We welcome your correspondence, pro or con, well-reasoned or otherwise, but please keep in mind that while Saucer Smear is on the Dreaded Internet, your humble editor is NOT! So, if you wish to receive a personal reply to your letter, or wish to have any chance of seeing it printed on Our Glorious Pages, please print it out, put it in an envelope, affix a stamp thereto, and SNAIL mail it to: James W. Moseley P.O. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 It's simple and loads of fun! Ask your grandma if you don't remember how to do it! We thank you!

• PROPOSED CHANGES AND REFINEMENTS REGARDING THE "SAUCER SMEAR HALL OF SHAME" LIST:
• TIDBITS OF TRASH:
• BRIEF RANDOM THOUGHTS:
• Pflock Ptalk - NOT SO MYSTERIOUS
• MISSIVES FROM THE MASSES:

Carlos Mentira has written an impassioned diatribe, demanding to know why the notorious Todd Zechel was not included. Indeed, it was an oversight, as Mentira so eloquently points out at great length. Surely Zechel qualifies just for having stuck your editor with a telephone bill of over two thousand dollars, while he was freeloading for several weeks at our New Jersey apartment in 1977. Most of his calls were in the form of endless ravings with California researcher Brad Sparks, who also deserves to be on the List!

Among Zechel's other Sins: Running a porn shop in Wisconsin while pretending to be an undercover government agent; Ditto with his job as a fireman; Shamelessly promoting the Del Rio, Texas UFO crash story, which has since been determined to have no merit at all; and picking on kindly old Phil Klass!

Another candidate we overlooked is Wendy Connors, who wrote in regard to "Shockingly Close to the Truth!": "...Like the proverbial brain-damaged dog, (Moseley) continues unabated as the decades click onward and good trees are sacrificed to put out a bad product". We think we once met Wendy, sort of, but we're not sure. While sitting in the Founders' Office at the International UFO Museum in Roswell, during the Festival of 2002, we noticed a very obese middle-aged woman who failed to identify hereself. We believe this was Wendy, god bless her!

Now for a candidate to be taken off the dreaded List. We refer to none other than Jerry Clark. In spite of his ill-mannered wit and his scathing review of "Shockingly", we have decided to forgive him - and we know he will greet our forgiveness with the total disregard it so richly deserves.

The reason for our New Attitude toward Jerry is that he has evolved in his ufological thinking to the point that he seems to agree with us - which means he is getting better! We refer to an interview printed in the most recent "Fortean Times" (No. 191), in which ee is asked, "Do you think the U.S. Government is keeping secret any evidence about the UFO phenomenon?"

To this, Jerry cheerfully replies: "I'm sure there are some interesting classified reports, mostly of incidents such as, say, attempted intercepts over sensitive military or civilian installations. As I have watched the Roswell debate unfold, however, I have grown ever more doubtful that anything so dramatic as UFO wreckage - or any other kind of undisputed proof of ET visitors - is being concealed. Allen Hynek probably had it right when he said of the official approach that it has been more foul-up than cover-up.

Way to go, Jerry!

In the Lettres section of this issue we have printed correspondence from several people with further thoughts about the composition of our List. We are secretly hoping to hear from some ufoologist brazen enough to want to be put on the List, rather than taken off it. This may never happen, but in any case, our plea to all of you is to keep those cards & lettres rolling in!

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The photo and text at the right are taken from the January 2005 issue of the Bigfoot Times", edited by Daniel Perez (10926 Milano Ave., Norwalk, California 90650). We had not seen this zine before, but it appears to be a good one. Erik Beckjord is a member of our "Smear Hall of Shame", and deservedly so. Unfortunately, you probably can't see his face clearly in this reproduction of the photograph, nor can you see what is in his right hand, if anything. Sorry about that!

• Something went terribly wrong with our display ad on page 3 of our last issue, for our glorious book (with Pflock) "Shockingly Close to the Truth!" Alas, one can barely read it. So let us reaffirm that this classic tome is still available at "Smear" Headquarters, duly autographed by both co-authors, for the mere price of $28. In fact, we have just gotten in a new supply of copies - enough to last till Bush turns Communist. The exact number of copies available is, of course, Classified.

