Monthly Spooky | Haunted Photos, Crybaby Bridges & Cocaine Cat

Conversation transcript for the March 2023 episode, recovered from its released recording using automatic speech recognition. Separate opening appeals and closing promotional segments are omitted. Automated punctuation restoration was checked to preserve the words. Speaker names are not assigned where turns are uncertain. Not checked word for word by a human against the audio; transcription errors may remain. Dates and references reflect the original recording.

Haunted photographs are after you. Crybaby Bridges are waiting to kill you. And cocaine, it's not just for bears anymore. All this and so much more tonight on the show. Get comfortable. Turn off the lights. It's Monthly Spooky. My spookies. It's that time again. It's the last Monday of the month and that means it is time for Monthly Spooky. I'm here with my good friend, Michelle.

Hey. Who always catches her cue somehow. And we're here to hang out with you, share some spooky news stories, and we're going to take a little bit of a dive into the phenomena known as Crybaby Bridges. Wow. Do you know what a Crybaby Bridge is, Michelle? Either it's like a really sad bridge or like maybe it has a crying sound associated with it.

You're like really hoping it's a sad bridge, aren't you? Yeah. It's okay. You're allowed to, you're allowed to want that. But yeah, we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But first I just want to see, how are you, Chell? We haven't, last time we did the show, I was in really rough shape. Uh-huh. So, yeah, so we did a kind of a shorter show and I desperately, I literally, when we stopped recording last month's show, I literally went and went, I went and laid down and fell asleep.

Like that was, that was a really rough time. So, um, but how are you doing? I don't know. I guess I'm okay. I don't know. I mean, could you ask somebody? Could you find out for us? I don't have anyone else here to ask. I mean, I could try to ask someone. You could like open your window and just yell at somebody walking by.

Hey, how am I doing? I did probably just say like, fine, because they would get, they would think that I I meant, how are you doing? And then. Or they'd wonder if you, they would think you just meant like you wanted affirmation from them. Yeah. How am I doing? You're doing great. Thanks. That would be nice. Affirmations are always nice. Yeah. But things are going well.

We've had some crazy weather both in Ohio and Philadelphia. We have? Well, at least temperatures have been insane. Yeah. I mean, we got like massive snowstorm. Or not, matt, we got one while back but we got like freak snow out of nowhere a couple of times. But we've had multiple days here in the scenic Dayton Ohio area, which is the paris of Ohio, and we have had a ton of days where it is like 55 degrees during the day and then at night it's like 26, and bouncing back and forth really makes it.

Since I talk into a microphone damn near every day, at least a couple of days a week, minimum, boy, did I notice the weather's changing so fast? Yeah, oh, my gosh, like I cannot keep my in the inside of my schnoz moisturized to save my life, sorry, I mean you can use that saline spray. Oh, that stuff is like worse than the ailment.

Okay, I mean I like it. But you like snorting saline? It's kind of nice. In what way? In the a way that it works and it makes my nose and or throat actually feel better. I may have to give it a shot. I have some, uh, I have a bunch of different nasal sprays, like I have the, the medicated one, for when life is just bullcrap like, like when you literally are like nothing I can do will will get me to breathe through my nostrils, then I have that, because, for those who don't know, this is the most valuable information I will ever put out into the world.

Afrin nasal spray is habit forming. I learned that the hard way when I was a teenager. Wow. When you were a kid, I don't know. Are you different now when you get like a flu than you were when you were a kid? Cause I am. I don't know. What do you mean? When I was a kid, I just wanted to fight against all of the symptoms.

I just wanted to fight against them. Now, as an adult, I'm like if I can sneak a nap, then, uh, you know, or just go to sleep, then I'm just, I don't care about any of it. Yeah, I'm the same as I was when I was a kid. What are you like? What were you like? Or what are you like gotta fight against the symptoms?

Yeah, I mean I'm. I'm like it's not like I'm gonna go out and like do things, but like if I have shit to do in my house, I'm still doing it, unless I like feel like I like I'm not gonna vacuum, vacuum, but like if I have like work to do and stop, I'll keep doing it. Well, and that's the thing like I.

Well, I have a bit of a you, you've known me a long time. I have a bit of a problem with overextending myself all the time. So I kind of live in a world of extremes in that way. So it's like I either am working or I'm resting. If I try to do like half speed, I just end up doing full speed.

Yeah, and that's a thing that like I. Really it's very rare that I can pull that off. Yeah. And then the other problem is, if I wanted like do half speed while I'm really sick, like I'm on cold medicine, cold medicine messes me up, real bad, and then it'll be like, oh well, I'll just do some light work. I'll do light work for like three hours and then realize I did it all wrong and then just go to sleep.

Upset, yeah, I, yeah, I think that you shouldn't. Then I don't take cold medicine when I get. No, not at all, I can't, I can't really tolerate it. It usually makes me feel like I'm high, yeah, um, but not in like, not in like the way I think it makes other people feel like them, like because I can't fall asleep, like I feel weird.

Even on nyquil I can't. No, I can't take that stuff because I will just stay up forever. Well, and I'll tell you right now you, I've told you stories about me on NyQuil. NyQuil messes me up like really intensely. But what happens when I take NyQuil is I feel really weird and then I get really scared by how weird I feel. And then I conk out like it's like it's like it's ramping.

I'm like, oh, God, I feel so weird. Oh, God, I feel so weird. Oh, God, I feel so. It's pretty much how it goes. And yeah, so I'm not a huge fan of NyQuil. That's another thing. Where it's like NyQuil is the acceptance that I cannot do this on my own anymore. Like NyQuil is the one where I'm like I'm not going to sleep through the night, and I have to sleep through the night.

I'm tired of waiting for me to feel better, so I'm going to take this NyQuil and I'm going to go to bed daytime. Cold medicine, though, is something I only take when I am truly, truly desperate. I mean, I mean like I have to, I have to be better somehow, like period, but no. So all of this to say I got addicted to Afrin nasal spray- and I don't mean I got addicted.

Like I was like, Oh man, I need more. I mean that my nasal passages closed up. And the only way to open them was more Afrin. That's not good. It's literally habit forming. Your body will get used to it. And the only way out is to just have no breath through your nose for a few days until you dry out. You know, you got to go to Afrin nasal spray rehab.

Wow. It was not fun, but as an adult now it's nice because I know if my sinuses are like totally stuffed up and I have to use the stuff or I feel like I need to use the stuff. I know that if I do it, if I do it one night, no big deal. If I do it two nights, no big deal.

But if I do it three nights in a row, I need to like use like half as much or like I need to try to like wane off because I know that a week straight you start to get a habit symptoms. The other thing is like if my sinuses are pretty clogged, I just need them to open up. I'll use I'll use one spritz in each nostril instead of two.

Like I'm just like, I'm just like, I don't want to use too much of this shit. I know what happens when you get strung out on it, man. I know, man. I was working the corner for that Afrin. We called it drip drip back then. Got to get some of that drip drip. So, but, uh, so before we get to the spooky news, what do you think of the crypt?

How do you feel about, I've been working on it a lot more. Uh, honestly, I've been like stress designing the crypt and by the look on your face, you don't like red velvet. I'm getting that vibe very quickly. no i mean i think it's okay it's more that i know that you've been stress designing it because we've kind of talked about it about you like just being in here at night at like 3 a.m continuing to design the crypt are you saying that it looks stress designed i don't know no i'm not saying that i at all like don't know no it looks great the truth it's fine It looks great.

I just know how much work you've been putting into this, and it makes me a little bit scared for you. Is it because I attached all this red velvet and then painted Elvis on it? A little bit. And it looks good. And I'm saying that as a person who does not know how to paint. I mean, it definitely looks good, but I just don't understand why you did that.

I don't know. I was feeling stressed, so I just brute forced out a painting. Doesn't everybody do that? I mean, I do, but just not usually Elvis. Well, what else are you going to paint on velvet? Literally, Elvis is the king, but he's the king of velvet paintings. Velvet portraits are always of the king. Yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah, I'm sorry.

It's okay. This one time, it's okay. Well, on that note, we're going to go to a quick word from our sponsors, and we'll be back with some news of the spooky variety. Uh-oh, Chell. It's time for the spooky news. The spooky news. All right. This first piece of spooky news comes from mirror.co.uk, or as I call it, the place with all the ghost stories.

