Tales from the Crib

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas... as merry as possible!

The news is full of quite dramatic, depressing and rather sad events. When strange tales like these appear, shiny, Christmas-light-entangled antenna, start twitching! I apologize in advance for any offense that may be taken by the following item about dead babies everywhere...

Baby No. 1

A vicar and his daughter are being held on suspicion of murder after a baby's body was found at a Lancashire house.

Police made the discovery after reports of a woman giving birth to a stillborn baby boy in Freckleton. The 28-year-old, named locally as Ruth Percival, was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital for treatment and later released.

She was arrested on Tuesday with her father, Reverend James Percival, 64, of Holy Trinity Church in Freckleton.

(Source BBC News Lancashire Dec. 2nd)

RIP Charlotte Bevan of Bristol - mother of baby Zarnee (at Stonehenge)

Gone but not forgotten

Baby No. 2

The body of a new-born girl has been found in a wheelie bin in North Yorkshire. The baby was found by a man in a communal waste area at the historic market town of Richmond on Monday afternoon.

"It is highly likely that the (missing) mother is in a very distressed state and needs professional support. We urge her to contact the police or medical staff as a matter of urgency as her health and well being is the priority."

(Source The Telegraph Dec 3rd)

Baby No. 3

POLICE have issued an urgent appeal for help to find a mother and her four-day-old baby who have gone missing in Bristol city centre.

They say Charlotte Bevan was not wearing any shoes when she left St Michael's Hospital shortly after 9pm tonight.

A message on the Avon and Somerset police Facebook page said: "We have serious concern for the welfare of her baby."

"We have officers searching the area near to the hospital but need your help to find mother and baby - we are worried because neither are dressed for the cold night."

She is thought to be wearing a black top and black trousers but was not wearing a coat. 

Police added: "She may appear confused and worried."

(Source Bristol Post Dec. 2nd)

The stories appeared so quickly, one after the other, and details of the latest case of missing (found dead today) mother Charlotte Bevan and her baby, (now also found dead) are full of strangeness, you have to wonder what dark forces lie behind them.

Baby No. 3 cont. 

Police desperately searched all night for Charlotte, who walked out of St Michael's Hospital with daughter Zarnee Teanna around 8.30pm to 9pm last night. Boyfriend Pascal Malbrouck told the Bristol Post that 30-year-old Charlotte Bevan was happy before she gave birth but had become increasingly sleep deprived over the last few days.

But he said he could think of no reason why she would go missing.

Pascal, who comes from a remote French-owned island in the Indian Ocean, posted a message on Facebook saying: "My daughter has gone missing with her mum Charlotte Bevan.

A BRISTOL mother who yesterday walked out of a maternity hospital with her four-day-old daughter suffered from schizophrenia and depression, according to her boyfriend.

Charlotte, according to her Facebook page works for environmental charity Good is Planet Earth.

Addition:  Dec. 4th - FIREFIGHTERS were called to a small fire at St Michael’s Hospital today.

Three resilience crews attended the incident at the maternity hospital in Kingsdown at 9:54am. It is believed the blaze was caused by an electrical fault involving a socket.

Worthy of note: St Michael's Hospital is also a specialist genetics center for the South West region.

Baby No. 4

A newborn baby boy was found dead on a moving conveyor belt at a waste recycling plant after he was thrown out with the rubbish, an inquest heard today.

The body was discovered by a horrified worker operating a picking line at Associated Waste Management in Shipley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire.

At the time, the worker was separating mixed household and business waste including glass and paper.

(Source Daily Mail Dec. 12th)

Add the statistics of dead babies in the news from your own location, and we have a veritable 'creche of dead babies' stories... what on earth is happening?

More to follow... watch this space as I attempt to tidy up!

Blog Off!

Still can't get this damn thing to work! Excuse me a moment...

The Man with No Name

The former head of the Somerset Racial Equality Council, who is accused of stealing another identity, has denied a claim that he had been living a lie.

David Onamade is charged with fraudulently trying to claim benefits and possessing documents for use in connection with fraud.