  We also want to apologize for a glaring typo near the bottom of page I of that issue, in which "congratulations" somehow became "congratularions". Fred Broman does our proofreading, and we now have him under heavy sedation.

  Of course, the photo of Richard Hall didn't turn out too well either, but that is just the way we wanted it!

• We should also add that our earlier book, "UFO Crash Secrets at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base" is also still in print, at $10 per copy. This book was originally published by Gray Barker's Saucerian Press, under the title "The Wright Field Story" - sometimes referred to as "The Wrong Field Story", for complicated reasons. That edition is long out of print, but the second edition, published by Timothy Green Beckley's Global Communications conglomerate in 1991, is still here for those of you who rush your order in to us - and to all others as well! The American dollar may soon become nearly worthless, so send a few of them along before it's too late!...

  Our friend Dennis Crenshaw of Yulee, Florida, is starting his second year of publishing a weekly 30-page Internet report called "Unraveling the Secrets". We like his motto: "Don't rock the boat. Instead, kick a damn hole in its rotten bottom". What Dennis does is go through 15 or 20 offbeat websites looking for interesting & worthwhile material, and then he takes the best stuff for his own zine - indicating links at which the reader can obtain further information on a given topic. There's UFOs, Hollow Earth, impending natural disasters, astronomy, the (alleged) New World Order, and much more.

  Dennis used to call his zine "The Hollow Earth Insider", which we've always felt to be an unusually clever title. However, when he decided to expand his research into other, more visible areas, he changed the name to the present one. He says that he reaches about 4,000 people, and is - like the universe itself - still expanding!

  One thing Dennis has done in a past issue is expose the famed Admiral Byrd diary as a fake. This pertained to a Byrd expedition to the north pole in 1947, which apparently never took place. Years ago we knew Harley Byrd of California, who claimed to be either a son or nephew of the Admiral, and was peddling this obviously fake diary. As it turns out, Harley Byrd was not related to the Admiral at all!

  Dennis Crenshaw also has a book coming out this Spring, entitled "The Secrets of Dellschau". It is co-written and illustrated by his friend Peter Navarre. This book pertains to the legendary "Sonora (California) Aero Club", which has been linked to the mysterious nation-wide UFO flap of 1897. Dennis Stacy, former editor of the MUFON Journal, wrote an excellent article on this same topic for the July 20th, 2004 issue of "Smear". This subject has always interested us, and we are looking forward to the book - and also more (free) issues of "Unraveling the Secrets". Dennis's website is www.thehollowearthinsider.com...

  A core interest of Dennis Crenshaw is still the Hollow Earth, and a recent issue of his zine has a tantalizing story on this subject. It seems that a man named Steve Currey is a highly experienced explorer, who also runs a commercial enterprise called The Expedition Company. Says he:

  "You are invited to accompany us on a historic voyage to our Hollow Earth and personally visit that paradise within our Earth via the North Polar Opening, and meet the highly advanced, friendly people who live there. We are of the opinion that they are the legendary Lost Tribes of Israel who migrated into the North Country over 2,500 years ago and literally became lost to the knowledge of mankind."

  He goes on to explain that at a seaport in Russia, they will board a world class nuclear ice breaker which is "a literal motel on ice". They will go on a complex itinerary from there.

  Thus, the expedition appears to be for tourists as well as serious scientific explorers. Currey makes it clear: "All persons signing up for this expedition come at their own risk, at their own expense (not specified), and for their own reasons...There is NO GUARANTEE that the expedition will reach the Inner Earth. We will make a good faith effort to locate the North Pole Opening and enter therein, but the worst-case scenario is that we will visit the geographic North Pole, explore the region, and continue on to the New Siberian Islands. At all times the expedition will be at the mercy of the weather, ice and sea conditions." (Gasp!)

