CT Cryptids | Patrick Scalisi & Valerie Ruby-Omen

Are you a fan of the weird and wonderful? If so, you're in for a treat! In today's episode, Briana and Christy sit down with Patrick Scalisi and Valerie Ruby-Omen, author and illustrator of Connecticut Cryptids: A Field Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Creatures of the Nutmeg State. They'll help us define cryptids and cryptozoology and introduce us to cryptids in our local area, such as the Shad Spirit and the Connecticut River Serpent. We'll learn all about the inspiration behind this wonderful book and the creative process that brought it to life.

https://www.ctcryptids.com/
Instagram: @ctcryptids

Book Recommendations

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
The Paranormal Ranger by Stanley Milford Jr.
The Girl in White by Lindsay Currie
Tales of the Cryptids : Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist by Kelly Milner Halls, Rick Spears, Roxyanne Young

This podcast uses music by Ashutosh, under a creative commons license:
Time by ASHUTOSH | https://soundcloud.com/grandakt
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Transcript

Interview: 0:09

Hello and welcome to Middletown Strong. Looking up with the library. I'm Christy Billings along with Brianna Gavin. Hello. And today we are speaking with Patrick Squeezy. Valerie Ruby Ohman on the topic of scripts. Oh, thank you. Thanks for having. Yes, thank you. Thank you both for speaking with us. We've been really excited to have this conversation. While there are many fans of Cryptids throughout the world. There are many folks out there who haven't heard of a cryptic before or don't realize they actually have. Let's start with telling our listeners a little bit about some terminology What is scripted? What's crypto zoology? What are other terms our listeners need to know? Sure. Yeah. This is a question that we actually get asked a lot. So we get start with the term scripted. A scripted is very simply a creature that is believed to exist, but never proven to exist. And most of the time when folks hear that kind of light bulb goes off and they're like, Oh yes, like Bigfoot or Jackalope or the Loch Ness Monster. And so that's an easy example to give. And I'll pass it over to Val to define crypto zoology. Yeah. Crypto zoology is the study of said creatures. Yeah. Crypto, zoologists, study habitats, you know, behaviors, things like that. So basically just the study of crypto is crypto zoology. And is there anything else that listeners should know kind of like basics about? Like Cryptids or Cryptids Zoology, Crypto zoology. Sorry, the idea of mythical creatures, people we as humans have always been interested in this idea and you can go back to the Middle Ages, you know, people thinking about dragons and unicorns and stuff like that. But crypto zoology didn't really come around as a sort of discipline or field of study until the 20th century. And so when we give our presentation at libraries, we talk a little bit about that and we talk about the sort of areas that crypto zoologists might be interested in. We already covered one, which is the study of animals that may or may not exist. The other two areas are animals in places where they're not supposed to be. And we always give a very good example of one that we have here in Connecticut, and that is mountain lions. Uh, of course, people people report seeing mountain lions every year, but the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says that there is not a breeding population in the state. So looking for mountain lions in Connecticut, even though those are very real creatures, could be of interest to a crypto zoologist. And then the other sort of aspect of that is creatures that are thought to have gone extinct. But are actually still hanging around. What is the one that I always forget now is the ivory billed woodpecker. There. Yeah. Oh, so the ivory billed woodpecker is is officially listed as extinct. But there are people that kind of still report seeing them. So are there pockets of them still around? Something like that may also be of interest to someone interested in crypto zoology. That's that's fascinating. Yeah, that's really interesting. So we would like to know if there's any crypto is local to Middletown or Middlesex County. So, yes, we actually have a very notable Cryptids story here in Middletown, and that is the Connecticut River Serpent. And the story started actually very close to where we are recording this right now, right at the bridge that crosses over from Middletown to Portland. This happened in 1886 where two, two men were crossing the river. There was no bridge at that point. It was either boat or ferry service or rather, there wasn't the bridge that is there now. And they got to about the middle of the river and something bumped their boat. And of course, they had no idea what it was. And suddenly this creatures had appeared out of the water. And so, of course, they are freaking out. They paddle furiously to the Portland side of the river and they tell everyone there who will listen that, Oh my God, we just saw this serpent creature monster thing in the Connecticut River and no way to take a picture. Yeah. Have any evidence. And we all we all know that Cryptids are, you know, resistant to photo taking. Or he goes, That's why we have so many blurry pictures of Bigfoot, though of course, nobody believes them, except according to the story, The creature then appeared a second time. Its head popped out of the water and full sight of everyone. At which point all of the people on the shore jumped into boats to chase the river or chase the creature away upstream. And ever since then, there have been sightings of the Connecticut River Serpent all up and down the Connecticut River. But it started right here in Middletown. Fascinating. Have there been any more recent sightings of the serpent or is that more kind of so what? What I've heard people say is that apparently you are allowed to take your boating license test at the mouth of the Connecticut River near where it empties into long Island Sound. And what folks will say when people are taking