The Paracast Newsletter
April 7, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Explore the Magic and Mystery of Fairies and Other Creatures of Folklore with Dr. Simon Young on the Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present Dr. Simon Young, a British folklore historian based in Italy. He has written extensively on the nineteenth-century supernatural. His book Magical Folk: British & Irish Fairies, came out in 2017.The Boggart (from Exeter University Press) and The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends (from Mississippi University Press) came out in 2022. Dr. Young has undertaken the biggest folklore survey of its kind, on behalf of the Fairy Investigation Society and released in 2024 The Fairy Census 2: 2017-2023. His earlier collection, The Fairy Census 1, came out in 2017. The census, revived more than 60 years from the last one, gathered details of as many fairy sightings from the 20th and 21st century as possible, and to measure contemporary attitudes to fairies. He is also the editor of Exeter New Approaches to Legends, Folklore and Popular Legends, which provides a venue for growing scholarly interest in folklore narratives, supernatural belief systems and the communities that sustain them. As well, Dr. Young teaches history at University of Virginia's Siena Campus (CET). Over the years he has run courses on the History of Christianity, Italian Food History, Italian Media History, Contemporary Italian History, WW2 in Italy and Italian Renaissance History. For more information about the Fairy Census, visit its website at: www.fairyist.com. His blog can be found at: www.strangehistory.net
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on April 7: British folklore historian Dr. Simon Young returns to discuss the supernatural, including fairy lore, with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz. In addition to discussing such books as The Fairy Census 1, and The Fairy Census 2: 2017-2023, he talks about such phenomena as shape shifting, possible universals in sightings of strange creatures around the world, possible comparisons between fairies and gray aliens, and even the potential power of the collective unconscious. Dr. Young's other books include Magical Folk: British & Irish Fairies, which came out in 2017, The Boggart (from Exeter University Press) and The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends (from Mississippi University Press) came out in 2022. In his "regular life," he teaches history at University of Virginia's Siena Campus (CET). Over the years he has run courses on the History of Christianity, Italian Food History, Italian Media History, Contemporary Italian History, WW2 in Italy and Italian Renaissance History. He is also the editor of Exeter New Approaches to Legends, Folklore and Popular Legends, which provides a venue for growing scholarly interest in folklore narratives, supernatural belief systems and the communities that sustain them. For more information about the Fairy Census, visit its website at: www.fairyist.com. His blog covering a variety of paranormal news and views can be found at: www.strangehistory.net
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
Memories Are Made of — What?
By Gene Steinberg
I like to think that I have a pretty decent memory. At my advanced age, I don’t think I’ve lost too many of my marbles, although some of you might disagree.
In any case, I’ve run into some issues comparing notes with others who were also there at specific encounters. Well, at least I thought they were there.
In any case, in various issues of this newsletter, I described two momentous meetings, one featuring UFO research pioneer Major Donald E. Keyhoe, the other, another individual regarded as a pioneer in the field, Raymond A. Palmer.
Both occurred between 1964 and 1965. I wouldn’t presume to remember the exact dates, since I think that’s not terribly important. It’s more about what happened and, to a lesser extent, the sequence of these two meetings.
So to recap, three close friends were with me when we visited Keyhoe at a diner near is home in Luray, Virginia. The others were long-time UFO explorers Allen H. Greenfield and Rick R. Hilberg. The fourth member of our little group was Martin Salkind, a close friend of mine from Brooklyn.
In passing, Allen and Rick, both long-time friends, have remained active in the field. Over the years, they’ve appeared on The Paracast.
In contrast, Marty and I lost contact shortly thereafter. It happened not long after he was signed up to the bagel baker’s union in New York City — no easy task if it even still exists, since it evidently required family referral — and had begun baking bagels. Now I can’t see how that would have impacted his private life, so I’ll assume it’s just one of those things.
I do hope he’s still around, so someday when I stroll into a New York deli, I’ll catch him still working in front of the bagel ovens.
As to Palmer, the meeting occurred at the tail end of a trip that began when Jim Moseley and I arrived at the Conrad Hilton hotel in Chicago after a flight from New York. We were joined by Allen and Rick.
It was the beginning of a journey of several days and some momentous meetings and phone conversations.
