Bigfoot Discovery Day
UPI - The small town of Felton, Calif., held its annual Bigfoot Discovery Day but the guest of honor again failed to show up, organizers said.
Staged Saturday by the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers and the Bigfoot Discovery Project, the event has been held every year since 2006, the Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel reported.
About 50 people attended the outdoor lunch and meeting in the town of 1,051 people north of Santa Cruz to hear of purported Bigfoot sightings and examine evidence.
Many of the stories were told with an emphasis on Santa Cruz County, the newspaper reported Saturday.
"We have plenty of evidence of a Bigfoot presence up here in the mountains," Michael Rugg, curator of the town's Bigfoot Discovery Museum, said.
"I have some vocalizations we've recorded, we have some video that we shot locally, and we have a number of eyewitnesses who have reported sightings," he said. "In our testing, we've come up with more evidence to indicate it's true than the opposite."
Rugg said he founded the museum in 2004 because he wanted to "have a bigger part in trying to solve this mystery."
"I'm so sure this is real, I don't care what anybody says," he said.
Bigfoot in Santa Cruz County?: Enthusiasts make their case during Bigfoot Discovery Day
Skeptics need not apply.
The Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers and the Bigfoot Discovery Project presented the annual Bigfoot Discovery Day Saturday, staged at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum. The all-day gathering began in 2006.
From local investigators to interested families with children, more than 50 people attended the outdoor lunch and roundtable discussion, where purported Bigfoot sightings and evidence were presented, and numerous stories were told with an emphasis on Santa Cruz County.
Bigfoot Discovery Museum founder and curator Michael Rugg officiated, answering questions and facilitating much of the day's discussion. Rugg said the goal of the annual Discovery Day is to get people in Santa Cruz County to realize that the museum is not just a roadside attraction on the side of Highway 9, but a center for diligent research.
"We have plenty of evidence of a Bigfoot presence up here in the mountains," Rugg said. "I have some vocalizations we've recorded, we have some video that we shot locally, and we have a number of eye witnesses who have reported sightings. In our testing, we've come up with more evidence to indicate it's true than the opposite."
Rugg, who recounted his own Bigfoot sighting as a toddler in 1950, told the gathered crowd that, since he founded the museum in 2004, he's had an opportunity to further his research and hear numerous firsthand tales of sightings.
"Our museum is trying to serve as an advocate for eyewitnesses," he said. "People have been reporting anomalous events that our scientific authority figures have relegated to complete nonsense. What we're saying is, give these folks a break. There are plenty of things to learn yet."
Entering the Bigfoot Discovery Museum, one is confronted by plaster casts of giant feet, looping footage of the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film, where an unidentified creature bounds across the screen, and Bigfoot-themed art. There is also a wall-sized map of Santa Cruz County, with pushpins detailing reported local sightings, stretching from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos.
Boulder Creek resident Bill Tucker, a longtime volunteer with the museum who stood behind the counter alongside Capitola resident Mike Barrow, recounted his own experience coming into contact with the unknown. Tucker was camping in Washington in 1987, he said, in an isolated campground. He found himself at a river, where he had the feeling that he was being watched.
"Then, a bunch of rocks came across the river," he said. "This happened, off and on, for the next 12 hours. Something was trying to keep me out of there. I began to believe right then."
Barrow said that his interest stemmed from the Patterson film, which was released when he was 7.
"It grabbed my imagination and, ever since, I've been looking," he said.
Pleasanton resident Tom Yamarone has been involved with the museum in various capacities since it opened, he said. Yamarone, who writes Bigfoot-related folksongs, which he performed later in the evening, said that he was encouraged by Saturday's turnout.
"My interest in the subject is very active," Yamarone said. "It's great to see so many people turn out for this."
The Discovery Day moved to the Louden Nelson Center later in the evening, where further presentations were given, including discussions on the latest game-camera technology used in Bigfoot-tracking and a historical slide-show of newspaper reports on Bigfoot dating back to the mid-1800s.
Rugg said the day was a success. He added that he founded the museum in 2004 because he wanted to "have a bigger part in trying to solve this mystery."
"I'm so sure this is real, I don't care what anybody says," he said.
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Leaping Fish Punctures Lung of Woman Kayaking in Florida Keys
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Vatican Declares Homer Simpson 'is a true Catholic'
telegraph - The long-running cartoon series explores issues such as family, community, education and religion in a way that few other popular television programmes can match, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily broadsheet. The newspaper acknowledged that Homer snores through the sermons of the Reverend Lovejoy and inflicts "never-ending humiliation" on his evangelical neighbour, Ned Flanders. But in an article headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics", the newspaper said: "The Simpsons are among the few TV programmes for children in which Christian faith, religion, and questions about God are recurrent themes." The family "recites prayers before meals and, in their own peculiar way, believes in the life thereafter". It quoted an analysis by a Jesuit priest, Father Francesco Occhetta, of a 2005 episode of The Simpsons, The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star, which revolved around Catholicism and was aired a few weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II. The episode starts with Bart being expelled from Springfield Elementary School and being enrolled in a Catholic school where he meets a sympathetic priest, voiced by the actor Liam Neeson, who draws him into Catholicism with his kindness. Homer then decides to convert to Catholicism, to the horror of his wife Marge, the Rev Lovejoy and Ned Flanders. The episode touches on issues such as religious conflict, interfaith dialogue, homosexuality and stem cell research. "Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it, but it is true: Homer J Simpson is a Catholic," insists L'Osservatore Romano. It is not the first time that the Vatican newspaper has praised The Simpsons. Last December, as the television series celebrated its 20th anniversary, the paper said that "the relationship between man and God" is one of its most important themes and that it often mirrored the "religious and spiritual confusion of our times". Once a staid and sober paper of record, L'Osservatore Romano has ventured into popular culture in the last three years under a new editor, commenting on everything from The Beatles and The Blues Brothers to the blockbuster film Avatar and the Harry Potter books and films.**********
'Panther-Sized' Black Cat Roaming La Quinta, CA
Authorities are conducting a search in La Quinta for what one resident described as "a large, panther-sized black cat," on the roof of a house.
Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigators said the cat was seen about 8 a.m. Saturday in the 78000 block of Calle Remo.
"They said it was much larger than a house cat and looked more like a black panther," investigator Matt Diaz said.
California Fish and Game officers, along with deputies, searched for hours but were unable to find the animal.
One neighbor told deputies that a cat of a similar look was seen on a La Quinta golf court last week.
