well - many stories and myths are suppossed to evolve to explain what isn't readily apparent. and I wondered for a long time what the ^^ were that sometimes appeared at the bottom of various posts. So when I found out they were the marks of the post being 'harvested', my twisted little brain combined that with my original supposition that Cleigh was running around leaving earprints....and the story is the result. I grew up in the same town as TWB and many of the same stomping grounds, had friends who lived in the house where he was born, and my sister worked at the museum that was established about him. so to do the story in his style seemed appropriate.