Thursday, December 24, 2020
The CFZ Annual Report 2020
Dear Friends,
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
No, who am I kidding? It’s been the worst of times, and it
certainly wasn’t the year which we immanentized the eschaton. In fact, it has
been a year that I would very much rather forget.
This is the 26th time that I have sat down to
write my annual report for the Centre for Fortean Zoology, and it is the first
time that I have written it as a widower. Only a few days after writing last
year’s annual report, my mother-in-law passed away. She was very much a part of
the CFZ family and someone whom I loved dearly. Her passing was the beginning
of a pattern that would become only too familiar this year.
We lost Paul Whitrow, who produced the bloody awful record
that I made with Lionel Fanthorpe back in the day, some of you may remember him
as a familiar face at the last few CFZ Weird Weekends. We lost Professor Bryan
Sykes, world famous geneticist and friend of the CFZ. We lost Rob Rosamund, one
time chairman of BUFORA and again, another regular visitor of the Weird
Weekends.
We lost Judy Dyble, the original singer with Fairport Convention
and King Crimson; an old friend of Corinna’s and mine both, as well as an avid
collector of black dog folklore. We lost Wolfgang Schmidt, a German
philanthropist and the CFZ’s first large financial donor. We lost Nadine
“Deanie” Rider, who many of you will remember as one of the CFZ girls and
someone whom we all loved very much.
Above all, we lost Corinna. Administrative director of the
Centre for Fortean Zoology, my wife and companion of the last fifteen years.
She had been fighting a mystery disease for the better part of the last two
years, before she finally succumbed to two different types of cancer on August
16th. She was not only my friend and soulmate, but she was my
partner in many endeavours: Together we looked for lake monsters in Ireland and
the Lake District and we searched for blue dogs in Texas. As I am sure you can
all appreciate, I am devastated by this loss and I know my life will never be
the same again.
As a result of Corinna’s passing, everything has changed.
Whilst for years I had run the CFZ with a small committee of people, including
Corinna, Graham and Richard, I have recently begun to relinquish control to a
talented group of individuals, all of whom bring vast amounts of specialist
knowledge and insight to this great organisation. I have vested more power in
an ad hoc committee which I laughingly call the CFZ Politburo, which
makes me a sort of cuddly, cryptozoological Stalin, if such a thing were
possible.
I realise that this annual report has started off on a
depressing note; however, as I am sure we can all agree, this year has been
pretty miserable no matter which corner of this beautiful world you choose to
call home. The good news is, that despite the trials and tribulations caused by
the global pandemic, we have managed to make some important steps forward as an
organisation: The lockdowns that have defined this year, in conjunction with
Corinna’s health, mean that I have spent much of the year at home, time which I
have used to plan and prepare for this organisations bright future.
I will now discuss this years major developments in a vaguely coherent order:
Technical
Developments
There has been a lot going on behind the scenes. Firstly, my
friend Louis Rozier, whom many of you will only have heard of from his
assistance in setting up the CFZ’s Patreon page, has gradually become more
involved with this organisation. He is currently researching and developing an
innovative trail camera for us, which will be built using recycled mobile
phones and a selection of other affordable components.
The device will monitor a given area for wildlife, recording
quality footage day or night as motion is detected, this footage will then be
sent by the device directly to the CFZ headquarters for analysis. One design we
are evaluating is capable of being deployed in harsh conditions for many months
at a time, without need for human interaction, for example the device's power
needs can be met by an integrated solar panel. These cameras have the potential
to greatly increase the CFZ’s investigative capacity, and because they are
built upon affordable commodity hardware, we can do this at a very affordable
cost. I intend to ask members to donate their old phones for this cause at a
later stage, I look forward to updating everyone on the progress of this very
exciting project!
On a quick side note, Louis is also working on some major updates to the CFZ’s online presence. I am excitedly looking forward to seeing the fruits of his labour sometime in this new year. These developments should help to solidify the CFZ’s future in the digital world and aid in all of our future endeavours.
A Lynx in the Forest
of Dean
Secondly, I am sure regular readers
of CFZ publications will remember that, about a year ago, Carl Marshall wrote a
paper for Animals & Men based upon evidence
which suggested that there are lynx living
wild in the Forest of Dean. As a result we have
started a major research project, focusing on the forest. This too is
very exciting and here is it’s position so far:
- We are planning a publicity campaign, with posters in local tourist hotspots and editorial content in local newspapers, in an attempt to assemble a database of sightings of big cats in the area. We are seeking any accounts of livestock losses in the area too. We then plan to extrapolate data from this in order to track the animals movements within the forest over a period of time.
