
  5. A sense of beauty and enchantment, that can be taken away
  6. The circular nature of the faerie dance, often witnessed in fields (joined at your peril)
  7. Faeries dislike being seen - they usually can't be
  8. They are thought to be from a parallel world
  9. A fascination with human children, which might echo the Grey's hybrid programme
It's not one and the same (in my mind) but the parallels are interesting. Certainly there might be overlap in the inter-dimensional aspects.

Also, until the 50's, there was no widespread UFO recognition - so the phenomena experienced might well have been translated and told in the context of faerie lore.
 
Well the story is played for laughs, but the farmer has a feeling of sincerity (to me at least). It's not unlike the older English chap, who was by the canal when a flying saucer landed and offered a look on-board (sorry to forget the details). Neither protagonist appears to have had anything to gain and probably both regretted sharing the incident.

A connection with faerie folklore is attractive but it's also intriguing how the feel of such visits echoes the airships of the 19th century - clearly out of place but with a quaint friendliness and apparent lack of purpose. All adding to the high strangeness factor.

So different to the more distant and menacing triangles of today - which have a military flavour.
:agree:
 
There are some really weird tales out there over the decades...ufo tales that are more akin to fairy and elves tales than actual space alien encounters (however one defines those) beings.
Dr Vallee's books Messengers of Deception , Invisible College, Dimensions and Confrontations have some very interesting tales in them.
He has commented on this aspect and indeed was one of the first ufologists/scientists to make a connection to 'so-called 'fairy tales' from mankind's past.
i'll have to pick up a copy of his books , might be interesting reading
 
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