My goodness. Since we started doing the show, I cannot believe how much content mirror.co.uk is just about ghosts and demons and stuff. That's because it's the UK and they have lots of older buildings, so they have more ghosts. That's true, but our entire nation is built on an ancient Indian burial ground. Why aren't we as haunted as they are? Maybe the people who used to live here didn't have reasons to stick around, so they went off to the next life or wherever they go.

How snobby. Yeah, they were like, we don't want to deal with these people that's ruined our lives. These animals. You can just say it. You can go ahead and say it. You can say it. Yeah. But this story, mortified woman buys portraits, then discovers alarming ways every person in them died. So first of all, Chell, would you ever buy a portrait of people you don't know?

Like that are not famous in any way? It depends on what the portrait looks like. If it was really cool, maybe. Like if it was creepy and clearly everyone had been murdered in the pictures? No. Like not during the photo, but I mean, like they just had that look like they're murderable. I mean, I was honestly, I was thinking more like it was just a really cool portrait, like done with really interesting techniques and stuff.

And I valued it as art. But well, then you, then that would make sense, because I think this person probably wanted these, these portraits, because they're old, and old photo photography is very interesting and very unusual. So sometimes, though, like, old pictures of people are scary and I don't want them in my house. Looking at me, you mean like the photos where they're clearly dead, I mean like where they're literally a corpse, because that was when they used to take people's pictures.

Yeah, those, yeah, Those creeped me out really bad. And I wish you hadn't brought it up. Sorry. Alarm bells started to ring for Becky Ann Galentine when the seller of the alluring portraits she was buying offered them for free. Well, that's a red flag. No, it's not. Maybe you just don't want the portrait anymore. Have you? Okay. I'm going to be straight.

Like, have you ever have you ever went to, like, a Sam's Club on on free food day, like when they do free samples day or at a grocery store where they're doing free samples? They're like, hey, try this piece of cheese. And every time I bite into it, fucking poltergeist. Every time people only give away haunted things. Oh, oh, that explains so much.

That's the worst part. Like, they're like, hey, here's a free trial to our website. And I'm like, no, not getting haunted. Yeah. Nice try. Now I understand. Because I thought it was just so that they could eventually get money from you. But I guess they're trying to rid themselves of an ancient curse. They're trying to get you to pay and then they'll take the ghost away.

Yeah. Yeah. Once it's not free anymore. Sorry, the trial version is haunted. Oh, geez. Then her experience felt like the start of a horror movie. Becky and Galentine thought she was simply buying some incredible portraits. But what happened next felt like the start of a horror movie. Thanks for that. The TikTok user, because all news is reporting TikToks now. That's the other thing I've learned from doing the show.

The TikTok user drove for four hours to get her hands on the artwork and had expected to pay. So alarm bells started ringing when the owner let her have everything for free. Now, would you feel like there's a red flag? I mean, I guess if I went there and I was like, okay, so I'm gonna give you a hundred dollars for these, and they were like: no, no, no, no, just take them please.

Yeah, like no, if you give me the money, it won't count. I have to give it to you. I love, it won't count, it won't. Yeah, like, like, it's not like. That's how the curse goes. You have to, you know, give it to someone without money exchanged. I'm trying to remember there was some movie I like that that was like a gag about.

A curse was that you had to pay for it, like they would be. Like they'd be like: if you want this, you have to give me a dollar, and they like: because they just had to pay something for it, because you weren't allowed to give it away, you could only sell it or inherit or buy it or inherit it or something like that.

Okay, now I don't remember what the movie is: yeah, it's. Yeah, it's the reverse. And I always liked that concept that I was like you have to give me a dollar, otherwise it won't work. It's like: oh, okay, uh, might be I might have been wish master anyway, uh, but enough about wish master. There's never enough about Wishmaster. But concerned, the 31-year-old quickly turned investigator and discovered the morbid history behind the alluring portraits.

Oh. So I'm looking at these portraits. There's a picture of two babies. They're all old pictures. Like, really old. The babies are clearly alive. I don't care. I don't want pictures of babies. The other one looks... I can't really tell who's in that picture. And then the other one is a picture of like two men standing in front of a chair. And one guy's like got his hands on the chair.

And it's the other guy holding that other guy up. So because he's dead. No, that would be cool. But they do look creepy. I don't think I would like any of these. This just sounds either boring or scary. I'm still thinking about the whole like you drove all that way and they're like, oh, no, it's free. Like what? Maybe they like. I mean, like I wonder, I hope they say where they got them from, like, was it a store?

I mean, my thought was that it's like something like Facebook marketplace, you know. But four hours to buy something and then turn out they're going to be free just seems suspect. I don't know I I would drive four hours to buy something cool. Would you walk 100 miles or 500 miles? Then I would not walk more after that. You wouldn't walk 500 more?

No, that's it. Just once. Okay. And we're sued. Okay. So as every family member in the paintings had allegedly died in strange and terrifying ways. Oh quote. I did research into the house and found the photos were obtained from a place of tragedy. Explained Brecky Ann. Now this sounds like it was an estate sale. Okay. Because she's saying that like there was a house and they didn't charge her for anything.

It sounds like some kind of like impressive house must have been doing an estate sale or something. And the word spread. Okay. Okay. So quote, one of the twins died at 10 months old. The man in the photo died of a heart attack trying to help people who crashed into his porch. Talk about no good deed goes unpunished, you know? Yeah. Oh, dear.

You people destroyed my porch, but I'll let that go and help you. Ah, dying. That's how it went. That's terrible. And I bet the people were fine who crashed into his porch. That's always the way it goes when people crash into porches. Yeah. It's like they're fine. Another family member died by getting hit by a train at 26 years old. The same week, his mother died and his twin contracted pneumonia.

Oh really, heavy history and misfortune that's. That's her quote. So this is also an era where people just died easier. Yeah, people just died all the time. It was like constantly. Now most people don't ever die. It's cool, right? We're just stepping in front of trains and jumping onto the back of cars and like making eye contact with scary dogs. Yeah. It's the best.

Breggie Ann, who is from West Hartford, Connecticut, described the bizarre find to in a video that has, thanks mirror.co.uk, has racked up almost 250,000 views. Explaining how she loves digging out unique vintage items online and when traveling, She said, quote, when my partner and I travel, we always try to bring something home, but we don't ever buy commercial souvenirs. Okay. We strictly buy weird things or steal, you know, tombstones.

Quote, we look for antiques locally, and that's how I found the listing. The listing advertised three framed antique items. Okay, so the listing was just these items. Okay. A photograph of twin babies in antique clothing, two standing gentlemen posed, and an early 1900s funeral lithograph. Okay, that's the thing I was like, what is that? It's a 1900s funeral lithograph. Yay. I'm looking forward to when people are like, oh my God, I got like a 1990s funeral lithograph.

And it's just like, and it just is like a picture of a coffin. It says like, funerals are better with pogs. Oh man, this is so creepy. 2,000, 2,100 people are just like: oh, how creepy. Pogs and funerals- I uh, by the way, pogs are often haunted, that's why they're free. Um, the lithograph print would have been sold to memorialize the recently deceased and hung up as a memento.

The lithograph has a space for a name, but no name was ever added. But it was definitely for a descendant because it was framed and displayed. Okay, no, maybe not. What? What if? Maybe the, the person who like it was displayed, like the person made it, like it was their lithographic print, like they were responsible and so they were like, let me display one of my original artist.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Or what if they just didn't have a name? What if just everybody was dying around them? So fast? They bought them in bulk and there was just one left over, yeah, and they're like: ah, we can just frame it, it's fine. Well, we'll just have it ready. It's one in the chamber, you know. Yeah, um, oh, damn, you're good chel after spotting the bizarre artwork on facebook.

Well, well done. See, I'm giving you your due on that one. You nailed that. Uh, the ghost hunter messaged the seller to buy the artwork and was stunned when a day later she was offered the paintings for free. She said, quote: the items were listed, listed at a reduced price of 75 dollars and when I messaged messaged the seller, she told me they already sold the next day.

The seller said she had a change of heart and canceled the sale in order to give the items to me for free, as long as we could pick them up. That's not sus at all. That's weird. I think that sounds perfectly average. Not even vaguely sus. Yeah. Stop being so disagreeable, Chell. God. Oh my God. That just sounds so weird. I had a change of heart.

I realized you need these for free. I'm guessing that she had said, like I'm a ghost hunter or something, though, and that person was like: well, they're definitely haunted because they're bleeding like all the time I- I would have thought that it's like what happened was the other people pick them up and then immediately brought them back- was like these are haunted.

