1950-1951: The Discovery of Gender Differences

I was born in the midst of the Roswell melodrama in the U.S. Navy military location of Norfolk ("northern people"), Virginia ("maiden"), on July 12, 1947.

My family moved back to Illinois ("tribe of superior people"), specifically Decatur ("sign of the cat"), soon afterward.

Today, my sister Susan ("lily") forwarded me proof that I discovered the female of the Homo sapiens species, sometime between 1950 and 1951 (a full decade before becoming a Fortean/cryptozoologist).

Here's the photographic evidence:

Loren Coleman, September 1950.

Loren Coleman and a friend, 1951.

Did I mention I grew up in Illinois. :-) 

Now, for the great synchromystic researchers out there, what is my middle name, which means "from the old forest" and/or "of the old, noble woods"?

Martian Author Dies During Venus Transit

Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and other science fiction and literary classics — died Tuesday evening, June 5, 2012, in Los Angeles, at the age of 91, according to his daughter. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920, the son of a utility lineman. He was the third son and he was given his middle name, Douglas, after the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks.

As a child he soaked up the ambiance of small-town life — wraparound porches, fireflies and the soft, golden light of late afternoon — that would later become a hallmark of much of his fiction, noted the Chicago Tribune upon his death.

“When I was born in 1920,” he told the New York Times Magazine in 2000, “the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn't exist. TV didn't exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things.”

The Transit of Venus lasted from the evening of June 5th (in North America) to the morning of June 6th (in Europe). Ray Bradbury's death may be the one most remembered and recalled when the question arises, "Who passed away during the Transit of Venus in 2012?"

The Honeybee Killer

Law enforcement personnel are searching for an unkempt gunman who asked about honeybees before shooting three men, one of them fatally, in rural areas of Illinois and Indiana. This is being reported by the Associated Press and other news sources on October 7, 2010.

The (according to the media) random shootings began around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, October 5, 2010, at a worksite in Illinois and ended about an hour later across the state line on an Indiana farm.



The gunman fatally shot 45-year-old Rolando Alonso and wounded 19-year-old Joshua Garza near Beecher (Will County), Illinois. The men were working at a fire-damaged home. A third worker escaped into a cornfield.

Beecher is situated in the center of Washington Township; Beecher was originally named Washington Center. The town of Beecher was named after Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887). Henry was the seventh of 13 siblings, some of whom were famous in their own right: Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin; noted educator Catharine Beecher; activists Charles Beecher and Isabella Beecher Hooker. In addition Henry was the uncle of Edgar Beecher Bronson. Henry was famous as an advocate of Women's suffrage, temperance and Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as a foe of slavery and bigotry of all kinds (religious, racial and social).

Police believe the same man showed up 15 miles southeast, in Indiana, after the Illinois incident and shot a 64-year-old farmer. The honeybee shooter wounded farmer Keith Dahl near Lowell (Lake County), Indiana. The suspect, described as heavyset, unkempt and mentally unbalanced, is thought to be driving a 1990s Chevrolet pickup with a loud muffler.

Will County Sheriff's Department spokesman Pat Barry said the man tried to talk to all three victims about bees.