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SIPA Paranormal Chronicles S1 E14 - Wen from Cryptozoology Facts
15 Plays21 days ago
This week was a total blast as we speak to Wen.
Wen first started a cryptozoology blog over on tumblr in 2012 and it has around 28,000 followers today, now on Facebook she has over 74K followers.
Wen prefers to talk about the rarer and more folklore-ish cryptids, such as the poor Sqounk.
Listen in for more weird and wonderful Cryptids
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to SEPA Paranormal Chronicles
00:00:12
Lee Hatfield
Hi everybody and welcome to the latest episode of SEPA Paranormal Chronicles. And tonight I am delighted to have Wen with us.
00:00:23
Lee Hatfield
Wen is from Cryptozoology Facts and I'm going to let her introduce herself and tell us what Cryptozoology Facts is all about.
Wen's Journey with Cryptozoology Facts
00:00:32
Lee Hatfield
So Wen, thank you for joining us.
00:00:35
Wen
Oh, thank you for inviting me. So my name is Wen, and I run a Facebook page called Cryptozoology Facts. I started... like in 2012 or so.
00:00:48
Wen
And then I went on hiatus for a long time and I came back and it like kind of exploded and everyone's into cryptozoology now, which is very fun. So I post at least three times a day, different
Focusing on Lesser-known Cryptids
00:01:02
Wen
posts. I try to feature like lesser known things because that's way more fun than like just Bigfoot all the time.
00:01:10
Lee Hatfield
Awesome. And we're going to get into some of those weird and wonderful creatures in a few minutes. So what made you decide to do, think it was first blog, and then you went up went to Facebook. So what made you do that to start off with?
00:01:24
Wen
So i I had a Tumblr blog first, which is kind of dating me. I still have the Tumblr blog, and it still gets updated every day. I started that when I was in college, and it was just a place that I could reblog things that I wanted to read later.
00:01:42
Wen
And then I started writing, and then it kind of just turned into this.
00:01:48
Lee Hatfield
so So what was the the emphasis on cryptids? what what What brought you down that road?
00:01:57
Wen
When I was in like 15, I saw an episode
Research Methods and Interests in Cryptids
00:02:02
Wen
of Animal X Natural Mystery Unit on Animal Planet.
00:02:07
Wen
And it was the Monster or Murderer one about the Beast of Jevedon. And I was, like, hooked immediately. Because it's just so, it's fascinating. have so There's so many records and we still don't know what it was.
00:02:21
Wen
So I was wondering, like, oh, are there other things like that? And then that just, like, opened the door and now I'm just lost in this study.
00:02:31
Lee Hatfield
That's really cool because everybody knows about Bigfoot. Bigfoot is on everybody's radar.
00:02:35
Wen
Mm-hmm.
00:02:38
Lee Hatfield
I'm from the UK. Loch Ness Monster is my my to my go-to. But yeah was there any particular reason why you decided to go to the weird and random ones rather than the straightforward Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti kind of thing? Or what made you go down the weird route? Oh, that sounds wrong, but hey, hey.
00:03:00
Wen
no, Lee, I lost you.
00:03:04
Lee Hatfield
No, you're still with me. Oh.
00:03:06
Wen
Oh, there you are.
00:03:07
Lee Hatfield
No. There
00:03:11
Wen
What'd you say?
00:03:12
Lee Hatfield
we are. you yeah everyone has the yeah knows about the Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster. So, how did you go down the road of Weird and Wonderful?
00:03:29
Wen
Uh, so I, I like the lesser known kind of things just because the things that no one's heard of before way more fascinating to me than the things that like you hear about all the time.
00:03:43
Wen
So I like specifically looking into the things that people don't hear too often. And it seems from what I post that other people like hearing new stuff too. It's just like expanding your knowledge of the study.
00:03:55
Lee Hatfield
Absolutely. and might like both of us have already said, yeah you check the boxes for the normal ones. But when you go down that road of the lesser known ones and the more fun ones that we're going to talk about in a bit,
00:04:10
Lee Hatfield
that makes it more fun for you because you get some feedback from your your readers and your listeners, whatever.
00:04:16
Wen
Yeah.
00:04:17
Lee Hatfield
And like people learn stuff about all the strange ones. So do you have one particular reference that you can go to or do you just like blitz the internet of what you can find on the lesser known cryptids?
00:04:32
Wen
When I write my posts, I do a lot of different things. I'll use the internet, of course, because that's where people go most often.
00:04:44
Wen
But I cross-reference with books when I can. there's so like The lesser-known ones, there's so few notes on that. Some of them I only find in like old newspaper articles. like It's mentioned like a few times, and then no one ever talks about it again.
00:04:59
Wen
But I have friends that tell me about lesser known ones and that just makes me go dive into it and see if I can find anywhere fun to look.
00:05:08
Lee Hatfield
Cool. So of the more common known ones, do you have a favorite?
00:05:15
Wen
The more common known ones, I like Champ, the Lake Champlain monster, because that's just close to home, you know?
00:05:21
Lee Hatfield
OK. Any particular reason?