  This Trip is scheduled for some time in 2006. Dennis has told us that he does not intend to join the expedition physically, though he wishes these people the best of luck, as we do. So - how does this relate to flying saucers? Who knows! If the rest of the story is true, there may be saucers down there also - warmed, of course, by the Great Central Sun!

• Actor Dan Aykroyd has a long interview in the Dec./Jan. 2005 issue of (ugh!) UFO Magazine. Aykroyd is a hard-core True Believer in UFO lore, and his views are interesting though decidedly Far Out. He tells of how he recently attempted to launch a talk-show series on the Sci Fi TV channel. He was delivering an episode in person, at their headquarters in Manhattan, when a "big black sedan" pulled up in front of the building. A very large man wearing a black suit got out, looked directly at him, gave him a "menacing look", and then turned back to the car. Ackroyd turned away for a moment, to finish a conversation on his cell phone, and when he looked back, the car had literally disappeared!

  A month later the Sci Fi channel officially cancelled his shows. Co-incidence? Hardly!

• From a Net source we learn that the Iranian government has announced it has ordered its air force to attack UFOs, which have been seen near their nuclear facilities a substantial number of times recently. A spokesman has said that "all anti-aircraft units and jet fighters have been ordered to shoot down the flying objects over Iran's airspace". Here it definitely sounds to us like U.S. spy planes must be involved, due to our delicate political situation with Iran. (Our thanks to Dennis Crenshaw for this item and for many others which Space does not allow us to print.)...

• One of the very last of the followers of the late contactee George Adamski is 81 year old Jim Wales of Pasadena, Maryland. He has a 2-page zine called "Update", which he publishes "every so often". In the latest one, we were surprised and amused to notice that he has woven your "Smear" editor's name into the masthead, along with his heros George Adamski and Laura Mundo - who was a follower of George's. Also there is contactee Howard Menger, who is still alive. But why is your "Smear" editor there, since we disagree with all this contactee stuff? Inquiring minds would like to know! (Wales can be reached at: 7803 Ruanne Court, Pasadena, Md. 21122, USA, Earth!)

  We would like to meet old Jim sometime, before it's too late!...

  

• The photo above, sent to us by researcher Jerry Lucci, pertains to a lecture we gave at the International UFO Museum in Roswell, during their 2002 annual festival. Since we don't believe in the Roswell Incident as an interplanetary event, it is very unlikely we will ever be invited back. In the accompanying text from the Net, we are referred to as a "long-time ufological prankster and social historian". Hmmmm!...

• Will it never end??? Every time we announce that Pat Marcattilio ("Dr. UFO") is ending his long series of New Jersey saucer conventions, he schedules another one. The date for his gloriously forthcoming con. is the weekend of April 16th & 17th, and the location is the same dreary Days Inn in Bordontown, N.J., where most of the others have taken place. No speakers have yet been scheduled, but Pat can be reached (occasionally) at 609-631-8955. He seems to have postponed indefinitely his plan to move to Orlando, Florida and open a UFO museum there...

  On a much more grandiose scale, March 6th - 12th will see the 14th annual "International UFO Congress Convention and Film Festival" held at the Flamingo Resort in LaughLin, Nevada. We have attended a couple of these in the past, and they are always well attended. At one of these, your editor participated in a "Roast" for contactee Colonel Wendelle Stevens' 75th birthday. Stevens is a hard-core supporter of Billy Meier, the one-armed Swiss contactee, and he will be speaking again this year. Unfortunately, we will not be able to be there this time - or at Marcattilio's event.

  There will be 27 speakers in all, including Stevens, and also including quite a number of people we have never heard of - but that doesn't mean they might not be worth listening to. Among those whose names ring a bell: Colonel Donald Ware, a mystic who was defrocked as MUFON's Eastern Director quite a few years ago; Journalist Jim Marrs - an easy name to remember; Sean David Morton, who dabbles in the notorious "Bible Code"; Jaime Maussan, the Mexican videotape guru; famed contactee Whitley Strieber; and (ugh!) Budd Hopkins, who will appear jointly with Dr. David Jacobs, though their views on abductions differ radically! That is one lecture we are sorry to miss!

