Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus!

 The presentation on hoaxes reminded me of one of my favorite books as a child, Weird Washington: Your Travel Guide to Washington’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets.

While this book isn't necessarily centered around hoaxes, it does cover many urban legends in Washington State. Outside of that it covers hauntings, mysterious occurrences, and general oddities. While it was never stated as an influence, this book also reminds me of the Disney Channel show Gravity Falls which is set in Oregon.  

For this post, I want to shed some light on some of my favorite lesser known "legends" based in WA. 

J. Z. Knight - Wikipedia

J. Z. Knight is a spiritual leader known for claiming to channel a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit named Ramtha. She founded the Ramtha School of Enlightenment in Yelm, Washington, which teaches followers about consciousness and creating reality through thought. Critics have called her teachings pseudoscientific and the organization a cult. Supporters, on the other hand, praise it as a path to personal empowerment. This path to empowerment comes at the fair price of thousands of dollars and a yearly retreat to Yelm. Knight appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in the 1980s, bringing “Ramtha” into mainstream pop culture.

Maury Island incident - Wikipedia

The Maury Island Incident happened in 1947, when two men near Tacoma, Washington, claimed to have seen six flying saucers and recovered strange metal debris. They reported the event to the Air Force, but it was quickly dismissed as a hoax after investigators found inconsistencies and the "interstellar debris" turned out to be industrial waste. The case gained new life when “men in black” allegedly visited the witnesses, one of the first times that concept appeared in UFO lore. It’s now seen as one of the earliest examples of UFO conspiracy myths blending mystery with fabrication.

Pacific Northwest tree octopus - Wikipedia

Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus may be one of my favorite internet hoaxes. It is a famous internet hoax created in 1998 by Lyle Zapato, describing a fictional amphibious octopus living in the rainforests near Mount Rainier. The site detailed the “endangered” creature’s habits and threats from logging and climate change, citing photoshopped pictures. It became a viral tool for teaching digital literacy as many students believed it was real until learning it was satire. The site still runs today, and teachers use it to demonstrate the importance of verifying online sources.

Washington State has a rich? interesting? laughable? history of odd events and weird occurrences. While some of them are obvious hoxes, like The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, some are serious and unsolved mysteries,
like D.B Cooper. 

I accessed this book via: Weird Washington : your travel guide to Washington's local legends and best kept secrets : Davis, Jeff, 1962- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive if you would like to read it you can make an account and borrow the book for free. I highly recommend doing so!

Wacko Waco

First time U.S. citizens had a view of something crazy on live TV.

• Alex Jones was talking about Waco on his podcast and how he built his initial following.
• Makeshift fort built 7 miles outside of Waco — referred to as a cult or real, honest Christians.
• They used buckets for bathrooms.
• They were taught Koresh was the Lamb.
• Branch off of the Millerite Movement.
• Waco was the cheapest land in the U.S.
• Registered themselves as a church to avoid the draft.
• Became Branch Davidians.
• Believed that God picks individuals to be His prophets and they will be able to teach new biblical truths.
• Things revealed to Koresh: He is the reincarnation of Cyrus; he is the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. As the Lamb, he must take his followers, and they must fight to the death with Babylon (he believes this is the U.S. government), but Jesus will raise them and they will be appointed the new worldly leaders.
• They started buying semi-automatic guns and converting them to automatic before Clinton was elected.
• Did paramilitary training.
• ATF started to put together a case.
• They never once tried to figure out their religious beliefs.
• Branch Davidians knew about the raid; ATF showed up unprepared.
• FBI came in; CNN covered it the entire time.
• Had the birth of American militias.
• Alex Jones gained popularity.
• Demagogues discussion:
• Things these cult leaders say (how Koresh related to Jim Jones and Manson) “Just listen to me,” attempts to isolate followers. “If you disagree, then you just don’t understand. I’m doing this because I love you, and nobody else does.”
• Fire theories: CS gas started the fire? followers started fire as a Mass Suicide? Koresh started fire to protect them.

Here are the notes I took when Jeff Guinn came to speak to our class. I think this was a great discussion and I learned a lot about the Waco incident. He gave me a signed copy of his book which I am happy about. Looking back, I think it was valuable that we discussed the Millerite Movement as it showed the connections and parallels that provided a deeper understanding.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Movie Review

 I thoroughly enjoyed the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I thought it was a good representation of con artists because it showed them turning their back on each other quite often. Also, at the end they went back to scamming innocent people even after their last scam ended up horrible. Here are some of the things I laughed at and the theory of humor I thought they corresponded with. 

It’s better to be good and honest than to be not.” - Incongruity Theory 

“He called me Lady Fanny.” - Superiority Theory 

The leg whip scene - Superiority Theory 

When he’s running down the stairs and pretending to use his chair - Incongruity Theory

I noticed that most of the class laughed at the last two things in my list but not the first two. I think I laugh most often at funny/random sayings or unique references. As an early teen I really enjoyed Futurerama which tended to fall into that category. One of the funniest movies I have ever seen is Fantastic Mr. Fox which definitely falls primarily into the Incongruity Theory. I think I agree with both theories of humor and saw the class laugh at both examples. This being said, I think the class laughed at Incongruity Theory type instances more often. I really enjoyed spending time analyzing these theories of humor and how they impacted the class.