The 52-year-old denies buying the identity in Nigeria.

The prosecution claim the real David Onamade is the identity of a man living in London who is autistic.

The accused told the court he had had his national insurance number since 1991.

'I don't know him'

"I have worked all my life and no-one has ever told me I am not David Onamade," he told the jury.

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Simon Goodman said to him: "You've lived a lie for so long that now you cannot back away from it."

"No that is not correct," he replied.

Mr Onamade denied he had purchased the identity, and told the court he had been born in Greenwich.

Mr Goodman asked him whether he had been using David Onamade's identity

The prosecution claims the identity of David Onamade, and his birth certificate belong in fact to an autistic man from London.

"No, I don't know him. I've never met him or his family," he replied.

The accused denied he had been given the identity in Nigeria, and said he had not paid for it.

"What happens if you are not the person who you say you are?" Mr Goodman asked.

"That is scary," he replied.

The accused faces three charges of fraudulently trying to claim benefits and two charges of possessing documents - a birth certificate and a driving licence - for use in connection with fraud.

The case came to light when the Somerset Racial Equality Council closed last year and Mr Onamade, who had been its director for nine years, tried to claim Jobseeker's Allowance.

The National Insurance number he gave belonged to a David Onamade from London.

Guilty of fraud after stealing another man's identity...

The man, who claimed to be David Onamade, was also convicted of trying to claim benefits and possessing documents for use in attempt of fraud.

Taunton Crown Court heard he got hold of the identity of the real David Onamade, an autistic man from London.

The court heard even his former partner did not know he was living a lie.

The man, whose real name is still unknown, was found guilty of all charges.

The court was told he had lived with another man's identity for more than 20 years.

The jury found him found guilty of three charges of fraudulently trying to claim benefits and two charges of possessing documents - a birth certificate and a driving licence - for use in connection with fraud.

The court heard the accused may have bought David Onamade's birth certificate in Nigeria

The National Insurance number he gave belonged to a David Onamade from London.

In his position as Director of the Somerset Racial Equality Council he was once invited to Downing Street to meet prime minister Tony Blair.

It is not clear how he got hold of Mr Onamade's identity, but the jury was told he may have bought his birth certificate in Nigeria.

The bogus David Onamade lived in the West Country with his partner for 10 years.

During the trial, Helen Everett, who is the mother of Mr Onamade's children, told the court he introduced himself as Steven Douglas when they met.

'Very distressed'

He moved in with her in Bristol in 1992, and when they were packing books she found a birth certificate in a different name - David Onamade.

She said he told her this was his family name, which he never used because his father tried to control him and he wanted to live independently.

The mother of the real David Onamade, a 52-year-old autistic man from London, told the court she became aware that other people were trying to use her son's identity when spurious letters kept arriving in the post.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of the verdict, she said: "How could it be allowed to happen to him? I was very disappointed and very distressed."

The accused was sentenced to nine months in jail, but because he has already served 13 months on remand he walked free from court.

Judge Jeffrey Mercer said: "You have used copies of the birth certificate belonging to another person.

"Your future in this country has to be uncertain but that is not a matter for this court. Your status here is not part of my remit." (Source: BBC West)

Back Soon!

Sorry, blog is out of order at the moment! We'll be right back...

Aviophobia

I use to be fear-less it’s true. Things never use to scare me the way they scare me today. I use to drive really fast, try the craziest rides at the fair, eat the weirdest foods, attempt internet dating, and engage in other ‘risky’ behaviours, all completely legal of course.

It’s Sunday, 2nd November 2014. On Sundays I like to read my horoscope, for insight and for fun. It makes a change to reading all those news reports, especially of tragedy. However, this weekend’s horoscope has alarmed me no end.

The Australian writer and astrologer, Ed Tamplin reminds us of what he had to say earlier in the year about the October Eclipses…

“The upcoming lunar eclipse of October 8 2014 will again place the Moon (my rising sign) exactly with Uranus, the planet associated with flight and the technology of war. It will further fulfil the promise of the last Moon to Uranus connection... But there is something strange about this time. Prior October eclipses, accenting the middle degrees of Aries or Libra, have been regularly associated with major airline accidents and aerial war.

