My 9-year-old daughter Sarah has been devouring a library book about Bigfoot and other Sasquatch Lore, so I figured it was a good time to see what the latest news is from the Yeti News Service:
1. United Press International reported earlier this week that a group of Bigfoot hunters in Oklahoma has found footprints and "heard calls" of the elusive beast.
Apparently, the sasquatch investigators went on a Memorial Day weekend Bigfoot hunt in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. And, apparently, they have a cast of a footprint five inches wide and 15 inches long.
The hunters described the "Bigfoot sounds" as imitation bird calls, including whippoorwills and owls. It's unclear why a tall, hairy, apelike creature would need to sound like an owl, but, hey, that's what they said they heard. (Also, the bigfoot hunters did not indicate to what extent the Memorial Day bigfoot outing also involved swigging bourbon.)
2. Also, a new book, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend, written by Joshua Blu Buhs, has been published this month and is now available for purchase on Amazon.com and from other booksellers. Buhs is described in the press notes as an "independent scholar" who surveys the history of bigfoot sightings and lore. Publishers Weekly indicates: "Buhs's rote application of race-class-gender theory -- By imagining themselves into the body of Sasquatch, white working-class men could imagine themselves as black, as women, could come in contact with... repressed and forbidden desires -- yields more academic cant than insight; his oft-invoked white proles feel almost as legendary and stereotyped as the creature itself."
I think Sarah and I will be skipping that one.
Hey, I'm glad you noticed my book. It's certainly not meant for nine year olds, but it's nowhere near as jargony as PW makes it sound!