00:05:25
Wen
The Mansi photo is just so fascinating. And I know some people think it's just a like ah ah ah stick. But if you read, she's given very detailed...
00:05:38
Wen
notes on what that day was like and what she saw and what her husband saw and how they reacted and she covers like everything people ask why she only has one photo where the negatives she didn't think she had to keep those she didn't think it was something interesting you know so i think that whole story was very fascinating and people like there's evidence of something in lake champlain we just don't know what it is yet
00:06:03
Lee Hatfield
And that kind of goes down the same kind of route as the Loch Ness Monster. Like that stereotypical picture that came out in the 50s or the 60s has now been proven to be fake.
00:06:15
Lee Hatfield
However, people still see movement in the in the water that they can't explain. They see obscure creatures, if you like, or yeah things that they can't describe.
00:06:29
Lee Hatfield
from a distance, you cameras are not quite ready. and this is I think it's the same for champ Lake Champlain as well and stuff like that. there's yeah No creature is going to come out and wave at you and go, hi.
00:06:41
Wen
Right? Okay.
00:06:42
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, yeah, yeah. so yeah And they want i want to stay hidden for a reason. So yeah, I can fully understand it. Because if if I was a big bad creature in a lake and people were taking photographs, I'm going to wait until all the guys with the photograph or the cameras have
Lumberjack Folklore and the Squonk
00:06:58
Lee Hatfield
disappeared and go,
00:06:59
Lee Hatfield
Great, they're all gone. I can come out and play now.
00:07:00
Wen
right
00:07:01
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Okay, so we're going to be talking about some lesser known creatures.
00:07:06
Wen
and good
00:07:10
Lee Hatfield
I know you sent me a list, which I'm not going to divulge to any of the listeners. So where would you like to start?
00:07:18
Wen
so i thought it would be fun to talk about lumberjack folklore just because well that's that's like a few of them are well known you know like if people have heard of the squonk obviously that's a very popular one on the internet for reasons we all can relate to the squonk right yeah
00:07:23
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:07:37
Lee Hatfield
Okay, okay. Let me stop you there. I hadn't heard about the squonk until we were talking at the weekend.
00:07:43
Wen
but Which is shocking.
00:07:45
Lee Hatfield
yeah like so
00:07:46
Wen
What
00:07:48
Lee Hatfield
So before then, we had to Google what it was. So let's tell people tell people about the squonk before we go into the lumberjackster.
00:07:51
Wen
the fuck?
00:07:57
Wen
So the squonk is ah ah very sad guy. He's just a little creature and he's so ugly. And he's just so ugly that he just cries all the time because he knows that he's so ugly.
00:08:14
Wen
and that And that's what he is. And you you can't catch him because if you try to catch it, then he's just so sad that he turns into tears and he'll just, all of the tears slide through the net so you can't catch him.
00:08:32
Wen
He's just so sad.
00:08:32
Lee Hatfield
and pay I know people like that. I know people like that.
00:08:36
Wen
Right. We can all relate to the squaw.
00:08:38
Lee Hatfield
And that's that's in Pennsylvania, correct?
00:08:41
Wen
Mm-hmm. yeah
00:08:45
Lee Hatfield
And I know we're talking about it offline, but I'm going to speak to you about it again. This is actually a convention about the Squonk.
00:08:52
Wen
Yes. Yep.
00:08:54
Lee Hatfield
So tell us about the convention.
00:08:54
Wen
yeah
00:08:57
Wen
So I don't know too much about it because I never got to go. And I hope I get to go someday. But it's called Squonka Palooza, which I think is just a plus naming. That's a great name.
00:09:09
Lee Hatfield
like
00:09:10
Wen
But from the pictures I saw last year, it looked like a blast. Like they had mascot costumes. They had like so many vendors. They had speakers. It looked like it was so much fun.
00:09:23
Lee Hatfield
That sounds like the kind of convention I think I want to go to.
00:09:26
Wen
Right?
00:09:28
Lee Hatfield
We should also all have tattoos in yeah in remembrance of the squonk in case it was crying.
00:09:34
Wen
Team Squawk.
00:09:35
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, let's do it, let's do it. OK, what's next on your list?
00:09:40
Wen
So, well, I wanted to tell you, uh, so Fearsome Critters, or fearsome Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, are a section of American folklore.
00:09:50
Wen
Right? So they're stories basically told by lumberjacks around the campfire while they're like chilling out after their job.
00:10:01
Wen
You know, they're all gathered around the campfire after they had a hard day of work telling stories. it happened, they were told around the 19th, 20th century, and William T. Cox wrote his book, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, in 1910, and that's how everyone knows about these creatures.
00:10:25
Wen
They typically go along the same route of storytelling where, like, someone heard from someone else that something happened, you know? Like, my brothers, like, cousins, whatever.
00:10:42
Wen
So... There's so many different kinds and some of them are dangerous. Some of them are silly like the squonk. Some of them like were a way to explain maybe missing axes during the job.
00:10:59
Wen
There's the axe handle hound, which is quite literally a little dog shaped like an axe that would eat the axe handles. And that's just a good way to explain why you're missing some of your stuff, you know? Oh, I don't know. The axe handle hound must have caught it. What a shame, you know?
