Ridiculous Claim of a "Jersey Devil" Sighting
Ridiculous items picked from the news are a bountiful crop. While there is always a degree of media bias involved in the reporting of any news story, some news items stand on their own and are, by any objective measure, ridiculous.
Which takes us to this week’s most ridiculous story of the week. From the website NJ.com, the headline reads: Is the Jersey Devil in Galloway Township? The author received an email from Dave Black, a security guard at an Atlantic City casino. He explains that he was driving home from work a few days earlier when he spotted something he can only perceive as one of two things: his mind playing tricks on him, or he just saw (and took a photo of) the infamous “Jersey Devil”. Here are some of David’s comments as reported:
“I was just driving past the golf course in Galloway on Route 9 and had to shake my head a few times when I thought I saw a llama … If that wasn’t enough, then it spread out leathery wings and flew off over the golf course.”
The Jersey Devil is a cryptid (a nice way of saying a creature which doesn’t exist.) As per Wikipedia:
The Jersey Devil is … said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly and often is described as emitting a “blood-curdling scream.”
Despite there being no scientific evidence to substantiate the beast, along with a strong understanding on the origin of the myth, it is remarkable that some adults today accept this story as plausible, to any degree.
The two most-likely options when it comes to claims such as Dave Black’s breaks down in to the categories of “fool” and “fraud”.
Fool – has David been tricked in to believing he saw something? Is someone else pulling a prank that David has fallen for? Has David’s brain “fooled” him in to seeing something he’s interpreting as The Jersey Devil?
Fraud – is the photo real? How could it ever be proven? Ambiguous, uncorroborated photographic evidence is the exact equivalent of no photographic evidence at all. Whether a photo is capable of being judged as unmanipulated these days is subject to debate, so any claim which references a single photograph is worthless. Then take in to account the obvious flaws in this particular picture (blurry, heavy shadows, limited detail) and this photo does not pass the sniff test for being evidence of anything genuine. Quite the contrary, as these kinds of features (or lack thereof) have the trappings of photos which have been shown to be deliberately faked.
Regardless, the ridiculousness of both the claim and the reporting of the claim wins for the most ridiculous story of the week.
The real point is that it’s a cool myth…..most folks know it isn’t so, just makes a great scary story.
should I have spent my money on a powerband bracelet instead? At least my wrist would be warm, and I could hope for some placebo effect.
By the way, the “contact” button on the store site did not work, either. It didn’t take me anywhere.
Day 56- it got kind of cold here on Maui last night- 74 degrees. It would have been nice to have a warm t-shirt to keep me cozy on these cool autumn nights.
day 57- Went to a psychic today. She said “you’ve been searching for a loved one. I’m sorry to say that although once living, they’ve now died.You can find them buried between two large trees and a big rock, near running water.” I was confused at first. What loved one? Could she mean my SGU T-shirt? It’s made of cotton so it was once living. And rather that having died, perhaps she meant it’s dyed!!! That must be it. How could she know?
I’ll go looking tomorrow. Must stop for laundry detergent on the way back.
day 58-Bad day at work. I spilled coffee on my shirt and borrowed a shirt from someone else. Captain Klebitz got all bent out of shape and told me to never go into the evidence room again. Don’t know what the big deal was, we don’t even know who the shirt belongs to, since he’s a John Doe at this time. Those forensics people are so damn touchy!
Of course, I never would have had to borrow a shirt if I only had my SGU shirt. Oh well, job hunting tomorrow, I guess.
Day 59- the GMO debate still rages here on Maui. I wonder if my missing Tshirt is made of GMO cotton. I read in Natural News that rats wearing GMO cotton tshirts developed erectile disfunction, autism, cancer, irritable bowel, chronic lyme disease, a lust for cheese and dandruff. If I’m going to get dandruff, it’s a good thing I ordered a light-colored shirt!
Day 60- I think my neighbor Bellatina is a witch, and here’s why. I went to my mailbox expecting to find my SGU Tshirt (ordered 60 days ago), and all I found was a jury summons. If she thinks she can fool me in that way, she is wrong. i knew that that “summons” was really my tshirt, but masked in a spell that only I could see. To prove to her that I could not be fooled, I walked around Maui wearing nothing but that “summons”.. Sure enough, no one noticed, convincing me that I was right. But then I looked around and noticed that everyone is a bit “off” here, so I still need more proof. My critical thinking skills are imporving thanks to SGU!
Oh, yeah, the police eventually stopped me, but at least I was relieved of jury duty!
day 61- I’ve asked my new boyfriend to help me with this tshirt problem. He says he can surely figure the whole thing out, just as soon as he can get his passport back from customs in Nigeria. It will take about $10,000 for me to pay his back taxes and free up his accounts to get him out, but he’s a son of a prince and has plenty of money to pay me back when he gets here. I can’t wait to meet my prince, and to get my long awaited tshirt!
Day 62- Went to church today to pray that someone will hear me and send the tshirt I ordered two months ago. The priest said that was not the sort of thing I should be praying for; and that it was pure vanity to spend the money on it in the first place. That that type of vanity leads only to sorrow. He said that the money would have been better spent by giving it to the church. It’s true, they need a lot of money right now to pay the lawyers in their child sex abuse cases. He’s right about another thing, too. This shirt I ordered has not brought me anything but sorrow, and disappointment in people I really admire.