The upcoming lunar Eclipse of October 8 2014 may again lead to disaster from the skies in the coming two months. It’s a time when air safety will need to be absolutely paramount. And even without history as a guide, aerial bombardment will again be in the news. Only this time it could be on a larger scale then we have witnessed for quite a while.”

Granted, this can apply to anything at any time, really, but it scared me. Looking at the two recent space/air related crashes in the news, it’s hard to see how these things are not all connected.

Getting older has come with its ‘phobias’, lots of them. This week, I will be tested once again as I’m due to fly on a budget airliner. It’s a journey that will take an uncomfortable 15 hours ‘til I reach my destination. The trip will involve cheap planes, trains, coaches, and automobiles. Do I want to travel? No. Do I have any choice in the matter? No.

My ‘aviophobia’, or fear of flying, has already begun to set in. Gone are the days of sitting in the window seat with neck perched over to get the best view of the ground as we ascend to 34,000 feet…excuse me while I throw up a moment…

This is how Wiki explains my condition…

“Fear of flying is a fear of being on an airplane (aeroplane), or other flying vehicle, such as a helicopter, while in flight. It is also referred to as flying phobia, flight phobia, aviophobia or aerophobia (although the last also means a fear of drafts or of fresh air).

Fear of flying may be a distinct phobia in itself, or it may be an indirect combination of one or more other disorders, such as claustrophobia (a phobia of being restricted, confined, or unable to escape) or acrophobia (anxiety or dread of being at a great height). It may have other causes as well, such as agoraphobia(especially the type that has to do with having a panic attack in a place they can't escape from). It is a symptom rather than a disease, and different causes may bring it about in different individuals.

This phobia receives more attention than most other phobias because air travel is often difficult for people to avoid—especially in professional contexts—and because it is common, affecting a significant minority of the population. Inability to maintain emotional control when aloft may prevent a person from going on vacations or visiting family and friends...”

I use to suffer for a short period with agoraphobia. I still have acrophobia, which use to cause a lot of agro during the fire drills at work. No claustrophobia yet. I don’t have coulrophobia (fear of clowns) either. Although I couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting next to a guy dressed as a clown whilst on an aeroplane.

http://stuckattheairport.com/tag/el-al-airlines/

"El Al Airlines, the national carrier of Israel, is famous for its stringent security measures. That hasn't kept clowns—loved by most children, yet terrifying to some adults—from boarding some planes.

As part of an expanded family entertainment program, the airline has added a clown to the cabin crew of select long-haul flights from Tel Aviv to New York and several other cities. The complimentary program runs all summer and was featured on some El Al flights during the recent unrest that caused other airlines to temporarily halt flights to and from Israel.

On clown-enhanced flights, the fright-wigged temporary crew member roams the aisles, telling stories and riddles to children and handing out colouring books, crayons and games.“ (Must let Loren Coleman of Twilight Language know about this, if he doesn’t already)

About ‘aviophobia’, apparently I am in good company as Isaac Asimov, Doris Day, and Stanley Kubrick, all suffered. Wiki goes on to describe treatments for the condition…

“If a phobic flier were able to fly in the cockpit, the pilot's facial response to an unexpected noise or motion would adequately prove the absence of danger. But with information in the cabin limited, it is impossible to prove no danger exists. Stress hormones continue to be released. As levels rise, anxiety increases and the urge to escape becomes paramount. Since physical escape is impossible, panic may result, unless the person can escape psychologically, through denial, dissociation, or distraction.”

My ‘emotional control’ may fail me this week, and so the reason for this post. I won’t make too many jokes about it, my phobia doesn’t allow it. As I won’t be online much, excuse me if I don’t reply to your messages. I will be in a state of denial, dissociation, and distraction. A bit like these guys were back in August 2013…

"If you ever run across a marketer offering you an impromptu adventure overseas, you might first want to clarify whether it will entail you being kidnapped by clowns and dropped from an airplane. That was the terrifying fate of South African graphic designer Clint Jacobs, the final latest of four participants in Heineken's "Dropped" campaign from Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam… In the campaign's last instalment, a group of Heineklowns tosses the affable Jacobs into rural Poland and makes him hitchhike and tandem-bike his way to Germany, where he must host his own circus. This seems like the sort of proposition you'd have to be drunk to accept, so it works as a long-form beer commercial…” http://www.adnews.com.au/campaign/dropped-poland

Remember these clowns?