the test is, oh, watch out for watch out for the Connecticut River serpent. You know, it likes to bomb people's boats. Failure taking your tests. I'm sure people are nervous enough as it is without having to worry about, you know, running into a sea creature as well. In terms of other stories for for sort of Middlesex County, do you want to talk about the Shad spirit? Yeah, that's another really good one. Yes, that that one was definitely one of my favorite illustrate. It is a spirit that appears around the time when the shad, which is a type of fish, are mating. So it kind of is responsible for for guiding them in the proper direction, you know, where to go. It also appears to to fishermen to kind of tell them like where to find these fish. And it kind of takes the shape of like a bird. So I you know, as an illustrator, that one was definitely really a lot of fun to interpret. So what kind of bird does it kind of take the shape of it? There's two two kinds, I think of the snipe. Yes. Yeah, that that's the more common. Yeah, that's the one that I illustrated as a snipe. But I think there's another one that it, it appears as like another water bird. But yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Do you know where in Middlesex County that that is or is that just like a more broad lake. It's just around. So the shed spirit is said to appear in the Chester Essex line area. So a little bit of no. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I've, I've been to. Yeah. I think we've both been in Chester reports. That's cool. Yeah. That's right. That's where the shad runs. Yeah. Yeah. Totally makes sense. I mean, I think they're not as many as there were, but that's fascinating, too, because it was such a big deal, you know, years ago. So of course there would be, you know, a crypto associated with it, right? Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, the illustrations look really cool, by the way. Thank you. I think I thought the one that you made of, was it Mothman? Yeah, It's still at my desk. I love it so much. Yeah. He's he's not a Connecticut corrupted but he, he's, he's a fan favorite. You know you have to you have to have loved him. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yes. Let's talk about Mothman. So tell us a little bit about the backstory of that. Yeah. So I, I love the story of Mothman. I think it's, it's one of the the pinnacle scripted stories out there. It took place the first sightings of Mothman were in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. And, you know, to this day, they have a statue of him there and they they do a yearly festival. But basically there were reports people seeing this, you know, Mothman, like a tall black figure with, like wings, bright red eyes. It's said that he kind of appeared. People are unsure if he was like a a harbinger of doom or kind of a guardian angel warning people of disasters. But he appeared frequently before a major bridge collapse in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. I think it was one of the the worst. Like, you know, bridge collapses in American history. He appeared right before that. You know, there's people who have claimed to have seen him before other, you know, national international disasters. So that I think that's like a really compelling story. It's like, you know, kind of plays into like people's fear of the unknown and like kind of trying to make sense of, like otherwise an otherwise senseless disaster. So it's I think the storytelling aspect is really interesting, like how we how we form these opinions and ideas about, like things happening in the world around us. We try to make sense of it. Absolutely. Making sense of things that don't make sense. Yeah, yeah. And these these make as much sense as any of this other stuff. So I think that's fascinating. So his I think his eyes are really large, right? Yeah. If I remember correctly, I am learning about Cryptids, so I'm like coming along. I'm still pretty new. Yeah, but I've seen the photo. Yes. Or the illustration. So we that sort of plays into our next question. So the author and the illustrator, can you tell us a little bit about the process for writing and illustrating this wonderful book? Sure. Yeah. So I started doing the research in 2020. I actually wasn't like huge into Cryptids. I had an awareness of them. I knew some of the more interesting stories from Connecticut, but I started wondering what other ideas, uh, what other stories were out there. And so I pretty much got an alphabetical list of every town in the state. And I began contacting historical societies, just asking if they had any creature stories or creature folklore to share from their communities. And as folks started getting back to me and I started collecting these stories. It was like, Wow, there's more here than I expected, number one. And I was like, Well, there's almost enough here to like, fill a book. And I thought, well, someone must have surely done that already. And it didn't look like anyone had. There were similar books that folks had done for Vermont. There's a book called The Vermont Monster Book, which is very fun, sort of similar thing done in a sort of a comic book style with the stories and illustrations, but it didn't look like anyone had done a Connecticut one. And so I was like, okay, originally I was like, maybe it'll be a blog or website or something like that, but there was enough to do a book. So I was like, okay, well, let's see if we can put this together into a book. And it would be really cool to have it illustrated as if it were sort of like a field guide type of thing. Well, that's and yeah, there was another book that I had seen, sort of like a young readers book, like a Field Guide to Dragons, and it was illustrated and it had like all these different kinds of dragons all around the world. And I was like, Oh, that would be really fun to do something like that. And so at that point I asked Val, she and I were friends and asked her if she wanted to come aboard and do the illustrations for the book. Yeah, it was a very, very easy yes for me. Yeah. Yeah. This was like a truly a dream project