A Skeleton Walks into a Bar

Two skeletons walk into a bar and say to the bartender: "We'll have a pitcher of beer and a mop, please!"

Me and Yorick

At least, that's one way to tell that joke.

I love that there are so many different ways to spin a joke.

Front yard joke sign for April 29, 2020

I mean, you start with a skeleton of an idea on how the word play can go, and then you flesh it out a bit, add a little muscle here, a little nuance that gets under the skin there.

The other day when Liz was online and I needed to stay off the computer, I shot a few stupid dad jokes on the skeleton theme using Barnaby Bones and Yorick. I later compiled them into a video.

See, I'm helping you exercise your eyeballs with all those eyeball rolls.

Barnaby and Yorick are jealous that at least YOU have eyes to roll.

Guest on the Phantom Faction Podcast

Last week Liz and I took at drive up to nearby Harriston to meet up with the boys (Dan, Danny and John) from the Phantom Faction Podcast.

The interview, which runs about an hour long, was recorded in the Crown Theatre (an allegedly haunted building), in Harriston, Ontario.

We chatted a lot about my co-authored book Haunted Hospitals, but also talked about several of my other books on the paranormal and unexplained and eerie phenomenon.

My skeletal companion, Barnaby Bones, came along for the ride and sat in the theatre while we recorded the show.

I describe myself as having a believer's heart but a skeptic's approach.

So, just prior to the interview began, when Dan mentioned that he was seeing floating orbs through the lens of his iPhone camera, I was curious to take a look. I'd never witnessed orbs in person myself (though have seen hundreds of different ones in research done on hauntings).

A pair of streaks of light shooting up from the ground over Barnaby's head in a left upward direction (from Dan's camera)

I had expected to see little blurry flashes of light, which I'd always suspected were light from the flash reflecting off of dust or water particles in the air. (I'm not all that knowledgeable about science, but do understand some of the basics at least)

I was surprised to see that whathe was seeing through his phone weren't little floating specs of blurry light (ie, what could be dust particles floating about), but, instead, odd thin streaks of light seeming to shoot up from the ground and towards the ceiling. Some straight, others on odd angles.

Again, I'm not much of a scientist, but do like to understand what I'm seeing. I comprehend how gravity works and that dust might not float down all the time - movements in the air as we walk around stirs them up.

One of the streaks of light in front of Barnaby's head (from Dan's camera)

But I couldn't figure out what might cause the streaks of light to be shooting up at such speeds.

I pulled out my own iPhone and spotted several of the same type of phenomena through my own viewfinder. None of the pics I snapped captured them.

Liz did the same thing on her android phone but didn't see any of the lights at all. Only Dan's phone and my phone seemed to show them.

Does this mean there's something in the iPhone that is picking up some sort of electromagnetic element in the air? Some sort of electric charge shooting up? (Again, I'm not a scientist, but I always like to explore all of the possibilities - like I said, I'm an open-minded believer with a skeptic's approach).

I've done of bit of looking into the phenomenon, but haven't yet figured out what it is, nor have I found any videos showing the odd fast streaks of light zipping in an upward direction.

I will, of course, keep looking as I'm sure there has to be some sort of explanation for it.

Friday the 13th: The SUPER Superstition

There are plenty of things in western culture that we associate with superstitions and luck.

A broken mirror brings seven years of bad luck. Don’t let a black cat cross your path. Walking under a ladder also brings bad luck. But of all the superstitious beliefs even those who are skeptic regularly acknowledge, the superstition surrounding the fear of Friday the 13^th is compiled up an intriguing selection of different fears and beliefs which form a recipe for a super superstition, if you will.

According to Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, it has been estimated that as many as 8 percent of Americans actually suffer from the crippling fear of the day Friday the 13^th, known in phobia terminology, as paraskevidekatriaphobia. Say that one five times really fast!

Let’s take a look at the two main ingredients that helped to create the commonly dreaded day of Friday the 13^th.