Okay, Tom Cruise, let's not get carried away now!

Isis in Cyprus?

Updated: Okay, this just in from 'Greek Reporter', now tell me my fears are not warranted?

"Authorities in Cyprus are on alert after receiving information from foreign secret services that Islamic State jihadists are planning to hijack airplanes in Cyprus.

A newsit report says that the airports of Larnaca and Paphos are on alert based on information by foreign secret services that IS jihadists plan to hijack a Cyprus Airlines plane and take hostages. The information says that jihadists plan to take the plane to an airport in Syria or Iraq that is under IS control and then use the hostages to negotiate with Great Britain.

The jihadists will use the hostages in order to demand that Cyprus will not allow Great Britain’s Royal Air Force to use the British bases in Cyprus to launch air raids against the areas in Syria and Iraq where jihadists have control.

According to the report, secret services say that the IS has similar plans for Greece and Great Britain. Cypriot Police have been put on alert in the airports of Larnaca and Paphos and are ordered to do thorough searches on all passengers and baggage.

The official alert was terminated yesterday, however police remain on alert as Cyprus’ secret services continue to gather information on suspects who are related to the jihadists. In both airports, passengers who are European citizens but are of Arabic origin are thoroughly searched. Secret services say that some of them plan to cross to the Turkish-occupied zone and cross to Syria from there."

Under the Portishead Bridge

After reading and watching a lot on ‘The Secret History of Magic Mushrooms’ at Gnostic Media, and listening to the guys on the Grimerica podcast, featuring Adam Gorightly, I recalled more from my childhood. These things seemed meaningless at the time, yet they’re still in my memory to this day. I’ll make this an intro to my already fragmented bio, that I started scribbling down in May 2010, segments of which have been posted to this blog previously.

…Back then, things were nothing like they are painted in American movies today. Our school had no ‘Breakfast Club’. The early '80s were a mixture of tame fun, colourful pop-music, Miami Vice, and racist bullying. At least for us country bumpkins, in our small town they were. The majority of kids had little or no experience of anything, let alone sex and drugs, even though they bragged a lot, unless they were the ‘abused’ kids that is.

Jennine was an abused kid. Well, there were rumours that her step-dad was abusing her. It’s weird now thinking back, how nobody said or did anything about it. Surely, if we knew, and her overly-sexualised clothing, causing all sorts of fights in school, seemed to shout it, no one raised a red flag. Not one teacher or student.

Kim (the cool girl that everyone wanted to be friends with) had a cousin Susan. She wasn’t at our school, but she use to hang out with us in the afternoons occasionally. Susan was an abused kid. Her uncle (Kim's dad) was a notorious drunk that use to make her take heroine every day, then he’d carryout the 'abuse' while his wife was at work. Susan told us it was a secret and not to tell anyone. Kim didn’t know about it, and no one told her or anyone else. Kim’s family were known to be the rough ‘council house’ lot, which meant you didn’t want to mess with them, because they might come round to your area, find where you live, and smash your windows.

If you wanted to hang out with the ‘cool’ kids, and be somewhere you weren’t supposed to be, you’d go down to the Rec. where they use to play football and rugby, at the back of the field. It was abandoned most of the time though due to excessive mud. You might find one or two twelve year-old boys sniffing glue and solvent sprays, which is all they could get their hands on. 

Apart from Kim’s cousin Susan, no one had admitted to trying anything more potent than smelling Tipp-ex, no stories of tripping, no highs and lows, nothing. Most of the time, all you heard about was the torture a guy called Ian had inflicted on his pet dog, and the latest 'Morrissey' lyrics.