While it has been remodeled over the years, in those day’s, the hotel's hallways were a maze, and it was never easy for our crew to find our rooms. Maybe calling it a maze was an understatement.
In the course of our travels, we had a telephone conversation with Dr. J. Allen Hynek and a meeting with someone who was then a relatively new author of UFO books, Jacques Vallee, who was promoting the title, “Anatomy of a Phenomenon: Unidentified Objects in Space-A Scientific Appraisal.”
Vallee spoke in a deep French accent, and I have to admit that I had a little difficulty understanding him. At least then. In my subsequent conversations with him, I had no problems of that sort, and I’m sure listeners to his Paracast appearances will agree.
We met up with Vallee at his hotel room, and we had a fairly long conversation. He seemed enthusiastic, and even a little high-strung. So after we left, Jim — ever the amateur psychologist — attempted his quick and informal diagnosis of Vallee’s alleged nervous-related issues. But since I wasn’t paying much attention, I won’t even try to recall what it was all about.
Near the end of our visit to the windy city, our crew joined Jim in a rented car on a trip to Amherst, Wisconsin, home of Ray Palmer, an individual that some regard as a founder of the UFO field. Yes, he even predated Keyhoe.
It was a long trip. A lot of it involved navigating winding two-lane roads. Since this all occurred over a year before I learned how to drive, I didn’t pay much attention to the details beyond my uncomfortable feelings because of the shortcomings of the seats in that car.
Jim had received detailed directions from Palmer. He was a very experienced driver, having traveled around this country and other countries over the years. But after a few hours, it began to seem that we were lost.
But we did eventually see the sign for Amherst, a tiny village that had a population in the most recent census of 1,122. The downtown section, at least as shown in recent photos, consists of some small restaurants and other businesses mostly located on a single street.
We came across a service station, and I suspect it may have been the only one in those days. Not knowing where to go, Jim took the obvious approach one expects in small town America, which was to drive up to the attendant and ask where Palmer’s home was located.
To nobody’s surprise, he knew, and gave us expanded directions to reach our destination. In a few more minutes, we pulled up to Palmer’s large beautiful home, which overlooked a river. Until then, we believed him to be struggling financially, but to be fair, real estate in such remote locations probably wasn’t very expensive.
It was a peasant meeting. Palmer was a gracious host, used to dealing with the public despite his handicap, the result of a broken back sustained in a truck accident in his childhood.
Being the one who was studying broadcasting, I was chosen to record a 20-25 minute interview with Palmer. He was an easy interview, the best kind. Ask him a question, and he’d go on for a few minutes, concise and clear.
I later transcribed the interview and published it in the first issue an offbeat paranormal/counterculture magazine of which I was co-editor/publisher, Caveat Emptor.
If you’re curious, here’s the link to a scanned version of the interview:
https://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/United States/Caveat Emptor/Caveat Emptor - vol 1 no 1.pdf
All these meetings were memorable, except for one thing. Over the years, I had come to believe that the meeting with Palmer occurred before the meeting with Keyhoe.
The encounter with Keyhoe was the beginning of a fiasco involving the organization of which he was Director, NICAP. The next day, our little crew went over to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., where I was refused admission by the office manager, Richard Hall. This unexpectedly rude behavior was apparently due to my my association with Moseley.
So what was the proper sequence? Well, after the NICAP episode, we called Palmer and told him about it. During that conversation, we were more or less invited to visit him at his home should we ever get to Wisconsin.
After a brief exchange of emails with Allen, whose memory was the opposite of mine, I went through the online library of issues of Moseley’s Saucer News magazine and got the correct sequence. My old friend was right; I don’t know why I somehow had it mixed up. Perhaps it was because the session with Palmer was far more pleasant, and I’d rather not dwell on that annoying NICAP encounter.
So much for perfect memories.
And then there was the incident involving what appeared to be a water elemental that I saw one morning in the downstairs living room of a home I rented with my first wife, Geneva, back in the early 1970s. I identified the nature of the possible creature sighting based on what she told me at the time.
Only nowadays she doesn’t remember any of it. All right, perhaps I was just dreaming, since it was close to that mystical time of 3:00 AM. I’d rather think I was in the right, but after the Keyhoe/Palmer mixup, who knows?
