The Phoenix Lights UFO

Hi folks, 

Here's an 'on this day in history' blog post covering the Phoenix Lights event in 1997. I like to hark back to historical events on the day they happened, it connects us with our past...and who doesn't love a real-life X-File?! 

There have been numerous and varied UFO sightings and recorded incidents throughout time, many in the last decades, some are well documented, however few are witnessed by huge groups of people at the same time. But on the evening of March 13th 1997 that is exactly what happened, thousands of people saw unidentifiable lights in the skies over Arizona and Nevada.

The Phoenix Lights were two separate events, the first occurring roughly between 7.30pm and 8.45pm which featured a huge, triangular or V-shaped formation of lights - the number of which varies depending on individual reports. The lights were said to “cruise across the sky” from southwest Nevada, over Phoenix, Tucson and towards southeast Arizona. The second event happened a bit later that evening with reports at around 9.15pm onwards, this set of sightings involved a line of stationary, glowing orb-shaped objects which appeared in the sky over the Sierra Estrella mountain range.

One famous witness of the lights, actor Kurt Russell was flying in to land at Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport when he saw the V-formation and reported it to air traffic control. However, despite thousands of such reports, no official investigation was ever conducted. The reason so many witnesses saw the Phoenix Lights is due to the fact it was a clear night with no moon, and people were already watching the skies as the Hale-Bopp Comet was visible at the time.

The widely accepted explanation (by sceptics and officials) is that the lights were from military operations being carried out that evening. The first V-shaped formation of lights was said to be a group of A-10 Thunderbolt jets flying in formation as part of pilot training programme called ‘Operation Snowbird’, this does make sense, although the statements of some witnesses describing a ‘set-square’ type shape, solid, with lights imbedded into it should not be discounted. The second sighting of the stationary orbs was put down to a flare-drop exercise from another set of A-10 jets.

Being a more recent sighting, there is quite a lot of decent photography and video footage from that night in 1997, a search on Youtube will bring plenty of results for example. Whether it was planes, flares or something else, it is always worth glancing up at the night sky in case a spectacle is occurring above our heads!

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 - snippet.

Hi all,

Here's a snippet of an article over on Substack that I wrote earlier this year, as I am moving back over here to Blogger I thought I would post a couple of existing pieces to 'bridge the gap' as it were.

This is all about the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 - it sounds incredible and the reality is just as bizarre...and tragic.

'January 15th 1919 was an unseasonably mild day, by lunchtime, Boston’s North End was full of people out enjoying the weather as well as lots of workers going about their business. At around 12.30 - 1.00pm a low rumble could be heard, many assumed it was a train or heavy vehicle, but a few minutes later the ground shook and the rumble turned into a roar. Disaster struck when a massive 50 foot tank of industrial grade molasses burst sending 2.3 million U.S gallons of thick, sticky liquid through the streets at terrifying speeds of 35 miles per hour killing 21 people and injuring 150 more. The wave was reported at being around 25 feet high at it’s peak.'

You can read more HERE - I won't post the whole article here as Google doesn't like duplicated content, but stay tuned for new articles soon!





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Back to Blogger!

Hi all, after a brief foray with Substack I have decided to bring Moonlit Myths back to Blogger where I feel it belongs. I was always happy here, it's simple and friendly so why stray you ask? Well, a lot of people I follow on the socials have Substack accounts where they write newsletters, it was the place to write for a while for both celebs and non-celebs, but it's shiny gleam has worn off a bit with public opinion. I will stay there to read stuff, and I have some lovely subscribers gained from my own promotions, so will be keeping the account open with occasional updates, but this will once again be 'where its at' as the kids used to say. 

Substack has some good points such as helping to build an audience through its app and social media type platform, but to be honest I have never found much engagement from it. I post regularly on my own socials - Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon (now I have remembered that I had an account there) with often healthy likes, shares and comments, but when I post the same content on Substack there is nothing ... tumbleweed ... deafening silence. Life has enough rejection so why put myself through it?! 

Blogger has been sitting quietly in a corner, carrying on doing it's thing for so many years - a bit like me, so here we are again. To all those who say "blimey, is Blogger still a thing?" I shout a hearty "YES".

Over the coming days / weeks I'll be bringing some articles over from there to here so get back on track then keep an eye out for new, exciting things!