- However, as everything is up in the air due to COVID-19. At present, we are unable to work out which of these approaches is going to be most effective, so just like the rest of the country, we are just waiting to see what happens and hoping life gets back to normal sometime soon.
- Richard Muirhead is conducting research to find every mystery cat sighting in the Forest and the surrounding area over the past fifty years. Obviously, records of these sightings are not all easily accessible and this is extremely important but time consuming work.
- Although we are perfectly aware that there are legal pitfalls as regards us doing this, we are still investigating whether a live trapping programme might be effective. We are looking at whether a large fox trap from Poland will suit our needs, or whether we will have to build something better suited to our specific and unique needs. We have found an interesting PDF of a paper explaining how to build a trap for lynx in North America. Louis has it at the moment, but if anybody else would like to have a look at it, and put their ha’porth in, please email me and I’ll send it over.
- Ve is looking at the places we need to approach for an information gathering poster campaign. He is also making a list of news outlets in the area, and to this end, Lizzy has furnished him with a list of the Roman Catholic parishes who may have parish magazines.
- Ve is planning a reconnaissance of various areas of the forest, looking for footprints, laying sand traps, and looking for hair samples. This will, however, not take place until we’ve got a bit more baseline data in order to find out more about the probable movements of the creature(s).
Given the present uncertainty regarding the future, once again thanks to the pandemic, Carl, Ve and I have decided that the best way to proceed with the Forest of Dean lynx investigation is to try a search for hair samples, the same way that Lars did ten years ago at Huddisford Woods.
Carl and Geordie have carried out a preliminary hair sampling exercise in the area which Carl found the lynx footprints a year ago. Naturally, the majority of the hair samples they have found were deer, boar or domestic dog. However, two hair samples, which on first sight appeared to be compatible with those of a lynx, were found and retrieved, which is a very exciting development.
Carl has been kind enough to purchase us a high-powered USB microscope. However, as we need the microscope's light to penetrate the hair in order to analyse its structure and match it to an animal, we either need to bolt on some upgrades or dig into the CFZ’s piggybank for a tool more suited to our very specialist needs. Once again, Louis, the CFZ’s resident tech support, is looking into a professional solution whereby we fit aftermarket LED lights to the microscope, making it fit for purpose. The only problem is that this sort of modification requires specialist parts, which we must order from overseas, so again we are at the mercy of the pandemic in the short term and the impact it has upon global trade.
A Big Cat in New
Zealand
In New Zealand, at the end of September, a possum hunter called
Jesse Feary shot what he believes was a baby big cat, in the same place he had
seen what he believed was a black panther, the weekend prior.
“I spotted it, not
even 100m away from us’’
“It was down as
low as it could be, and coming for us’’
“I do a lot of
possuming, I see wild cats all the time”
“Normally they are
quite scrawny but this is monstrous’’
He shot the cat from about 50m
and said he was sure it was the baby of the adult cat he witnessed last week. Big cat reports in New Zealand are particularly
interesting, as with the exception of three
species of bat (one of which is probably extinct), there are no placental land mammals known from the region.
There
have been reports from various parts of the world, but particularly from
Australia, which suggest that under certain circumstances, feral cat
populations can produce individuals of truly extraordinary sizes, and as the
animal in Mr Feary’s report was obviously a domestic cat rather than a panther
or puma, we decided that it was extremely important for us to investigate in
every way that we can.
In early October, I wrote a
briefing document to the CFZ Board of Consultants, which
read:
As I told
you last week, Carl Marshall and Lizzy Bitakaramire are working on the
currently topical sightings of ‘big cats’ in New Zealand. As part of this, it
became necessary for Lizzy to grab Carl by the ear and pull him, kicking and
screaming, into the 21st century by teaching him how to use Google Sheets. This
accomplished two things: firstly, we have decided for all future investigations
to open up a set of documents on Google Sheets and Google Docs, so that the
work in progress is visible to all who may be involved. However, it also
brought me to the realisation that it is important for us to – as my maths
teacher used to say, forty-five years ago – show our workings. I have always
maintained that the CFZ is the best cryptozoological organisation in the world,
precisely because we ‘do it properly’, but if we make our workings and
investigations – as far as possibly – transparent, we can not only ‘do it
properly’ ourselves but hopefully inspire other researchers to do it our way
and improve the standards of the discipline as a whole.
Two weeks later, I was able to
report that:
The best
and most important piece of news is about the investigation into the New Zealand big cat. As
you will remember, it was shot by a local possum hunter, who thought it was a juvenile
black panther. In our opinion, from the initial measurements of the animal in
the photograph, it is nothing of the sort, but it is another piece of evidence
towards the hypothesis that the gene pool of
certain feral cat populations can, in certain circumstances, throw up a giant
specimen.
