BS: A real UFO encounter that happened

Subject: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: olddude
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 02:42 PM

In regard to the thread about the guy who hacked into the US Government computers looking for UFO's I thought I would share my real UFO encounter.

It was 1971, I was in college and made friends with an old farmer who living in a run down farm house and had many acres of land. One night he called me up:

Dan ... I need your help you have to come out ...I said Jim what is wrong is it your wife, your kids tell me ... No a spacecraft landed in my back 20 ... we are being invaded.

I drove to his house; he grabbed his Louisville slugger baseball bat. I said Jim, what are you going to do with that. He said, those little green men capture you and then perform sicko sexual experiments on ya.

I said, I heard they are not green but gray ... he said whatever the color, they are not going to mess with my man junk

We walked the road shortly before dark. At one point he said, we have to crawl from here or they will see us. We crawled through the briars and the high grass. I took out my binoculars ... OH MY GOSH. There it was a big silver round object in his field. I thought, could it be he is right!! I looked again and saw an instrument box next to it ... Then I stood up.

Jim said, get down get down, the little F'ers have ray guns ... I said Jim, what spaceship do you know has an American flag on it?

He said, it is a trick, they use that and then the next thing you know you wake up and some green guy is playing with your Willy.

I walked over, and he followed clutching his Louisville slugger ball bat ... It was a weather balloon that had landed in the field. The sticker on the box said don't mess with it call this 800 number. He did, some military guys picked it up the next day.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 02:49 PM

Crap is an

Un Flushed Object

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 03:34 PM

That's not a UFO, it's an ILO. ;-) It was a ULO until you correctly identified it. It may have been a UFO prior to its having landed, depends if anyone saw it and failed to identify it while it was still airborne. Sounds like your friend is one of those dummies who goes for National Enquirer type stories and crappy movies.

Now here I was, all interested, thinking you'd seen a genuine AFO or an ALO. Heh! Well, better luck next time, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: olddude
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 03:38 PM

funny thing is when I asked him why he didn't call the police. He said he was afraid it would fly away and they would make fun of him. I am still making fun of him 37 years later

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 03:40 PM

I bet! ;-D Man, it is people like him who give skeptics exactly what they are longing for.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 03:46 PM

I saw one once ..... was at a bluegrass jam up in Grand Bay N.B. .... took a break from playing and went outside for a smoke ... I looked up into the clear starry nite sky and there it was .... damndest thing I ever saw.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: olddude
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 04:04 PM

Oh for me I tell you I bet there is something out there. I was just telling a funny story of what really happened back in 71. The universe is a big big place.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 06:42 PM

Smoking some good stuff were you, Bill?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: maeve
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 06:48 PM

Thanks for the laugh, olddude!

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: flattop
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 08:18 PM

oldDude's story appears to be a good illustration of couple of Alfred Korzybski ideas (if I remember them correctly.)

First, we confuse quality and relationship. Here the farmer saw qualities in the object that didn't exist in the object at all. The qualities the farmer saw in the object were from the farmer's mind and his visual relationship with the object.

And we don't often realize our part in perception - we think that what we believe and what we think we see 'is' reality.

Furthermore, 'is' is a tricky word in Korzybski's writing. For Korzybski, to say something like 'Bush is Stupid' is making an ambiguous statement, putting two words (which are variable) between an equal sign. Arguing it would be like x=y without assigning precise meanings in time. Reminds me that Canada had a recent great Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, who could act brilliantly stupid. He kept Canada's participation in wars to a minimum and he stayed in office for a long time.

Good to see, after searching, that I'm not the only Korzybski fan on Mudcat. Thank you McGrath and Amos.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 08:47 PM

I saw a bird in Mid-Wales, could have been a peregrine, could have been a red kite.
As I'm not sure then it's an Unidentified Flying Object

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: olddude
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:11 PM

You folks always make me laugh, laughing is something we all need and don't do enough of. I loved the x=y being a math geek you are talking my language now.   Hey for me fun reading is a calculus book. Sad but true.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: gnu
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:11 PM

I saw that too, sIx.... I was at a bonfire next to Parlee Beach (Google that... amazing beach, warmest waters north of the Carolinas) and buddy had just passed around the Dr. McGuillacuddy's (damn that's hard to speeel) Fireball Whiskey Shooter and WHOOOOOOSSSSHHHH. Them Ruskies know how to put on a show eh?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: flattop
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:31 PM

From a distance, it's easy to wonder why anyone would expect extraterrestrials to be interested in his sexuality over the millions of other things they might want to know. Emotionally, in the heat of the moment, though, it's ourselves that we focus on.

And a Louisville slugger against ray guns. You'd be hard pressed to clobber a raccoon with a bat, let alone superior beings from far away.