I recall one time; it was on the journey back from a school trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. James remarked how it wasn’t difficult to find magic mushrooms, he knew where they were because he’d seen and tried them when his older brother took him picking. They were under the Portishead bridge. “Well, not really under the bridge,” he said, “you go under the bridge, and up a bit to the woods, and they were there. Easy!”

James insisted that he wanted to get off the coach at the next stop, whoever wanted to come with him; he’d show them where the mushrooms were. He wasn’t very adept to a capitalist system of entrepreneurship yet. At least school wasn’t teaching anything, except the history of the American West, the Second World War, and showing us cartoons about venereal disease. 

If you were willing to trudge up the embankment in the pouring rain, along the M5 hard-shoulder, then under the Portishead bridge, to pick magic mushrooms in the freezing cold at five o’clock, this was your chance. Not surprisingly, there weren’t many takers.

Lifes journey... just a strange trip?

Cameron's Camelot - More Cornish than Canadian!

David Cameron's faux-attacker de-arrested

Imagine the hallowed halls of Westminster on Wednesday Oct. 22, after news broke of the Canadian Parliament shooting. The muted voices of the gathered MPs and workers, security officials and media spokesmen, all wondering if such a thing could happen in the UK.

Sky News Oct. 27- “Scotland Yard has launched a security review after a member of the public appeared to collide with the Prime Minister in Leeds.

Former close protection officers and MPs have also called for a full inquiry into David Cameron's security arrangements after the runner was able to get close to him and members of his protection team as they left the city's Civic Hall.

Video footage shows the man, identified as Dean Farley, heading towards the group at speed while the Prime Minister visibly braces himself.

The dreadlocked 28-year-old then appears to bump into Mr Cameron before security personnel step in and wrestle him out of the way.

The PM appears to be alone for several moments before the team got him into a waiting car.”

It’s a false alarm we are told, a man ‘brushed’ against the Prime Minister, oblivious to who he was. Yes, this is what we are told, a misunderstanding!

Channel 4 News (UK) made a point of mentioning the T-shirt the man was wearing at the time, giving us no choice but to associate the incident with Cornwall, David Cameron's most favourite part of England.

“A Met spokesman said: "The man was arrested by local officers and was later de-arrested. The MPS specialist protection command is responsible for the personal protection of the prime minister and will now conduct a review of the incident in consultation with West Yorkshire Police."

Mr Farley, who was pictured wearing a T-shirt with the metal band Tintagel, was reported to have been on his way to the local gym."

King Arthur and Tintagel

(Source: Cornish Connexions web)

Cornwall and the legend of King Arthur are closely linked. Cornwall's claim to the story centers on the ancient castle at Tintagel. In fact, the site was occupied considerably earlier than the 13th Century when the castle, whose remains we see today, was built.

Evidence that it was an important Celtic stronghold and trading port in the period following the Roman occupation is significant, since many now believe that the Arthur story has its roots in that period and that the real life character behind the Arthur myth was probably a Romano-British warlord or tribal leader.

Tintagel fits the bill, in terms of many versions of the Arthur myth, as the location for Arthur's birth. There is a cave located within sight of the castle walls which would tie in with Merlin's role in Arthur's rise to power. Dozmary Pool, on Bodmin Moor, is widely held to be the lake to which Excalibur was returned by Sir Bedivere and in which the Lady of the Lake was said to reside.

The final link to the King Arthur legend lies in Cornwall's proximity to the lost land of Lyonesse. It has long been held that there was land to the west of Lands End which has now sunk beneath the waves. Legend has it that this was Lyonesse. Similarly, others have linked elements of the Arthur story to St Michael's Mount, which can only be accessed via a causeway at low tide.

However they have come about, Cornwall's claims to the Arthurian story are enduring and have become an integral part of the county's mythology. Since Tennyson wrote the Idylls of the King, Tintagel has continued to feature in many a modern re-telling of the Arthur story, including Channel 4's "Merlin" which saw Merlin assist Uther to deceive the Duke of Cornwall's wife into infidelity and so become pregnant with Arthur.