And the person and the person was like: yeah, but I, I just thought that you'd like them anyway. And they're like: no, I don't like them and you shouldn't charge people money for them. And then they were like: huh, I guess that's true, And so they decided to give it to the next person. I like the idea that the person gave it.

I was like, these are haunted. Like so, so deadpan too. Like there's no, no excitement in his, these are haunted. Yeah. These are haunted, sir. They were four hours away, but she was willing to drive to meet us halfway. Oh, wow. Drove two hours to give these away to you. That's okay. That's a little weird. Yeah. Yeah. I would have been surprised if you drove halfway to make 75, bucks.

Yeah, no, I would have. I wouldn't driven halfway to make 75 bucks, would you though? Yeah, I mean yeah, where would you meet you thinking like mcdonald's, or rest area, or cracker barrel? What are you thinking? What about? Like some really weird deserted park? Meet me at this abandoned park. It's called dead child way, yeah, or a graveyard graveyard, or like an abandoned white castle, yeah, so, uh, let's see.

Quote: that sounded an alarm. Who who drives two hours to meet someone for something they're giving away for free? When we met her, we were given the photos, along with a vintage copy of the encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology. You're gonna need this, okay, so let's. Let's play this out shell, okay, so let's say you wanted what's something really valuable you wish you could have, like that's like old or something like an album or something, oh, like, like, like an item.

That's not food, not food. No, this is taking longer than I thought it would, sorry, I don't really want anything. How about like some really nice, cool, like vintage desk, okay, so, so you were looking at this nice, cool, vintage desk, right, yeah, and you're like: oh, I have a little bit of money somehow, so I'll buy it for 75 dollars and it fits in my car.

I got the measurements and then I'm like, hey, um, so sorry, I told you I bought that I sold the vintage desk, but now I think I should give it to you for free. Let's meet two hours, uh, each way we'll meet halfway and I'll give it to you. So now we meet at this rest area or mcdonald's or something, okay, yeah, hi, uh, you're Michelle, right?

Yeah, that that's my name. Oh, it's so nice to meet you. It's so nice to meet you. My name is mortimer and this is my desk, which I really want you to have for free. Oh, okay, I, yeah, yay, cool, can I help you load it in your car? That would be helpful because I'm small. You, I noticed that, but I didn't want to comment on it because I'm very, very tall.

Oh well, thanks, I didn't notice. Oh, the weather up here is great. By the way, will you take this desk? Um, I mean, that's what I came for. So I think, I think we're good, mazel tov, all right, so we're gonna open this trunk. Yeah, okay, so we got this at pivot, pivot, I, I think, yeah, pivot. Okay, there we go, okay, thank you.

All right, oh, no problem. Oh, by the way, here is this encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology. Oh, I mean, that's do, why? Huh, I'm sorry, why, why, why do you giving them to me? Oh, no, habla Ingles. Um, uh, yo, um, hello sayonara. So that's, I imagine that's how it would go down. Yeah, pretty, pretty much exactly. I'd be like: what do I do with this book about witchcraft?

And I throw it out, oh and that, and then it would just find you like when you got home. It would be like waiting for you on your couch. Yeah, yeah, sorry, that's what happens. That's okay. I wouldn't really throw it out because I feel too bad. I want to do a garage sale and just when somebody buys something, be like, oh, and here's an encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology, like what?

And I'll be like what? Becky had her suspicions that the items were haunted and revealed how the anonymous seller dropped her a hint. Well, it can't be an anonymous seller. You bought it on facebook. You have to have a name on Facebook. Well, you could have a not real name, but also how can it be an anonymous seller if you met them in person?

I don't understand. That's what I'm saying. Like, I feel like, you know, you're not really anonymous if you, if there's any way they can contact you or find you. So now, granted, they could have like deleted the Facebook account immediately after and stuff, which is now making me want to to like give away stuff and pretend it's haunted, just to, yeah, just be like.

You know, I changed my mind. This should be free. Can you take it tomorrow? I'll drive it to you, terrifying, oh yeah, oh hi. Mr kuto, I, I understand you're very excited to have this original copy of the mojo nixon skid roper- uh, free, drunken horny album. I am, and here's a copy of the Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology to go with it.

What? She added, quote, we pick up a ton of antiques and always joke that they could be haunted. Usually after a few days pass without activity, we accept that the objects are just old, not haunted. Oh, that's what I'm going to, when I'm, when I'm like in my sixties and seventies, I'm going to wear a t-shirt that says just old, not haunted.

That's what I want. Quote: the first suspicion was the willingness of the seller to let go of these objects and the lengths she was willing to go to bring them to us. She was so kind. But of course that included an encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology, which made us feel as if she was dropping a hint. This person is a mensa candidate, like right here, like why are you here when you could be solving all of cancer at Harvard.

You put that all together by yourself. The unique story has left social media users stunned. In the video, Becky Ann reveals that the seller gave her a book in addition to the art titled The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology. Right, right. Quote, the beginning of every horror movie, said one user. Someone else added, quote, we need updates on anything that happens with these, please.

No, not at all. Haunted, said wendy, to which becky, and replied: right, who gives away antiques for free? Quote. Why did I think they were going to be pictures of actual dead bodies? Added deseret. Quote. My kind of adventure, said denise, while another person wrote: I love all of this, now, of course. Oh, what were you gonna say? Oh, what did you say?

Thanks so much for all those really great comments. Mirror.co.uk thanks for a story about ghosts we were short one mirror.co. Uk. So I will say that I think there's a high likelihood that that was done for clout. You know that that was done for um attention on tiktok would not shock me. And now it's making me. I have all of these props from all the horror movies I've made.

I have like an actual, actual, I mean, but like a a hand would burned Ouija board. I should make a tick-tock about like and say I drove to like Rhode Island to buy this and when I got there it was just sitting there by itself and no one was there to hand it to me. But it looked just like the photos. So I grabbed it and went home and other than my eyes bleeding a little bit- which always happens when I drive through New Jersey- nothing weird happened.

Yeah, what do you think, chel? So you, you would not want the haunted photos, or you would? You would, you'd be willing to give them a chance? Um, I feel kind of bad for them because nobody wants them now. Oh, yeah, that sounds like I'm gonna keep them, but I don't really want to put them up, but I'll just keep them. I guess.

Where would you put them? Like in the basement, face down? No, that'd be weird, I'm gonna just put them in the office, just with the other things that I just haven't gotten around to putting up anywhere. You know how creepy that would be if you had like creepy photos in your basement in the middle of the floor, like nowhere near a wall, just face down.

Because then when you discover it's like why is this, like this had to be put here because it couldn't have fallen here. Yeah, a little little on the scary side. Yeah well, we'll be back with more spooky news in just a moment, after a quick word from our sponsors. But believe me, we have some interesting news related in some way loosely to the Cocaine Bear right after this.

Welcome back to the spooky news. And for those of you who joined Michelle and I last month, You remember we talked a little bit about the film Cocaine Bear and also about the true story of Cocaine Bear, which was not at all exciting compared to the movie. But today it's very exciting because we have an Ohio story in Cincinnati. We have a story very similar.

It comes from NPR.org. A wild cat was found in Cincinnati with cocaine in its system. No, it's not a movie. You've probably heard of Cocaine Bear, the box office hit about a black bear's drug-fueled feeding frenzy. But have you heard of cocaine cat? But have you heard of heroin hairy? The phrase started trending on twitter on thursday. Like the movie, it's based on a true story.

Only this one is about a wild cat that was captured in Cincinnati and turned out to have cocaine in its system. Jeez. How do you, do you have any theories? You're a cat person. Half cat, half person. Yeah. Do you have any theories about how a wild cat would get cocaine in its system? If somebody gave it cocaine, I guess. But how do you get it to take it?

Maybe you thought it tasted good? Like you tell it that, you know, it'll make it cooler and make it get its work done faster. Giggs likes to eat plastic. So I think, you know, who knows? Fair enough. Let's see. Unlike the movie, this story isn't set in the 1980s. It happened earlier this year. It was only made public recently for legal reasons, explains Ray Anderson with the Cincinnati Animal Care Shelter.

Shelter quote. Coming on the heels of the Cocaine Bear movie, we're not surprised it's gone viral, he told npr via email. The protagonist of this particular tale is a serval named amory serval. Do you know what that is? It's a some sort of cat species. I mean, I'm assuming I'm showing you a picture. There's a picture of the kitty- cute, I know, don't you want to pet it?

