The Mothman Craze Erupts in Point Pleasant

The Daily Mail ^ | 11/14/2002 | Chris Stirewalt

[ex-Texan]

This is for real, folks. There is a real Mothman if witnesses are to be believed.

That being said, calm down and rent the "Mothman" video. If any Freepers live near Point Pleasant, I expect you to drop in tomorrow and send us all a full report.

[MedicalMess]

Or better yet..., rent the movie Mimic if you want moth like bugs.

[oiljake]

I wish someone would tell the truth it ended up in someones pot or over a fire place

[MedicalMess]

How about the old Japanese sci-fi Mothera? Or is it Mothra?

[JennysCool]

Moth-Ra. Egyptian bug god.

[jlogajan]

There is a real Mothman if witnesses are to be believed.

Elvis is still alive and living at the mall, if witnesses are to be believed.

[Jonathon Spectre]

Why "Mothman"? Moths don't exactly inspire either terror or awe.

[Aquinasfan]

The light! Don't go into the light!

[ex-Texan]

Hmmm. You obviously did not see "Mothman" the movie. A seven foot tall being with wings and bright red eyes isn't the sort of creature people embrace. Run away from in fear, yes. Acceptance is not relevant.

By the way, I know a guy who is about 6' 5" tall who is deathly afraid of "little, teeny, tiny, itty bitty moths."

[Common Tator]

Point Pleasant.... !!!!!

I have several relatives that live in or near Point Pleasant. But I have never held that against the town.

Back in the depression my father contracted to paint the bridge over the Ohio at Point Pleasant. A local came up looking for a job. Dad asked him if he could climb. The local said like squirrel. Dad sent him topside and when he looked in few minutes the local was frozen at the top of the bridge tower with his eyes closed. Dad had to rig a bosons seat. It took 5 guys to pry this local off the bridge tower and get him on the ground.

When dad got him on the ground, he said to the local, " I thought you told me you could climb like a squirrel." The local replied, "That must have been a ground squirrel."

For decades in our family the excuse for failing to do some task was, "That must have been a ground squirrel."

[ex-Texan]

LOL LOL LOL .... good story!

[bzrd]

Point Pleasant is about 45 minutes down the road [down the road in WV-speak means the direction water poured out of a jug onto the road would flow e.g., if one is going in the same direction as the water--one is going down the road. Conversely, if one were to go up the road, one would be going in the opposite, or retrograde direction, relative to the poured water] from me.

My in-laws grew up very near there and though they didn't personally witness the mothman they knew people who did.

Brian.

[ex-Texan]

Found this on the web with the help of 2sheep:

Who or what is Mothman?

[bzrd]

Interesting article ex-Tex.

I don't pretend to know if the Mothman is a real phenom or just an overly hyped hoax. I am somewhere between the skeptic and the tin-foil hat on the belief scale I guess.

Though somehow I suspect these sorts of things are too-easily dismissed because they don't square with our perception of reality.

Just my opinion though.

Brian.

[L.N. Smithee]

This weekend, Point Pleasant will host the first Mothman Festival in its downtown with rides for children, props from last year's hit movie "The Mothman Prophecies"

"Hit movie?" Like heck it was a hit!

According to the Internet Movie Database, Mothman was a flop, opening in January 2002 (not 2001) with an $11 million weekend. That was only good enough for third behind pop star Mandy Moore's A Walk To Remember and a whiz-bang remake of The Count of Monte Cristo.

By the end of March 2002, word of mouth had killed Mothman, and it was yanked from US theaters after a paltry $49,000 weekend brought the gross to only $35 million domestically. The film's budget was $42 million.

[tallhappy]

That being said, calm down and rent the "Mothman" video.

No. Read the book. John Keel could use the money. They certainly didn't pay him for the movie.

It's all bogus, of course.

Keel is an interesting writer. He also invented or at least popularized the Men In Black as MIB. I'm sure he never got any money for that either.

He's a pulp writer who had a huge but essentially invisible impact on pop culture or society.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Put wings on Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno and let them fly around flaring their nostrils in the sequel. That would be scarier than The Exorcist or The Blair Witch.

[The Great Satan]

I believe it was actually Albert K. Bender who came up with the Men In Black. Keel was only a popularizer.

"We advise those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious."

    

[RadioAstronomer]

Ping. :-)