Take care, folks.

Snippet: The Howden Moor Incident

Here's a snippet from  the Moonlit Myths Substack post about The Howden Moor Incident, read the full article HERE - sign up to my newsletters for free and get them straight to your inbox 😀

 

Hello again...finally.

Blimey, it was January when I last posted! To cut a long story very short the end of last year and the first half of this year have been not far off a living hell for me, no time to post and no brain power to come up with anything, I lost both my parents within 6 months of each other and it has been awful.

Anyway, here I am, still battling on. Hope you have been OK dear reader, there have been a few things that have helped get me through these dark times so I thought I would mention them...every little helps!

Television-wise we haven't watched much except on demand stuff, a re-watch of Game of Thrones was great and now my other half and I are reading the books at last - really enjoying them as expected, the detail is much deeper of course, but so far they haven't taken anything away from the show. Personally, I think watching it on TV first helped a bit, especially with visualizing the characters - although they are described differently in the books, I was pleased with the casting, some will disagree I'm sure, but if we all thought the same life would be very dull!

Our sci-fi needs have been very well met, most recently Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I really enjoyed it, more so than Discovery which I found hard to stick with. SNW has lots of subtle humour and the casting is fantastic, so highly recommended. Season three of The Orville has been amazing, they really went to town on it with some hard subject matter and in-depth story-lines whist keeping the Seth MacFarlane comedy element, excellent as always and I can't wait for season 4. Stranger Things landed, we have watched all but the last two episodes so there is a bit more to tide us over until 2024 when the final series comes out...hopefully.

A bit late to the party I know, but we just started Resident Alien...and oh my god its brilliant. So funny in a dark way - just our thing. Just when you think you can predict what will happen, it throws a curve-ball and takes you by surprise to hilarious results...watch it if you haven't already, its my new favourite thing.

Other than TV (sounds like we watch a lot, but its not that bad, honest) while I'm working and doing things around the house, my constant companion is the fab podcast Last Podcast on the Left which I highly recommend to anyone who likes comedy, swearing, rudeness, guys who are long time friends and make fun of each other in a 'loving way' and of course the subject matter. The show covers everything from folklore and aliens to serial killers. The shows are really in-depth and there is another called 'Side Stories' for a weekly news round-up. Listen to it, its great, I've been a fan for years and have tickets to the live tour in the autumn...can not wait!

Anyway, that's kind of it from me for now. I'll be back soon with more ramblings, in the meantime join me on Twitter @moonlitmyths :)

Dark Times - Fantasy Matters

 Since November we have had some very dark times - my lovely Mum passed away very unexpectedly and it left a huge void and a lot of shock. Fantasy and sci-fi helped enormously as a way to escape my brain and thoughts, reading and watching - namely the final season of The Expanse (I have since started reading the first book in the series), Merlin...again and season 2 of The Witcher.

 I didn't realise before how important the genres were - I mean they have always been my go to, X-Files has been a near-obsession in the past especially when it first came out, Buffy and a whole host of other great shows, but the actual importance of escapism and creativity with few of the 'real world' issues. Money, politics, celebrity, competition to name a few, are issues in today's society that fuel depression and feelings of inadequacy. In the realm of fantasy, sci-fi and other worlds, values like loyalty and friendship play a far greater role and this, I think gets forgotten. So read your favourite sagas, watch the shows and films if it helps you get through the day...and bugger what anyone else thinks!

Oddly, social media in the form of Twitter and Instagram helped, the people I follow as Moonlit Myths have an intrest in history, crime, high strangeness, paranormal and other fascinating subjects, and although I don't post much, reading through my timeline and looking at their posts makes me feel slightly less alone...so thank you. Facebook however is the last thing I have wanted to look at, and this will continue.

Take care.

Halloween 🎃

Hope you all had a fab Halloween, a bit more like 'normal' for most even with Covid still creeping about. We did our usual thing of turning the lights out (to deter trick or treaters) and watching something on the laptop. At the moment we are on the newly released season two of Locke and Key which is great, we really enjoyed season 1 so have been looking forward to it. Obviously the other TV gem last night was the new series of Doctor Who - Flux! Great stuff.

Reading wise I am about to dive into The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy.  I love his writing and am very much looking forward to it having been madly interested in the case for years.

Anyway, have a good week all!