00:11:21
Wen
It's just a good way. They had creative ways to explain stuff, I guess.
00:11:26
Lee Hatfield
Well, I can understand why the squonk is by upset and always crying. Because you just called him silly. You offended the poor guy.
00:11:36
Wen
Oh, I'm so sorry. He's probably crying.
00:11:40
Lee Hatfield
we need We need to have more support for these animals.
00:11:43
Wen
Oh, hashtag team squonk.
00:11:46
Lee Hatfield
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's make it happen. So, do you have a copy of this book from 1910?
00:11:53
Wen
So I don't know if there are many like original copies, but you can find like modernized, I guess, versions. I have a couple of oh versions of it where like someone new is telling the same basic story, but like it's different artwork.
00:12:11
Wen
But when I post it to my page, I always use the artwork from William T. Cox's book because that's how they originally like showed the creature.
00:12:23
Lee Hatfield
So does Mr Cox give a reason for writing this book? Is it just because of the stories that were spoken about around the campfire? Or was there an alternative reason for him writing the book, do you think?
00:12:38
Wen
I think he was just noting down what the stories were. Sassy. Sorry. I think he was just noting down like how we have record keepers that keep track of other folklore stories. like Native Americans have their record keepers.
00:12:59
Wen
Ancient cultures had their record keepers. Lumberjacks had their record keepers. you know it's like I like to think of it as that version of like urban legends.
00:13:12
Wen
It was their urban legend.
00:13:15
Lee Hatfield
so it It does seem
Cryptids in Forest vs Urban Environments
00:13:16
Lee Hatfield
strange. Well, not really strange. That's the wrong word. it seems logical in sense that there seems to be more cryptids related forestry, woods and tree environments than there does...
00:13:30
Wen
Right. Right.
00:13:31
Lee Hatfield
and oh yeah You're not going to get some walking down the high street of your local town, obviously. But, yeah, why do you think they're more concentrated on the forest environment rather than yeah rocky or sandy environments.
00:13:48
Lee Hatfield
I know probably is a few, but I think it is more forestry environments.
00:13:50
Wen
Oh, yeah.
00:13:52
Lee Hatfield
Why do you think that is?
00:13:54
Wen
Probably just because people don't know what's lurking. Like, the same reason why we have so many sea monsters. You know, you don't know what's in the ocean. You don't know what's in the forest, I guess.
00:14:05
Wen
are plenty of cryptids that are said to live in other environments. There's Mongolian death worm that lives in the Gobi Desert. And that's a big scary one that just lives in the desert and is said to appear every, like I think, two months out of the year.
00:14:25
Wen
But Bigfoot is seen all year round because people are in in the forest looking, you know? no
00:14:34
Lee Hatfield
I think that is one of the things as well because of the environment that we're in nowadays. yeah Back in the day, it used to be, yeah people used to go out and play outside.
00:14:45
Lee Hatfield
And then when technology came, people now play on computers and then go out for relaxation rather than staying in. So I think more people actually going out into the woods and the forests.
00:14:57
Lee Hatfield
Like you just said, they hear something, can't see it, don't know what it is. So they're just going to go, oh, it must be a Bigfoot, or it must be Sasquatch.
00:15:09
Wen
Right. And like, I can't say much because I'm of the generation where I live on the computer. But I know that nowadays, there's a lot of needing to debunk things that probably could have been debunked a long time ago. Like, people don't know what a fox scream sounds like. They hear ah ah fox
Explaining Cryptid Sightings with Known Phenomena
00:15:32
Wen
screaming. They're like, oh god, I don't know what that is. It's a Bigfoot.
00:15:35
Wen
You know, a lot of Bigfoot-related things can be debunked by, like, a fox or maybe a bear walking on its hind legs. We get that a lot.
00:15:47
Lee Hatfield
yeah cause i I know on some of these TV shows where yeah people see things, they record it and they send it into the show. like Some of those videos can be done.
00:15:58
Lee Hatfield
yeah Not just crypto related but like even ghosts and spirits and things.
00:16:06
Wen
hey
00:16:07
Lee Hatfield
so So many of them can be debunked because yeah if you know anything you can just go yeah well someone could be behind that tree or
00:16:16
Wen
Yeah.
00:16:16
Lee Hatfield
somebody could have thrown that. So like say it does make it a little bit more like not as much fun anymore because yeah things can be faked so easily.
00:16:28
Wen
Well, think it's a lot of when people debunk, like, I don't know some things that someone else might know. So it's a good learning opportunity as well.
00:16:39
Wen
But it makes me think of, do you know what air rods are? Or sky fish?
00:16:45
Lee Hatfield
and lightens
00:16:46
Wen
Right? So it's when someone takes a picture and there's like a little flutter on the, on this picture that you don't know what it is, but it's because a bug flew at the exact right time, you know, but for a while people were like, what is that?
00:16:59
Lee Hatfield
oh
00:17:06
Wen
Oh my God, what is that? But now we can explain, oh it's a bug, you know, It's like when you see an orb in ghost pictures and you're like, oh, that's dust.
00:17:16
Wen
You know?