___

A fabulous quote from the book Bowling Alone, supposedly from Yogi Berra, "If you don't go to somebody's funeral, they won't come to yours."

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: flattop
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:34 PM

'Fun reading is a calculus book' - now there's a propositional function!

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 09:54 PM

Nigel, that would be an Unidentified Bird. A UB.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: flattop
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 07:17 AM

Seems the farmer had a UB too. None of the creatures in the spaceship noticed his or carried news of the phenomenon to far off galaxies. Is that always the way with these things?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: flattop
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 07:25 AM

Old farmers living in run down farm houses in 1971 are probably in worse shape today, if they still own the farm. It's a tough way to make a living most years but this year was particularly tough on the few farmers left in Atlantic Canada. Constant rain since mid July made haying and working plowed fields and gardens nearly impossible. Imports from countries where people work for a starvation wage don't help either.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 09:10 AM

If you want to nitpick, Little Hawk, you have not gone far enough: The acronym UFO implies that the celestial appearance (a) flies and (b) is an object. Both of which, in some explained UFO cases, has been found to be wrong (e.g., laser light on a cloud surface). ICA has actually been suggested once as a better acronym but could not replace UFO.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 10:28 AM

UFOs can be anything you want them to be




Utterly Fatuois Observation


Uniquely Flatulent Odor


Ugly Facial Objections

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 02:54 PM

"If you want to nitpick, Little Hawk, you have not gone far enough"

Thank you, Wolfgang! ;-) Okay, I shall go even further.

Let's say then that the term UFO be modified to AUFO (Alleged Unidentified Flying Object). That will cover sightings which turn out not to have been an object at all, but rather a light effect on a cloud surface or something else like that.

I prefer AFO anyway. Alien Flying Object. If you're not sure, then it's an AAFO. Alleged Alien Flying Object. If you really want to be totally covered, then it's a...

TOPTISWITWAAFOOAAVWHLBICBACAIBIDHPVEIMPATT.


























"Thing Or Phenomenon That I Saw Which I Thought Was An Alien Flying Object Or An Alien Vehicle Which Had Landed But I Cannot Be Absolutely Certain About It Because I Don't Have Physical Verifiable Evidence In My Possession At This Time"

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: olddude
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 03:45 PM

Little Hawk
I probably still have the Louisville Slugger someplace, is that evidence ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: GUEST,Wayne, near Baltimore
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 04:21 PM

I know there's intelligent life out there. They haven't tried to make contact with us!

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 05:05 PM

No, olddude, it's evidence of a sport called baseball. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 11:11 PM

One of 'em landed in Lincoln Park in Chicago when I was walking my dog---about 162 or so. A door slid open and there was just a head floating in mid air. It floated out toward me and asked for a drink. I told it I think I could use one too!!

So, we headed (no pun intended) to my favorite bar. I walked and it floated. I held the door open for the head and he floated in and hovered above a bar stool. The bartender brought him (I guess) a shot of Jack Daniels and I held it to the heads lips. He took a sip and a torso popped out. Another sip and a trunk of his body and a leg popped out. One more sip and the other leg and an arm popped out. He said, "One more sip and I'll be whole!" Well, he took another sip and one-by-one everything pulled back in until the head, with a noise like a stomped on beer cup, just disappeared altogether. The bartender walked over and said, "Damn, he shoulda quit while he was a head!"

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 08:04 PM

The post above ought to read 1962------not 162.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 12:30 AM

Such sightings were actually more common in the year 162 than they are now, but they were interpreted very differently.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 11:53 PM

UFO files: Winston Churchill 'feared panic' over Second World War RAF incident
Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public "panic" and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose.

By Andrew Hough, and Peter Hutchison
Published: 12:01AM BST 05 Aug 2010
[e-mail] o

The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the ÒbizarreÓ incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.

He is said to have made the orders during a secret war meeting with US General Dwight Eisenhower, the then commander of the Allied Forces, at an undisclosed location in America during the latter part of the conflict.

The claims are contained in thousands of pages of declassified files on UFOs, released on Thursday online by the National Archives.
The 18 files, which cover from 1995 to 2003, are made up of more than 5,000 pages of reports, letters, and drawings drawn from correspondence with the public and questions raised in parliament.

The allegations involving Churchill were made by the grandson of one his personal bodyguards, an RAF officer who overheard the discussion, who wrote to the Ministry of Defence in 1999 inquiring about the incident after his grandfather disclosed details to his family.

According to the series of letters, written by the guard's grandson who is now a physicist from Leicester, a reconnaissance plane and its crew were returning from a mission over occupied Europe when they were involved in the war incident.