Last night, Carl
Marshall managed to finally speak to the hunter himself, who has promised us
hair samples from the body, and hopefully the body itself. We shall be sending the hair samples to Lars, so that he
can examine the scalation and, if necessary, arrange for full DNA analysis.
It goes without
saying that, if the results are what we are predicting, this could be one of
the most important cryptozoological discoveries
in recent years. So
again, an exciting development that has come from a bleak year. If by
contrast the results come back and the so called ‘big cat’ turns out to be just
a big moggy, within the acceptable size range for a Maine Coon or similar, then
even that result would not be a failure. It will stand to prove that, once
again, the CFZ is doing it’s job in the way that it should be done.
Lizzy is archiving
every possible piece of information linked to this case and, in the future, she will be
doing this for each of our investigations. In
a world where we are continually under attack from internet warriors, it is
more and more important than ever that we
exhibit complete transparency in the way that we carry out our investigations.
We are the good
guys, and I feel it is important that we should be seen to be so!
Unfortunately, this is where
the trail went cold. Jesse Feary’s promised parcel never arrived, and we never
heard from him again. I am not going to give up hope just yet, and I would like
to think that we will still be able to get hold of him and put this mystery for
bed once and for all.
Further Technical Developments
A year or so ago, Carl and I started work on a virtual
version of the CFZ museum, using open source educational software. We didn’t
get that far with it, because life got in the way. However, it is still a
project I want to complete in the long term, and I have just come up with
another potentially useful use for it. Lizzie and I are trying to work out
whether we can use this software, which has been customised to suit the needs
of the CFZ, to act as the front end to her ongoing archives. This, I think,
would be very useful, because I am unwilling to allow the archives to be shared
in a format which means people outside the core team can edit them. This would,
I think, be a recipe for disaster.
I have had a long discussion with Chris Clark, and we have
decided the way forward for completing the Boris Porshnev book. I have been
working hard on getting the first edition of my Hong Kong book out in time for
Christmas, but the Porshnev book is next on the agenda and in a month or so
should finally be out.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Richard for
getting the book from Porshnev’s grandson in the first place, Lars for
translating it into English, and Chris for editing. I would like to apologise
to all three of them for the length of time it has taken for me to do my bit.
The other major book project that is going forward at the
moment is a book on the mystery animals of Guyana by Damon Corrie, who was, you
will remember, the guide on the 2007 expedition to Guyana.
The Golden Frogs of South Devon
About twenty years ago,
Richard, Graham and I were called to the little village of Starcross, which is
on the road between Exeter and Dawlish. I lived there when I was a student, and
this was where I met my first wife. When the
CFZ moved in, it was something like a decade and a half after I had lived
there. The village
had changed a lot, the old grey stone asylum which then was the Royal Western
Counties Hospital, had been demolished. Staplake House, which is where I lived
on and off for over three years, had burnt down and
the ruins had been bulldozed. I had recently appeared in a TV show, called Mysterious
West, alongside a lady who I believe is now the presenter of the morning show
on ITV. One of the subjects I had spoken about was the legend of the Golden
Frogs of Bovey Tracey.
There have been reports of
golden coloured frogs in various parts of South Devon for many
years. The
accepted narrative is that they are the result of a mutation caused as a direct
result of human pollution, or something along those lines. Well, I thought differently.
Whilst there is no doubt that the occasional leucistic frog or newt does turn
up, in my opinion the reports of golden frogs do not fit this pattern.
There is a charming medieval
folk story about an old woodcutter and his wife, who lived in the woods just
outside the village of Bovey Tracey. There had been a famine in the land, and
the woodcutter and his wife were starving. They had no food, only a few sticks
of wood for the fire, and both their child and their cow were seriously ill,
the latter only able to produce a cupful of milk.
Well, one night, this
unfortunate family were sitting, shivering in their sitting room, when there
was a knock on the door. It was a tall, beautiful woman, dressed entirely in
white, and she was lost and seeking shelter for the night. In real life, the old
woodcutter and his wife would probably have coshed her on the back of the head,
in order to steal what few possessions she may have had. But this being a fairy
story, they invited her in, gave her the meagre cup of milk that their ailing
cow had produced, and put the last few sticks on the fire for her. They then
all went to sleep, but when the woodcutter and his wife woke the next morning,
they found that both the cow and the child were cured, there was plenty of wood
on their woodpile, and the larder was full of provender.
The mysterious lady thanked
them for their kindness and said that in memory of her visit, she would make a
holy stream and a holy well, and that forever the frogs that lived in the holy
stream would be golden in colour.