for me. Like I, I have not worked on a project that I've enjoyed as much as this. And, you know, I had already had an interest in cryptids like, you know, like Mothman Flag Woods Monster or Jersey Devil or the Big Ones. So when Pat told me there were all these Connecticut cartoons, I was like, Why? Yeah, right, right here in the Nutmeg State. So it was it was a really cool project to work on. And like, it definitely really tested my limits. I was like an illustrator. I, I, I learned a lot through doing this project. I, I feel like I really developed, like a cohesive style, which was like, very challenging at first. So, yeah, this was it was a really rewarding illustration project for me. Overall. I love that art piece. Yeah, for the Cryptids That's really cool. It's nice to have a visual instead of just kind of a description. Yeah. So it's like you'd see in your head like, Oh gosh, this thing is from my town. Yeah, that's got a terrifying but also really cool. And we kind of talked about this during the as we were making the book and as the writing was going on about what we wanted them to look like. You know, I had some ideas. Val is the illustrator, obviously had a lot of ideas and I wanted to follow her leads. We had talked about doing like as if they were sort of like sketchy like, you know, as if they were made in the field. Exactly that kind of thing. And yeah, what were some of the other ideas that we had and talked about, I think. WASH Yeah, yeah. I mean, I used a pretty standard set of like materials to do the illustrations because I did kind of want to keep in mind. Yeah. And like keep that idea of like, oh like I need to have a small pack of art materials because I'm on the go. I'm looking for these cryptids like, in the field. So yeah, it is like a very basic set of materials, which was also like interesting working with like such a limited, like palette of, of things, so to speak. And I think Pat and I kind of came together really well with the, the note cards that we included in the book as well. At the end of every chapter, there's like a little note card that kind of gives you like the, like field notes of like what what we experienced out there. And those came together really well. I think they add like a lot of life to the book, and some of them are just really funny and like Pat, Pat did those because he has the good handwriting out of that. You're like, I can't write those lines like a child should realize. So so yeah, I think we definitely really our, our creative minds came together really well to to collaborate on this one The the no cards were were a late addition actually we we gave the book to some beta readers and got some feedback about how they felt more personality could be worked in and someone suggested the no card idea. And so originally I was like, okay, maybe I'll do a few for a couple of the chapters. And then I started doing them and it turned out to be very fun, a very fun creative outlet to see what I could do to the note cards and how I could relate that to the creature that was being talked about. So and some some of the lengths that we went to to make the no cards are very funny to a they're the one for the Marsh monster. I was like, Well, it would be funny if. The marsh monster is a creature in Bristol, and it's in this, you know, swampy area. It would be interesting if the no card was covered in mud for we were in the field. And so I think I literally went outside, mixed up some mud with like water and dirt and like, threw it at the notecards, kind of get like, stains on the card before I before I scanned the card with the writing on it. Um. And what were some other. We, we took my parents dog, we took paw prints of him. He's a little like £9 Chihuahua, but we, we used him for the the Black Dog of Meriden. So I had to, I went over to their house and I had to, like, trim the fur on his paw to get like a like a solid yellow solid like power for him. So that was funny. We really did go Yeah, go hard with those no cards. It became a very fun career. Yeah. Yeah. So how did the both of you decide which cryptids to include in your book? Did any get cut out that you'd like to include? Like in a Perfect world? Man, I wish we could have added that, but we just didn't have the space or, you know. Yeah, that's a great question. We talked about this a lot when we were coming up with the production of the book and sort of finalizing the chapters that were going to be in it and the illustrations that were needed. We sort of set parameters for ourselves. We knew that we wanted to include mostly creatures. Connecticut has such a rich history of folklore, especially folklore in the paranormal. So there are lots of books out there, several of which we used as sources at times, but there's lots of books out there about Connecticut ghost stories, spirits, spirits, hauntings, pirate lore, all of this stuff. So we knew we wanted to mostly do creatures, and that was sort of the parameters that we put around things we didn't want to include things that were human necessarily, but things that were formerly human that were no longer human. We're okay. We're okay. Like, what did you it city vampires. You know, vampires aren't human anymore. That's true. The Marsh monster may have been a person at some time, but now he's just a marsh monster. Yeah. So? So that was the main parameter was creatures, especially since it seemed to be an underserved part of Connecticut folklore that hadn't really been collected in one place anymore. When that was all done, and we did have the final chapters, there were two that we didn't really feel quite fit in the book and that we included in the website and I do want to talk about those too a little bit. Yeah, I really liked the zombie Cat one, which is one that we did because it's kind of a gruesome story. Like really it's, you know, this family had a cat and they they just kind of didn't like the cat. They thought the cat was stealing the the baby. Yes. Yes. Yeah. That kind of old. Sort of more or less. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That baby or that cats are harmful to baby. Yeah. So they, they, they killed the cat, but the cat ended up coming back carrying its own head, which is good for the cat. Yeah. That's, that's what I'm saying. And it, yeah. It didn't quite fit the parameters of, of because it's still like a cat like, you know, it's definitely more paranormal and it, it is just kind of like a gruesome story isn't really cool It doesn't quite fit the vibe of the rest of them. Yeah. I mean I'm a huge horror buff, so, like, I was like, Pat, the story's cool. Like, you know, also, like, the cat gets its revenge, it comes back and, like, you know, scares them, but it is like, it's like a ghost story. So, yeah, let me let me clarify, too, that both Val and I are cat owners. Yes. Lovers. Yes. Yes. And what I love so much about this story, as gruesome as it is, is this is exactly what a cat would do if it had the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is bothering its owners. And those cats will come and bother people. They don't like cats. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. They, they can tell. They know. I love the story. I read it. Yeah. It's, it's a great, it is a very fun story. And so that story and another story about the last Wolf of Connecticut. Are both on our website. We decided to make them kind of web exclusive sort of preview stories or a sampler of stories that people can look at. They're both illustrated vaulted artwork for them, but folks can see them on the website, you know, before they buy the book to sort of get a sense of what's in the rest of the book. The other story about the last, Wolf that I mentioned involves Israel Putnam, who is kind of a Connecticut folk hero, but, you know, sort of looking at him through the lens of the 21st century is also a bit problematic. He was a slave owner and everything that went along with that and the story has to do with him hunting down the this wolf that was terrorizing part of Connecticut. It was sort of became this almost mythical creature in the telling in that it was this this female wolf that had, you know, wounds on it from from previous, you know, encounter encounters and almost getting trapped like it. It was missing a couple of its toes because it had narrowly escaped, you know, wolf traps in the past. And again, we sort of felt like it's close, but it didn't quite fit. And Putnam is sort of a problematic character. So that was one that we decided to sort of put on the website as well. Mm hmm. Now, we also have at the back of the book a chapter called. But what about and as we were doing the research, obviously we heard a lot of stories and there were some other things that were like, okay, this doesn't quite fit or let's research this more. And then the research didn't pan out because you would just encounter dead ends. So we were like, What do we do with these stories? Because there's a lot of fun stuff in here. And so we decided to make this chapter. But what about so that when people are sort of leafing through the table of contents, they can say, Oh, but what about, you know, so and so and so a lot of the stories that sort of fell into that category are in that chapter as well. We got asked a lot about the Leather Man during our research was kind of crafted. Exactly right. It's a fascinating person. Yeah. It became a running joke for us because we would get emails back from historical societies saying, you know, we don't have any creatures, But have you heard about the Leather Man? Yes, we have. But the leather man was a not a scripted and be a very real person with a very interesting story. So it kind of became a joke for us season about what? About chapter because he didn't fit into anything else. Now, fascinating historical person. Yeah. So do you both have a favorite? It is there. Is there a scripted that you wish people knew more about? I mean, I wish people knew more about Connecticut Cryptids in general, which is, you know, why this book exists. But my favorite Connecticut cryptids, I have, you know, a favorite, you know, basic scripted like, you know, over all but my favorite Connecticut Cryptids would probably be Perry Boni, who is an elf type creature. He was a shop owner, a shopkeeper in a part of Connecticut that doesn't exist anymore. It's big basin Connecticut, which was filled in with water to create Candlewood Lake. But I didn't know that out there. Yeah. Yeah. And it the way Pat wrote this chapter is is just so whimsical like this. This you know supposed man or fairy or whatever he was. He had like a raccoon who he could talk to the raccoon and follow him around and feed him grapes. And so I mean that Disney princess. Yeah. Yeah. And it just it's a really whimsical story. And I think the the history behind it is also really fascinating because I didn't I didn't know. I, I know I knew about Candlewood Lake, but I never thought about what what it was before. And it kind of seems like that area of Connecticut was like party central like, you know, people have and like hootenanny and like, you know, square dancing and barn dancing. Yeah, yeah. Clambake. Like it's, it's like why Joe filling in, you know. So it's it's really cool to like, I think it really plays into the, like the imaginative side of Cryptids that I really like. And you can kind of create your own story based off of the information you have. So that's, that's my favorite. And for me, one of my favorite chapters in the book is about The Old Saybrook Blockheads. And it was very satisfying to research this because it was one of the chapters where we sort of kept meeting dead ends and sort of kept persisting to try to find more information. And it all worked out in the end. So that was particularly satisfying. But the Old Saybrook Blockheads sort of fall into this alien category. If they were, they could be extraterrestrial creatures, but they were only seen once and they were seen by this woman, Mary Star. And as I was doing the research, stars life was almost more fascinating than this sort of singular encounter that she had with this creature. She was born in the clothes of the 19th century, tremendously well-educated, well-traveled. She spoke multiple languages. She had a book. She had