Playmate All children, or almost all of them, go through a stage in which they invent imaginary playmates. Russian children are no different from any others in that respect. Viktor and Katya Boikia’s little girl, Vika was no different. When Vika was about five years old, she was constantly talking to her parents about her friend “Natasha”. Of course, her parents didn’t pay much attention to her. They thought that it was funny, and sort of amusing… except for one thing… “Natasha” was always hungry… Vika was always going to the kitchen and raiding the refrigerator, cookie jar, or bread bin for food… “for Natasha”. Now, Vika, unfortunately, takes after…

Buzzard The Burying Man In Memory of Dr. John Thomas Bailey (South Louisiana Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1866) We’ve all of us heard o’ the Queen o’ the West In the summer o’ forty-five. And how they desp’ratly clung t’ the boats When she took her final dive. We’ve all of us heard of the boilin’ sun. And the hunger And tharst bearin’ down For twenty-nine days on the rolling sea And prayin’ for to drown. Some says they ate their shipmates So as to stay alive. Ninety-eight souls in two little boats And ended with thirty-five. And we’ve all of us heard o’ Doctor Death And his pickin’ who lived…

Well, holiday season has begun and that leaves most of us thinking about presents. That’s an especially difficult situation if all  of your children happen to be adults. Well, for me, in at least one case I don’t have any trouble at all and never have. My oldest son collects plushies… That’s right, Erik the Aweful… Master Sergeant. E. J. Choron of the United States Army… age 28… collects plushies and always has. He has over 300 now, and has been working on his litle “family” ever since, literally, the day he was born. Erik was born on Christmas morning, December 25th, 1981, I was there for the delivery, but…

The Old Guard Dies… Or Do They There are two roads that lead from Mamontovka to Moscow. One of them is the M-8… a modern, four lane highway that is part of the North-South National Highewy System. It is soothe, well maintained and usually crowded. The other… the old, original Moscow-Yaroslavl road, is small, narrow and empty most of the time. Called the “Payanee Doroga” or “Drunken Road”, it twists and curves it’s way through switchback after switchback, as it meanders seemingly through every tiny village and hamlet in the North-eastern end of Moskovski Oblast. In the summer, it is a pleasant drive, if you have the time, and even…

*Since some of the people in this particular story are, at the moment, still in their country’s service, all family names have been omitted at their request. It is one of the oddities of paranormal investigation in Russia that amazingly few hauntings or encounters with spirit entities spring directly from events surrounding what is known as the “Great Terror”. That is the time, extending roughly from 1926 to 1953, and varying in intensity, in which Josef Stalin and his various heads of state security, presided over the murder of thousands… tens of thousands… possibly hundreds of thousands… no one knows for sure… of the Russian people. Strangely, encounters with these…

And Then There Were Nun The Convent of Our Lady of Sorrows is out in the middle of nowhere. It is so far out in the sticks that you have to chase the owl off of your clock in the morning before you can tell what time it is. It is so far out in the boondocks that the emaciated wolves really do chase the starving bears through the frozen deserted forest. Well it’s not really that bad, but it is rather isolated. The convent is something like forty miles from Novosibersk, as the crow flies… as the narrow, one lane dirt track that leads to it winds, it’s more…

A Tombstone Every Mile It  was the winter of 2006 and the electric trains that usually pull the weight of Russia’s commerce were off line because of unusually heavy snows. Not so, “Old Number Ten”. She and her three sisters, products of the last century and maintained in the case of just such emergencies “soldiered on”. The big, black and red steam powered 6-8-6 combine puffed and rumbled it’s way through the Urals, shoving the snow aside as it climbed ever higher into the mountains, until it reached the dividing line between Europe and Asia. Slashing it’s way through the snow, and temperatures that approached 50 degrees below zero, the…

Reincarnation, the Key to History Bacically, “Reincarnation” is the idea, or belief that each of us live many lives on earth and that in any given life we are what we have made ourselves in former lives, or, are in some way continuing some task or goal that we have undertaken previously. Many, especially those who subscribe to the so-called “Eastern Religions”, believe this to be under the law of cause and effect otherwise known as karma. In this view, our blemishes we have indulged and made a part of our personal self, our strengths and talents we have earned and unfolded. Similarly, what happens to us in life, if…

The Place With No Name Regardless of what you’ve heard, Western Siberia is a wonderous place nothing like we were led to believe in the West. It is not a frozen wasteland. There are no starving bears chasing emaciated wolves up and down the frozen, dreary streets vying for the skeletal forms that huddle wretchedly in long lines waiting for their daily crust of bread and cup of thin turnip soup. Siberia is big and bold and beautiful a land of extremes, and contrast with frigid winters and sweltering summers high, snow capped mountains and pine forests that stretch out as far as the eye can seee. It is a…

Chariots of Fire The UFO wave of 1972-73 was the last “classical” UFO wave to sweep North America… at least the United States. It began in the fall of 1972, as a group of isolated, but seemingly consistent sightings in the Southwestern and Southeastern parts of the country, and eventually turned into a nationwide phenomenon. Now, many people will attribute these sightings to “natural” occurrences, and the U.S. Government certainly has ample “explanations” for each and every sighting, from “atmospherics” to “weather balloons” to “planetary alignments”… still… I know what I saw, and it wasn’t a weather balloon. It was the second Friday in November, 1972, and the Center (Texas)…