00:17:19
Lee Hatfield
Let's not go down that road tonight. That'll start fights and arguments.
00:17:23
Wen
We're fighting about orbs.
00:17:25
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. So.
00:17:26
Wen
I don't know much about ghost stuff. um That's my mom's thing.
00:17:32
Lee Hatfield
OK, I'm going to ask you more about ghost stuff now.
00:17:34
Wen
Oh, no.
00:17:36
Lee Hatfield
So let's go back to your fearsome creatures of the Lumberwoods.
00:17:39
Wen
Yes.
00:17:39
Lee Hatfield
well What other ones can you tell us about?
00:17:41
Wen
So I wanted to tell you some fun ones, right? So the Skwonk, obviously, fan favorite. My favorite one is the Hoopsnake, right?
00:17:55
Wen
Imagine. and you're ready think ready snake and he's coming at you down a hill right and you think you can outrun it but then it turns into a tire and then it starts rolling down the hill unfurls and stabs you with its tail that's a hoop snake
00:18:16
Lee Hatfield
That's a bit unfair. That's not nice.
00:18:21
Wen
isn't that wild
00:18:25
Lee Hatfield
I'd love to know where some of these stories actually come from.
00:18:29
Wen
Right.
00:18:31
Lee Hatfield
No doubt you're going to tell us a few more in a minute, but like where did that initially come from? it
00:18:38
Wen
But they they always throw in like extra details. Like the hoops and it can go 60 miles an hour. and like it has such's it's so venomous that it can like kill you in a second. like it's They throw in like the little details too.
00:18:52
Wen
Which is just extra fun, I think.
00:18:55
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, i I think it's like, say, back in the day, back it back in the day when, like, before you were born, there was an old saying about about the war.
00:18:58
Wen
Yeah.
00:19:07
Lee Hatfield
And it was, yeah, send reinforcements were going to advance. And with all the Chinese whispers and things, by the time it got to the people of importance, it was send two and sixpence were going to a dance.
00:19:20
Lee Hatfield
And I think everybody adds their little bit of the story as we're going along. And I think that's a perfect example.
00:19:31
Wen
Yeah. It's just...
00:19:33
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:19:35
Wen
It's so much fun. i love i love fearsome critters. I don't feel like people know too much about them, you know? Oh.
00:19:43
Lee Hatfield
They will after tonight, because I'm going to tell everybody to go to your blog, to go to your Facebook page, to go to everything and bombard you with questions.
00:19:52
Lee Hatfield
about snakes that turn into tires
00:19:55
Wen
Deal. I'm done.
00:19:56
Lee Hatfield
and
00:19:56
Wen
I'm down with that.
00:19:57
Lee Hatfield
and
00:19:57
Wen
That's great.
00:19:58
Lee Hatfield
and squawks, of course.
00:20:00
Wen
Of course. Can't forget those.
00:20:01
Lee Hatfield
OK. Yeah. What's next on your list?
00:20:03
Wen
Ready? Cactus cat. What do you think that is?
00:20:08
Lee Hatfield
is that Is that the one that we just saw that's just jumped off your lap?
00:20:11
Wen
No. that that was That was my sassafras.
00:20:16
Wen
So.
00:20:17
Lee Hatfield
Let me guess.
00:20:18
Wen
Yeah. Go.
00:20:20
Lee Hatfield
A cat that turns into a cactus.
00:20:22
Wen
No. No.
00:20:26
Wen
It's a cat, right? It's got spikes like a cactus. And it loves to drink the fermented cactus juice, get drunk, and scream.
Folklore Creatures Across the U.S.
00:20:41
Lee Hatfield
Okay. i have I have questions.
00:20:43
Wen
Yeah.
00:20:46
Lee Hatfield
There isn't cacti everywhere that you go.
00:20:49
Wen
No. No.
00:20:51
Lee Hatfield
and So where would these cats be more likely to be found?
00:20:58
Wen
They're said to be in the southwest U.S.
00:21:04
Lee Hatfield
Which is understandable.
00:21:06
Wen
Like Arizona, you know.
00:21:06
Lee Hatfield
It's far away in the hot places. I'll
00:21:09
Wen
Yeah.
00:21:12
Wen
And that's that's that's all it does.
00:21:12
Lee Hatfield
go through it.
00:21:13
Wen
It just screams. It gets drunk and it screams.
00:21:19
Lee Hatfield
So do you think that the squonk drinks with this animal? Because he when people drink, they scream, they get drunk and they cry. So if the squonk's crying, maybe the cat.
00:21:33
Wen
They're very different. Very different drunks.
00:21:37
Lee Hatfield
guess it I'm guessing so.
00:21:40
Wen
I think they would party together.
00:21:40
Lee Hatfield
you think
00:21:41
Wen
Yeah, why not?
00:21:43
Lee Hatfield
That sounds like a, yeah. but yeah but so So we've got two people attending the party right now.
00:21:49
Wen
who else?
00:21:49
Lee Hatfield
How else do we have?
00:21:50
Wen
Who else? so I don't know if this guy would join the party, but he would certainly make a blast, right?
00:22:02
Wen
So it's called, let me make sure I get it right.