Yeah, but it also looks like it's getting like oxygen or something. I think they're giving it oxygen. There's a hose attached to its little boopable nose, yeah, which I'm assuming is just to help with the cocaine. Yeah, or something. Poor thing. Well, uh, let's see. Um, the capture. The big cat was kept as a pet and escaped from his owner's car during a police stop.

Oh, cincinnati you. I live 45 minutes north of cincinnati. Cincinnati, you never disappoint, never, ever disappoint. I'm gonna start that sentence again. I was not prepared for that sentence. The big cat was kept as a pet and escaped from his owner's car during a police stop in January, according to anderson. That's when hamilton county dog wardens- a division of Cincinnati animal care, got calls about what was thought to be a leopard spotted up in a tree.

Responders:. Oh, it was up in a tree is price scared. Yeah. It was like my, I'm scared. My owner gave me cocaine and now he's gone. I want to look up an Amory real quick. Cause I'm, I mean, have you heard of them before? Are you just assuming that it's a type of cat because, or not Amory gosh. Uh, what's the name of the cat?

Sorry. That's the name of the cat, but not the um, uh, serval. Have you heard that phrase before? I've definitely heard of serval before, but you can look it up. Yeah, I'm just curious for those who are as dumb as me and, uh, hopefully there are none of you. Oh, my god, they're so cute, it's so cute. Look, it has like a little tiny face and giant forehead and ears, super wicked, fluffy.

How much does one cost? That's the first thing on Google. How much does a serval cat cost? Oh, like five grand. That's not so bad. I mean, you shouldn't have that kind of cat as a pet. So maybe you should have to pay. Why shouldn't you? Because then you'll give it cocaine. You just won't be able to resist? Yeah. You'll be like, I love this cat so much.

Here's some cocaine. Yeah, Serval is a wildcat native to Africa. It's widespread in sub-Saharan countries, Except rainforest regions. Across its range it occurs in protected areas And hunting is either prohibited or regulated. It's a sole member of the genus. I'm not going to say that. Alright, let's move on. We don't need to learn any more about this type of cat. Let's learn more about the cocaine variety of the serval cat.

Okay, Responders were able to retrieve Amory And bring him back to the shelter, where the medical team called in an expert whose credentials included working on the Tiger King case and the Zanesville tragedy, to identify a species. Do you remember the Zanesville tragedy? No. Are you serious? I don't know. Oh my gosh. How do you not know about that? I might know about it and just forgot.

So the Zanesville tragedy was when somebody see, I'm afraid to say to not get all the information right, so I'm trying to find the info- but basically, a guy owned a bunch of animals that, like you shouldn't own, like zoo animals, and he massacred a bunch of them. That's terrible. You don't remember that, do you? No, I don't remember that. Let me pull up something real quick because it's actually.

It happened, uh, in 2011, oh, uh, okay. So in 2011, uh, zanesville, Ohio, animal escape occurred on october 18th, when the owner of muskingham county animal farm released multiple exotic animals before committing suicide. That's what it was. He killed, he released them and killed himself, and then 48 of the animals were killed by law enforcement. Oh no, that's terrible, yeah, and I mean, like, from what I recall, people were like you know, I can't believe they killed all those animals, but like they were really dangerous, a lot of them, yeah, and the cops are not prepared to deal with that.

I mean, I, I don't, I, I wouldn't blame them. They're in, they were in a situation where, yeah, that they didn't know what to do and may have been in danger of those animals could have all been on cocaine, yeah, we don't know on, uh, let's see. Owner terry thompson allegedly set free 50 of his 56 exotic exotic animals before committing suicide.

Lions, tigers, bears and wolves were among the animals that escaped and were hunted by local law enforcement out of fear for public safety. That's terrible. And Zanesville is kind of a middle of nowhere spot. It's literally like I drive through Zanesville when I come to see you. It's like right off of 70. Okay. So it's a cute little place. Like there's lots of good places to eat after like a long stretch of nothing on either side.

48 animals were killed by the local police while two were presumed to be eaten by other animals. The animals confirmed to be dead were 18. Oh my God. 18 Bengal tigers. Oh my God. Six black bears, two grizzly bears. Oh my God. Two wolves, one Maca, Maca K monkey or Maca Q monkey, one baboon, three mountain lions. Oh my God. And 17 African lions.

Wow. Three leopards, a small grizzly bear and two monkeys were left. caged inside Thompson's home. Huh? Yeah. I'm sorry. I was just surprised you didn't know about it because I know that even though it happened in Ohio, it was national. It was a national story. So, I mean, I may have heard about it briefly at the time, but obviously it's not something that has stuck in my memory.

We get it. You hate animals. We get it. Yeah. So, anyway, sorry to go on that uh, go on that uh trail, but I really I needed to make sure you understood the history of wild. That was an insane thing. I remember hearing about that and there are photos that I'm not gonna find or show you of, just like them. But, like, wow, I didn't realize there were that many super dangerous animals, though, like lions.

Anyway, all right, let's get back to this. Um, the expert suspected emery was actually a serval, a long legged, big-eared wildcat that is native to sub-saharan africa and illegal to own in Ohio. Boo, well, you live in pennsylvania, you'll be fine. Oh, okay, to confirm that. The medical team took a dna sample and also tested him for narcotics. So why, why go on, chel?

What were you gonna say? I don't, I don't know. I don't know. Why would you feel the need to test the animal for, I guess, I guess they probably didn't just test it for narcotics. They probably tested it for just any kind of drug that like an owner would be giving it or whatever. But they probably thought they were going to find like sedatives or like Valium or something to make it not angry.

And instead they found some Colombian marching powder. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Quote: amory tested positive for exposure to cocaine and the dna test concluded he was indeed a serval. Anderson wrote: why did the shelter animal test? Uh, why, oh, wait, oh, does it ask. Why did the shelter test amory for drugs in the first place? The short answer is: a capuchin monkey named neo he- he told them to do it.

Yeah, he was like man. I'm gonna tell you something about that cat. Don't trust him, that cat. He's into some stuff. Last year, local animal control seized the monkey from his cincinnati home after a veterinarian saw videos of him. Believed he- uh, videos of him- believed. Thanks for the english npr. So, who saw videos of him believed he had ingested xanax and or cocaine and was in need of medical care.

Okay, have you ever been around a monkey? No, I'm scared of monkeys. You should be afraid of monkeys. I'm really scared of them. I think hot take. I have not announced my candidacy for the president as of yet, but I will say that I think monkeys should have to take Xanax if they're going to live with people. Yeah, yeah, also, maybe people should have to take Xanax if they live with people, but definitely monkeys should take Xanax.

Neo tested positive for amphetamines, Underwent treatment and is now Safely in an undisclosed location. According to Anderson, His owner was indicted on animal cruelty charges. Wow, then they had to put him In an undisclosed location. Wow, yeah, probably because You know, I have no idea Why they put undisclosed. He probably didn't. It's in quotes that he said that. He probably just didn't remember where he went.

He was like, ah god, was it Indiana or Michigan? Undisclosed location. Since then, Anderson says it's become standard protocol for the shelter to test for narcotics for any animal that is more exotic than the usual household pet. That's amazing, man, I gotta tell you. Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio, sounding more like Florida by the second right now, quote. Of course we also test for narcotics on any dog or cat displaying behaviors that would lead us down that path.

He added amory was extremely agitated at the time. He was with us. Well, he's a cat, uh, which is understandable given that what he had been through that morning. But we were able to sedate and treat before sporting, uh, transporting to the cincinnati zoo, okay. So, Michelle, yes, you're gonna be a police officer, okay, and you just pulled over a car, okay, okay, and I'm gonna be the guy who owns the serval cat that I just gave cocaine to.

That's in my car. Okay. Okay. So you're walking up, you're walking up to the, you're walking up to the window. Okay. Your window's not open down. Okay. I cracked it like halfway. License and registration. Why are you pulling me over officer? You were going 105 miles an hour in a 55. I was under the impression that the 55 sign was in kilometers.

It is. It isn't. Can I see your license and registration, please? Sure. Let me just. Sir. Yes, sir. What is it? What are you trying? What are you touching over there? What's in the car with you? My license and registration. I'm trying to obtain it for you while you fascistly stop me on this road. Is that okay with you? I was referring to, sir, step out of the car.