a mind for languages. So she graduates from college, goes to live in the Far East for a little while, learns Japanese, learns Chinese, comes back to America, gets a master's degree in languages from Yale, goes to live in Europe for a little while, befriends the exiled royal family of Greece as well, and does becomes personal friends with them when they're abroad. Yeah. Comes back to America at the start of World War Two and the FBI comes looking for her to work as a consultant. Why? Because she speaks Japanese, does some work for the FBI, returns to Connecticut and decides that she wants to do something to help the sailors that are serving in World War Two. Opens her home in Connecticut as a respite center for sailors who are on leave or recovering here in Connecticut. Encourages all her neighbors to do so as well. She's. She ends up getting recognized by like the British parliament, the British Admiralty. She has this increase of fascinating life. And then in the fifties, she has this encounter that she can't explain. She wakes up one night and she sees these creatures in her backyard. She doesn't tell anybody about it for a year afterwards. And when she does, she describes them as squat creatures wearing like white robes with cubes, fur heads and glowing bulbs inside. And what's interesting is that, like I said, she didn't tell anybody about it for almost a year afterwards, understandably. Yeah. But she she made no attempt to profit off of that. And so it's like, what did she see? I think both Val and I approached this project as skeptics. You know, we haven't run into Bigfoot in the woods yet. I think we're naturally skeptical about where these stories came from. That's not why I was interested in doing it. I was interested in the storytelling and the sort of local history aspect. Yeah, exactly. But we're both skeptical. And it comes down to a question of what did she see? She was tremendously well-traveled, tremendously well-educated. No reason to make this up whatsoever. It's completely unexplained. And that, I think, is so interesting. It's been like a sleep paralysis kind of dream or something, maybe. I mean, I think that's possibly an explanation. Somebody else floated this theory because she lived in Old Saybrook and a cabin and somebody was like, oh, were they using this chemical to, like, weatherized the cabins at that point? And like, could it have caused a hallucination or something? So I've heard things like that. Mm hmm. But I feel like that almost stretches the imagination as far as this idea that she saw these creatures. So who knows? So I guess I. I have a question about the melon heads, because we're talking about the blockheads, and then I think of the monads because that's just a story I've heard many times, and I've gone to look for them too. I think we all have. I think we all have. Yeah. Now, are they technically considered cryptids or is that more like paranormal? Like, kind of. I know it's a it's a it's another one of those kind of tragic stories when you really think about what they actually are and how they came to be. So how would you classify those? Sure. And that's a question that we get asked a lot about. A lot because I think that's where people's minds immediately go to. We included them in the. But what about chapter? And part of the reason was because they're sort of always described as human in the. In the stories about them. So they didn't quite fit the parameters that we had set for ourselves. The other thing is that when you sort of look at the story and the origins and variations of the story, they sort of fall into the this similar categories in that it was these kind of institutionalized people who, you know, may have had some kind of mental illness or were at a facility or something that then escaped into the woods and started, you know, reproducing to terrible genetic effect. And I think when you point that out to people, they're like, oh, that's not really a nice story when you put it like that. And it's like, yeah, it's not really nice. And it, you know, and again, you know, we're looking at this through the lens of 20, 24. you know, it gets into these ideas of the rights of people with intellectual disabilities, the reproductive rights of people with intellectual disabilities, and then it gets even muddier. And you're like, ooh, is this a story that we as a community want to continue to share amongst ourselves? So we included it in that chapter because I do think it's an important part of Connecticut lore. But I also think it doesn't quite fit in that it's sort of had its time. Yeah. Interestingly, there are two other stories in that same vein that we discovered while doing our research. One is a similar story, but is about the quote unquote faceless people. And again, it had to do with these people who didn't have faces that were living in this home, this like rundown mansion or something being taken care of by this one person who was their caretaker. Just a sort of different variation on that. No one had story. The other one was about the Danbury Frog people, which we were very, very close to, including. We had a lot of conversations about it as we did the research. We learned that these may have actually been real people who sort of were had had some kind of serious birth defect, a family who had some sort of medical issue going on and who may or may not have sort of lived in abject poverty and sort of on the fringes of society. We didn't get too far into the research, and a lot of it was very nebulous. But again, it was like, oh, you know, this is not sort of nice story that we want to continue to share. Yeah. Would you add anything to that? No, no, no. I think I think you covered it. And but I do like you said, like, I do think it was important to add it because I think if we didn't, people would have been like, where are they? Like, why do you add the No. One has? Because I think honestly, in my experience, I feel like I've gotten more people asking about that than even the Leatherman. Wow. And yeah, I mean, I grew up in Monroe and we had, you know, a rich history of melon head sightings there being in such close proximity