BS: A watery ghost?

Subject: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:54 AM

Oooerrr! A ghostly arm photographed at the waterways Museum in Gloucester (UK)....

(Its HIDING BEHIND THE BARREL bottom left)

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Alice
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:56 AM

creepy
Your camera? Digital?

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 11:14 AM

Not my camera I'm afraid... from the http://www.narrowboatworld.com/ website...

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 11:29 AM

Which barrel do you speak of? My eyes are not what they once were.

I went to the website and never found a link to the story. My morning is ruint. :)

However, was that photo taken during working hours? In that picture there appears to be a man standing half concealed behind the gold colored barrel.

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 11:39 AM

Looks like a double exposure on an ordinary camera..... just like the good old days eh?

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 11:55 AM

As you look at it, it is on the right...at least on my computer.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Emma B
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 12:03 PM

More watery ghosts from the canals

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 12:34 PM

Paul-

It looks pretty spooky to me. Have you considered contacting the police? Miscellaneous human body parts may be of some interest to them.

Maybe there was a pirate workshop where they were singing "You Can't be a Pirate (with all of your parts)" and the arm was a leftover or maybe just cold cuts.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 12:46 PM

Or possibly a picture taken with a very slow shutter speed? There's a streak going across from right to left (or left to right) where the elbow is and where the head would be if it was a picture taken with a slow shutter speed of someone moving across the room. If the picture wasn't taken with a slow shutter speed, it's either a double exposure with another picture taken with a slow shutter speed, or it's a ghost. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 12:51 PM

Thanks, kat. I just found it- it is on the right side on my screen too.

The arm looks mighty substantial to be a ghost. :) I'm still thinking of working hours.

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: ClaireBear
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 01:00 PM

I've been in that shed, and I didn't see any ghosts. But then, I wouldn't, would I? Ghosts being transparent and all...

I would certainly haunt the Inland Waterways Museum if I had the option. But alas, I'm (A) alive and (B) in California, so it's altogether unlikely.

Lovely museum, though, ghosts or not.

C

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 01:08 PM

It's an elephant's trunk ... not an arm.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: ClaireBear
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 01:19 PM

Q: Why do elephants paint the bottoms of their feet various colors?

A: So they can lie down in a dark shed and disguise themselves as a stack of barrels.

Hmmmm....

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 01:20 PM

exactly ClaireBear !!!   LOL

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 01:40 PM

If you copy the image, crop it, then blow it up in Photoshop, it looks as though there is a corresponding arm coming from around the other side of the same barrel, as in someone squatting behind it, with their arms around it, or a ghost clasping it.

Subject: A ghost? Well, a poem as least
From: GUEST,Wife of LR Mole
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:20 PM

To Carol C. and all of the many other friends of my late husband LR Mole.....

Just spent a good while scrolling through many of LR's postings (thanks to your kind messages after his passing) - and I want to share this poem written by Bob (aka LR Mole) during the fall prior to his death.
Truth be told - he had had a number of close calls w death - and I believe he knew his time was soon to come - though he chose not talk about it, nor did he ever want to talk much about his own problems. He was a man who lived for connecting and communicating with others - through music, through teaching, through voice, and as you all know - through writing.

Here is the last poem he ever wrote:

Latter Days of Peter Pan

Diversion from mourning those who've gone away
Used to preoccupy him.
Lost boys not really lost, aging Wendies,
Sprites who needed help from crowds to be saved,

Pirates sad in defeat, devoured by crocodiles and time.
But
Ill-temper becomes tedious. And memory wears out.

Beyond the second star is waiting and an effort at calm

On an island in a sea,
In an ocean of stars,

Flying,

Still.

RF Dalton 9-6-01
(typed exactly as written by LR Mole)
************

So... a present to all of you who loved Bob (LR) - as I certainly did.

Have a great life and enjoy the music!

With love,
Betsy (wife - or really, widow - to LR Mole)

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:40 PM

Betsy, if you would consider joining the Mudcat, I would love to send you a private message.

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:42 PM

(Apologies to the powers that be in the Mudcat for my having addressed another poster directly. I hope they will be able to find it in their collective hearts to overlook it this time under the circumstances.)

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:48 PM

Betsy, thank you so much for sharing that with us. It is a beautiful and moving poem. It is also really neat that you have come to Mudcat and shared. Please do consider joining up...it's free and easy and you won't get spammed. Plus, as Carol says, you can exchange Private Messages with other members that way.

All the best,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 02:51 PM

Also, he posted under two screen names for a while - LR Mole,and L R Mole, so he has two different posting histories. Here's the one for L R Mole in case that one has not been read yet...

http://www.mudcat.org/usersearch.cfm?who=L%20R%20Mole

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: GUEST,betsy
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 03:49 PM

I will join the Mudcat - though I cannot promise to be a faithful as the Mole was.....
We can talk later.
Work is calling...
A necessity of life.
Betsy

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 04:06 PM

Wonderful!

After you join if you'll post a message in this thread, we'll know what your screen name is, and we'll be able to send you messages (by clicking on the little -PM to the right of your screen name in the heading of your post).

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 06:32 PM

Actually in the first picture, if just viewed at about 2x pixel resolution, there is a very clear face and upper torso "reflected" on the barrel in question, with a right hand "holding" the barrel (to the left of the brown barrel). The "ghost arm" first cited, projecting to the right of the brown barrel is quite distorted, as if stretched in the Photoshop overaly from which the final image was produced. The arm is a left arm, akimbo, with palm turned outward on the left hip, certainly from another photo, but has been "stretched" to produce inevitable blurring, in a separate (transparent) layer before flattening into this final picture.

A few "pixel failures" one or two pixels wide, scattered around in the image, imply more extensive attempts to modify, clumsy overlay crops, - or a very deficient scanner when the composite photo(shopped) print was scanned for the final image.

There is no attached EXIF data, as would be expected if the image is a direct download from a digital camera, although that might be missing with a very cheap camera or if someone deliberately "turned off" anything that might identify the source.

John

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: John O'L
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 06:39 PM

Your camera? Digital?

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Alice
Date: 07 Aug 08 - 10:56 PM

Betsy, thank you so much for posting Bob's poem. I look forward to seeing you on Mudcat.

Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: KT
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 12:14 AM

Lovely poem, Betsy. Thanks for sharing it with us, and a warm welcome to you! This is a wonderful community! Looking forward to your posts....

KT

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 08 Aug 08 - 03:17 AM

Sorry, I meant the other left. I'm pretty sure it can't be a pirate's ghost, as they were rare on British inland waterways, even on the Severn (at least as high as Gloucester). The arm also looks rather, shall we say, sleek- not at all gnarly. More like a landlady's arm. I once heard of a landlord who'd been struck down by God- he was found dead on the cellar steps, clutching a jug which still held water, and the locals were convinced that he'd been taken whilst in the act of watering the beer. I wonder if any Gloucester ladladies were similarly wicked.

But another thing is puzzling- I thought ghosts were supposed to be frightening, so why is it hiding? Are they as scared of us as we of them, a bit like big spiders are supposed to be?

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: CarolC
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 11:49 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: A watery ghost?
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 12:23 PM

The poem would be a beautiful thing to add to LR Mole's memorial page, no?