Watch The Skies, Hang Onto Your Wallet

Alien Agenda by Jim Marrs, published in 1997, says in the first two sentences of its introduction: "The controversy over the existence of UFOs is over. UFOs are real." He then goes on for the next 600 (!!!) pages or so to regurgitate just about every story, myth, lie, misinterpretation, half-truth and canard of the Alien/UFO True Believer. I noted early in the book a statement that claims Otto Binder was an "ex-NASA space program member." Whatever that is. Otto, who I met and talked to before his death, was a prolific writer of science fiction and before that of comic books. Here's a book, under his original pen-name, he gave me during my visit to him in Chestertown, NY. Otto did believe in flying saucers, and also spirit mediums. He was very open to those sorts of ideas. Did he work for NASA in some capacity? I don't know.

In my time doing research on the UFO phenomenon I have found that most authors of these books don't really try to reach the non-believers, because they know those folks can't be convinced by their brand of evidence. They go after the folks who already believe, or who can be persuaded by accepting the author's word for it. Jim Marrs established his bona fides in those two sentences in the introduction to his book. He's a believer. It helps to know he also wrote the book Crossfire, which was the basis for Oliver Stone's movie fantasy, JFK.

Ah, conspiracy theorists and paranoids. My life would be so empty without them.

This will be my last column on flying saucers/UFOs, at least for a while. (What? Am I hearing a big sigh of relief from you?) Anyway, I have dug out some more book covers.

Jenny Randles is a prolific writer on the subject of UFOs. I especially enjoy these two covers. The first, UFOs and How To See Them has a saucer shaped object on the dust jacket which is really a lenticular cloud. I suppose if you don't know it's a cloud you could technically call it an unidentified flying object.

The second book, World's Best "True" UFO Stories is made interesting by the quotes around the word "true." Are they actually true true stories, or are they quote-true-unquote stories? Apparently the latter.

All of these books claim to tell you the truth, but in actuality are guilty of the same things I blame on the author of Alien Agenda.

And there is some sleight-of-hand in the title of this exploitation video: UFO Phenomenon: The Mystery Revealed. OK, so there's a mystery. So that needs to be revealed? Do you think the unwary might approach this video thinking it will give out any real answers to said mystery?Finally, and God bless American ingenuity. Someone had a far-out idea based on the designs of flying saucers he'd seen splattered all over the newspaper and magazine racks for a couple of years. The cover of Science and Mechanics from December, 1950 uses a technique of promising something that in real life will never be delivered. How many of these flying saucer buses have you seen buzzing over the streets of your city? And if streets were congested in 1950 how about now that we have over twice the population? We need these flying saucer buses now!Ciao for now. Watch the skies, but don't believe everything you see in them.