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rules 17, 23, 27, 29

rules 17, 23, 27, 29

rules 17, 23, 27, 29

They are grave looking while commuting to their work; they are well dressed, mostly in shades of gray; they multitask to master the hyperactive pace of today, and they are tuned for success, success that is measured by the bags of money made per day. The business people of this world take themselves and their hunting for the bacon very seriously, and wasting time, laughing at themselves and useless performances are taboo.

They are grave looking while commuting to their work; they are well dressed, mostly in shades of gray; they multitask to master the hyperactive pace of today, and they are tuned for success, success that is measured by the bags of money made per day. The business people of this world take themselves and their hunting for the bacon very seriously, and wasting time, laughing at themselves and useless performances are taboo.

They are grave looking while commuting to their work; they are well dressed, mostly in shades of gray; they multitask to master the hyperactive pace of today, and they are tuned for success, success that is measured by the bags of money made per day. The business people of this world take themselves and their hunting for the bacon very seriously, and wasting time, laughing at themselves and useless performances are taboo.

Journalists should avoid cliches, but they are just too useful. "A picture is worth 1,000 words," and in the case of the 38 "Gulf Breeze UFO" photos shot by Ed Walters in 1987-1988, millions of them -- weird, angry, hilarious and profound words. Words by Dave Barry, Mike Royko and Fox Mulder. Words on "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Oprah." With the 20th anniversary approaching I think about another cliche with a twist: "Truth is funnier than fiction." As a reporter in Pensacola, Fla., I found myself in a "War of the Words." TV networks flocked to town, Believers and Debunkers battled over Ghost-Demon photos and Army deserters arrived in search of the Second Coming. With the mayor and police chief on one side, and community leaders and the local paper on the other, I went looking for the last word on the subject. I found a spaceship.


REVIEW:

Millions of Americans believe that we are regularly visited by beings from outside the Earth, and many are sure they have seen UFOs and even see them regularly. Craig R. Myers has not only seen one, but he has held it in his hand. This was in Florida, in the middle of the famous Gulf Breeze UFO mania of twenty years ago, and the UFO which he had himself captured was of distinctly terrestrial origin, but it had been made by the hoaxer who had sparked the Gulf Breeze sightings. There are plenty of books to tell you where UFOs come from, how we can invite more of them, and what to do when one captures you. War of the Words: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO (Xlibris) probably won’t match sales of many of those other books, but it is shocking and revelatory in its own way. It is impossible to argue, of course, that since this episode was a hoax, all UFO sightings are hoaxes and those who sight them are being fooled, but Myers has given a story with a skeptical bent that indicates the most useful way to regard such “phenomena”. It is a funny book; it even includes Dave Barry’s amusing column about his own visit to Gulf Breeze and his investigation of the mania. It is, however, a serious report by a journalist who covered the story at the time; skeptics ought to enjoy it and True Believers ought to learn from it.

Woodward and Bernstein got the story of their lifetimes because they happened to be in the right place and time. Not every journalist’s story of a lifetime has such national implications, but Myers is grateful that he was around for what he calls “the most interesting, frightening and funny story of my at-that-time short career.” Maybe this was just in contrast to his usual beat for the Pensacola News Journal, where he reported upon what the county commissioners and the utility authority were up to. A rival paper, The Gulf Breeze Sentinel, published anonymously-submitted photographs of a UFO in November 1987, but they were not the first UFOs seen in the area. Gulf Breeze is directly in the flight path of an airport, and is near a naval air station and an Air Force base, so that there are plenty of lights in the sky. In such a locale, if you are of a mind to be fooled by a mysterious light, says Myers, “... it is quite simple to let yourself think that this is something besides an earthly craft.” Indeed, on any clear night, the Gulf Breeze Research Team might be out doing what it called a Skywatch, excitedly whispering to each other “Do you see that one?”

