Analytical Eye

Minisode: Ted Holiday, the Loch Ness Monster hunter who ended up in a goblin universe

Through our time on the podcast to date, we've talked about a number of different conspiracy theorists, monster hunters and UFOlogists. In this minisode we deep dive into Ted Holiday, my favourite Loch Ness Monster hunter and one who displayed perhaps the greatest shifts in his beliefs over time. Sources: F. W. Holiday The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A Practical Inquiry into the Nature and Habits of Water-Monsters (1968), Serpents of the Sky, Dragons of the Earth (1973)  and The Goblin Universe (1986: posthumous) See Loch Ness Mystery Blogspot for the search for Ted Holiday’s final book, https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2025/07/ted-holidays-last-unpublished-book.html And also for the anecdote about Ted Holiday’s unique way to search for Nessie, https://lochnessmystery.blogspot.com/2012/04/story-about-ted-holiday.html  The BBC story regarding the exorcism of Loch Ness is available from the BBC Archive at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZ1dNWMh7c Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2415474/fan_mail/new]

Minisode: The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic

In spring 1954, Washington state experienced a truly peculiar epidemic. Something mysterious was pitting their windscreens even as they watched. What was the cause of this phenomenon? And what does it tell us about human nature? While ORA is busy at work preparing season 2, here's a minisode on the Seattle Windscreen Pitting Epidemic to tide you over. Sources: James Ross Gardner, What Pitted Seattle’s Glass? https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2020/04/what-pitted-seattle-s-glass Susan Gerbic, Why is the 1954 Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic Pertinent to Today? https://www.humanists.org/blog/2025-02-16/ Classified Humanity, https://classifiedhumanity.com/tagged/Windshield%20Pitting%20Epidemic   Nahum Medalia & Otto Larsen (1958). Diffusion and Belief in a Collective Delusion: The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic. American Sociological Review, 23(2), 180–186. https://doi.org/10.2307/2089002  Nahum Medalia (1959). Who Cries Wolf? The Reporters of Damage to Police in a Pseudo-Disaster. Social Problems, 7(3), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.2307/799450  Alan Stein, Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954. https://www.historylink.org/File/5136 Linton Weeks, The Windshield-Pitting Mystery of 1954, https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/05/28/410085713/the-windshield-pitting-mystery-of-1954 Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2415474/fan_mail/new]

Och Aye Loch Eye: The Loch Ness Monster

What lurks in the dark waters of Loch Ness? When did people begin to believe there was a monster in this Scottish loch, and why? In this episode of Analytical Eye, we look at the history of the Loch Ness Monster. This episode is dedicated to listener Leanne H, with thanks for her constant support.  Voices were provided thanks to Al B, Amanda F and readaloud.net. Sources Like Bigfoot, there were so many interesting books about the Loch Ness Monster that I kept reading perhaps past when I should have moved on: and yet I still didn’t cover the full gamut, though I do believe I hit many of the key documents. Sources for this episode include:  Believers Rupert Gould, The Loch Ness Monster and Others, 1934 Constance Whyte, More than a Legend, 1957 Peter Costello, In Search of Lake Monsters, 1964  Tim Dinsdale, Loch Ness Monster, 1968  Tim Dinsdale, The Story of the Loch Ness Monster, 1973   F. W. Holiday The Great Orm of Loch Ness: A Practical Inquiry into the Nature and Habits of Water-Monsters (1968), Serpents of the Sky, Dragons of the Earth (1973) and The Goblin Universe (1986: posthumous) Nicholas Witchell, The Loch Ness Story, 1974  Roy Mackal, The Monsters of Loch Ness, 1976  Loch Ness Mystery Blogspot – a blog by a true believer who has carefully catalogued a huge amount of information about the Loch Ness Monster, current and full of an excellent amount of detail Skeptics Ronald Binns, The Loch Ness Mystery Solved, 1983 Steuart Campbell The Loch Ness Monster: The Evidence, 1986 Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero, Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other famous cryptids Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell, Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures, 2006  Gareth Williams, A Monstrous Commotion: The Mysteries of Loch Ness, 2015 Dr Darren Naish, tetzoo.com, current. A fascinating blog by a biologist with an interest in examining cryptozoology. Not only was it an excellent lead for Nessie sources, I found it so intriguing that I ended up dipping into random entries on other topics entirely. I recommend it. In-betweeners  Gerald Snyder, Is there a Loch Ness Monster? The Search for the Evidence, 1977 Jonathan Betts – Time Restored: the Harrison timekeepers and R.T. Gould, the man who knew (almost) everything, 2006  Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2415474/fan_mail/new]

Paul is Dead - But Congruence Bias is Alive and Well

Was Beatle Paul McCartney killed and replaced with a talented impostor in the 1960s? Did the surviving Beatles hide clues to his death in their subsequent albums? Or was the whole idea a mirage – and if so, where did it come from? In this episode of Analytical Eye, we turn our attention to the 1960s and one of the earlier music conspiracy theories. This episode is dedicated to Shannan M.  Please remember the ORA is not a real agency: it’s just a bunch of otters in a line.  Sources Sources for this episode are mostly secondary. A particular shout-out to Andru Reeve and his 1994 book Turn me on, dead man: The Beatles and the Paul is dead hoax, which provides a comprehensive overview of how this theory developed. Another good secondary source is R. Gary Patterson’s 1998 The Walrus was Paul: The Great Beatles Death Clues. Hunter Davies 1968 book The Beatles: The Authorised Biography provides a contemporary understanding of how the band felt about fannish interpretations. In articles, I consulted * Tim Harper, Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead? Drake Times -Delphic, 17 September 1969 * Fred LaBour,McCartney Dead: New Evidence Brought to Light, Michigan Daily, 14 October 1969 * Jeff Magalif, Clues Do Not a Dead Man Make: 'I Buried Paul'- And So Have We, Harvard Crimson, October 23, 1969 * David Felton and David Dalton, Charles Manson: The Incredibly Story of the Most Dangerous Man Alive, Rolling Stone, 25 June 1970  * David Sheff, An exclusive interview: John Lennon and Yoko Ono on love, sex, money, fame and all about the Beatles, Playboy, January 1981  On the internet side, thank you to the YouTubers who captured Beatles interviews, parts of Roby Yonge and F Lee Bailey’s programs, and forwards and backwards ‘clues’ – this has immeasurably improved the research and also the episode. Thank you also to the website for the band Klaatu. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2415474/fan_mail/new]

The Hammaspeikko

HEY OCCAM  I had to use your computer for something. Mine still hasn't been replaced after that fire - totally not my fault this time either!  Anyway you were still logged in and I saw you had an episode ready to go so I uploaded it for you!  YOUR WELCOME :):):) Hanlon Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2415474/fan_mail/new]