I’ve long been intrigued by the supposed liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius in Naples. Part of the purpose of this article was to debunk the common notion of a clash between religion and science; since the “miracle” (as the Vatican is eager to stress) has nothing to do with Catholic doctrine, and the […]

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The movie based on John A. Keel’s book The Mothman Prophecies was released in 2002; the Fortean Times marked the occasion with a special issue. I contributed a biography and bibliography of Keel, and an interview conducted with the assistance of George Kuchar and Dr. Mamie Caton.

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It doesn’t seem right for there to be a Gideon Bible in every hotel room; so I often substitute a nice secular book: one by Thomas Love Peacock, for example, or the Baroness Orczy. I had these cards printed for those occasions.

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When I visited my family in Beggs, Oklahoma, I became interested in a local curiosity, The Giants’ Highway, or Checkerboard Crossing. The unusually flat limestone bed, crossed with regular cracks, is the subject of much local folklore; and has been marketed at times as a tourist attraction. It had generally escaped the notice of simulacra […]

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While researching the life of the novelist and Fortean Tiffany Thayer, I came across an unfamiliar photo of Charles Fort. I passed it along to the Fortean Times, which inspired the art director, Etienne Gilfillan, to search for more. His discoveries were published in the March 2006 issue (#207). I provided captions, and an article […]

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“Boris Vian for Anglophones” appeared in Strange Attractor Journal 2 (2005), edited by Mark Pilkington. Vian is one of my favorite writers, and his work is still largely unknown to English speakers. I tried in this article to give some idea of his astonishing output, including the less familiar works — such as his songs […]

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My slide show on a curious NYC street artist, who called himself Pantuso, appeared on the former webzine “Word.” I also performed it at the Brooklyn Museum, the gallery Four Walls, Dixon Place, and other fine venues. The “Word” version is archived here.

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My article on the ever mysterious and alluring nobleman appeared in the June 2001 issue of the Fortean Times. (I originally had a link to it here, but it no longer works.)

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I found this injunction in an old ukulele instruction book, and made it into buttons for my students. Don’t.

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“The Book of Fortunatus” appeared in the first issue of the Strange Attractor Journal (2004) edited by Mark Pilkington. It’s devoted to fringe literary theories, particularly those that find more meaning in a text than the author intended. Among the subjects are Pope R. Hill, who found hidden solutions to all of the Sherlock Holmes […]

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