00:22:08
Wen
I'll look it up because i I'll mess it up. The Funeral Mountain Terror Shot.
00:22:14
Wen
Right?
00:22:17
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:22:17
Wen
So this guy he's in California. This guy. He's he's like a he's like shaped like a casket.
00:22:22
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:22:27
Wen
like a classic casket, four legs, fine. They just walk in a straight line. There's a bunch of them. And when they like get scared or get too hot, they explode.
00:22:45
Wen
And that's what they do.
00:22:48
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, I don't imagine them being as much fun at a party because they wouldn't be invited back for sure.
00:22:54
Wen
Well, they can't be invited back if they explode.
00:22:57
Lee Hatfield
Well, that's a very good point. That's a very good point.
00:23:01
Wen
But, like, who even thinks of that?
00:23:01
Lee Hatfield
not
00:23:06
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, again, where did that story come from?
00:23:09
Wen
Right. And it's it's just... I don't even know where would start. to the I guess they were just very creative men sitting around the fireplace.
00:23:23
Wen
Drinking, yeah. And enjoying time after they cut down some trees. Thinking about casket-shaped animals exploding, guess.
00:23:33
Lee Hatfield
Well, I have to say, in my lifetime, I've come out with some really weird conversations. So, yeah, I'm all on board. These things exist, and they're only in California. We're far enough away, so think I'm pretty good.
00:23:45
Wen
Yeah, I'll take that. There's not many in our neck of the woods. I think usually the fearsome critters are like more out west, midwest, US. i don't I don't think I can think of one that's around my neck of the woods.
00:24:03
Wen
And I have to check.
00:24:07
Lee Hatfield
Well, the squab's pretty close because you're in Massachusetts and they're in Pennsylvania.
00:24:10
Wen
Yeah, the squonk is close.
00:24:11
Lee Hatfield
I
00:24:14
Wen
I know, I know he's... I think he might be the closest, and I'll totally take that because he's obviously the best one. Even though if you ask him, he would den he would deny that.
00:24:23
Lee Hatfield
hi agree.
00:24:25
Wen
He would be very upset.
00:24:28
Lee Hatfield
And then you'd cry and end up in a big puddle.
00:24:32
Wen
But see, you can cry with him, and I bet he would support you.
00:24:38
Lee Hatfield
Thanks.
00:24:38
Wen
Right?
00:24:39
Lee Hatfield
I'll get some Kleenex and I'll like take in some tissues.
00:24:45
Wen
Aww, he would love that. What a little guy.
00:24:49
Lee Hatfield
yeah What's next on your list?
00:24:52
Wen
yeah how about... So I think this one is, like, one of the more popular ones that I've seen people like besides the Skrunk. Obviously, that's the most popular. But people really like the Slide Rock Bolter.
00:25:06
Wen
And that... i am I like to imagine that it's just a way that they explained Avalanche's Because the slide rock bolter is quite literally a whale on top of a mountain that slides down and eats the people in its way. And there's no explanation about how it gets back up the mountain once it goes down.
00:25:31
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, I'm assuming there wasn't any elevators or...
00:25:31
Wen
It's just... And it's... No, and it's a whale. Like, it's quite literally a whale-sized creature that they say is there. And we don't... I don't i don't see them.
00:25:44
Wen
I don't know about you. Yeah,
00:25:47
Lee Hatfield
I'm pretty much certain now that just by mentioning those first few, they these guys around this campfire are not only just drinking, they're doing something else as well. They're obviously taking something
00:25:59
Wen
yeah they're having a blast.
00:26:01
Lee Hatfield
yeah I'm guessing so. Now, I know I've got the list in front of me and I do like, I've got no idea what it is because I'm going let you explain, the Snollygoster.
00:26:15
Wen
The Snollygoster? let me...
00:26:19
Lee Hatfield
I've caught you out now, haven't
00:26:21
Wen
I know, i have to make sure I'm thinking, because there's two that are really close. The Snollygoster and the Snollygaster.
00:26:29
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:26:31
Wen
you want the Goster.
00:26:31
Lee Hatfield
You'd think they'd be neighbours, really,
00:26:36
Wen
But i but there isn't it funny that they're not? i'll tell Ready? I'll tell you both. The Snallygaster isn't a fearsome critter, but the Snallygaster is in Maryland, and it's like a huge dragon.
00:26:55
Wen
i think the German word means sneaky ghost or something like that. and it's a dragon with tentacles for a mouth, right? The Snollygoster is in Florida, and it's kind of like a ah ah crocodile with no legs, but it has, like, one big spike on its back, and it likes eating people.
00:27:22
Wen
And that's...
00:27:23
Lee Hatfield
but which is, in Florida we've got those agilator things that like eating people.
00:27:26
Wen
So
00:27:30
Lee Hatfield
so
00:27:31
Wen
Yeah, so the Snollygoster, it's like an alligator with no legs. It has a spike, and it uses its tail to flip people onto its spike, and then it eats them.
00:27:44
Lee Hatfield
I'm pretty sure if it hasn't got any legs I could step out of its way because it's like it's not going to move very fast, is it really?