Well, there isn’t a holy stream anymore, but
there is a holy well and whilst I don’t know about golden frogs in that particular
stream, I have been chasing them around large
swathes of Devonshire for the better part of the last few decades.
Then, in mid October, I
received a message on Facebook. It came out of the blue from the lady who had kindly let me, Richard and Graham
chase around her garden with her small children, in a fruitless search for
golden frogs all those years ago. Guess what? There
was a dead golden frog in her garden.
She sent me photographs and
diffidently asked whether we would like the body. I replied politely that I
would very much like it, and then forgot about it until, a few days later
when a parcel arrived in the post.
These days, Graham goes
through my post, because my neuropathy means that I can’t really open most
things. As he was just about to open the plastic box that had once held a Chinese takeaway, knowing that it contained
a flyblown dead frog, I warned him not to do anything until he had found a jar
of suitable size and the CFZ flagon of isopropyl alcohol. After the frog was duly
pickled, we noticed something particularly
interesting. The golden sheen, which had so marked
the photographs, was completely absent and the
frog was various shades of brown and grey.
This tells us something very
interesting. It implies that the golden colours come from reflective
chromatophores rather than from any genetic leucism. It would imply that our supposition was right all along. Although
I am not qualified to comment whether the leucistic
specimens which turn up once in a while are a result of anthropocentric changes
to the environment, the fact we have seen these golden skin markings for
ourselves has shown that they must be the
result of chromatophores, because they
disappear a few days after death. This gives
quite a lot of support to the medieval legend, and to our assertion that they
are a naturally occurring part of the frog population.
I do not know whether the
Virgin Mary turned up in Bovey Tracey that night so long ago, but there is
still a Mary Street in the town, and back in 1990, we found that there is still
a Holy Well there, although it is mostly forgotten and unfortunately, we have
not been able to attain any reports of
golden frogs.
Our investigation into these
things will continue. What we really want to do is get hold of a viable pair of
these frogs and see if they breed true, but that
will not be happening until at least the springtime.
We sent the original
photographs of the golden frog, as taken by Monica in Starcross, to Lars in
Copenhagen, and he passed it on to a colleague, who quickly came back with an
answer:
“This
looks to me like a fairly simple case of flavism - this is a rare, but by no
means unknown phenomenon, where the colouring of an animal is dominated by
mainly yellow and orange colours. It has to my knowledge never been studied in
great detail, but it is probably a random mutation of some sort that either
changes to formation of the chromatophores of the animal or the actual
production of the various pigments in the chromatophores. The various processes
are rather complicated, so there are a lot of places for mutations to have an
effect, which is probably why these animals can look very different. Whether
these mutations are hereditary is hard to answer. Some of them may be - and
that is possibly why these colour-variations can be very localized - i.e.
the mutations happens at some stage (possibly due to environmental factors,
possibly completely randomly) - and is passed on to the following generations
of whatever species we are talking about (flavism is known from several species
of frogs and toads, salamanders and newts). The strangely coloured animals may
then disappear again because of another mutation - the genetics behind the
colours of amphibians are rather fluid anyway, so lots of mutations/changes are
possible, something which have been used extensively in the pet-trade with
selective breeding of all kinds of weirdly coloured animals.”
So, after thirty years, we
have shown that there is a naturally occurring colour variation, which gives a
metallic golden colour to the common frog and
that it is found in the South Devon area. We
can even say that this was quite probably present there back in the Middle Ages, when either a poor old
woodcutter and his wife were visited by the Blessed
Virgin Mary, or when somebody made up a charming little folk tale to explain
the unusually coloured frogs, prior to the scientific understanding we
possess today.
That is a rather satisfactory
end to what has been a very unsatisfactory year, and we are greatly
appreciative of Monica in Starcross for bringing this frog to our attention.
So, I hope you will all agree
that despite having been a horrible year, we are on track to achieve some
really quite spectacular things in the near future. This is assuming of
course that the pandemic, and more importantly the way our leaders react to it,
allows us to proceed with all of our plans. I would
like to thank all of you who have supported us during this exceptionally
difficult year, and I hope that you will continue to
support us in the next year and all future years
to come.
As I have always said, the CFZ is very much a family and
I have opened this report with a list of all of those family members who have
left us over the last year. I would also like to request your thoughts and
prayers for the CFZ Canada representative Robin Bellamy, who has had to resign
due to health problems.