So some Sentinel readers were already primed when the paper published a picture of a classic flying saucer. Myers says there are two ways a paper can report on UFOs. One is to report on the broad phenomenon of UFO sightings, and the other is “to report UFO sightings as frequently, and with as little confirmation and editing, as it publishes engagements, weddings, births, Optimist Club donations, honor rolls, obits, and arrests.” He does not crow too much that his Journal chose the former while the Sentinel chose the latter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. Forter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. For instance, he imagines the then-anonymous contributor of the first photos presenting them to Sentinel editor Duane Cook, who interrogates, “Who took these?”, getting the response from Mr. X, “Uh, it was a friend of mine,” to which Cook responds, “Okay, we’ll publish them.” Whatever the exchange really was, Mr. X eventually revealed himself to be local contractor Ed Walters who had a history of scaring people with double-exposure “spook” photographs. When the Sentinel published the photos, it also asked for anyone who had seen such objects to contact the paper; it is no surprise that plenty of such reports started coming in. There seemed to be an infestation of UFOs to Gulf Breeze, and some in the little town saw it as a way to get it put on the map. Walters continued to submit photos (taken right at that moment, wouldn’t you just know it, that no one else was around to see him do so), and to tell a strange story of heroically battling the blue telepathic ray of the UFO. It wasn’t long before MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, showed up, its members ready to continue its mission of confirming the existence of UFOs, and yes, Walter’s sightings and story got their official confirmation.

Myers reported on the crowds that were searching the skies, and he obviously enjoyed the story. His scoop came, though, when he was doing some old-fashioned gumshoe reporting. Walters had moved, but Myers knocked on the door of the house Walters had lived in when the UFOs started their visits. He asked the new owners if they themselves had seen any UFOs, or found any photos of them left behind? No. Had they found anything that could be a model of a UFO? Bingo - when they were up in the attic, they had found a paper and styrofoam-plate construction that matched Walters’s photos nicely. Walters was called to the Journal newsroom before the story broke, and asked if he had ever made a model of a UFO. In an unrelated story from years before, when such a model had been found in the possession of a man who had been submitting UFO photos of it, he said he had built the model after the sightings, as a sculpture to illustrate what he had seen. Walters, however, denied ever making such a model. When the editor then produced the model, Walters was furious, and claimed that the Journal was involved in a conspiracy against him. The model had been planted, he insisted, and Myers had been tipped off to look for it. The depth to which conspiracy stories can descend is nicely illustrated by his explanation of why the inside of the model was drafting paper bearing his handwritten plans of a house he had built: obviously this merely showed the malicious deception of “professional debunkers” who must have found the discarded plans and deliberately manufactured the model from them before planting it.

It should have been an open and shut case, but it will surprise no one that those who want to believe can still find reason to believe. MUFON even put Rex and Carol Salisberry on the case, the pair they had just months before declared their “Investigators of the Year”. When the Salisberrys issued their report that the photos were fakes, MUFON booted them and replaced them with investigators that could give a report more to MUFON’s liking. Myers is an amusing and clever writer, and it is obvious that he enjoyed this story of deception and gullibility hugely. It pains me to report that he cannot get the objective case right in dual objects of verbs and prepositions (“Rex said he fully expect MUFON to blackball he and Carol..”), but it is a pet peeve of mine, and dammit, Myers gets it wrong every time. But grammar is not the story here, of course, and Myers has provided a fascinating in-depth look at one particular UFO story, which can be studied for general principles. It isn’t so much that a prankster made fools of Gulf Breeze, but that those who were eager to believe allowed, and still allow, themselves to be fooled, even when there was evidence to show their folly.

Rob Hardy

Journalists should avoid cliches, but they are just too useful. "A picture is worth 1,000 words," and in the case of the 38 "Gulf Breeze UFO" photos shot by Ed Walters in 1987-1988, millions of them -- weird, angry, hilarious and profound words. Words by Dave Barry, Mike Royko and Fox Mulder. Words on "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Oprah." With the 20th anniversary approaching I think about another cliche with a twist: "Truth is funnier than fiction." As a reporter in Pensacola, Fla., I found myself in a "War of the Words." TV networks flocked to town, Believers and Debunkers battled over Ghost-Demon photos and Army deserters arrived in search of the Second Coming. With the mayor and police chief on one side, and community leaders and the local paper on the other, I went looking for the last word on the subject. I found a spaceship.