It was in Tintagel, according to this re telling, that Morgan Le Faye plotted against her half brother Arthur and where Mordred, conceived in an incestuous union between Morgan Le Faye and Arthur grew to power eventually causing the King's death in battle.

Unusually, Tintagel claims a link to not one famous tale but two! It is believed that Tintagel was home to a series of Celtic kings after the Romans left Britain to try to prop up their crumbling empire back home. One of these Kings is believed to be Mark, whose nephew was Tristan of this famous tale, Tristan and Yseult.

Historical Fact: The Cameron family enjoys annual holidays home and abroad, their preferred choice of the Cornish coast is well publicized, and the myths and legends of the area seem to figure in their lives.

Cornwall - Sept. 7, 2010

(Source: Beachhousecornwall)

Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha were on holiday near Port Isaac, Cornwall. Samantha had given birth to a baby girl whom they named Florence Rose Endellion Cameron.

The second middle name is taken from the parish, St Endellion, close to where the Camerons were staying in Cornwall.

The name, St Endellion, came from St Endelienta, a Christian Martyr who crossed the Bristol Channel in the 6th Century to bring Christianity to Cornwall.

Legend has it that Endelienta survived the crossing on cows milk but her cow was killed by a local lord. In turn, her godfather, King Arthur, killed the lord. Endelienta revived him and was subsequently made a saint – hence St Endellion.

Historical Fact: David Cameron is a descendant of King William IV

Historical Fact: Samantha Cameron is a descendant of King Charles II

I am sure there is a lot more to this story, Cameron's constant association by the media with Cornwall, the etymology, the numbers, JFK’s Camelot, even the ‘National Lottery’(company is Camelot in the UK). Who knows what all this means? There are others out there who can explain these synchronicities a lot better than I can.

Historical Fact: Cameron caught with his pants down... in Cornwall!

Some of the links I've used are here:

http://news.sky.com/story/1361254/police-review-after-cameron-security-scare

http://www.channel4.com/news/cameron-shoved-pushed-man-leeds

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2728683/Chillaxing-David-Cameron-Cornwall-FIFTEENTH-holiday-Prime-Minister.html#

http://www.cornish-connexions.co.uk/cornwall/cornish-culture/myths-and-legends/mythology-of-tintagel.html

http://www.beachhousecornwall.co.uk/2010/09/david-cameron-visits-st-endellion/

Is Nolan NASA's new Kubrick?

Interstellar Super Massive Black Hole

You may not have been moved by the hype over writer/director Christopher Nolan's new movie, 'Interstellar', but the latest science news should peak your interest.

UNIVERSE TODAY  "...While he was working on the film Interstellar, executive producer Kip Thorne was tasked with creating the black hole that would be central to the plot. As a theoretical physicist, he also wanted to create something that was truly realistic and as close to the real thing as movie-goers would ever see.

...Kip Thorne produced an entirely new set of equations which guided the special effects teams rendering software. The end result was a visual representation that accurately depicts what a wormhole/black hole would look like in space.

...Relying entirely on known scientific principles, the black hole appears to spin at nearly the speed of light, dragging bits of the universe along with it. Based on the idea that it was once a star that collapsed into a singularity, the hole forms a glowing ring that orbits around a spheroidal maelstrom of light, which seems to curve over the top and under the bottom simultaneously.

To simulate the accretion disk, the special effects team generated a flat, multicolored ring and positioned it around their spinning black hole. Then something very weird and inspiring happened.

Thorne’s diagram of how a black hole distorts light. Credit: Kip Thorne

“We found that warping space around the black hole also warps the accretion disk,” explained Paul Franklin, a senior supervisor of Academy Award-winning effects house Double Negative. “So rather than looking like Saturn’s rings around a black sphere, the light creates this extraordinary halo.”

Thorne realized that they had correctly modeled a phenomenon inherent in the math he’d supplied.

“This is our observational data,” he said of the movie’s visualizations. “That’s the way nature behaves. Period.” 

http://www.universetoday.com/115562/the-physics-behind-intellstellars-visual-effects-was-so-good-it-lead-to-a-scientific-discovery/

Stop Clowning Around!