I would like to end this report with some good news:
Two of the CFZ girls, Emily Taylor whom you will
remember from her big cat researchers a decade or so ago, and Guin Palmer, who
has been aggregating news stories for the BHM and Lake and Sea Monster blogs
since earlier this year, have both had babies: Cayde and Muhammed, making me a
great uncle twice over… and so the pain of so much loss during this year is
balanced out by the immense joy received from these two new lives, and the
universe continues on its way.
I sincerely wish everyone a great start to the
forthcoming year!
Best Wishes, Jon Downes
Director, The Centre for Fortean Zoology
On the Track (of Unknown Animals) #118 (Clifden Nonpareil, British lynx, Wally, microscope madness)
Here we have the 36th episode of the relaunched webTV show by the Centre for Fortean Zoology, written and presented by Jon Downes and Charlotte Phillipson, their families and other animals. And it is a special non-standard episode, but we are living in special, non-standard times!
In the new look OTT; we will try to keep the montly episodes to half an hour, but in between the scheduled episodes will be others - OTTXtra. So hold on, its gonna be a bumpy ride. And so far the bumpy ride seems to be a success: viewing figures are noticeably up, and the reactions we are getting seem very positive. This episode contains: • Jon says goodbye to Corinna • Archie • Mystery cats in the Forest of Dean • Back to the forest • Searching for footprints • Retrieving hair samples • Microscope madness • CFZ Tech support • Lockdown for Jon • Congratulations Guin • A rare visitor to the RD&E • Teasing Richard • The history of the Clifden Nonpareil • The origin story of a Comedy Rhinoceros • How to help us • Changes at OTT • The team says goodbye until next time _________________________________ Links for this episode: Find out more about WWN https://tinyurl.com/rchokh9 Buy the Yearbook (c'mon, please) https://tinyurl.com/vtppmrv _________________________________ Some useful contacts: CFZ Website www.cfz.org.uk CFZ Patreon https://www.patreon.com/CFZ OTT on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/OnTheTrack/ Jon on Twitter @cfzjon CFZ Blog Network https://forteanzoology.blogspot.co.uk/ CFZ Publications http://cfzresources.com/publishing/ CFZtv https://www.youtube.com/user/cfztv CFZ Next Generation Initiative https://www.facebook.com/groups/29796...BIG CAT ROUND UP
The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject.
There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.
The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.
ALWAYS IS ALWAYS FOR EVER SAYS THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN
The Gonzo Daily - Christmas Eve
I am feeling remarkaby calm and collected today. Thank you to everybody who has contacted me today hoping that I will be okay for Christmas. I have my house, my books, my dog and cats, and dear Graham to look after me. For a lot of reasons this is not been a time I enjoy for several decades, and in many ways it’s a relief to switch it off and just treat this as Thursday, the 24th of December and tomorrow is the 25th. But come I will wait and see how I feel tomorrow. That is the real crunch.
Love and Peace
From me and Lilith Tinkerbell the cat
And the new OTT is out:
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO SQUINT
On the Track (of Unknown Animals) #118 (Clifden No...
Leslie West, rock guitarist best known for endurin...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Carols from King's 2016 | ...
FRANK ZAPPA: Ahmet Zappa talks 'Zappa,'
AND OTHER STUFF FEATURING VARIOUS GONZO CONTRIBUTORS:
Our webTV show:
And if you fancy supporting it on Patreon:
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore may seem to be in order:
Meanwhile I continue to pretend that I am a popstar, because now I have sold eleven whole copies of my new album Coldharbour. If I continue at this rate I will get a silver disc sometime at the beginning of the next millenium. Coldharbour, by the way, can be found here: https://jondownes1.bandcamp.com/releases
I think it is really rather good, but then again I would say that wouldn't I?
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
This magazine continues to go off on strange tangents that I never expect, but I am very happy to see it do so. What is in this week? Ooooh lots of things. Such as Rick Wakeman, lotsa Covidstuff, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jon's 2020 Top Ten, The Crown, and oodles more...
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive, AND Merrell Fankhauser, and the Real Music Club, AND Strange Fruit, and Mr Biffo, there is a column from Kev Rowland, and C.J Stone, but Mr Biffo, Tony Klinger and Neil Nixon, are on hiatus. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and dibblers who have got the blues (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are listening to the new Bob Dylan album, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
..And the last few issues are:
Issue 419-20 (John Lennon)
Issue 417-8 (gIG)
Issue 415-16 (Phideaux)
Issue 413-14 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 411-12 (Extinction Rebellion)
Issue 409-10 (Covid)
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...
* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk
* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!
* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is a recently widowed old hippy of 61 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, three other cats, one totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. He is ably assisted by a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?
NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Christmas Eve
ON THIS DAY IN - 1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk
AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)