Am I being detained? Probably. Go, run, Kitty, run, run, run. What? You didn't see anything, officer. Okay, I'll get out of the car. Okay, okay, okay. No need to. I'm being abused. Abused! I'm being abused! Sir, I'm not even touching you! Help! World star hip-hop! I'm gonna need backup. You're lucky my cat ran away. Alright. I want Michelle to always be a cop in any skit from now on.

Okay. You're like, alright, you're gonna need to get out of the car. Oh my gosh. Okay. Anderson declined to elaborate on the specifics of the toxicology report and said authorities are still looking for specific evidence that would indicate how the cocaine got into Amory's system. Quote, given the nature of his capture, we cannot currently say if this, this was intentional or environmental.

He added, I will say if you have an environment where cocaine is just everywhere and it's going to end up in your system, you can definitely afford a serval cat. Like you definitely have the money for exotic pets. If cocaine is just wafting around everywhere. So maybe we're looking at this the wrong way though. Okay. Maybe it wasn't him that the owner that gave the cat the cocaine.

Maybe when the cat escaped, he ran into a place filled with cocaine. Oh. And then went up a tree because it got so scared of the cocaine. See, frankly, I just assumed that the cat got hooked on it on the inside. People don't like to talk about that, but lots of animals that don't use, use once they're in an animal shelter. Yeah, I get it.

You're just like, what else do you have to do, you know? You're just in that cage. It's a sad thing. Yeah. I'm just glad the cat didn't test for fentanyl. Me too. Oof. The shelter that rescued Amory is not equipped to house wildlife, so it sent him to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden after a few days. Anderson acknowledged it can be difficult to find placement for servals and credits the zoo for helping the shelter out of a tough spot.

I'd like to imagine, like, if this were the 90s, this would be a movie. Yeah. About a zoo owner who's hiding the serval cat in his office. And all the serval cat does is cause mischief and find more cocaine. Quote, our top priority was getting Amory safely and legally placed as quickly and efficiently as possible, Anderson said. Amory has been recovering from a broken leg, an injury he sustained while slipping out of the tree during his dramatic rescue.

That's why. That's why they were doing. They were like. They were like sedating him to get his leg set. That's what that picture was. Um zoo officials said in a statement on friday that his health had improved enough for him to move to the area of the cat ambassador program, which aims to educate visitors about the importance of wild cat predators and raise money for cheetah conservation efforts.

I didn't know that was a thing, but why not? The team there will monitor his recovery and help him acclimate to a new environment, a process they say is off to a promising start. Amory is young and very curious. He is exploring his new space and eating well, both great signs of progress, said Linda Castenda, the lead trainer of Cincinnati Zoo's cat ambassador program.

We are working on building trust and increasing his comfort as he adjusts to his new home. Amory's owner willingly signed amory over to animal authorities. I'd like to think that they're like animal cops, like, just like a donkey and a horse and like, and like you know, a wolf, and they're just like you're gonna have to give them to us. Yeah, uh, over to animal authorities and cooperated with their investigation, anderson said.

Anderson said, which is why they are not pursuing charges at the time, okay, his owner was cooperative and paid for amory's care until all ownership transfers were finalized. Well, of course, you can afford to pay for a lot of things with a lot of cocaine money. Yeah, uh, which is when the story went public, was after: oh, so the story didn't go public until he no longer owned it privately.

That makes sense. Uh, however, it says the case remains open pending additional, additional evidence and that the Ohio department of agriculture is investigating as well. Oh man, when you get the oda on you, that's bad news. Yeah, uh, I'll put this in here because you know it could be helpful. The hamilton county dog wardens are asking anyone with information to call them at 513-541-7387.

See, I just did a public service, you did, we're great. No, we're so good, you're great. There have been a number of recent instances of wild animals gone, well wild in the u.s a pair of emperor tamarin monkeys were stolen from and returned to the Dallas Zoo in January while a while a Eurasian eagle owl escaped from the Central Park Zoo last month and remains free to this day.

Plus Cocaine Bear. It just says plus cocaine. I'm surprised they didn't talk about us because in Philly we had a wild animal that we found recently this month. That's probably good for Philly. Murders went down because people were afraid of the wild animals. Yeah, it was. It was in fdr park. The police got a bunch of calls about like an alligator, what yeah?

And then they went and it wasn't an alligator, it was just a caiman, which is almost like an alligator. Yeah, it is. It's three feet long. I'm guessing that was a pet they figured, probably because they don't live here. I would hope not if they did. You never told me about it when I would visit. Yeah. I mean, I didn't want to scare you.

I appreciate that. Yeah. You're a kind hearted soul. That's not necessarily cause for concern, but Anderson advises caution. If you do happen to encounter an exotic or agitated animal, keep your distance as much as possible and contact local animal control. See, I was always taught if you like saw a dog that was growling, it just meant that it was lonely and you need to pet it.

Mm-hmm. Offer it your hand. Yeah. Or any appendage, really. They're all good. They're all good options. Quote, do not approach. Do not wait to get pictures or video. Stay safe as it could not only be a life or death situation for yourself, but the animal as well, he added. Let professionals handle the situation and get the animal to safety if possible. They're really just playing.

They're really playing like we're so kind and compassionate after they killed Harambe. Never forget that. That was in Cincinnati. Oh, geez. There's another lesson his organization wants people to take away from Amory's story. Quote, we remind our community that there will be thousands of dogs, cats, and other animals in need of rescue entering our facility this year who will not receive this level of publicity.

It wrote, urging people to visit their county animal shelter when searching for their next pet. Because you never know what animal you can find that's on cocaine. I'd like one of them serval cats. Sir, we, we don't want people to have those, but I want it. Okay, fine, yay, can I give it cocaine? No, okay, any. So let's see, I wanted to.

I had, uh, I have two more for you, but let's, uh, let's actually go to a break and we'll come back. I've got one that you're going to appreciate, because it's about a house, oh, house, yeah. So we'll be right back after these quick messages with more spooky news, and we're back with some more spooky news, and this one is just for you, chel mirror.co.

Uk, of course. Uh, inside, spooky derelict house which comes with a chapel and its own graveyard, for 55 000- well, 55 000 quid, that's not that much money- and I'm showing it to you so you can get a look at the place. It doesn't. It doesn't look like it does. No, maybe it does. Yeah, uh, it won't let me zoom in. Oh, there it goes so you can see a little bit better.

Sorry, my, uh, my chrome is really slow. It doesn't look too bad. Oh, that's a tree, that's what I'm seeing. Are you looking out the window again and not not at the computer, and I don't know, maybe. So, as a professional home inspector, what's your first thought looking at this one photograph of this house? It doesn't look too bad. I mean, it's got some.

It looks okay. I think it looks good. You love it? Yeah, would you buy it and live in there? Absolutely. Well, let's see, let's find out some more information about this house. A bundle of buildings, including a home, chapel and a graveyard, has gone on the market in penner, penner, herber, wales, for 55 000 quid, although would-be buyers are told to enter at their own risk.

Yeah, a spooky, derelict house complete with a chapel and its own graveyard has gone on the market for 55 000 quid. The bundle of buildings can be found within a quiet collection of cottages near the rural hamlet of penherber. It's p-e-n-r-h-e-r-b-e-r, penherber, penherber, penherber, penherber. I don't know for people who invented english, they're really bad at it. Um, boasting panoramic views, the property, once finished, once finished, could be turned into a number of homes to go on the market.

However, before property developers begin thinking about moving it on, moving it on, moving, moving on it, a peek inside the home reveals the amount of work required to bring it up to spec. Potential buyers are told at the outset they enter the property at their own risk, as foliage has invaded the house, where plaster has crumbled and floors have fallen through. Oh, so far they haven't published any photos of the interior.

Sorry, that's okay. I mean they wouldn't because it's probably really bad. Yeah, that's a good point. Uh, this is a little shot of the area. It's so nice. It's like a little country road, dirt road, and there's like a house and then a chapel on the other side of the dirt road. Yeah. It's very pretty. And you get the chapel too. The chapel hall next to it is called the vestry.

Yeah. And you do. Yeah. It's the home chapel and graveyard. It's called the vestry and is at least more watertight and can offer additional space and a character: a characterful wooden ceiling to add a layer of history to the building. Inside the vestry there's one large space with a sink in the corner. Yay, a sink? It's a weird. It's one large space with a sink in the corner.

That's, that's your chapel, kids. Come on, let's get you baptized. The building has the potential to be an amazing single-story dwelling or a workshop for a business. Yeah, From the outside, the chapel initially looks like it is the building in the best condition, although that is definitely not the case. Further inspection reveals dry rot with floors having collapsed in parts and walls badly affected by fungal growth, leading to the chapel being condemned, so demanding a skilled and full renovation.