REVIEW:

Millions of Americans believe that we are regularly visited by beings from outside the Earth, and many are sure they have seen UFOs and even see them regularly. Craig R. Myers has not only seen one, but he has held it in his hand. This was in Florida, in the middle of the famous Gulf Breeze UFO mania of twenty years ago, and the UFO which he had himself captured was of distinctly terrestrial origin, but it had been made by the hoaxer who had sparked the Gulf Breeze sightings. There are plenty of books to tell you where UFOs come from, how we can invite more of them, and what to do when one captures you. War of the Words: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO (Xlibris) probably won’t match sales of many of those other books, but it is shocking and revelatory in its own way. It is impossible to argue, of course, that since this episode was a hoax, all UFO sightings are hoaxes and those who sight them are being fooled, but Myers has given a story with a skeptical bent that indicates the most useful way to regard such “phenomena”. It is a funny book; it even includes Dave Barry’s amusing column about his own visit to Gulf Breeze and his investigation of the mania. It is, however, a serious report by a journalist who covered the story at the time; skeptics ought to enjoy it and True Believers ought to learn from it.

Woodward and Bernstein got the story of their lifetimes because they happened to be in the right place and time. Not every journalist’s story of a lifetime has such national implications, but Myers is grateful that he was around for what he calls “the most interesting, frightening and funny story of my at-that-time short career.” Maybe this was just in contrast to his usual beat for the Pensacola News Journal, where he reported upon what the county commissioners and the utility authority were up to. A rival paper, The Gulf Breeze Sentinel, published anonymously-submitted photographs of a UFO in November 1987, but they were not the first UFOs seen in the area. Gulf Breeze is directly in the flight path of an airport, and is near a naval air station and an Air Force base, so that there are plenty of lights in the sky. In such a locale, if you are of a mind to be fooled by a mysterious light, says Myers, “... it is quite simple to let yourself think that this is something besides an earthly craft.” Indeed, on any clear night, the Gulf Breeze Research Team might be out doing what it called a Skywatch, excitedly whispering to each other “Do you see that one?”

So some Sentinel readers were already primed when the paper published a picture of a classic flying saucer. Myers says there are two ways a paper can report on UFOs. One is to report on the broad phenomenon of UFO sightings, and the other is “to report UFO sightings as frequently, and with as little confirmation and editing, as it publishes engagements, weddings, births, Optimist Club donations, honor rolls, obits, and arrests.” He does not crow too much that his Journal chose the former while the Sentinel chose the latter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. Forter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. For instance, he imagines the then-anonymous contributor of the first photos presenting them to Sentinel editor Duane Cook, who interrogates, “Who took these?”, getting the response from Mr. X, “Uh, it was a friend of mine,” to which Cook responds, “Okay, we’ll publish them.” Whatever the exchange really was, Mr. X eventually revealed himself to be local contractor Ed Walters who had a history of scaring people with double-exposure “spook” photographs. When the Sentinel published the photos, it also asked for anyone who had seen such objects to contact the paper; it is no surprise that plenty of such reports started coming in. There seemed to be an infestation of UFOs to Gulf Breeze, and some in the little town saw it as a way to get it put on the map. Walters continued to submit photos (taken right at that moment, wouldn’t you just know it, that no one else was around to see him do so), and to tell a strange story of heroically battling the blue telepathic ray of the UFO. It wasn’t long before MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, showed up, its members ready to continue its mission of confirming the existence of UFOs, and yes, Walter’s sightings and story got their official confirmation.