to Fairfield Hills. I've talked to people in Shelton who have, you know, supposedly seen them. I've talked to people in Milford, like, really? Yes. It's a very statewide phenomenon. Yeah. Yeah. I thought, you know, and I grew up thinking it was just like a monroe thing. But now they're they're I think Shelton is where I went to look for them. Yeah. Yeah. I think Shelton I like saw mill City Road or some gravel road they're supposed to be on. Yeah. Shelton seems to be the hotbed but there are a couple of roads in Monroe that like, you know, in high school, you know, we would just go there and, yeah, shut the lights off and we. And scare ourselves, you know? So, like, Yeah, yeah, that's super interesting. I mean, just like this folklore that takes a life of its own. Mhm. Mhm. So where else can people who are scripted fans find more information like your web site or are there other events in Connecticut or other places in the, in the States that people can attend. Yeah. So we do have a website. It's C t crypto.com. We're also on Instagram. We're we're pretty active on Instagram. So if you want to give us a follow, we're at cryptids. And as for where people can find more information, honestly, like the Internet's a great source, obviously there is a cryptic as zoology museum in Portland, Maine that unfortunately Pat and I have not been to yet, which is on our list. It's on our lists. You know, we're we're busy crypto zoologist so it's it's on the list and as far as events we actually this last summer in August we did Skunk palooza which is a Pennsylvania based event. It's a scripted festival. It was inspired by Pennsylvania's own Cryptids the Skunk, which is a little guy who kind of looks like a mix between a pug and like a like hairless pig type thing. And and the idea is that he is so ugly that he just cries all the time and he leaves a trail of tears behind him. So the community has really rallied around him to to like, you know, make him feel welcome. Yeah. Yeah, basically. So that was a lot of fun. We just did Glaucus day I was going to say close to home. Yeah. And before before we started recording, we were talking about this. Yeah. Because you're wearing this cool shirt. Yes. Yes. Glastonbury, one of Connecticut's more famous cryptids is the Glastonbury Glaucus and the community there is trying to make Glaucus day into a sort of bigger celebration than it has been in years past. We had the opportunity to be at Riverbend Books in Glastonbury this past spring. The Historical Society had a display during the event. It was fantastic. They had some of the original newspaper clippings from the Hartford Courant when the story was originally being covered. They had these great wooden footprints that someone had made and you would attach them to your shoes and you can walk in the snow and leave Glaucus Prince behind you. And so they had some original versions of those that someone in town had made. And it was just a fascinating, uh, display that they put on. It was great. And I hope like a palooza that it kind of grows in the years to come because I just think it's a fantastic event and a fantastic story for them to come around. Yeah. And I think like the, the community aspect of, of these cryptids sightings is like I personally really love it seeing people gather around this thing. Like even that's gonna go palooza, like everybody. It's like the mascot, the hometown mascot. And there's this sense of pride and like, togetherness that like, you know, we live in a world that's so, you know, divided in a lot of ways. It's just, it's nice to see people come together, even if it's over a silly little like crying pig. So, you know, like anything to get people to, like, get along and, like, have fun and just, you know, enjoy the irreverence of. Yeah, Yes. Yeah. I mean, I'm here for it. So I hope I hope glorious day like, gets big, takes off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So how can libraries and maybe historical societies help support you in your next step with your cryptids? So we had the pleasure of being at the Middletown Library earlier this year, and that was wonderful. We got to speak to patrons and give our presentation about Cryptids and and meet folks. And I think that's just I think that's absolutely wonderful when libraries are able to do that and support not just us, but, you know, other local authors, folks who are independent authors, whether they're with small presses or, um, or, you know, going the route of self-publishing. That's yeah, you guys, you're doing it right? Yeah. And it's always wonderful to be able to go to libraries and meet with people. I think that's been one of the most fun things we've been to a lot of libraries this past year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've had a chance to visit a lot of great places. Yeah, we're really fortunate and like, I mean, yeah, libraries are just so important and again, it's like it's a community hub and having the opportunity to share our stories with people in these local communities is like, I think so important. You know, I think I think we need more of this. I think it would be better for society as a whole if we, you know, kind of all gathered and just listen to some interesting stories every once in a while. And and I mean, where else are you going to be able to get into a spirited discussion about whether Batman is right, which is which actually happened at one of our events? Yes. Yes, we did. We did have a lengthy discussion about that. And it was delightful. Where else but at your local library? That's very surprising. But I love it. Yeah. And probably something that you wouldn't have expected. No, no. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Thank you. To give the website and your socials again, just for folks and the title of your book. Yes, sure. It's Connecticut Cryptids. A Field Guide to the Weird and Wonderful Creatures of the Nutmeg State. And our website is w w w dot c t cryptids dot com and we are on Instagram at c cryptids. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you for having us. So folks, stay tuned for turn that up and shelf life.

