Today's Topics:
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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 91 13:31:56 EST
Message-Id: <9111191831.AA04833@teatime.think.com>
From: Doug MacDonald <macdon@think.com>
To: AHEWARD@ccit.arizona.edu
Cc: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject:
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 91 09:17 MST
From: AHEWARD@ccit.arizona.edu
Subject:
To: Subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Message-id: <E2EFEED6895F4042A3@ccit.arizona.edu>
About a week ago someone was asking for information about the _Fortean
Times_. It appears that no one else is going to appease this poor person's
pleas for help so I guess I'll do it.
The _Fortean Times_ is a quarterly "Journal of Strange Phenomena"
out of England. A good way to describe it would be to call it "The Skeptical
Enquirer," because it deals with the same sorts of crazy claims as the "Weekly
World News," but in a skeptical light.
The latest issue has a good series of articles about claims of Satanic
child abuse in England. It also has a section entitled "Not Their Day" with
a bunch of news clippings from around the world. For example:
"A madrid postman stole a parcel from work, took it home and opened it.
Unfortunately it was a letter bomb and it seriously injured his wife. Police
charged him with theft. _Sun_ 19 Dec 1990."
Single back issues cost $5, and a four issue subscription is $16.
Send checks, etc., to Fortean Times, 20 Paul St., Frome, Somerset BA11 1DX.
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If its name is an indication, the _Fortean Times_ is named after Charles
Fort, a collector of weird happenings reported in newspapers in the first
half of this century. He also went back to earlier times (not literally,
just in the library). Fort published a series of books of these stories
and is also quoted and discussed in Pauwels and Bergiers underground
classic-in-inverted-commas, the Morning of the Magicians. Lots of strange
coincidences, spontaneous combustion, aerial music, bilocation, etc. I
don't recall Fort making skeptical statements, though - his own stuff is
more along the lines of "Wow - What next?"
Regards
Doug
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End of Subgenius Digest
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