00:27:50
Wen
But I don't know, you the hoop snake doesn't have legs, and that thing goes 60 miles an hour.
00:27:56
Lee Hatfield
That's a very good point. Very good point.
00:28:01
Lee Hatfield
OK, let me see if I can catch you out again.
00:28:04
Wen
Okay.
00:28:04
Lee Hatfield
about What about the wapaloosie?
00:28:08
Wen
The Wapaloosie, I know that one. The Wapaloosie is like, i don't i don't remember where it lives, but it's like a little tree-dwelling rodent, and it will steal the gloves of the lumberjacks.
00:28:27
Wen
And it climbs onto it climbs to the top of the trees.
00:28:27
Lee Hatfield
Why?
00:28:29
Wen
Okay.
00:28:31
Lee Hatfield
Why does it steal the gloves?
00:28:32
Wen
Because they lost their gloves and they have to explain why.
00:28:36
Lee Hatfield
Is that like the sock monster that's in your washing machine that takes your socks?
00:28:40
Wen
Yeah. That's how I imagine they come up with this stuff. It's just like how you have a little goblin in your dryer that eats your socks.
00:28:54
Lee Hatfield
They have to be related for sure.
00:28:58
Lee Hatfield
Okay, so let's get let's have a few more. What about the Central American wind toffer?
00:29:05
Wen
The Central American Wind Tosser is, imagine a pyramid shape, right? But it's long, and it's got four legs on each of the sides and one head, and it can twirl itself down hills.
00:29:26
Lee Hatfield
For what purpose?
00:29:27
Wen
and What? I don't know.
00:29:31
Lee Hatfield
Don't come with half a story. ah We We want all the facts.
00:29:36
Wen
Did it have a purpose? i
00:29:40
Lee Hatfield
So you're going to Google it now. So it's got 16 legs is what you're telling me. Or it's got four, one in each corner.
00:29:46
Wen
it No, it has... it has they so like It has four, and then four, and then four.
00:29:53
Lee Hatfield
OK. Oh, it's a triangle. OK.
00:29:55
Wen
Yeah, yeah, it's a triangle-shaped guy, but he has one head, and the head can rotate.
00:30:00
Lee Hatfield
just about I'm almost much lost to words for some of these that you've been talking about tonight.
00:30:07
Lee Hatfield
that It's definitely a case of people that are, like say, drinking around a campfire or smoking weed, I think.
00:30:14
Wen
yeah
00:30:18
Lee Hatfield
I think that would probably be yeah one of the things as well.
00:30:21
Wen
Yeah. Do you think lumberjacks smoked weed?
00:30:25
Lee Hatfield
Well, why not? if i If they're coming out with half of these creatures, Oh yeah. Big time.
00:30:31
Wen
They could just have really nice imaginations.
00:30:35
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and we don't know how much they do drink, do they to be fair. OK, so let's go through a couple more then. I'll let you pick pick the next one.
00:30:45
Wen
Okay, let me get the list that I sent you. Hold on. that
00:30:58
Wen
Where's the list I sent you? Oh, it's right there.
00:31:02
Lee Hatfield
got it.
00:31:04
Wen
I think so. Okay, so, uh, just ready? Rapid fire. I'm gonna make you guess. I think that's more fun. So what do you think the whirling wimpus
00:31:22
Lee Hatfield
I would say something that is whirling, as in spinning around.
00:31:27
Wen
But what's a wimpus?
00:31:30
Lee Hatfield
Somebody that's not very strong. You see it in the and the yeah pictures of the guy that's got muscles like this big.
00:31:40
Wen
The muscles that go down.
00:31:42
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
00:31:46
Wen
Close. And by close, I mean not really close.
00:31:51
Lee Hatfield
Thank you for your vote of confidence.
00:31:55
Wen
So of the whirling wimpus is, you know, Taz, the Tasmanian devil. It's like that if it was, if he was a gorilla and he had like big paddles for hands.
00:32:09
Wen
So he spins with his paddle hands out and he turns people into jelly. And I think it's quite literally described as turning people into jelly.
00:32:20
Lee Hatfield
Do we know what flavour?
00:32:22
Wen
I imagine people flavor.
00:32:26
Lee Hatfield
Okay, I'm not going there.
00:32:31
Lee Hatfield
Okay, I know we have a few more, but there's one I'm curious about that is spelt different than how people would normally say it, but you've got leprechaun, but not the Irish version.
00:32:35
Wen
Okay.
00:32:45
Wen
No, it's like, it's like... I i think it's like a little Bigfoot.
00:32:54
Lee Hatfield
A little Bigfoot? that like a little foot?
00:32:57
Wen
He got little feet.
00:32:59
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:33:00
Wen
But i i know it's described... So I don't... i always see the pictures of it's just like a little monkey. like a little ape.
00:33:14
Wen
And that leprechaun, the last ones were eaten by Irishmen in a famine.
00:33:23
Wen
I don't know if that's why they called it that.
00:33:27
Lee Hatfield
Probably.
00:33:27
Wen
Or they were slightly rude lumberjacks towards other lumberjacks, you know?
