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Do you smell the Christmas ?! Merry Christmas to all the dear readers of the binnall report, wherever you may be. Happy Hanukkah and Kwanza as well. And, of course, Happy Festivus !
Welcome newcomers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people ! Now ... you're gonna hear about it. You, Noory, my readers tell me your show stinks ! ... Noory, you couldn't smooth a silk sheet if you had a hot date with a babe ... I lost my train of thought.
(Before anyone e-mails me, the above paragraph is rewritten from the classic Seinfeld festivus episode titled "The Strike". Seek it out to understand the joke.)
In all seriousness, I hope you all have a very fantastic holiday. I can't begin to tell you how much the vast readership of "tbr" means to me. Your letters and support is what keeps the BoA ship running and bringing you the quality goods week in and week out. I write because you read and for that I am eternally grateful. Have a very Merry Christmas.
A now, you're Christmas Eve Eve "binnall report" ... we're pawing through the leftovers of last week's Coast and looking at the offerings for the yuletide and beyond. We've got a preview of this weekend's BoA : Audio Christmas Eve Special : An Hour with Stanton Friedman. binnall report mailbag featuring two riotous letters, This Week in C2C History, the "thanks" portion of The 2005 Coasties, Noory in a bunny suit for Hot Newz, it's all here.
No need to wait, you can unwrap it right ... now.
The Week That Was
What a fugly week. This thing resembled a family quilt passed down through generations and the subject of many a bloody squabble. I barely caught any of it, though it's not like much of it was worth catching.
We started out Friday with The Noor putting on a replay of his Open Lines episode from 2.18.05. First hour pop-in was Glynis McCants. Don't get me started with the replays of open lines episodes. Someone, somewhere must think this is a good idea. Who it is ... I have no idea. I just wish they'd stop.
Saturday Night Punnett was all about the Kolbrin Bible with Glenn Kimball. Rave reviews for this episode as it was one of the few good to great episodes of the week. Punnett even scored with a first hour pop-in with anti-conspiracy theorist and all around cretin, Peter Lance.
Sunday concluded the weekend on a strong note with Art Bell interviewing Tess Gerritsen about odd medicine. I missed this episode, but the reviews I got on it were stellar.
I'll be honest. I skipped Monday's episode, featuring Bruce Lipton talking about some mind/body paradigm shift that looked like pure garbage on paper. Throw in guest host John B. Wells and it looked just plain awful.
I remembered Tuesday's host Chris McGill from his one-shot hosting spot last Summer with Friedman and I recall wondering how he'd do with a more challenging guest. Unfortunately, he was paired up with Joan Wester Anderson to talk about angels. He did cruise through a great hour with some dude who used to be a Santa. That hour was gold till it got odd towards the end. When Anderson came on, it just crept downhill over the course of the night. I eventually checked out towards the end of the 2nd hour.
Wednesday featured one of the best episodes of 2005 replay, the debut of Dr. Louis Turi on 6.15.2005. The charismatic Frenchman blazed a trail through '05 on Coast to Coast and this episode launched his hilarious adventure. Good episode to pick up in the archive, if available.
Thursday saw the C2C return of Hilly Rose as guest host. The Hill Man once again produce Zecharia Sitchen for a first hour pop-in. I'm not sure what the ties are between Hilly and Zech, but he managed to snag Sitchen twice this year. The full show guest was Colin Andrews, talking about crop circles. I only caught snippets of this episode, but plan on listening to the whole thing at some point, as I always enjoy the ultrarare Hilly Rose episodes.
Pretty makeshift week, altogether.
The Week That Is
A plate of left-overs to get us through the weekend, then some fresh stuff for a change. We kick it off tonight with the third consecutive Friday night of Open Lines replays. This is getting bizarre. To make things even worse, the replay is from 11.5.2004 and features a pop in with, the much loathed Dr. Morgus as well. Ugh. Are you serious ? Yes. Beyond awful. Skip this episode, get some sleep, spend time with your family on the 24th.
Saturday night features a rare Punnett replay, first Katherine Albrecht from 10.1.2005 to talk about spy chips and then 3 hours with giant aficionado Steve Quayle from 8.20.2005. I'm torn on this one, because I'm chiefly not a fan of yet another replay. I do, however, like the split replay idea and Steve Quayle in 2005 was gold more often than not. I'd say catch the Quayle if you are up and want some good stuff, but if you already heard it in August, go to bed.