Aww. Another cute picture. Aww. It's not even that big of a graveyard. There's like five gravestones in there. Yeah. It's nothing. That's nice. You can live in the graveyard, I guess, because you can't live in the house or the chapel. The safest place for you is the graveyard. Yeah. The chapel currently comes with the pulpit, pews, and upper balcony, and the substantial arched windows ensure the space is flooded with light and soaked in sunshine.

The estate agent selling this bumper bundle of buildings states the site has the availability of mains water supply, mains electricity and broadband and private drainage. Oh, chel, you buy this place, fix it up, we could live stream from it, we could. We don't even need to fix it up, we could still just live stream from it. I feel like you would need a hobby.

So you'd be like I'm gonna fix this up some because I just like doing stuff like that. Oh yeah, yeah, look at that, look at that pretty place. Oh man, you could do it. I don't know, I can't. I mean, yeah, and I could just live in a tent while I'm fixing it up outside. Yeah, and then no one will mess with you, because that's that crazy lady who lives in a tent next to the old graveyard.

No, in the old graveyard. That's better than having a like a brutal pit bull, like, like for keeping bad people away. Don't go over there. She lives in the graveyard. Kids would be telling stories about you in no time. Yay, as with the majority of sales of now redundant chapels and church, now redundant chapels and churches, I'm surprised they don't just print in here: god is dead, you know?

Just just go for it, guys come on. No, as without, as with the majority of sales of now redundant chapels and churches, there are covenants attached to the sale, as usually, but not exclusively, regarding access to the graves and the grounds for families of those laid to rest at the site. You don't have anything to say about that. I don't know. Would you just move the bodies?

Um, no, I'd pretend I moved the bodies for better, better yet would you just move the grave markers, but not move the bodies just full, exactly, pull a full-blown, uh, poltergeist? Well, yeah, and honestly, that's. They do that a lot anyway. Well, most of the time they just make parking lots over them and then they go: oh, there's a graveyard here. Well, maybe, where you're from, they're like paving parking lots over a lot of guys who had a little bit too much to say.

You know what I'm saying. Yeah, Jimmy Hoffa, The agent can also enlighten any buyers Regarding details of the leasehold, Which is 999 years old. That began in. Oh wait, sorry, the leasehold Which is 999 years, It began in 1918, So there's still well over 800 years remaining. No, no, no, I don't want a lease. Fuck that, I don't care If there's almost a thousand years To it, So that's your deal breaker?

Is that it's a lease, even though the lease is guaranteed for over 800 more years. No, I'm not. No, they can. Somebody can probably come and be like, well, we don't do, well we're, we're like taking it back and I'll be like: oh no, the people from 1918, just like I really need to take this back. You defaulted on something. I'm sorry this turned out to be a lease.

I mean, it's being sold by a real estate agent. I don't care. Oh, wow. Look at this. Oh, see, see, Chell, you know, you work in the housing business. So there's still over 800 years remaining in the lease, plus further information on the annual service charge and the ground rent. Yeah, I don't want to live here. I'm done. This is what it took.

Yeah. You were all about it until you found out it was a lease. Listen, listen. There's like a grounds charge and then like a service thing, beer thing. Like, and I have to fucking fix the place up? I'm leasing this. You fix it up. And then I'll take it. Who are you even leasing it from? You must be leasing it from like the county or the country or something to be that long.

Well, I mean, what if I'm just leasing it from a family that has land nearby? Well, so it could be. Would you lease something for 999 years? Would I lease something to someone for 999 years? It seems like a bad deal. It does. But I? But I feel like there's probably a reason that that was done and not sold. So I just don't know what it is.

It's weird. Maybe, maybe that was the only way they could donate it to the church originally, or something, maybe, um, because that is weird, I mean 999 years. You don't expect anybody's gonna make it through that. You know, like that's a thousand years, yeah, that's, yeah, I mean it's a really long time. It's basically saying forever. But I still don't want to lease and I don't want pay things like like: come on, I love how mad you are about this.

This is wonderful. Oh, this has made my whole day good. So 100, not in on this derelict, spooky house lease. I guess it's a sublet, right you're? I mean like, like, right, I mean like I, I don't think it's a sublet, I think I'm just taking over the lease. Okay, that makes sense. You know, sorry folks, Michelle needs at least eternity on any ownership, I'm sorry.

No, no, I mean, even if the lease was like a, like a never-ending lease, no, I don't want it. I mean to put it into context, if we went a thousand years back from where we are right now, uh, we're talking like feudalism, we're talking like before, uh, anything that we know, that's modern, like we're talking before potatoes existed in europe if you go back a thousand years.

So I'm just saying, if you go forward a thousand years, it's gonna be a very different world. I, I don't, I wouldn't anticipate me, I mean, obviously, or anyone related to me or any sort of family line still existing after a thousand years. Wow, no, we'll be all gone. But that's not the point. The point is I don't want to pay a lease and then have monthly fees when technically, somebody could probably come and just be like: I don't want to lease this anymore, I'm breaking the contract, maybe like the king of England: yeah, I'm taking this back.

Yeah, exactly so I don't want it. No, no, fair enough. I mean, man, I've never heard you hard pass so hard before. Yeah, it's okay, chel, take a deep breath. Oh, okay, don't. That's fine too, gosh, all right. So, uh, this next story- it's kind of in the realm of spooky news, but I felt like it was worth covering. This is from reuters winnie the pooh horror film canceled in hong kong.

So for those who don't know, there's a film called blood and honey winnie the pooh. It is a horror film based on winnie the pooh. It is a violent, gruesome, gory torture film that is not played for laughs at all, it is entirely played like it's real. I went and saw it at the theater opening day. It's fun. I mean, it was exactly what they promised.

It was like a really brutal horror movie about Winnie the Pooh. So I was not necessarily that's not necessarily the kind of thing I'm super into, but I loved that they just did it 100%. And for those who were like, well, what? Winnie the Pooh became public domain last year. So you can do that. But apparently, and I didn't know this, apparently Winnie the Pooh has a storied and controversial history in China.

Oh, you want to guess why? Because they don't like bears or honey? Not quite. It's more communist than that, because I don't know. It's okay. Well, let's dive into this. So Hong Kong, March 21st. The screening of Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey, a British slasher film due to be released in hong kong this week, has been canceled after cinemas in the city declined to show it.

Its distributor said on tuesday, um seven pillars entertainment said it didn't know the reason for the cancellation. The movie had been scheduled to open March 23rd in 32 cinemas in the city. Quote: we are pulling our hair. Uh, our hair, of course, very disappointed. It's just unbelievable that cinemas cancel the exhibition after all. Arrangements are made, said for uh seven pillars spokesperson ray fong.

Chinese censors have previously targeted the film's main character, created by english author a. A milney milney mil over memes that compare the bumbling bear to president xi jinping. Interesting. So this is a protest thing in china that I just learned about, that they refer to him as Winnie the Pooh and to make fun of him, to help people dress like Winnie the Pooh or draw Winnie the Pooh.

Wow. And I love it because, oh, bother. Like, of all things, to be what attacks you and what you feel defensive about. Winnie the Pooh! Yeah. Like, am I crazy? It just seems like that's not threatening. Maybe that's the reason it's a problem. You know? Maybe. The comparisons began in 2013 when Z visited the United States and met his then counterpart, Barack Obama.

And some online commentators seized on their likeness to poo and tigger. Oh, man. What makes sense? I mean, Obama's tall and thin. No, now it's just like it's a body shaming thing. And also I think it's she, she, okay, fine, she, oh, uh, here I pulled up the photo for you. I hate everyone. Why? Because that it makes me uncomfortable. It's like, oh, he's short and a little bit, overweight a little, and that guy's tall, so I'm gonna just make it winnie the pooh.

And well, I mean, are we? We need to make fun of our world leaders. It's important just saying, but I mean, you're right, he's fat. If anything we should make fun of for being fat, because he lets other people starve and die. Yeah, absolutely, which? Uh? Which is why I love this, because this is like I love that. This is the, the, what's that word?

Uh, when you're, when you're, civil disobedience. This is the civil disobedience. So, uh, here it says some people have used the image of poo to signal dissent. The office for film, newspaper and article administration told reuters that it had issued a certificate of approval to the applicant quote. The arrangements of cinemas in hong kong on the screening of individual films with certificates of approval in their premises are the commercial decisions of the cinemas concerned, and the office of film and newspaper and article administration would not comment on such arrangements.

