WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Thursday, May 23, 2013

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: THE IMPOVERISHED FROG-EATERS OF RURAL CHESHIRE OR STAFFORDSHIRE


The following piece of curious social history/folklore came from an account by Fletcher Moss in 1901(1) of his travels through rural Cheshire and Staffordshire. We join the story as Fletcher meets a poor man and some of his family.

“ Then with difficulty I learn that he is looking for a frog.He reiterates repeatedly that he wants a frog,because he has a child with the frog [i.e. cough or sore throat-R]. This is puzzling. I should prefer a sum in algebra or double practice to this puzzle. When the Mormon from Salt Lake City wished me to give him the names of many of his ancestors as I could, so that he might be baptized with total immersion for each one of them separately when he got back to Salt Lake , it was very astonishing,and now a man wanted a frog to cure the frog. Gradually it dawned on me that he wished to cure some ailment, and I remembered the thrush in a horse`s frog. He said this was thrush or frog in his child`s mouth, and gave me the valuable information that if any one has a child with the frog and will hold a live frog in the child`s mouth while it sucks it all away, the child will be cured.

Outside the garden gates,waiting for their father,there were four children,aged about seven,six,five and four.They were pale and bloodless, with sunken cheeks and big flat mouths like frogs.They all hopped about on their hind-legs just like the pictures of the dressed-up frogs in the children`s picture-books,and they all cried in chorus as if they were ravenously hungry. “Dadda, av oo got a fwog? Dadda, av oo got a fwog?” It was a horrible sight, enough to make one shudder if there had been any shudders left.(2)


  1. F.Moss Pilgrimages in Cheshire and Staffordshire  1901
  2. Ibid pp 273-4   

THE CRYPTODANE: More Danish Wolf News



http://cryptodane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/more-wolf-tales.html

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HAS VARIOUS PRESSING MATTERS TO WHICH HE MUST ATTEND

Not a nice day. Yesterday Prudence hurt her leg. A few years ago she had to have surgery on one of her back legs to repair a broken cruciate ligament, and it looks very much as if the opposite leg is going to have the same problem. We dosed her up with doggie painkillers, and Corinna slept downstairs with her, and this morning she was much improved. But, at 10:00 this morning the new neighbour knocked on the door to tell us that Buttons, our orange kitten had been knocked down and killed, presumably by the Torridge District Council dustcart. As I type, Graham is digging him a grave next to Biggles and Tessie the two dogs. Although not overly affectionate, he was a friendly little fellow, and the CFZ will be a poorer place without him.
In other news, the car is off the road until at least next Wednesday. Like I said. Not a nice day.

*  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:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* 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 an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Leopold Von Buttons (2012-2013)


Buttons was hit by a car this morning, and was found dead in the lane outside our house. He was a funny little fellow, but we shall miss him dearly. Goodbye little fellow

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.



DALE DRINNON: Minnesota Ice Man, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 1701 Captain William Kidd was executed for piracy. Kidd is rumoured to have constructed the Money Pit on Oak Island, although it is more likely that it was just a combination of a natural dip in the ground, wishful thinking and an investment scam.
And now the news:
  • Harlequin ladybirds carry disease fatal to other l...
  • Like Father Like Son: Mice Follow Dad's Example
  • Weird Pirate Ant Comes With an 'Eye Patch'
  • Vote now to help prevent rhino poaching
  • Defra statistics show bTB soared after cattle impo...
  • Sixty per cent of UK species in decline, groundbre...
  • Study Reveals How Fishing Gear Can Cause Slow Deat...
  • Fourteen Closely Related Crocodiles Existed Around...

  • Still flogging the dead horse (Although I must admit I'd love it if the Money Pit pirate treasure story were true) :