00:33:35
Lee Hatfield
That would make sense. Plus the fact there was a lot of Irish people coming over many moons ago into North America. So that could be something pulled from a Irish folklore.
00:33:49
Wen
Right, I mean, i live in Massachusetts. That's what we got. Boston's made of Irishmen.
00:33:53
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:33:56
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, let's not go down the road of the real Boston, but that's where I'm.
00:34:00
Wen
well Hey, we just stole your town names.
00:34:06
Lee Hatfield
Yes, so our town is like like a thousand or more years old. Boston, Massachusetts is a few hundred years old, but we stole it from Massachusetts.
00:34:19
Lee Hatfield
Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Okay, I'm with you now. Okay, but let's do a couple of more.
00:34:27
Wen
Okay.
00:34:28
Lee Hatfield
So you can pick one and then I will pick one.
00:34:32
Wen
Okay. How about the Roperite?
00:34:39
Wen
What's the Roperite?
00:34:39
Lee Hatfield
Has it got something to do with rope or rope looking?
00:34:39
Wen
Yes.
00:34:44
Wen
Yes.
00:34:46
Lee Hatfield
OK.
00:34:48
Wen
so it's a little guy like that most of them are just little guys you know the big whale and and the caskets
00:34:48
Lee Hatfield
Enlighteners.
00:34:54
Lee Hatfield
Apart from the big whale.
00:35:00
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:35:01
Wen
the rope right is like a like it walks on two legs and it it's has a beak but the beak is like a lasso that's the rope part
00:35:16
Lee Hatfield
Right.
00:35:18
Wen
And it just... It's... it's I think they say it's like a roadrunner kind of thing. Like the bird.
00:35:29
Wen
and it's just... It's just Lasso's snakes.
00:35:35
Lee Hatfield
The same snake that's coming down the hill as a tyre.
00:35:39
Wen
No, because it usually says rattlesnakes.
00:35:41
Lee Hatfield
okay.
00:35:42
Wen
Right?
00:35:43
Lee Hatfield
Well, that would make sense because they're like, they're weird.
00:35:43
Wen
so
00:35:47
Wen
They're weird.
00:35:48
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, sort of like rattling. Oh, look, baby rattle. Oh, no, it's a snake. I'm going to back off.
00:35:53
Wen
Which, like, why are they any more real than Hoopsnake?
00:36:00
Lee Hatfield
People see the rattlesnake. People haven't seen the hoopsnake.
00:36:04
Wen
up Well, listen. I've
00:36:08
Lee Hatfield
This is going to start fisticuffs.
00:36:12
Lee Hatfield
Okay then.
00:36:13
Wen
never...
00:36:13
Lee Hatfield
time
00:36:16
Lee Hatfield
So for the final the final one that we're going to go with tonight, I'm going to go with the Bildad.
00:36:25
Wen
The Bill Dad. Oh, the Bill Dad's from Maine. There's one that's that's over here.
00:36:32
Wen
yes just a little fishing guy. goes fishing.
00:36:32
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:36:40
Lee Hatfield
And that's it.
00:36:41
Wen
i now I have to look up exactly what he does because that's like one that I never read about.
00:36:41
Lee Hatfield
That's all he does is go fishing.
00:36:50
Lee Hatfield
I'm sorry. yeah yeah You're supposed to be the expert and you're not reading up on these.
00:36:54
Wen
I know. because they have a so they look like kangaroo beavers.
00:37:01
Wen
And they use their tails to swim. and that's like i want i need Can I send you a picture of them? Are you looking up pictures?
00:37:10
Lee Hatfield
No, I'm not. I have just have the list in front of me and I'm talking to you like a good host always should.
00:37:15
Wen
You are. And i need to I need you to look at him.
00:37:19
Wen
Like the original. Where is he?
00:37:23
Lee Hatfield
Please talk amongst yourself audience while Wen finds a picture of this build up.
00:37:27
Wen
I'm sorry, I need you to see him. So, he's a he's a beaver kangaroo that uses
00:37:34
Lee Hatfield
A zebra kangaroo.
00:37:38
Wen
his tail to paddle like in the in the swamps. Eats the bugs, fits the bugs.
00:37:45
Lee Hatfield
Okay, folks, I'm just looking at the picture and he looks nothing like a kangaroo and he looks nothing like a beaver.
00:37:48
Wen
Yeah, beaver kangaroo, right?
00:37:53
Lee Hatfield
So there we go.
00:37:54
Wen
He has a beaver tail!
00:37:59
Lee Hatfield
Okay. Right.
00:38:01
Wen
his His purpose is smacking the fish with his tail.
00:38:01
Lee Hatfield
I've got it.
00:38:05
Lee Hatfield
Okay, that would make sense for him being the beaver.
00:38:08
Wen
Right? I don't know what the kangaroo bit really comes into play, but smacking the fish with his tail.
00:38:15
Lee Hatfield
Okay, okay. Right, so I've now got a serious question for you. Even though this has been really lighthearted, and i think we can probably guarantee that most of them are folklore rather than...
00:38:23
Wen
Yeah.
00:38:28
Wen
Oh, for sure.