  For more info., contact Bob Brown, 9975 Wadsworth Parkway, #K2-504, Westminster, Colorado 88021.

• On January 31st, researcher Kenny Young of Ohio died of cancer at a comparatively early age. He was the local host for our 2002 NUFOC in Cincinnati, and was very active in Ohio ufology. He was a nice guy, and we will miss him

• Now that the U.S. Government is at war with so many terrestrial enemies, you can be more sure than ever that they are paying no attention whatsoever to the possibility of interplanetary saucers. So, stick to UFO research & you will be okay!

• Our sincere thanks to New Mexico MUFONite Miller Johnson for the neat stuff he sent us recently - more text and pictures to add to last year's "Roast" on the (cursed) Net. We have all this stuff in one paper (remember paper??) loose-leaf book, and we will always treasure it!

• We have received (but not yet played) a Canadian video, circa 2002, entitled "Stanton T. Friedman Is Real". Many UFO personalities are interviewed therein, including Karl Pflock. Our verdict: Friedman:is indeed real, but some of his views are just too Far Out for us!

• For the first time, part of the "evidence" at the International UFO Museum at Roswell, New Mexico, has been sent to another museum for temporary exhibit. The lucky recipient is the Southwest Florida Museum of History. Incidentally, the Roswell Museum is the third most visited museum in the United States, according to info we saw recently. Egads!

• 0n the evening of February 24th, the ABC Network will show a better-than-average TV Special, hosted by Peter Jennings. It is called "UFOs: Life in the Universe". Again, our esteemed contributing editor Karl Pflock is among the interviewees.

In my last column, I promised to continue with tales of my saucer-haunted youth when next I re-materialized. Once again, I must disappoint my loyal fan (not a typo) - this time, inspired by recent personal experience, to rant about one of The Field's not so endearing quirks.

The word "mysterious" has a twisted meaning in certain precincts of ufology: the fringe lands of ufoology. It's a meaning that would be understood by the Red Queen but few others outside Ufoologystan. In that strange realm, "mysterious" is all but synonymous with "the work of malevolent forces" - MIB, Reptilians, MJ-12, et al. Congressman Steve Schiff dies an untimely death from cancer, and it's mysterious in the ufoological sense. John Mack is killed by a drunk driver, and that's mysterious. Over a period of decades, people connected with the Mothman saga die, and that's mysterious, too. Et cetera ad nauseam.

So I should have known better than to use "mysterious" when I sent a private e-mail to a number of colleagues, including the editor of a Leading UFO Journal, to give them an update on my physical condition.

Last April, I had surgery to relieve a spinal cord compression, which seemed to be the cause of balance, motor control, and muscle weakness problems. After some months of improvement, my recovery came to a halt. My neurologist ordered an MRI, which showed the surgery "worked" and everything else apparently okay. Yet I still have serious difficulties, including major trouble using a computer keyboard. I have been referred to a specialist in neuro-muscular diseases, who should have some - positive, please! - answers for me. Time will tell. Meanwhile, I'm using iListen voice recognition software (no doubt back engineered from alien technology) to write this column and other deathless prose.

In my e-mail, I labeled my problems "rather mysterious", never dreaming this would be taken as anything but a semi-humorous locution. Imagine my, uh, surprise when the text of my message - including my unlisted home phone number! - appeared in that Leading UFO Journal under the headline "Karl Pflock Suffering from Mysterious Illness". Compounding my "delight" was learning this in a telephone call from a complete stranger, who wanted to know if I was - you guessed it - an abductee. Argh!

It's high time The Field got its collective head out of its collective ass. UFO phenomena are quite mysterious enough in and of themselves. We don't need bogus mysteries to "spice" things up.

Next time: With considerable relief, back to the Goode Olde Daze (honest!).

• For the first time in several years, former UFO authority JOHN KEEL has written us, no doubt influenced by his inclusion on our recent "Hall of Shame" List:

  "O Carrier of Unspeakable Diseases:

  "Here is my contribution to your impoverished and irresponsible efforts to further decay the Leper Colony of readers of vanity books and victims of misguided moronism."