A spokesperson said So. They said exactly what you would think a totalitarian regime would say:. We're not saying shit. Yeah. Yeah. The cinemas involved did not respond to requests for comment. Seven pillars said the film was done with a tiny budget and sold to nearly 200 territories in just six months. An astounding achievement within such a short period. It's also made about $2 million at the box office or 3 million at the box office worldwide.

Okay. I think that's good. It's excellent. I mean, I full disclosure, the company that owns it is ITN distribution. I've worked with ITN multiple times. I don't want it to sound like I'm just promoting it to promote them. I think it's a really fun and wild idea. I've never been an employee of ITN. I've simply worked for them as a contractor multiple times.

They're a really cool place. They put out a ton of my movies and produced a bunch of movies with me. Anyway, movie Matic, which had organized a screening of the film for Tuesday evening, reported the cancellation on its social media page, citing technical reasons. See, that's how you know it's censorship is when they're saying it's a bunch of everybody's has the wrong answer.

Yeah uh, director rice frake waterfield uh told reuters that something mysterious had happened. Quote: the cinemas agreed to show it, then all independently come to the same decision overnight. It won't be a coincidence, Frank Waterfield said. Quote, they claim technical reasons, but there is no technical reason, he said. The film is showed in over 4,000 cinema screens worldwide. These 30 plus screens in Hong Kong are the only ones with such issues.

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, cracking down on dissent after the city was rocked by anti-government pro-democracy protests a year earlier. A new censorship law in the former British colony came into effect in 2021 that bars films that, quote, endorse, support, glorify, encourage and incite activities that might endanger national security. Winnie the Pooh. Well, well, I actually appreciate you sharing this article because you told me about, you know, it maybe a day or two ago or something.

And this this makes this context actually makes a ton of sense to me. Yeah. And I also want to get this out there because censorship is not OK. I'm highly anti censorship. I'm highly anti totalitarian. And I hate this. I usually keep a pretty lighthearted mindset on Monthly Spooky. But this I hate this. And I want everyone to know that this silly, fun horror film is a threat to the second largest world power.

Pathetic of China. Or amazing of Rise Waterfield. You brought world power to their knees with but a cinema camera and a poo bear. Yeah. Oh, and I, yeah, I could talk about more stuff. They have all kinds of weird things they don't allow in movies in China. Two films were dropped from Hong Kong's International Film Festival last year after failing to get approval from authorities.

The cancellation comes as Hong Kong hosts the Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair with authorities eager to promote the city as a vibrant cultural hub. Yeah. This is the problem. I hate this for the Hong Kong people. For those who don't know, Hong Kong was not technically a part of China until very recently. And it was postponed for forever. It was supposed to be, I believe, 1996 was when China was officially allowed to take Hong Kong from Britain.

But they kind of did, kind of didn't. Hong kong never really went under their rule until recently, until like 2019, 2020- and there were all kinds of protests which were very seldom on the news, which is so weird, because these are people fighting for democracy, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of things you can say about china. I'm not going to sit here and talk about them rounding up uighur muslims into camps.

I'm not going to sit here and talk about all of that. I'm just going to talk about the fact that they are afraid of art, because art is powerful. Yeah. And anybody if you. If you are out there sitting in some random town in Iowa, in 25 minutes you can go to a movie theater where you can watch a film that Xi Jinping doesn't want you to see, because he's a little tubby and he's sensitive about it, even though he's one of the world's most powerful people.

What I was just gonna say. It might not be that he's sensitive about it. It might be that, since it's being used symbolically for this- you know, talking about dissent- that he thinks it's a bad. No, he's just a big baby, okay, and he looks like a large baby too because he's fat and has a round head. Yeah, I don't, okay. Well, we're banned in china.

I'm just kidding. They couldn't get our show in china. Um, now all I want to do is post winnie the pooh videos on tiktok like constantly. Okay, I mean, go, go for it. But no, my point is just that I hate that. I hate this, because when people say it's not a big deal, when something gets something minor, a little movie or a little tv show, whatever, gets censored or gets diluted, people often will say it's not a big deal.

They'll say like, oh well, this you got to pick your battles. No, no, because if this mattered enough for them to not only censor it but kind of keep it quiet, then f them, and by f I mean fuck, fuck them. I know I, I said fuck earlier. Um, so we're already ruined. Um, I mean I said shit in the first like 30 seconds.

Yeah, you're good at stuff like that. Sorry, you're really good at swearing at the last possible second, you know. Oh, but yeah, I don't know why I said butts. I thought that'd be funnier to say butts. No, but that's all. I don't mean to get on my soapbox, but this is literally the soapbox I built and I will say that sincerely. What we do at Weekly Spooky, what I do as a filmmaker, what I do as in every creative endeavor I've ever taken on, is branched from the concept that free speech is important, because if you silence anybody, it opens the door to silence everybody who you don't agree with.

And that's why I'm proud of our podcast. I'm proud of the fact that we have some stories that are kid friendly. And if you're new to listening to this, look at our feed. It says explicit whenever the stories are explicit. So if you want to listen to one in the car with your kids and you're not worried about them getting scared, we let you know if they're swearing.

We absolutely do. And most of the time there is because these stories are written by adults for adults for the most part. But we tell stories about all kinds of things, stories about violence, about murder, about, you know, really heinous things. We tell stories from women's perspectives, men's perspectives, straight people's perspectives, gay people's perspectives. We tell all kinds of stories because it matters.

It doesn't matter that you listen. It matters that it's published so that someone can listen. If you listen to the podcast and you hear an episode and I don't know, something in there doesn't agree with you and you skip to the next one, you are not a bad person. You are allowed to yourself. Be like: I don't dig this, it's too violent.

Or I don't dig this. It talks about sexual assault or something that really bothers me. That's totally okay. It's saying that it can't exist. That's the problem. Yeah, yeah, that's all I wanted to get across. And it makes me mad because, ironically, this incredibly violent, bloody movie about slaughtering young women is harmless fun. It actually is harmless fun. It is meant to be harmless fun.

And the severe violence is not what got the movie shut down because it actually got an approval. It should also be mentioned. This article didn't mention it, but they didn't allow Christopher Robin to be released in China. Well, that makes sense then. I mean the Winnie the Pooh movie, Christopher Robin, which came out in like 2018. Let me just pull up an article real quick.

Okay now I cannot not laugh when I see like the article just has a picture of Xi right next to Winnie the Pooh. They do look a lot alike. I mean, if you think they're identical, they're brothers from different mothers. Chinese censors have banned the release of Christopher Robin new film adaptation of blah blah blah. Yeah, it was banned. Like they banned what was that?

Was it a disney movie or something? I don't know. I'm just saying like that's, that's a big movie. That's not a little indie movie that could- which is what winnie the pooh, blood and honey is- it's a little indie movie that could. No one ever thought it was going to be so successful. So I guess my point is: it's okay, Michelle, if you're pro censorship, I understand.

I'm not here to guilt or shame you. Thanks. But I, sorry, I get, this is one of the few things, one of the few things, I probably get passionate about a lot of things, but this is something that really matters to me. I just do not accept censorship. Censorship is the antithesis of everything I have done with my life. I make my living on speech.

So all I have to say is, if you haven't seen Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey and you're the kind of person, if it's the kind of thing you'd like, if you like that kind of thing, go see it and know china is a bunch of stupid babies, and by china I mean their government and, more importantly, the poo bear himself. Xi, whatever, uh xi xi xi, jinping, xi, xi, xi, xi xi xi.

I know because I listen to npr and they say she all the time and I think they're talking about some, some woman, and No, they're just talking about a Winnie the Pooh stand. And all right, we're going to we're going to take a quick break because we'll hopefully still have sponsors. And when we get back, we're going to talk about something I've wanted to dive into for a while.

Michelle, we're going to talk about Cry Baby Bridges. One of my favorite urban legends that's just all over America. Right after this. All right, we are back, and now we're going to talk about one of my favorite urban legends, and that is the Crybaby Bridge. Chell, you don't know what a Crybaby Bridge is, do you? I know that it's not a bridge that gets really sad now.

Well, if it was a sad bridge, wouldn't calling it a Crybaby Bridge be pretty pejorative? Wouldn't that be pretty mean? I mean, I'm not saying it's nice. So I mean I'm assuming, since you didn't know what it was, that you did not grow up knowing of or being near a Crybaby Bridge, that I mean, probably did you ever leave the house when you were a kid.

