I do believe I have joined those
exalted few and created a new word: “ Forteanosity” , a verb, “a situation,
condition, or period of time, of extraordinary Fortean activity.” (For example,
right now I`m listening to What`s The Frequency Kenneth by R.E.M, eating a
cheddar cheese and celery sandwich, dodging midges and wandering why I destroyed
that friendship but this is nowhere weird enough to be called Forteanosity, as
some of the items in the following blog.) Or in more plebeian terms, a period
of “weird s**t”. The years 1907-1908 fall into this category. At least they do
if my two sides of A4 paper with hand written notes are typical of that year. I
wonder if every year could be described as weird as 1907-8, thus making my new
word redundant after about 15 minutes lol ?
So here we
go..
1907
Many of the following notes were
taken on looking through The Times:
February 1907 : A man vanished in
Winchester
May 26th 1907 : Shower of
strange
July 2nd 1907. A terrific
explosion in Burlington, Vermont.
August 18th 1907 .
Disturbances at home in Kensington
October 1907 : Falls of soot and
ashes – where?
December 2nd
1907
Airship, thought to be French one
missing from Verdun
The following extracts from letters
to The Times are about the luminous owls scare of this time. A much fuller
account of the phenomenon can be found in Fortean Studies volume 1 pp 50-58 –
The Luminous Owls of Norfolk - by David Clarke
December 14th 1907 T.
Digby Pigott believed the luminosity was an owl, with a glow like a lamp of a
motorcycle first seen at 7.45pm.
December 26th 1907
Second letter on luminous owl from T. Digby Pigott – a policeman has seen it.
Cites A Wonderful History of All The Storms, Hurricanes, Eartquakes &c,
London
December 26th 1907 “ I
(a country teacher) first noticed the phenomenon in
Part Two will continue with the year
1908. Just to end with, not a luminous whale, but a white whale , in Loch
Striven, Scotland
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