Myers reported on the crowds that were searching the skies, and he obviously enjoyed the story. His scoop came, though, when he was doing some old-fashioned gumshoe reporting. Walters had moved, but Myers knocked on the door of the house Walters had lived in when the UFOs started their visits. He asked the new owners if they themselves had seen any UFOs, or found any photos of them left behind? No. Had they found anything that could be a model of a UFO? Bingo - when they were up in the attic, they had found a paper and styrofoam-plate construction that matched Walters’s photos nicely. Walters was called to the Journal newsroom before the story broke, and asked if he had ever made a model of a UFO. In an unrelated story from years before, when such a model had been found in the possession of a man who had been submitting UFO photos of it, he said he had built the model after the sightings, as a sculpture to illustrate what he had seen. Walters, however, denied ever making such a model. When the editor then produced the model, Walters was furious, and claimed that the Journal was involved in a conspiracy against him. The model had been planted, he insisted, and Myers had been tipped off to look for it. The depth to which conspiracy stories can descend is nicely illustrated by his explanation of why the inside of the model was drafting paper bearing his handwritten plans of a house he had built: obviously this merely showed the malicious deception of “professional debunkers” who must have found the discarded plans and deliberately manufactured the model from them before planting it.

It should have been an open and shut case, but it will surprise no one that those who want to believe can still find reason to believe. MUFON even put Rex and Carol Salisberry on the case, the pair they had just months before declared their “Investigators of the Year”. When the Salisberrys issued their report that the photos were fakes, MUFON booted them and replaced them with investigators that could give a report more to MUFON’s liking. Myers is an amusing and clever writer, and it is obvious that he enjoyed this story of deception and gullibility hugely. It pains me to report that he cannot get the objective case right in dual objects of verbs and prepositions (“Rex said he fully expect MUFON to blackball he and Carol..”), but it is a pet peeve of mine, and dammit, Myers gets it wrong every time. But grammar is not the story here, of course, and Myers has provided a fascinating in-depth look at one particular UFO story, which can be studied for general principles. It isn’t so much that a prankster made fools of Gulf Breeze, but that those who were eager to believe allowed, and still allow, themselves to be fooled, even when there was evidence to show their folly.

Rob Hardy

Journalists should avoid cliches, but they are just too useful. "A picture is worth 1,000 words," and in the case of the 38 "Gulf Breeze UFO" photos shot by Ed Walters in 1987-1988, millions of them -- weird, angry, hilarious and profound words. Words by Dave Barry, Mike Royko and Fox Mulder. Words on "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Oprah." With the 20th anniversary approaching I think about another cliche with a twist: "Truth is funnier than fiction." As a reporter in Pensacola, Fla., I found myself in a "War of the Words." TV networks flocked to town, Believers and Debunkers battled over Ghost-Demon photos and Army deserters arrived in search of the Second Coming. With the mayor and police chief on one side, and community leaders and the local paper on the other, I went looking for the last word on the subject. I found a spaceship.


REVIEW:

Millions of Americans believe that we are regularly visited by beings from outside the Earth, and many are sure they have seen UFOs and even see them regularly. Craig R. Myers has not only seen one, but he has held it in his hand. This was in Florida, in the middle of the famous Gulf Breeze UFO mania of twenty years ago, and the UFO which he had himself captured was of distinctly terrestrial origin, but it had been made by the hoaxer who had sparked the Gulf Breeze sightings. There are plenty of books to tell you where UFOs come from, how we can invite more of them, and what to do when one captures you. War of the Words: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO (Xlibris) probably won’t match sales of many of those other books, but it is shocking and revelatory in its own way. It is impossible to argue, of course, that since this episode was a hoax, all UFO sightings are hoaxes and those who sight them are being fooled, but Myers has given a story with a skeptical bent that indicates the most useful way to regard such “phenomena”. It is a funny book; it even includes Dave Barry’s amusing column about his own visit to Gulf Breeze and his investigation of the mania. It is, however, a serious report by a journalist who covered the story at the time; skeptics ought to enjoy it and True Believers ought to learn from it.

Woodward and Bernstein got the story of their lifetimes because they happened to be in the right place and time. Not every journalist’s story of a lifetime has such national implications, but Myers is grateful that he was around for what he calls “the most interesting, frightening and funny story of my at-that-time short career.” Maybe this was just in contrast to his usual beat for the Pensacola News Journal, where he reported upon what the county commissioners and the utility authority were up to. A rival paper, The Gulf Breeze Sentinel, published anonymously-submitted photographs of a UFO in November 1987, but they were not the first UFOs seen in the area. Gulf Breeze is directly in the flight path of an airport, and is near a naval air station and an Air Force base, so that there are plenty of lights in the sky. In such a locale, if you are of a mind to be fooled by a mysterious light, says Myers, “... it is quite simple to let yourself think that this is something besides an earthly craft.” Indeed, on any clear night, the Gulf Breeze Research Team might be out doing what it called a Skywatch, excitedly whispering to each other “Do you see that one?”