Sunday is ... yes ... the third replay in a row. Egads. Not much cooking this weekend on the C2C stove, I see. That said, they at least dug out a gem of an episode with Art Bell interviewing Mike Drosnin from 1.16.2005, to talk about Howard Hughes. This is a fantastic episode and may have been missed by many last January.
Finally ... The Noor returns on Monday with Mike Heiser to talk about the Da Vinci Code. Noory continues his movement toward mainstream acceptance. I will give props to his staying on something hot. Heiser should be better than your usual stooge who shows up to spout nonsense.
Tuesday, we go in the other direction with Paul LaViolette talking about how those in the past left information for us regarding pending doom. Uh oh. Be prepared to dig a bunker or laugh uproariously.
Ever think someone is listening to your phone calls ? I'm sure something like 65% of the Coast audience does. They will enjoy Lauren Weinstein on Wednesday to talk about electronic surveillance and all sort of high tech paranoia inducing stuffs. Should be creepy but educational.
Thursday, the march to 2012 continues with John Major Jenkins. He's purportedly an "expert in the Mayan calendar", so he'll show up to throw his opinions onto the scrap heap. Will anyone's credibility be left intact come 2013 ? Wait and find out.
Ah rather blase week for Coast. It is good to see they brought out some zanier episodes for the week, but am a tad disappointed with the lack of a festive Christmas season. A bedraggled, possibly drunk Noory reciting Christmas poems at 3 AM while fielding calls from C2C science advisor Richard C. Hoagland "on location with Santa Claus" ... that's what I want for Christmas.
binnall of america : audio, Season One
By the good fortunes of hard work, we're happy to let you know that we will be rolling out the BoA : Audio, Christmas Eve Special : An Hour with Stanton Friedman @ precisely moments after midnight tonight.
Why ?
Because people have places to go and things to do on Christmas Eve. They've no time to download the musings of Friedman in the afternoon or evening. No, no. They're busy. So they can grab it now, just in time for that long ride to grandma's or to put on in the background while cooking dinner.
And now ... the preview ...
This Week : Let's just call it what it is ... the BoA : Audio, Christmas Eve Special : An Hour with Stanton Friedman. Yes, Ufology's living legend, Stanton Friedman, returns to BoA : Audio for a very special Christmas Eve episode. In this hour long discussion, we talk about when Friedman knew Roswell was "for real", how he feels about the cultural impact of Roswell and others jumping on it since he first put it on the map. We talk about SETI, MJ-12, Bill Moore, and Friedman's advice for future Ufologists. It's a BoA : Audio sure to make you feel warm and fuzzy.
Stanton Friedman's website is http://www.stantonfriedman.com
Next Week : TBA
The 2005 Coasties
Voting has closed in the 2005 Coastie voting season. I want to thank all the fine folks who voted and helped with the 2005 Coasties, from the visitors of binnallofamerica.com and posters @ theusofe.com, to the fine folks @ Streamlink's Coast Riders board notably sayntbrigid, the awesome crew over @ Imaginative Worlds with special thanks to Alpha and circledancer, the pirates of Fantastic Forum, and the denizens of the Nighthawk Zone, notably Bad Boy. This truly was an across the boards vote, culling opinions from all the hang outs of C2C hardcore fans.
Coastie Results will be announced next Friday (12.30).
The staff of BoA will roll out their filled out ballots throughout next week @ binnallofamerica.com.
binnall report mailbag
Letter #1
Dear Tim,
I really enjoy your site and associated podcasts and think you do a really good job. I do however see you repeatedly use a word incorrectly - ephemeral - which means literally expiring in a very short time (a day). Newspapers used to be called ephemeral news because today's printed news will be replaced tomorrow.
See http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/05/04.html
Example:
The only complaint I had with Gersten's appearance was that his discussion of the "end of the program" was ephemeral at best and confusing at worst.
If his discussion was ephemeral it would be temporary (and by literal derivation - expiring the next day). Because ephemeral is designed to have a specific timeline associated with it, a couple of better synonyms are: evanescent or transient.