  On Keel's stationery is printed: "In a hundred years this won't matter. It barely matters now." He enclosed weird foreign currency in response to our renewal request. - Editor.

• DAVE SWINK of Roswell writes:

  "I loved your latest issue of 'Smear' - acknowledging Julie Schuster in the 'Hall of Shame' List was terrific. I hope she is directed to this issue by her 'readers'.

  "I bet the Internet 'Roast' of you was fun to read, and better still, fun for the compilers. Heck, you've lived everything they could possibly say, so you got there first. Ha!

  "Too bad that Pflock is fading - we don't live forever (well, so far, until we get the Alien pill!)

  "I remain super impressed with you and your ability and interest, to keep up with the ever-changing UFO scene/people/trends/dreams - 'Smear' continues to Link all of us!..."

• Researcher JERRY LUCCI writes as follows:

  "...As for Ms. Wendy Connors, you should know that she has proclaimed herself "Queen of Ufology" on one of the current Web chat rooms - so that tells you all you need to know!"

• Frequent contributor ROB MACGREGOR writes:

  "I was surprised to see that James Randi failed to make the top ten on your 'Hall of Shame' List. Didn't he sue you once?

  "Oh, I get it. If you listed him, he might actually carry through on that threat! Here's a donation, $1 per month for 2005, to help defray your legal costs on any pending suits from the ten who did make the List!"

  Randi operates as an intense anti-psychic, and thus is not really in the UFO field. Perhaps he should be on the Fate Magazine "Hall of Shame" List, if they had one! - Editor.

• England's CHRISTOPHER ALLAN writes:

  "You refer to Richard Hall and put him as second of the most obnoxious persons on your current List, Budd Hopkins being number one.

  "Here is a simple story of his reaction to a Net posting of mine re Phil Klass. Klass had come under heavy fire, as usual, from certain ufologists. I had said in his defense that Phil had brought out 76 issues of his newsletter SUN for nearly 14 years, each issue appearing regularly and on time, and that I was positive this had not been the case with the great majority of UFO publications, past or present, over the past 50+ years. An enviable achievement, I said.

  "Dick Hall's learned riposte was brief and simple: 'There is something to be said for regularity of bowel movements'.

  "Hall is clearly not a Klass fan. However, he appears not always to be a Stanton Friedman fan, either. Certainly not over the new Flatwoods Monster book by Frank Feschino. They exchanged some bitter insults in their recent Internet discussions. I do have to take Hall's side here, as apparently this latest author takes ufology to a new low (if such were possible) in claiming that the USAF, under President Truman's orders, engaged in a fierce aerial combat with UFOs over the Atlantic on the very evening of the 'monster' incident, and that many U.S. planes were shot down before the last remaining UFO was finally hit and burst into flames. The total casualty figures are unknown.

  "Make of that what you will. Needless to say, you won't find that in the Blue Book archives!

  "All for now. As if more were needed!"

• Ace cartoonist MATT GRAEBER writes:

  "Congratulations on initiating a 'Hall of Shame' listing in your glorious zine; but I must admit that I was a \ little disappointed that a more expanded explanation on 'why' those mentioned were so honored, was not given. Of course, eS I had no difficulty in regard to Budd Hopkins being the top dog on your listing, as I am well acquainted with his unique brand of Ufoology.

  "But you know, an 'Ain't That a Shame' listing might also be a good addition to your throng of those obviously 'lost in Space' and otherwise out-of-touch individuals who are presently populating the ufological landscape. To this listing I would nominate Dr. David Jacobs, the author of the perfectly rational and logical book, 'The UFO Controversy in America', 1975. But then, the good Doctor apparently underwent a remarkable metomorphosis of some kind and became a self-appointed abduction specialist!

  "Naturally, some folks suspect that Dr. Jacobs had sim ply succumbed to the charismatic charm and abstract thought processes of Mr. Hopkins' shadowy personality - a personality which one British critic felt prompted to call 'something of the night' in his writings. But, Dr. Jacobs' most recent UFO fantasies and delusions about alien creatures lead one to suspect that he is much like one of his greys filtering through a bedroom wall! So, too, David Jacobs' researches appear to be slipping in and out of reality as we know it!