Ethics of Disclosing Cryptid Findings
00:38:30
Lee Hatfield
yeah Let's not just not think about that. Let's just go with it, that it's folklore. So if you found cryptid that you discovered was real,
00:38:44
Wen
yeah
00:38:44
Lee Hatfield
so Bigfoot or whatever, would you announce it to the world that you found one? And going to tell you why I'm asking this question. So if you come across a cryptid, it can be Nessie, it could be like the dude in Hong Kong, the one that's in the lake, Champlain, I can't remember what it's called, yeah?
00:39:06
Wen
yeah
00:39:08
Lee Hatfield
Or any of the ones that we've spoken about tonight, if you found one of them to be real, and you basically mess it face to face, would you report it to the public?
00:39:21
Lee Hatfield
Yes or no?
00:39:23
Wen
So I've always been torn on that. So a lot of, so what we talked about was just folklore, right? There's no, they I know it's fun.
00:39:36
Wen
There's no snake coming down the hill 90 miles an hour, 60 miles an hour. But people see Bigfoot so often. And if I saw it, I would love to validate those people.
00:39:53
Wen
And if i had true evidence, like a clear picture or video, you know, or like a corpse, I would love to be able to validate those people.
00:40:06
Wen
You know what I mean? Because they witnesses get laughed at so often, and that's something that I see on my page a lot.
00:40:07
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:40:13
Wen
And it it's upsetting because these people came forward. They put their names on the line a lot of the time. They risk their reputation to say something that they saw.
00:40:26
Wen
And the way the world treats it as a joke is, When they saw something that truly scared them and they didn't know what it was, I would like them to be validated, but I would be worried about, like, people actually going to hunt a Bigfoot for a trophy, you know?
00:40:48
Lee Hatfield
And that's the reason why I'm asking you, because when this goes out, an interview that I had with a Bigfoot investigator, I asked him the exact quite same question.
00:41:02
Lee Hatfield
And he said that he would not release the location to the public.
00:41:08
Wen
i would Yeah.
00:41:08
Lee Hatfield
because but Simply because he would not want to jeopardize that species that he spent half his life searching for.
00:41:17
Wen
Right.
00:41:18
Lee Hatfield
and and I can completely understand where he's coming from. Because if I'm going through the woods and I come across a Bigfoot face to face and I know it's a Bigfoot, the Bigfoot knows I'm a human and I see it black and white in front of me or in color, whatever, I'm going to be like, okay, this is this is ah ah this is a species that we are unfamiliar with, even though there's been plenty of multiple sightings but never been proven I've just proven it in front of me.
00:41:49
Lee Hatfield
If I launch it into the papers and into the media, cameras, hunting teams, every man and his dog per se is going to come down and see if they can catch it. If they catch they're going to go into a cage or they're going to kill it.
00:42:04
Wen
Right.
00:42:05
Lee Hatfield
So I would be on exactly the same wavelength as my Bigfoot investigator friend by saying that I would not release it in the media. I would just take it as a personal experience Yeah, if you manage to get a selfie with it, like even better. But like say, there's no way that I would actually release it to the public.
00:42:26
Wen
See, I don't... If I could get evidence without blatantly showing where...
00:42:35
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:42:37
Wen
that's when I would show people like in the woods. Okay. Where, what woods there's everywhere woods. But if it was like, you could see a landmark, you know, then I wouldn't.
00:42:51
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. I think the Gimlin video is a perfect example where that could be anywhere.
00:42:59
Wen
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:00
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Unless you know what that particular rock looks like, you're not going to know the location. It could be anywhere in the US, anywhere in the world.
00:43:09
Wen
I mean, it took decades for them to find that spot.
00:43:09
Lee Hatfield
I think.
00:43:12
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, exactly. And I um think, i say like you said, as long as there is no recognition, no places that you you could recognize, then I would mention it or I'd even say in a completely different location
Conclusion and Future Episodes
00:43:25
Lee Hatfield
to protect that species.
00:43:26
Wen
Okay.
00:43:28
Lee Hatfield
So we've ended on a serious note. We've had some really good fun talking about some of the ah ah weird and wonderful folklore creatures. And I know there's a lot more that we can talk about. So maybe you can come back on ah ah another podcast and we'll cover some more.
00:43:45
Lee Hatfield
But I would absolutely love to thank you for your time. It's been an absolute blast.
00:43:50
Wen
Thank you.
00:43:50
Lee Hatfield
how look i I hope to have you on again. And anybody that wants to follow Wen, Wen's going to tell you how you can do that. Go.
00:44:01
Wen
You can follow me at CryptozoologyFacts on Facebook, Libette DeJavidon on Tumblr, and those are the only two social medias that I use.
00:44:12
Lee Hatfield
There you And I can vouch for the fact that she does share loads of interesting facts about all these simply Some more reliable than folklore.
00:44:23
Lee Hatfield
But, yeah, it's it's a really good, fun page. I highly recommend that people follow it. So, Wend, thank you very much.
00:44:31
Wen
Thank you.
00:44:31
Lee Hatfield
And hopefully we'll talk again soon. Take care. Bye-bye.
00:44:34
Wen
Bye.