During their flight, on the English coast, possibly near Cumbria, their aircraft was approached by a metallic UFO which shadowed them.
Photographs of the object, which the crew claimed had Òhovered noiselesslyÓ near the plane, were taken by the crew.

Later, during discussions about the unexplained incident, the two men were claimed to have become so concerned by the incident that Churchill ordered it remain secret for 50 years or more.

During the meeting, a weapons expert dismissed suggestions the object was a missile as the event was "totally beyond any imagined capabilities of the time".
Another person at the meeting raised the possibility of a UFO, at which point Churchill ordered the report to be classified for at least half a century and reviewed by the prime minister to stop ÒpanicÓ spreading.

ÒThere was a general inability for either side to match a plausible account to these observations, and this caused a high degree of concern,Ó wrote the scientist, whose details are redacted.

"Mr Churchill is reported to have made a declaration to the effect of the following: 'This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic among the general population and destroy one's belief in the Church'."

Apart from telling his daughter Ð the scientistÕs mother Ð about the incident when she was nine, the bodyguard, who was Ògreatly affected by his experienceÓ, only disclosed the details to his wife on his deathbed in 1973.

The scientist, also an expert in astronomy who said he developed software for use in "spacecraft thermal engineering", was told years later by his mother.

Stressing he was not a ÒcrackpotÓ, he said he wanted to investigate the science behind the incident after his grandfather, who was bound by the Official Secrets Act, remained convinced that the object was secret technology being tested by a foreign power....

(Telegraph, UK)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: beeliner
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 02:07 AM

It was 1971...The sticker on the box said don't mess with it call this 800 number. He did, some military guys picked it up the next day.

My Gawd, this goes beyond UFOlogy, you were all transported through time.

There were no 800 numbers until 1982.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Mo the caller
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 05:55 AM

Back in the third post Little Hawk objected to the thread title. Wrong. Though the object did not remain a UFO the farmer did indeed have a "real UFO encounter".

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 12:47 PM

Yes, I see your point. It started as a UFO, became a ULO, and ended as an ILO.

But wouldn't it be better to call them *TOPTISWITWAAFOOAAVWHLBICBACAIBIDHPVEIMPATTs? ;-) The ones that remain unexplained, I mean.

*(Thing Or Phenomenon That I Saw Which I Thought Was An Alien Flying Object Or An Alien Vehicle Which Had Landed But I Cannot Be Absolutely Certain About It Because I Don't Have Physical Verifiable Evidence In My Possession At This Time)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Wesley S
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 02:16 PM

"The sticker on the box said don't mess with it call this 800 number. He did, some military guys picked it up the next day."

They wanted you to believe that they were military people. But who's military were they??? I'll bet their ID's looked legit too.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 02:21 PM

I would like to point out, Wesley, that it's "whose", not "who's" and that the term IDs should not have an apostrophe in it as it is a plural, not a possessive. (grinning evil pedantic grin...)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 02:40 PM

Actually, when using acronyms or abbreciations, the use of an apostrophe is sometimes allowed in the plural expression. See the Chicago Manual of Style for guidelines.


A

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 02:58 PM

Well, that may be so, Amos. The language is always changing. A great many people nowadays seem to insist on inserting apostrophes into plurals of all kinds...why, I don't know, but they do. They probably don't know themselves why they do it, but if enough of them do it for long enough then it will eventually become officially accepted usage.

Likewise, most people now say "lay down" instead of "lie down". Again, I have no idea why, but that's what they do. And then there's "irregardless" and "disorientated". (ARGH!) Will those also become officially acceptable in time, merely by weight of repetition?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 05:22 PM

...and almost NOone bothers to say 'ensure' for relevant references. I hate to tell them that not everything needs to be 'insured'.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 05:23 PM

Bill:

Please insure you do not become a pedant, won't you?


A

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: gnu
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 08:12 PM

Amos... pedant? Pshaw! I beg to diffuse. Bill is well within grounds.

I have my own pet pissoff. Many say they will "try and do" something. Drives me nuts.

Thread drift indeed, but as were are drifting...

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: gnu
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 08:26 PM

beeliner... "It was 1971...The sticker on the box said don't mess with it call this 800 number. He did, some military guys picked it up the next day.

My Gawd, this goes beyond UFOlogy, you were all transported through time. There were no 800 numbers until 1982."

*****************************************************************

That's what the miliary wants you to think. They have had 800 numbers since the 30s. Fact is, all 800 and the like numbers go through the military and they keep a log. Thank goodness they are keeping tabs on the aliens.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 08:33 PM

I'd feel more reassured to know that the aliens are keeping tabs on them.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 08:43 PM

"Erudite pedantry is the last defense against linguistic and conceptual degradation!"