David R. Poole
Damn you. I suppose I could go on a long tangent about how I meant that the drivel spouted by Gersten re: 2012 was really only good moments after it fell from his face. But ... that's really not true. I was under the impression that "ephemeral" meant vague. I stand corrected. Kudos to you, David. You have stumped the Schwab. May you have a Merry Christmas.
Letter #2
you angel - what cloud did you fall of - in your pajamas - and gloating that you get to stay in your pj's unlike normal wage slaves. stumbled into your web whilst looking up more info on ian punnett - who is growing on me - like a barnicle - and it's a blast flitting from topic to topic on your pages and love laughing so hard that it makes up for that exercise i'm avoiding as I sit here for the 14th hour in my pajamas dreading monday morning. where are the bios - the background info on the author(s) of this delightful goulash of editorials? i know - it's probably there somewhere among the many links.
thanks for a lot of fun - will check in on you often.
Patricia
Wow. What a groovy fan letter. I am literally in my pajamas as I type this, making my response all the more saucy. Ian Punnett is, sadly, very barnicle-esque. I suppose I owe him something since your search for him brought you to me. I'll be sure to kick him in the grundle, should we ever meet. There will be bios coming to binnallofamerica.com soon. We are working on it. Suffice it to say, Lesley and Khyron are intense esoteric minds and I'm blessed to have them aboard.
As for what cloud I fell off of, damn ... who knows. The odd one, I suppose. I fell off the cloud that produced the great dreamers before me and the creepy minds of the past. I carry their burden in this filthy world, trying to scrub my speck of land long enough to gaze out into the sky and hope that someone is watching me.
Irregardless, I'm glad you found us. Stick around, 2006 is going to be a hell of a ride.
Questions ? Comments ? Send them to tbinnall@hotmail.com
This Week in C2C History
12.24.2003 : Despite my love of all things Hollow Earth, C2C tried, in vain, to satiate my desires with Rodney Cluff. I was not impressed. From the 12.24.2004 binnall report : "Rodney Cluff made me want to tear my own hair out. Cluff sounded half in the bag and really did not impress me at all with his monotone delivery. He disgusted me as he had zero charisma and it sounded like Noory was in danger of nodding off like I was in the middle hour. Thanks for visiting C2C Mr.Cluff, don't let the door hit you on the way out."
12.23.1999 : Y2K mania was in full swing at this point. People seemed to think they were about to enjoy the last Christmas ever. Luckily, Bell realized that it may be a good idea for folks to be prepared in case something insane really did happen on Y2K. He had David Borgenicht on to discuss his book about surviving disasters.
Sounds like an awesome book. Here's a snippet about what was discussed : "There is a section in Davids book about identifying a bomb which Art asks about because people are especially wary these days with Y2K and terrorism. David gives out info that comes directly from the bomb squad. Art asks David about how to survive your parachute not opening, of course this scenario does not work if you are sky diving alone. After the break, landing an airplane is discussed and getting lost in desert and the search for water." (art bell.com cd rom)
12.23.1998 : Ah, a throwback to the good old days of C2C : "Art will be doing a live show on Christmas eve. The author of a book titled, "Transforming Scrooge" will be on with Art. This is a xmas paranormal story. " (artbell.com cd rom)
End Notes
And we are finished and with plenty of time to run to the mall and grab that last fruit cake for grandma. This is perhaps the best time of the year, let's all enjoy it.
Plugs : Tomorrow @ binnallofamerica.com. It's the BoA : Audio Christmas Eve Special : An Hour with Stanton Friedman. Consider it a lil Chistmas gift from me to you. Sunday, Ian has the night off and so does SNP. smoker dave holds down the yuletide fort @ BoA on Christmas Day. I usually throw a little Christmas surprise on the site for one-day-only, so stop by if you are online. Monday, it's the day after Christmas and ain't no way I'm working out a News Watch for ya, sorry. I'll have something though, I'm sure. The rest of the week, we look back @ 2005. Lesley, Khyron, and I will reveal our completed ballots for The Coasties. And, on Thursday, the 2005 Coastie winners will be revealed. So it is a bit of an unusual "theme week" @ BoA, but I think it should be killer. binnallofamerica.com ... 2005's darkhorse, underdog of the year.
Hang the stockings. Spike the eggnog. Put on some festive tunes. Christmas is nearly here. I can't squeeze out much more yuletide love, so I'll just say this ... Merry Christmas, to all and to all a goodnight.