FT269

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Fortean Times #269 (December 2010)

• Release date: 11 Nov 2010
• Cover price: £4.25
• US Edition is dated January 2011 with a cover price of $11.99 USA (CAN $13.25, AUS $12.95, NZ $16.90)
• Cover: Etienne Gilfillan
• Subscriptions: Fortean Times Subscription Website
• Digital editions: Official App on Google, Apple --- Zinio (268+) --- Magzter (283+)

Contents

• 04 King Arthur Versus The Daily Mail - Druidry becomes the first pagan religion to be officially recognised and sparks row
• 44 A Policeman's Lot - The anniversary of the PC Alan Godfrey abduction
• 56 The Occult Moustache - Myth and magic of facial hair
• 16 Spooks and the Insect World - What links flies to ghosts and apparitions?
• 48 The Medium is the Message - Ghost in the gallery

Features

32 Gef the Talking Mongoose (cover story)
Christopher Josiffe travels to the Isle of Man to reopen the files on Gef the Talking Mongoose, or 'The Dalby Spook', a media sensation of the 1930s and focus of one of the most puzzling cases in fortean history. But what was this hymn-singing, stone-throwing 'man-weasel'? A poltergeist? A hoax? An uncannily talented animal? Or something even stranger?

44 A Policeman's Lot: Part 1
It is now 30 years since one of the most famous of all British 'close encounter' cases, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. On this anniversary, Peter Brooksmith, David Clarke and Andy Roberts revisit the PC Alan Godfrey 'abduction' of 1980.

48 The Medium is the Message
Jeffrey Vallance ponders the origins of inspiration and the power of the Ouija board - and discovers that ghosts like making art just as much as the next person.

Reports

30 Blasts from the Past - No. 27. Those damned invisible things by Theo Paijmans

42 Fortean Bureau of Investigation - No. 108. Folklore Society Conference by David V Barrett

50 Fortean Times Dictionary of the Damned - No. 36. Contactees

Forum

55 The case for cryptids by Michael Woodley

56 The Occult Moustache by Michael 'Atters' Attree

58 'Crop Circles' in cyberspace by Ian Simmons

Strange Days

Druidry accepted as a genuine religion - but not everyone is happy about it; goats in high places; magnetic people; the flat that time forgot; Apocalypse when? Doomsday predictions; Ig Nobel Awards; mysteries of the ageing process - and much more.

• 14 Science: Thinking Doggie-Style
• 16 Ghostwatch: Insects
• 20 Archaeology: Body of St Paul Found; Sole Survivor
• 21 Classical Corner 131: The Old French Connection
• 22 Medical Roundup: Teenage Toddler; Old Before His Time; Pea in Lung
• 23 Alien Zoo: Minhocao or Mega-Millipede?; Last of the Summer Blue Spiders?
• 24 Fortean Follow-ups
• 25 Konspiracy Korner: The Latest Murmurings from the world of Conspiracy
• 26 Necrolog: Laurence Gardner; Rick Moran; William Lyttle
• 27 Strange Deaths
• 28 The UFO Files
  • UFO Casebook: Life with the Aliens: Part 5

Regulars

Editorial

• 02 Extra clever critters

Reviews

• 61 BOOKS
  • Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds by Jerome Clark - ISBN 9781578591756
  • There Were Giants Upon the Earth by Zecharia Sitchin - ISBN 9781591431213
  • The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology: Werewolves, Dragons, Skyfish, Lizard Men, and Other Fascinating Creatures Real and Mysterious - Deena West Budd - ISBN 9781578634507
  • Strangely Strange but Oddly Normal: An Anthology of Writings by Andy Roberts by Andy Roberts - ISBN 9781905723447
  • A World of UFOs by Chris A Rutkowski - ISBN 9781550028331
  • The Living and the Dead: The Neapolitan Cult of the Skull by Margaret Stratton - ISBN 9781935195016
  • Monsters Caught on Film: Amazing Evidence of Lake Monsters, Bigfoot and Other Strange Beasts - Dr Melvyn Willin - ISBN 9780715337745
  • Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State by Loren Coleman & Bruce G Hallenbeck - ISBN 9780811735964
  • Quadrivium: Number * Geometry * Music * Heaven by John Martineau - ISBN 9781907155048
  • Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia: An Anthropological Perspective by Gregory Forth - ISBN 9780710313546
• FILM & DVD
  • Let Me In - Director Matt Reeves Steers, 2010
  • Dream Home - Director Ho-Cheung Pang, 2010
  • Bad Lieutenant - Director Werner Herzog, 2009
  • Last Night - Director Don McKellar, 1998
  • Phobia from Icon Home Entertainment
  • Life Blood from Chelsea Films, Director Ron Carlson
  • By The Will of Genghis Khan from Manga Entertainment
• GAMES
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
  • Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days

Letters

• 73

It Happened to Me

• 76

Simulacra Corner

• 77

Comix

• 79 Phenomenomix

Tales from the Vault

• 80

Reader Info

• 78

Masthead

• Editor - David Sutton
• Founding Editor - Bob Rickard
• Founding Editor - Paul Sieveking
• Art Director - Etienne Gilfillan
• Sub Editor - Owen Whiteoak
• Staff Writer/Picture Researcher - Jen Ogilvie
• Book Reviews Editor - Val Stevenson
• Design Assistant - Laurence Pratt
• Web Editor - Jen Ogilvie
• Work Experience - Darren Buck
• Resident Cartoonist - Hunt Emerson

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