best of the blog: mel's hole!

okay...

so, apparently blogger--the wonderful outfit that hosts this very blog--is making some changes and, technically challenged as i am, craig and our web designer/master/god kieran are figuring out a way to explain it to me so that i can understand it. they need to use words that small child would understand. or the hulk. not the real hulk--the marvel super hero squad hulk.

anyway, in making this transition smooth--and in making it possible for readers to still have access to the perhapa-blog archives of the past 4 year--we need to "migrate" all of those files, and in doing so, i realized that, while most of what has appeared here every other day for nearly 220 weeks has been me just spouting on about whatever was on my mind, some of it was actually interesting.

so in the interest of maintaining some semblance of sanity these next few weeks while i work on this crazy production of alice in wonderland, i'll be using my wednesday posts to present--or rather, re-present--some of the best of the blog!


in my humble opinion, of course.

hope ya dig it...


Monday, September 18, 2006

MEL'S HOLE!

okay...

let's say that you just got a high-speed internet connection.
and let's say that you now find yourself looking to check out alla the neat things that people have told you to check out over the past couple years but couldn't because your hook-up was too slow.
and let's just say that you're fascinated by the bizarre and the paranormal and you write this comic book about some of that weird stuff and that, when you go to conventions, you have some really great conversations with readers about alla this stuff, relating what you've seen or heard about and listening to what they've experienced.
and let's say that one of these readers turns you on to this great radio program called 'coast to coast a.m.'--on-line subscriptions available--where they talk about all this weird kinda stuff and that "you should definitely be on there!"

well, i'm not. not yet anyway...

but it is a very cool show and, though my curiosity isn't piqued by ALL of their topics, i'd say that, so far, about 95% of it has. them's pretty good odds. they cover all manner of weird and interesting stuff, conspiracy theories and whatnot. but of course my favorite subjects are the strange happenings and even stranger creatures.

the site is at www.coasttocoastam.com and they give you a few sample shows to tune into before you pay the $6 to subscribe. the one that got me hooked, though, wasn't even on their site. it was the story of mel's hole and, if you've got a little time to kill or wanna download it to your ipod, you can hear the whole deal at

http://turbo.peteronline.net/melshole/

see, it goes like this. mel waters is this guy who owned some property in washington state, near the town of ellensburg. on the property was this hole, about 9 feet across, that was known around the area as this deep pit that farmers and townsfolk used to use as an easy way to dispose of their larger appliances, machinery, and dead livestock.

turned out, it was an honest-to-God bottomless pit.

mel lowered a line down there 15 miles and it still didn't hit bottom.

15 MILES!

mel first discussed the hole publicly on coast to coast in 1997. shortly after that, the government came and took his property away from him. the area is now restricted and blocked from view by topographical satellites.

the story goes on from there; strange things happening, coins and belt buckles, an indian tribe contacting mel about a hole of their own on a reservation in nevada where things get even more science-fictiony...'cause things came OUT of that hole...

listen for yourself and let me know what you think. when i was a kid, the idea of a bottomless pit was scary because you would fall and fall and fall and fall...

supposedly there's one in egypt, too.

that's it.
smell ya later!
todd