  "In this mushy-boundried state of highly elastic reality, Jacobs and Hopkins write of seemingly mundane childhood incidents and long-forgotten boo-boo scars - transforming them into repeated abductions by aliens - and even perfectly harmless things like two fireflies mating on a window screen might become a tell-tale 'screen memory' of a dual-lighted, hybrid-laden Mothership landing in a victim's back yard!

  "It is truly a shame that such is the fate of many unbridled ufoologists in the field, and a 'therapeutic support group' should be established to assist them with their special needs. After all, one would think that 'an extraordinary mania requires an extraordinary therapy!'

  "On the other hand, perhaps Dr. Jacobs' warnings about the 'invasion of the planet snatchers' already walking amongst us should be heeded. If only he had a big seed pod, a hybrid, or a scout ship's tail pipe to show the authorities! If only he wasn't the lone voice in the grand parade of abductionists, yelling 'The aliens aren't benevolent, they're a THREAT!' Is everyone really out of step except for Dr. Jacobs when it comes to understanding the alien agenda?

  "But no one from Homeland Security seems to be listening, and those lunatics at Airbus in Toulouse, France are planning to fly a jumbo 550 seat passenger plane right into the path of those invisible Motherships lurking in our skies. One asks, haven't they read Budd Hopkins' latest book about the invisible aliens and their invisible spacecraft?

  "Who knows - perhaps Dr. Jacobs is correct, and insideous alien beings really do regard this planet with cold and envious wrap-around eyes. Perhaps they can filter through walls and invade our homes at will. I've hung a bunch of those super-sticky fly strips all over my house to foil their plans, and my low-tech security system seems to have worked, so far! So, after a quarter century of prolonged anxiety and fear, the abductees finally do have a way to thwart continued abuse at the hands (or claws) of these horrid little intruders.

  "Jim, just remind the support group therapist handling such problems to remember the golden rule of progressive counseling - Pay the fee promptly, or you will NEVER get better!"

• Famed psychic and remote viewer ING0 SWANN writes as follows:

  "Enclosed is a small pittance for your wonderful sociological document of UFO persons. Amazing! I wish I had the witty & sardonic capacities you display - although you seem to hold back on them, or so I sense.

  "I hope to see you in person again, somewhere. In the meanwhile, all best wishes."

• NORMAN HOWARD of Las Vegas, Nevada, writes:

  "...Enclosed is a check for your book, 'Shockingly Close to the Truth!' I look forward to reading it, and relishing your autograph and that of your co-author. (A nice touch!)

  "MUFON all over the state of Nevada is now dead. No volunteers have come forward to take over. Its magazine is dreadful, poorly edited, and largely irrelevant.

  "I am determined to be at the next NUFOC bash in California, a fairly short drive for me. I suggest we call the next meeting "Meet the NUFOCers"!

  The December 2004 issue of the MUFON Journal notes the resignation of Nevada's Director and Assistant Director, who are a married couple. No new people are named to take their place. - Editor.

• Long-time researcher HERBERT TAYLOR writes:

  "I don't know if you subscribe to the International UFO Reporter (IUR), a far better and more serious read than the MUFON Journal, but the current issue carries another article of mine re the very important UFO category of satellite object reports. This makes two issues in a row that have carried my satellite object article as the lead story worthy of the cover, and I am indeed gratified that Mark Rodeghier, et al, felt them worthy of such placement. My intention is to further inform the readers of IUR re the vital importance of satellite object reports, and their central nature within the core UFO problem.

  "Indeed, any meaningful answers to the UFO enigma must take into account this baffling and spectacular category of the core mystery. Sorry, no lecture was intended, but 'Smear' non-subscribers should also avail themselves of these two articles (and others that may likely follow), preferably by subscribing to IUR, which is the quarterly publication of CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies), which is located at: 2457 West Peterson Ave., Chicago, Il. 60659"

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Saucer Smear Index

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