So some Sentinel readers were already primed when the paper published a picture of a classic flying saucer. Myers says there are two ways a paper can report on UFOs. One is to report on the broad phenomenon of UFO sightings, and the other is “to report UFO sightings as frequently, and with as little confirmation and editing, as it publishes engagements, weddings, births, Optimist Club donations, honor rolls, obits, and arrests.” He does not crow too much that his Journal chose the former while the Sentinel chose the latter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. Forter, but he does enjoy twitting the rival paper now and then. For instance, he imagines the then-anonymous contributor of the first photos presenting them to Sentinel editor Duane Cook, who interrogates, “Who took these?”, getting the response from Mr. X, “Uh, it was a friend of mine,” to which Cook responds, “Okay, we’ll publish them.” Whatever the exchange really was, Mr. X eventually revealed himself to be local contractor Ed Walters who had a history of scaring people with double-exposure “spook” photographs. When the Sentinel published the photos, it also asked for anyone who had seen such objects to contact the paper; it is no surprise that plenty of such reports started coming in. There seemed to be an infestation of UFOs to Gulf Breeze, and some in the little town saw it as a way to get it put on the map. Walters continued to submit photos (taken right at that moment, wouldn’t you just know it, that no one else was around to see him do so), and to tell a strange story of heroically battling the blue telepathic ray of the UFO. It wasn’t long before MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, showed up, its members ready to continue its mission of confirming the existence of UFOs, and yes, Walter’s sightings and story got their official confirmation.

Myers reported on the crowds that were searching the skies, and he obviously enjoyed the story. His scoop came, though, when he was doing some old-fashioned gumshoe reporting. Walters had moved, but Myers knocked on the door of the house Walters had lived in when the UFOs started their visits. He asked the new owners if they themselves had seen any UFOs, or found any photos of them left behind? No. Had they found anything that could be a model of a UFO? Bingo - when they were up in the attic, they had found a paper and styrofoam-plate construction that matched Walters’s photos nicely. Walters was called to the Journal newsroom before the story broke, and asked if he had ever made a model of a UFO. In an unrelated story from years before, when such a model had been found in the possession of a man who had been submitting UFO photos of it, he said he had built the model after the sightings, as a sculpture to illustrate what he had seen. Walters, however, denied ever making such a model. When the editor then produced the model, Walters was furious, and claimed that the Journal was involved in a conspiracy against him. The model had been planted, he insisted, and Myers had been tipped off to look for it. The depth to which conspiracy stories can descend is nicely illustrated by his explanation of why the inside of the model was drafting paper bearing his handwritten plans of a house he had built: obviously this merely showed the malicious deception of “professional debunkers” who must have found the discarded plans and deliberately manufactured the model from them before planting it.

It should have been an open and shut case, but it will surprise no one that those who want to believe can still find reason to believe. MUFON even put Rex and Carol Salisberry on the case, the pair they had just months before declared their “Investigators of the Year”. When the Salisberrys issued their report that the photos were fakes, MUFON booted them and replaced them with investigators that could give a report more to MUFON’s liking. Myers is an amusing and clever writer, and it is obvious that he enjoyed this story of deception and gullibility hugely. It pains me to report that he cannot get the objective case right in dual objects of verbs and prepositions (“Rex said he fully expect MUFON to blackball he and Carol..”), but it is a pet peeve of mine, and dammit, Myers gets it wrong every time. But grammar is not the story here, of course, and Myers has provided a fascinating in-depth look at one particular UFO story, which can be studied for general principles. It isn’t so much that a prankster made fools of Gulf Breeze, but that those who were eager to believe allowed, and still allow, themselves to be fooled, even when there was evidence to show their folly.

Rob Hardy