At least I remembered to publish this issue.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
April 7, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Explore the Magic and Mystery of Fairies and Other Creatures of Folklore with Dr. Simon Young on the Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present Dr. Simon Young, a British folklore historian based in Italy. He has written extensively on the nineteenth-century supernatural. His book Magical Folk: British & Irish Fairies, came out in 2017.The Boggart (from Exeter University Press) and The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends (from Mississippi University Press) came out in 2022. Dr. Young has undertaken the biggest folklore survey of its kind, on behalf of the Fairy Investigation Society and released in 2024 The Fairy Census 2: 2017-2023. His earlier collection, The Fairy Census 1, came out in 2017. The census, revived more than 60 years from the last one, gathered details of as many fairy sightings from the 20th and 21st century as possible, and to measure contemporary attitudes to fairies. He is also the editor of Exeter New Approaches to Legends, Folklore and Popular Legends, which provides a venue for growing scholarly interest in folklore narratives, supernatural belief systems and the communities that sustain them. As well, Dr. Young teaches history at University of Virginia's Siena Campus (CET). Over the years he has run courses on the History of Christianity, Italian Food History, Italian Media History, Contemporary Italian History, WW2 in Italy and Italian Renaissance History. For more information about the Fairy Census, visit its website at: www.fairyist.com. His blog can be found at: www.strangehistory.net
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on April 7: British folklore historian Dr. Simon Young returns to discuss the supernatural, including fairy lore, with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz. In addition to discussing such books as The Fairy Census 1, and The Fairy Census 2: 2017-2023, he talks about such phenomena as shape shifting, possible universals in sightings of strange creatures around the world, possible comparisons between fairies and gray aliens, and even the potential power of the collective unconscious. Dr. Young's other books include Magical Folk: British & Irish Fairies, which came out in 2017, The Boggart (from Exeter University Press) and The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends (from Mississippi University Press) came out in 2022. In his "regular life," he teaches history at University of Virginia's Siena Campus (CET). Over the years he has run courses on the History of Christianity, Italian Food History, Italian Media History, Contemporary Italian History, WW2 in Italy and Italian Renaissance History. He is also the editor of Exeter New Approaches to Legends, Folklore and Popular Legends, which provides a venue for growing scholarly interest in folklore narratives, supernatural belief systems and the communities that sustain them. For more information about the Fairy Census, visit its website at: www.fairyist.com. His blog covering a variety of paranormal news and views can be found at: www.strangehistory.net
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop.
Memories Are Made of — What?
By Gene Steinberg
I like to think that I have a pretty decent memory. At my advanced age, I don’t think I’ve lost too many of my marbles, although some of you might disagree.
In any case, I’ve run into some issues comparing notes with others who were also there at specific encounters. Well, at least I thought they were there.
In any case, in various issues of this newsletter, I described two momentous meetings, one featuring UFO research pioneer Major Donald E. Keyhoe, the other, another individual regarded as a pioneer in the field, Raymond A. Palmer.
Both occurred between 1964 and 1965. I wouldn’t presume to remember the exact dates, since I think that’s not terribly important. It’s more about what happened and, to a lesser extent, the sequence of these two meetings.
So to recap, three close friends were with me when we visited Keyhoe at a diner near is home in Luray, Virginia. The others were long-time UFO explorers Allen H. Greenfield and Rick R. Hilberg. The fourth member of our little group was Martin Salkind, a close friend of mine from Brooklyn.
In passing, Allen and Rick, both long-time friends, have remained active in the field. Over the years, they’ve appeared on The Paracast.
In contrast, Marty and I lost contact shortly thereafter. It happened not long after he was signed up to the bagel baker’s union in New York City — no easy task if it even still exists, since it evidently required family referral — and had begun baking bagels. Now I can’t see how that would have impacted his private life, so I’ll assume it’s just one of those things.
I do hope he’s still around, so someday when I stroll into a New York deli, I’ll catch him still working in front of the bagel ovens.
As to Palmer, the meeting occurred at the tail end of a trip that began when Jim Moseley and I arrived at the Conrad Hilton hotel in Chicago after a flight from New York. We were joined by Allen and Rick.
It was the beginning of a journey of several days and some momentous meetings and phone conversations.
