MEET THE NEW BOSS - NOTHING AT ALL LIKE THE OLD BOSS

As of tomorrow afternoon I will not be the editor of the CFZ Bloggo, (until the weekend, that is). So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday the bloggo will be edited by someone brand new.

As even the most cursory reader of the bloggo will know, I have a tendency to pepper my postings with 1960s/1970s pop culture references, and I quite often accompany my stories about changes of management with a quote from The Who's classic 1971 song Won't Get Fooled Again by spouting:

"Meet the new boss. The same as the old boss"

Well, in this instance I can't do anything of the sort, because the new boss is nothing like the old boss. The old boss is an overweight anarchist hippy with a bad temper and a bushy beard, whereas the new boss is half his age, female, and can actually spell. She has a distressing tendency towards Grammar Nazism, and probably doesn't know any lyrics by Pete Townshend to quote willy-nilly, but

Ladies and Gentlemen - for the next few days your new boss is Lizzy Clancy. Be nice to her.

TEXAS BLUE DOG WEBSITE COMING SOON

I am getting increasingly fond of Naomi and Richie West - two of our Texas reps. Indeed I am fond of all of our Texas reps because they also include Redders and Ken Gerhard (who won my heart when he told an interviewer that his idea of a "good time" was "stalking through the woods at night with my shotgun, dressed in leather and wearing eyeliner."

God, I love the CFZ.

But Naomi and Richie are particularly dear to me. As regular readers will know, Naomi is running the Texas Blue Dog project for the CFZ, and she writes:

"Devin has finally written up his very lengthy blue dog story and is ready for me to post it to the web site. The URL is http://www.texasbluedog.org/. Devin wants it available as the authorised version for researchers and wants Richie and me to be the point of contact for any info seekers. He has put an ungodly amount of work into it (I have my work cut out for me) and he has even more planned. He also has exclusive pics."

So - there you have it....


He is anxious to hear what's going to happen with the new creature. I'm no longer convinced it's not the same as his after all, but I can hardly tell what I'm looking at in a field where even the experts don't know. :)

NEW ARTICLE ON Homo florisiensis

http://www.cfz.org.uk/downloads/Hobbit.pdf

I was talking to Karl Shuker last night about hobbits. Or rather Karl and I were having a middle-aged grumble at each other about the distressing tendency of people who really should know better to give cryptids stupid names. Well H. florisiensis ain't a cryptid per se but it has been given a stupid name just because its discovery happened to coincide with the worldwide hysteria surrounding Peter Jackson's excellent interpretations of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But that aside, it is quite possibly the most momentous discovery of the past decade, although the recent revelations surrounding fossil hominid skulls found in 1999 and 2001 in Georgia may just pip them to the post.

But why are we talking about them? Its simple. Our old mucker Paul Cropper from the Antipodes sent us this lengthy (but very interesting) pdf from The Skeptical Inquirer. It's ten pages long, but well worth a read, so download it from the link at the top of this page.

ANIMALS & MEN UPDATES

Just a quick note to our American members. Your copies of the latest edition of the CFZ Journal have been sent to Naomi in Texas. She is now arranging dispatch to all our U.S, Canadian, and Mexican subscribers.

This will mean that within the next month there is going to be a fairly substantial price cut for our North American members, which I hope will translate into a new boom in New World CFZ membership.

To everyone, however, we have some pretty crappy cashflow problems at the moment, and it has to be remembered that each issue of Animals & Men costs us over £500 to produce and distribute.

However, there will be another edition this year, and I hope that in 2010 our proper publishing schedule will be resumed.

It is all down to money, like it so often is.

CALLIN' COLIN

I am still in the process of trying to repair the damage done when our hard dive packed up last month, and I suspect that it will be some time yet before we get back to whatever passes for normal here at CFZ Towers.

However, I keep on finding stuff that I haven't got (if that makes any sense at all) and one of the things that I haven't got any more is an e-mail address for Colin Higgins.

So dude, if you are reading this (or if anyone who knows him is reading this) can you please email me, and I shall get in contact upon my return from the Emerald Isle.

Yesterday’s News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

I’m still on a Beatles kick following the events detailed in last Saturday’s YNT. You can find out why if you look back a few pages but I doubt you’ll find the reason that exciting, although there is a link to ‘Hey Bulldog’ to reward your efforts. Anyway, considering that and the fact that I am ever so slightly fond of surrealist whimsy it’ll come as no surprise as to what my Monday Movie recommendation is this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avfGUEDMWZY

Also Robert Zemeckis is apparently working on a 3D remake of the film. It’ll feature the original soundtrack, apparently so you needn’t worry about the travesty that would be Miley Cyrus singing Eleanor Rigby.

And now, the news:

Team in search of mystery yeti-like creature

Extinct New Zealand eagle may have eaten humans

Celebrations to mark centenary of famous zoologist...

Great Scott.