• Almost 20 years ago, the Snedeker family moves into a suburban home in Southington, Conneticut. The rent was a bargain – the house was previously a funeral home.

• Two of the sons were subjected to living in the basement: the former basement morgue was now “the boys’ room.” Apparently morgue equipment was still stored/abandoned in the basement.

• Members of the household reported odd smells and seeing and hearing odd things. A religious family, they ascribed these incidents to demons.

• The eldest son, who lived in the morgue/basement, underwent significant personality changes: becoming angry, moody, and dark – including writing poetry about necrophilia [link]. The eldest son is eventually institutionalized for a period of time.

• The family welcomes paranormal investigators and a priest into their home. The priest exorcizes the home, expelling the “demons.”

• This series of events has produced a book “In a Dark Place”, a Discovery Channel documentary, and soon a feature film “The Haunting in Conneticut” [trailer below].

* NOTE: Mortuary embalming commonly entails the use of phenol, methanol, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and ethanol. Some of these are notably carcinogenic, most are toxic, and prolonged exposure to some of these can cause delirium/hallucinations.

Yeah.
Demons.

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I was recently back at my parents’ house in California, where we’ve had for a long time a troubled lemon tree that yields only a few fruit per year. This year was no exception, as it only bore two lemons– yet somehow this monster was one of them:

According to the Interwebs, it turns out that my lemon is nowhere near the world’s largest. Apparently a farmer in Israel found a lemon in 2003 that was 11 pounds and 9.7 ounces… That’s like a giant baby!

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A profound and colorful background to life: Pictures of Hindu and Buddhist Gods and Goddesses.

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McCain and a Medieval Werewolf

(via Wonkette, via Susan)

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“Divine Order take charge of my life today and every day. All things work together for good for me today. This is a new and wonderful day for me – there will never be another one like this one. I am Divinely guided all day long, and whatever I do will prosper. Divine Love: enfold me, surround me, and enwrap me and I will go forth in peace. I am going to be a wonderful success in all of my undertaking today.”

– Vodou priest Mr. Tucker (Roebuck “Pops” Staples), in the 1986 David Byrne film “True Stories“

And here’s Mr. Tucker’s (Pops Staples) great song in the film “True Stories“:

[display_podcast]

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(photo credits: Warner Bros./Turner, David Furtney)

I grew up in a neighborhood nearly identical to Cuesta Verde in the movie Poltergeist. And oddly enough, I grew up in a neighborhood 20 minutes away from Steven Spielberg’s childhood home.

David Furtney found the actual house from Poltergeist, in Cuesta Verde Simi Valley, California.

Clown Doll Bonus Round:
The Cuesta Verde Estates T-shirt.

(via Poltergeist: The Website)

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Meaning “Goat Sucker” in Spanish, the Chupacabra is a mysterious creature that haunts the American Southwest, Central America, and the Caribbean; according to reports, it has a penchant for drinking the blood of livestock.

Last week the town of Cuero, Texas got yet another “Chupacabra” visitation (Scientific American link):

Last year, Cuero resident Phylis Canion found a dead “Chupacabra” on her property [below left] – DNA testing of this specimen at UC Davis identified the maternal DNA of a Coyote (Canis latrans) and the paternal DNA of a Mexican Grey Wolf (Canis lupus baieyi), but the grey hairless appearance of the creature cannot be easily explained by either lineage (KVUE News link).

(left photo: Associated Press)

Blogadilla Mutant Research Facility Results:
The above two examples of “Chupacabra” look remarkably like a native Mexican breed of dog known as the Xoloitzcuintli (sho-lo-eetz-kwin-tlee) [above right]. This Precolombian Mesoamerican breed (known by the Aztecs and ancient Maya) is medium sized, most often hairless, and with skin ranging from pink to blue-grey to black. This breed still exists in northern Mexico and the American Southwest.

A feral population around the town of Cuero, Texas could have easily interbred with other wild canids – such as Coyotes and Mexican Grey Wolves – to produce these ugly Xoloitzcuintli mixes. The short front legs of the top example can be explained by any number of natural processes such as inbreeding, hybridization, natural variation, or poor interpretation of the video footage.

The Second Great Mystery of Cuero, Texas: This guy’s haircut.

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