Speak: 41:42

Hello and welcome to the segment we're calling Turn that sh Art projects at Russell Library that are too good to keep quiet. The leaves have started to change and the library has programs about new projects and innovative ideas. We're sharing secrets, preparing for college and exploring the art world. Joining me is Shannon Barillaro. Hi. How's it going, Shannon? Let's go. And Kim, how are you today? Good. So it's spooky season and I know that the library has a lot of spooky spaces for sure. It does. It has staircases that lead to nowhere. We have the tower as well. There's a lot of loneliness and crannies that you can kind of get lost in. We like to call it Hogwarts here. It's true. That's true. At least the staircases don't change where they're going. No, we just don't know where they go right. They may go to a portal, they may go to something interesting. We don't know. So but I have heard that there's a tunnel that actually leads from the library to the annex where we have some office space. Is that is that true? Have you ever been. I have not been. But this tunnel does exist. There's purpose behind it. And one of the purposes I know is for the fiber connection. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yes. So fiber all encompassing to get to the annex. But no, I have not been. But I bet Walt has. Oh, I bet he has to get to. He'll touch on there. Yeah. Yeah. And he's he's slim. He slim. You're slim too but. Well, we'll just go and do it. He'll be like, I can figure this out. Okay, well, now it's like. Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, he's. He's intrepid and you have to be when you do technology in this building, you really definitely do. Infrastructure's a little crazy. I love the vendors that have worked in this building and they're like, Oh yeah, I went through that like tunnel space and all these things. Mike That's great. If you know where to go and put those cables there, go right ahead. Thank you. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for your service. Oh, but in lieu of spooky season, we have some pretty cool events happening. Yes. So as a reminder, this is our big secrets of Russell Library. This will be running on Friday, October 25th and 26th, starting at 6 p.m. and in 15 minute increments until 7:15 p.m.. Reservations are filling up quick, so please be sure to sign up for this theatrical presentation and tour. So this will be fun because this one's new this year. If you listen to our last episode. Yes. Where Assistant director Mary Dattilo went into grave detail about not too much detail, but just enough to keep you excited. I was about to say I'm looking forward to it. I can hardly wait to hear some of the voices from the past come to life. Same here, same here. So we also have homework help. It's a new drop in program on Wednesdays from 5 to 7 starting in October and running every week Throughout the school year, experienced tutors will be available to help in a variety of subjects, and we'll work in small groups to assist students on their homework assignments. Homework Help Center is intended for middle and high school students, but elementary school students are welcome to attend. If a student is attending under the age of 12, a caregiver must remain in the building for the duration of the session. These sessions will take place in the space, a.k.a. the teen area on the first floor, and this program is sponsored by the Teen Violence Prevention Grant, courtesy of the YMCA. That's awesome. Yeah, that's really great. Sounds like a great opportunity. Yeah. To get some insight on on school assignments. Sometimes the more the merrier. And honestly, education keeps changing and evolving. It's good. So the library kind of has an idea of also what's going on and how better we can help the students. But so that's awesome. Coming in November is Veterans Day. So for that day, our program is Return to Vietnam with Jerry Augustine. Wednesday, November six, at 6 p.m. in the Hubbard room, Jerry will speak about his experiences in Vietnam, both as a soldier and returning visitor long after the war ended. For more information and to register, please visit the library's online events calendar. That'll be great. Yeah. No, I'm glad he's coming too, to talk about his experiences. It's something that we want to keep in mind and. And not forget. Exactly. Exactly. So it's that time of year and people are preparing for their college applications. So we are having a workshop called College Application, an essay one on one on Thursday, November seven at 6 p.m.. So Jason Howard from Finish Line tutoring is going to present a how to on college essay writing. So this is a free program and will include time to start developing essay basics. So come ready with a few ideas for topics as well. Registration is recommended for programming updates and any weather related news because it is that time of year and it's mad. Do you remember your college essay? Oh, yeah, I do. It was terrible. I don't remember and I had no idea what I was talking about. So I think a lot of college students are on that boat. Yeah. Yeah. So I could used Jason's insights like I could do. I remember that. I don't remember. Probably enough. I don't want to remember it. So for anybody who would like a little more music in their life kitchen, Carly and Friends is going to have a concert on Saturday, November 9th at 2 p.m.. So members of Kitchen Ceilidh will perform a repertoire that includes lilting jigs driving reels and traditional and contemporary songs of lovers and labourers from the mountains of Donegal to the rivers of West Bengal. So this is a new program that they're doing with stringed instruments, combining traditions from Ireland, New England and India, which I think will be really cool. The songs and instrumental pieces in this concert were gathered over the course of some four decades of study travel, composing and collaborating in Ireland, England, India and at home in New England. Registration is suggested and this is a local group. They do really good performances, so they come highly recommended. That sounds awesome, right? It's a little bit all over the place, but I think it's connected at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. These kitchen ceilidh, it includes professors who studied actually at Wesleyan. They studied ethnomusicology, so I'm sure they have some really interesting insight into how all of those intertwine with each other. That's awesome. Yeah, exactly. And music isn't your thing or if it is, but you also like the visual arts. Please join us on Saturday, November 16th at 1 p.m. when Gary O'Neil is going to