While it has been remodeled over the years, in those day’s, the hotel's hallways were a maze, and it was never easy for our crew to find our rooms. Maybe calling it a maze was an understatement.
In the course of our travels, we had a telephone conversation with Dr. J. Allen Hynek and a meeting with someone who was then a relatively new author of UFO books, Jacques Vallee, who was promoting the title, “Anatomy of a Phenomenon: Unidentified Objects in Space-A Scientific Appraisal.”
Vallee spoke in a deep French accent, and I have to admit that I had a little difficulty understanding him. At least then. In my subsequent conversations with him, I had no problems of that sort, and I’m sure listeners to his Paracast appearances will agree.
We met up with Vallee at his hotel room, and we had a fairly long conversation. He seemed enthusiastic, and even a little high-strung. So after we left, Jim — ever the amateur psychologist — attempted his quick and informal diagnosis of Vallee’s alleged nervous-related issues. But since I wasn’t paying much attention, I won’t even try to recall what it was all about.
Near the end of our visit to the windy city, our crew joined Jim in a rented car on a trip to Amherst, Wisconsin, home of Ray Palmer, an individual that some regard as a founder of the UFO field. Yes, he even predated Keyhoe.
It was a long trip. A lot of it involved navigating winding two-lane roads. Since this all occurred over a year before I learned how to drive, I didn’t pay much attention to the details beyond my uncomfortable feelings because of the shortcomings of the seats in that car.
Jim had received detailed directions from Palmer. He was a very experienced driver, having traveled around this country and other countries over the years. But after a few hours, it began to seem that we were lost.
But we did eventually see the sign for Amherst, a tiny village that had a population in the most recent census of 1,122. The downtown section, at least as shown in recent photos, consists of some small restaurants and other businesses mostly located on a single street.
We came across a service station, and I suspect it may have been the only one in those days. Not knowing where to go, Jim took the obvious approach one expects in small town America, which was to drive up to the attendant and ask where Palmer’s home was located.
To nobody’s surprise, he knew, and gave us expanded directions to reach our destination. In a few more minutes, we pulled up to Palmer’s large beautiful home, which overlooked a river. Until then, we believed him to be struggling financially, but to be fair, real estate in such remote locations probably wasn’t very expensive.
It was a peasant meeting. Palmer was a gracious host, used to dealing with the public despite his handicap, the result of a broken back sustained in a truck accident in his childhood.
Being the one who was studying broadcasting, I was chosen to record a 20-25 minute interview with Palmer. He was an easy interview, the best kind. Ask him a question, and he’d go on for a few minutes, concise and clear.
I later transcribed the interview and published it in the first issue an offbeat paranormal/counterculture magazine of which I was co-editor/publisher, Caveat Emptor.
If you’re curious, here’s the link to a scanned version of the interview:
https://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/United States/Caveat Emptor/Caveat Emptor - vol 1 no 1.pdf
All these meetings were memorable, except for one thing. Over the years, I had come to believe that the meeting with Palmer occurred before the meeting with Keyhoe.
The encounter with Keyhoe was the beginning of a fiasco involving the organization of which he was Director, NICAP. The next day, our little crew went over to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., where I was refused admission by the office manager, Richard Hall. This unexpectedly rude behavior was apparently due to my my association with Moseley.
So what was the proper sequence? Well, after the NICAP episode, we called Palmer and told him about it. During that conversation, we were more or less invited to visit him at his home should we ever get to Wisconsin.
After a brief exchange of emails with Allen, whose memory was the opposite of mine, I went through the online library of issues of Moseley’s Saucer News magazine and got the correct sequence. My old friend was right; I don’t know why I somehow had it mixed up. Perhaps it was because the session with Palmer was far more pleasant, and I’d rather not dwell on that annoying NICAP encounter.
So much for perfect memories.
And then there was the incident involving what appeared to be a water elemental that I saw one morning in the downstairs living room of a home I rented with my first wife, Geneva, back in the early 1970s. I identified the nature of the possible creature sighting based on what she told me at the time.
Only nowadays she doesn’t remember any of it. All right, perhaps I was just dreaming, since it was close to that mystical time of 3:00 AM. I’d rather think I was in the right, but after the Keyhoe/Palmer mixup, who knows?
At least I remembered to publish this issue.
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!