I use to like clowns. Well, that’s not exactly the truth. I never use to mind clowns, put it that way. Once or twice a year as kids, we would be taken to the Circus, where we would sit near the front, very well-behaved, and watch the strange, over-priced proceedings.

There were mostly clowns fooling around in red and white costumes throwing flour, hardly any animals except performing dogs, a tight-rope walker maybe, and a parading horse in a pink dress. (I’m starting to understand something about myself here. This explains A LOT!)

In movies like Uncle Buck (1989), the clown is a washed-up drunk has-been because, let’s face it, who wants to be a clown anymore. Why is that? If you search Google for movies with clowns, all you find are horror movies. They’re scary because of the clown in them. So there is a concerted effort to indoctrinate us into believing that clowns are bad. We know the Joker of Batman fame is no ordinary clown of course. Neither is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, he of Stephen King’s ‘It’ story.

Your friendly neighbourhood clown courtesy of the UK

This is what Wikipedia tells us about It:  A mysterious demonic entity, ‘It’ is a monster of unknown origin which preys on children and humans every three decades, stating ‘It’ finds the fear in children akin to "salt(ing) the meat". Among ‘It’s powers is shapeshifting into a form that induces fear while killing the victim, normally assuming the form of a middle-aged male clown, calling itself "Pennywise the Dancing Clown", modelled after Bozo, Clarabell, and Ronald McDonald.

 

Amazing artist JPS challenged Banksy when he made Pennywise steal the eponymous little girl's balloon!

'It' can also manipulate people into doing its bidding, either by assuming a form most familiar to them, or promising them their desires. Thus, having control over what happens, many of the child murders ‘It’ commits are never solved, as the adults either act as though nothing is happening or have forgotten about ‘It’.

Roger Moore as 007 in Octopussy (1983) 

The story below caught my eye today. After reading a lot about scary clowns over at Twilight Language and other bloggers with similar ideas, this ‘news worthy’ report just had me laughing.

Batman Comic (2007) NO. 663

You got to hand it to them, whoever started this, may single-handedly have destroyed the happy innocent childhood memories of millions. Perhaps this is the point afterall. Once you reach a certain age, you are supposed to grow-up (like you are programmed to) and stop clowning around, or else the clowns WILL get you. Alternatively, it’s a great way to scare the bejesus out of everyone for your own aims.

Batman The Dark Knight (2008) Clown masks

Armed clowns stalk California towns

The Telegraph

By Nick Allen Los Angeles

© Instagram - Wasco Clown

A California community is being stalked by creepy clowns reportedly armed with knives and baseball bats.

The bizarre phenomenon in the towns of Wasco, Delano, and Bakersfield appears to have begun with an innocent Halloween photography project in which a man dressed up as a clown and took spooky night-time pictures of himself at local landmarks.

The so-called "Wasco Clown" quickly collected 40,000 followers on Instagram. But police have received 20 reports in the last week of copycat clowns, some of them reportedly armed and chasing people in the street. One report to police said a clown was armed with a gun, another with a knife.

Sgt Joe Grubbs of the Bakersfield Police Department told local television: "There's a natural phobia of clowns. And clearly if someone is dressed up as a clown and holding a weapon in a threatening manner that's going to frighten people.

"If they want to dress in a clown outfit and walk down the street, ride in a car, that is certainly OK. We would appreciate it if you don't try to frighten people or wield any weapons at anybody or anything like that."

So far, one teenager dressed as a clown has been arrested.

In a Facebook post the "Wasco Clown" said he only carried balloons. The post said: "Our clown and his wife only go out and take their nightly photo and go home. He does not chase anyone, he does not threaten anyone."

Ray Pruitt of the Kern County Sheriff's Department said: "We received a call, a report about a person dressed as a clown carrying a knife out in the southeast part of Bakersfield."

Bakersfield resident Michael Kephart told ABC7 in Los Angeles: "I think our society is going to pot. It's just a really bad thing."

The Louis Vuitton new campaign features... clown face!