be sharing his insights about treasures within an art show. So this is a collection of his pieces made out of wood and clay, and it also includes photos and pottery fired at Wesleyan Potters, which is local. So his exhibit will be on display at the library from November 1st until November 20th. And again, if you want to hear his insights about his work, you know, join us for that talk on Saturday, November 16th at 1 p.m.. Gary is an elder of the tribe and so we are really happy to have him coming in. Yeah, especially for Indigenous Peoples Month and it's nice that he's coming back. His daughter had a show here last year that was a huge hit. Yes. So yeah, keep it in the family. The more the merrier. We love it. Yeah, absolutely. Clearly, talent runs in the family, so I think it's going to be very special. So if you you know, if you have the opportunity to pop in, take a look at some art. So we have a lot of exciting things going on at Russell Library. For more insight about books, stay tuned for shelf life. So thanks for joining me. Shannon. Thanks, Kim. This was fun. Okay, bye. Hello and welcome to Shelf Life today. We're yeah, we're going to be we're going to be talking about some really spooky kind of books, some kind of horror books to go along with our Crypt episode. So I'm Christy Billings, along with Kate McCarthy, Bond and Brianna Garland. So who would like to go first? Oh, I'll start. Yeah. All right. So I actually just read a book. It's a children's fiction book. It's called The Girl in White by Lindsey Curry. And Mallory has just moved to the town of Eastport, Massachusetts, with her parents. And this town is all about spooky ghost stories. And every year they celebrate Sweet the the legend of Sweet Molly, who lived in Eastport with her brother Liam. And Liam was sent out for a fishing expedition and there was a big storm coming. It's William was lost at sea. And then Sweet Molly curse the town. And so there's this whole legend about her and when Mallory moves to Eastport with her parents, she starts having these nightmares. So student grow up in Eastport, and her parents run a restaurant that is totally Halloween themed. And so Mallory starts having these nightmares, and she eventually meets up with Joshua, who is having similar nightmares. And he also did not grow up in the town. So it's a story about a ghost that is haunting these two kids and wants the town to right this wrong that they've been doing. And they want her to change. The ghost wants Mallory to change the trajectory of what the town celebrates. And it's really spooky and it's really, really creepy. And that is The Girl in White by Lindsey Curry. So it's a ghost story. It's. It's really, really good. Sounds really good. What age would that be for middle grade? Definitely. Maybe this fifth and up grade five and up. Yeah. Sounds really good. Yeah, it's really, really good. And then I just picked this one up today. Tales of the Cryptids mysterious creatures that may or may not exist. And I picked it up because I know we're doing the scripted theme. And what I like about this book is the authors present it in a way of as in believe. You know, they provide all the resources, the information that you need to kind of decide if you really believe in it or not believe in it. And so I just was glancing through this earlier today, and I just really liked that perspective of here's some information, do with it what you want some people don't believe. And so anyways, it's called Tales of the Cryptids mysterious creatures that may or may not exist as investigated by Hall Spears and Young. That's that sounds right. Yeah, that's really cool. Brianna, what did you bring? So I brought a book that is on my TBR that I haven't read yet, but it just came in. So we're going to have that out to circulate hopefully by the end of this week. Hot. It's hot off the press. It's called the Paranormal Ranger, a Navajo investigator. Search for the unexplained. And this book is by Stanley Milford Junior. I am all about the unexplained, especially out where the Navajo Nation is. There's a lot of skinwalker lore and just a lot of indigenous stories from the past about these different kind of unexplained things out in the desert. Um, so when I saw that this was publishing, it was right up my alley because I love all things like spooky cryptids, like I believe and all that kind of stuff like Skinwalker is. I just have a weird fascination with learning about them and wanting to know more about them. And so I think he's going to investigate that in this book, so I'm really looking forward to reading it. Stay tuned for a possible review. But if you love to learn about the unexplained and want to hear from a kind of different perspective, then what you might usually see on TV with the people that look for Bigfoot and blah, blah, blah, this might be a really cool book for you to check out when it's available to circulate. So mine is in Rhode Island State. Rhode Island. It is a horror, historical fiction queer mystery with a little gothic thrown in there. Everything. It's a big pot of stuff. It's two different stories. One is starts in 1902 at the Burkhart School for Girls, and there's two students who are in love with each other, Flo and Clara. And they have a terrible death in the orchard. Their story is picked up on years later and is going to be told as a film. Of course. And so the people that are going to play flo and. There are there's, of course, like the the law and the history behind the film, the film making. So there's a scream queen. It's her daughter that's going to play one of the girls. And then another one is like, think like Taylor Swift, that big kind of a star who's going to play the other one. So there's like Tumblr and Instagram and like all kinds of things going on around these people because it's not just the story of the the Hearts girls, it's also the story of the film. I've read this. I think this is my third time because we did it for books and brews. And then I, of course, had read it before that and I picked it up and was kind of skimming through it again. It has footnotes, which is unusual for fiction, and they're they're kind of a bit dear, like, okay, that's in the footnotes. But but it does bring a lot to the the story. So it's plain bad heroines by Emily Danforth and Sarah Loughman illustrates it. And her illustrations, even though it's an adult book, are just great. So it's a it's a fun read. Well, definitely have to add that to my my list of things to read. So check all these out for the fall. So thank you so much for listening to our episode today of Shelf Life. And we'll see you next time. Bye bye.