As my mother would have said, "You guys take the cake!"

One more time:

July 2003
"Then my friend said, 'Look up there- what do you see?'

I looked up into the sky, and there in front of us, formed clearly from white clouds- MUCH clearer and firmer than from the old Pepsi planes- was the word 'Earl'. The E was large and puffy and double width, the small letters single thickness, and there was a flourish extending from the l, partially underlining the word.

The sky was clear- there were absolutely no other clouds in the sky, other than low on the horizon to the west there was a thin bank of clouds lit by the setting sun. Gradually the name slid to the left going out of sight around the bend in the forested road. As we walked around the bend perhaps two minutes later, there was not a scrap of cloud in the sky."

August 2001

"Two days after a friend unexpectedly died, another friend and I were walking along, talking about him. At a certain point, she said, "Ebbie", look up there- what do you see?

I looked up into the sky, not many degrees above the horizon. I said, Yeah, looks like an E- an a- an r- an l!!

In an otherwise cloudless sky was a band of clouds that formed our friend's name. (The only other place there were any clouds was right above the setting sun, way off to the west)It was completely stable and clearer than the old Drink Pepsi-Cola! smoke ads, if you're old enough to remember them.

We were not nearly as astonished and disbelieving then as we are now- mainly it made us laugh tearfully at Earl's 'goodbye'. Now, three years later, the implications boggle my mind."

As you can see by comparing, I gave substantially more detail in the first account.


Wolfgang, did I say or imply in 2001 that eventually the word just blinked out or faded or "gradually slid to the left"? No. I did not- because I didn't give that detail.

The detail of how the letters looked is substantiated by what I drew in chalk when I got home that day.

August 2001:
It was completely stable and clearer than the old Drink Pepsi-Cola! smoke ads,
July 2003:
formed clearly from white clouds- MUCH clearer and firmer than from the old Pepsi planes- was the word 'Earl'

Keep in mind that I don't live in a vacuum nor does my friend. On occasion we still discuss the phenomenon.

It is interesting to compare Ebbie's Earl story above with how she told the story three years ago: here.

'It was completely stable' now becomes 'Gradually the name slid to the left' and, on the whole, the story gains in detail with increasing distance to the event. Wolfgang

No, Wolfgang. I don't think I am reading more into your post than what you meant. As far as I am concerned, just then you lost credibility as a dispassionate scientist interested only in the truth, revealing yourself as another faulty human being with your own agenda.

Eb