    Bill D., 2010


(a revered family aphorism of immemorial continuity,...which I just coined)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 09:51 PM

Erudite and arrant pedantry are cousins, never found under the same roof.

Ibid.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bobert
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 10:36 PM

I **hate*** this thread...

Back in the Spring of '72, I was with a young women in a park just a mile 'er so west of the "Capitol beltway" (I-495) 'bout half past dark but with way better than half a moon there was good 'mount of light...

Ths park, techically I guess would be considered Langley, Va (where the CIA headquarters are located) and about 3 twisty miles east of the infamouse Madera Girls School is located (Google Jean Harris...)...

So this young lady and I were looking northward toward the Potomac River when there it was!!! Yikes!!! Its a friggin' UF-friggin'O!!! I mean, lights and shaped purdy much the way other folks described them... Remember them tin tops that ya' spun with a string... You know , the ones with a seam in the middle of it going all the way around??? Try sqishin' it down and that, my friends is what I will swear on my uncle's 3rd cousin is what a real live UF-friggin'O looks like in reality...

I mean, the two of us seein' the exact same thing for at least 5 or so seconds before it went behind the tree line and we looked at each other and it was one of those looks of absolute disbelief??? I mean, why us??? Why do we have to see a UF-friggin'-O... Like waht a curse to be put on someone... It's alot easier to just make fun of us poor folks who know what the fuck we saw and it weren't no airplane or another flying object currently know to Earthlin's??? So, yeah...

...I hate this thread...

BTW, I know this might get me in some trouble but in the words of Paul Harvey, "Here's the rest of the story":...

...the young woman I was with that night was a fellow teacher at a school we were both teachin' in and her daddy worked for...

... the CIA!!!

Now here's where the ol' hillbilly swears and also would be willing to take a ***friggin' lie detector test*** to prove if needed but...

...so a week 'er two pass and I ain't heard from this girl and she ain't in school teachin' and I ain't talked with her since ***that night***... and she called me... Livin' at her dad's condo'??? Hmmmm? She'd been livin' with her mom and step-dad and now with her father??? The same father who worked for the CIA???

So I go to see her and she's like real cold to me??? Hey, a week ago we were, ahhhhhh... Then along come this UF'-friggin'-O and then a week later she tells me that she told her dadddy about the UF-'friggin-O and he told her to stay the heck away from me!!! That is the truth...

End of relationship with "that girl" and...

Thankfully, the end of the story...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 11:00 PM

Oh, come now, Amos! I've been under your very roof.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 11:30 PM

Well, in the case of split personalities, one arrant and one erudite, the exception proves the rule.


A

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 11:39 PM

",,,the exception proves the rule."

consequently, the more exceptions, the better the rule?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 11:44 PM

This stuff used to bug me too, Bobert, till I decided there was no point letting other people's prejudiced attitudes on the subject mess up my day. Wouldn't make any difference anyway, would it?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Amos
Date: 07 Aug 10 - 11:44 PM

Bill:

See, that's where literal mindedness with no sense of context or nuance gets you, man!! You end up suggesting the absurd to escape the merely uncomfortable.


A

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bobert
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 09:51 AM

Well, no, it wouldn't, LH...

Still, I'd rather be on the side that gets to make fun of the UFOers... Lot easier...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 01:45 PM

"...literal mindedness with no sense of context or nuance..."

But...I save punchlines to jokes and repartée...and that's the first time anyone ever set me up with that one! *grin* YOU manufactured the occasion with "one arrant and one erudite".

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 01:47 PM

It's always easier to do something that requires absolutely no mental effort...or any real experience...or any discomforting deviation from the usual pleasant rut of certainty and mental convention that one normally lies in. I mean, hey!...if you already know it all, Bobert, you're home free, right? What could be easier than that? Just keep repeating the past as you always have done, rather like a parrot that says, "Polly is a pretty bird! Polly is a pretty bird!", and you're on safe ground.

And then you can laugh at anyone who dares go outside your cage. ;-D And all the other Pretty Pollys in their cages will laugh with you.

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: gnu
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 02:07 PM

LH... "Polly is a pretty bird! Polly is a pretty bird!"

Always wondered why someone would train a parrot to say things like that. If I ever encountered such a person, I would certainly keep my eyes on my crackers as I should think such a person would be rather disconnected in the neural centre.

Or is that being toooo pedantic?

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 02:11 PM

Well, it always seems like a great idea at the time, right? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: skarpi
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 06:45 PM

there is no way we are all alone is this universe .
I am an alien and so are they .......

kv Skarpi

Subject: RE: BS: A real UFO encounter that happened
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 10:33 PM

"Always wondered why someone would train a parrot to say things like that."

*I* knew a guy who taught his parakeet to say "stupid bird".