I feel like you missed out on all the good urban legends. Yeah, I just don't. I lived in a town that used to be just a field, that's fair, that's like what was around, so like there really weren't any, but it was right next to princeton. Yeah, but it wasn't. It's not like we went to princeton as like kids to hang out.

You didn't ride your bicycles to princeton like it was stranger things. You're just like riding bicycles around and fighting monsters and it we'd have to like go on route one. Yeah, kids, kids should get on route one on their bicycles. Quote me on that. Well, in my. So we have a lot of Crybaby Bridges in Ohio, which you're going to find out in a minute because I'm using, of course, the most reliable place for information, wikipedia, and it lists, uh, four different Crybaby Bridges just in Ohio on the Wikipedia page.

Wow. And when I was growing up, a Crybaby Bridge was a bridge you would go to. And they claimed that usually it was a bridge over water. And there have been some that are like overpasses, but usually it's a bridge over water. And the idea was you go to this bridge at night and you listen. And over the sound of the water rushing, eventually you'll hear a crying baby.

Okay. And that baby is usually abandoned or murdered by its mother in the past. But it depends. There are so many variations. And that's what we're going to learn right now because I love reading the variations. Like I loved when we dug through La Llorona and found all of the variations like in Central and South America especially. And Crybaby Bridges seemed to be an American thing.

Although it does sound kind of like some of those old Irish British folklores a little bit. Yeah. But this is what Wikipedia says. It says Crybaby Bridge is a nickname given to some bridges in the United States. The name often reflects an urban legend that the sound of a baby can be or has been heard from the bridge. Many are also accompanied by an urban legend relating to a baby or young child or children.

That's that where their mother threw them in uh, through her baby off the bridge and felt so bad that she killed herself so now looks for her baby while crying in the river. Sadly so, very similar to that version. Yeah, a weeping lady, although in la llorona there's no crying baby, it's just a. It's just a wailing woman or weeping woman. So the first example they have right here is from Kentucky, just south of here in Ohio, a bridge on sleepy hollow road near the border between Jefferson and Oldham counties in Kentucky was known as cry baby bridge.

Reportedly mothers would drop their unwanted sick or deformed babies off the bridge to drown in water. And their crying can still be heard to this day. That's great. The original bridge has been replaced by a newer one made of steel and concrete. The bridge is one of several rumors about locations along sleepy hollow road. You know, one time I was driving through way way northern pa, like way north probably.

You've never been that far north in central pa, like it's, there's just nothing. You're basically in upstate new york, um yeah, and I remember one time driving along and you know your gps, like you can see your car on your GPS and you'll see like roads you're passing. I'm on the highway, but I see a road off the highway and it was Spooks Hollow Road.

And I was like, what? For real? Awesome. I wanted to go there. Yeah. It turns out there are several Spooks Hollow Roads. Huh. I know. I'm surprised. There was a road in North Carolina in like the Outer Banks that was called Gravy Lane, but not gravy like turkey gravy, but gravy like Graves Gravy. How was it spelled? G-R-A-V-E-Y or I-E? I don't remember.

I thought you were like, but not like turkey gravy, but like sausage gravy. I was like, oh, Chell's lost it. So. Gravy road. That's nice kentucky, but Ohio, I mean, those are rookie numbers. You gotta bump those numbers up, you know, in this racket. So here are some examples of roads of these are just the ones that happen to be on wikipedia.

I'm not looking for Ohio ones in particular, but in Ohio. The first one is rogues hollow. One of many purported Crybaby Bridges is located near Doylestown, Ohio, in an area known as Rogue's Hollow. The bridge is located on Gale House Road between Rogue Hollow Road and Hamtown Road. Hamtown Road, sorry. Hamtown sounds nice, though. The bridge spans Silver Creek deep in Rogue's Hollow.

This road previously led from the bottom of the hollow, Hamtown Road, to the top of Rogue Hollow Road. The bridge is only approachable from Hamtown Road from May to October, as the steeper portion of the road is seasonally closed to prevent accidents. Okay, that's saying something in a very generally flat state like Ohio. The bridge is property of the rogues hollow historical society, which also owns the adjacent chidester mill.

So that one I wish they'd given a little bit more about the, about the, the heritage and history, but this one does. Oh wow, this one's nearby, Oh,. Oh, shit. That one's, like, down the road. You should go there. Oh, I am. Are you kidding? No. Go now. Okay, bye. So this is the Screaming Bridge of Maude Hughes Road. Okay. Maude Hughes Road is located in Liberty Township, Butler County, Ohio.

That's the county south of my county. Okay. Yeah, Butler County. It is reputed to have been the site of many terrible accidents and suicides. Railroad tracks lie 20 feet below the bridge and at least 36 people are said to have reported dead on or around to have report reported dead on or around the mod hughes oh are said to have been reported dead on or around the mod hughes road bridge.

Ghostly figures, mists and lights have been reported, as well as black hooded figures and a phantom train. Oh, do you remember our phantom train incident? No, when we went underground, oh, yeah, really, so you tell it. Okay, so I, I, I, we went into um, this, what's it called like a viaduct. There's just this place big tunnel underground in center city, Philadelphia, and we were going in there and next to that there's like a adjacent tunnel and it has actual like running trains and it like was coming through the tunnel as we were going down into it and it scared henry, it's there.

It scared me. Yeah, yeah, no, it totally did. Well, but the reason it was so extra creepy is- some people are maybe aware of this- some are not- about color, about how light has color temperature. So we're underground. The only light we're getting is like the little slots of sunlight coming from wherever. Yeah. But it's overall pretty dark. When the train comes through the tunnel, the train's headlight is like a tungsten lamp.

So it's very, very orange. You wouldn't notice how orange it is unless your eyes had adjusted to daylight, so it didn't just look. You look down the tunnel and you just heard a rumbling and like hell fire slowly getting brighter. It looked like like a portal to hell had cracked open in that hole. It was, and it wasn't like oh god, but it was like whoa, that's creepy as hell.

That whole place was cool and creepy at the same time. Yeah, I miss that place. It's gonna to be a park. The underground part. They're gonna put a park underground. Is that how bad things are in Philadelphia? They're like: look, you can't be out in the sunlight, that's where they'll get you. Who, any of them, you gotta be underground. They're really I don't know, but they, that is supposed.

Yeah, they're really. They're really making it. I I don't know if they've started yet, but that's like if it was going to become a park. That's legitimately crazy to me. Yeah, I like it. Except that it will take away the nice underground tunnel. Yeah, and that's the thing. When we were there, I think the other reason I was so surprised was I just didn't think that anything used under there because it was so filthy and disheveled and just like a mess.

I didn't think that trains would run through there anymore. What? Why are you laughing? You didn't think the trains would run through filthy, disheveled places. I'm sorry. I live in Ohio, okay? Unlike your city, my city, Dayton, has never been pointed out by the president of Mexico as a bad place. So, there. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Say you're sorry. Uh, no. I felt like you were just like, I'm sorry.

What am I sorry for? I mean, I am, but what is it? Anyway, okay. So legend says that a car carrying a man and a woman stalled on top of the bridge. The man got out to get help while the girl stayed. When the man returned, the girl was hanging on the bridge above the tracks. The man then supposedly perished with unexplained causes.

Yeah. I mean, I get, you know, that's, that's how you know you're dating a woman who's way too clingy. You're like, I'll be back in five minutes with help. And you come back and she's like, I couldn't do it. And she just hung herself. You're like, wow. That would have been a stressful marriage. Yeah. To this day, many people have reported hearing the ghosts conversations.

So just like, you know, I need milk. Yes, milk. Yeah, I need milk. Milk will be good. Okay, cool. I'll go get some milk. Get some cereal too. I should get a gallon of milk if you're going to have cereal too. I'm sorry. Is that a problem? No, it's not a problem. I'm just like, I'm just figuring out how much milk to get.

I don't mind getting more milk if you're going to drink it. I'm going to be eating it. Oh my God. That's the, that's the, I just like the idea you could overhear their conversations. Then a woman's scream followed by a man's scream is heard. A second story is that a woman was being chased down the road when she got to the bridge.

She didn't know the area and thought that was that there was a river underneath. So she jumped over the bridge. And when she saw the train tracks screamed all the way down to her death. Yeah, I doubt that actually happened. Why? It just seems like a bad idea to jump off a bridge into a river as well. Yeah, that sounds dangerous on its own.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, we might not be dealing with a with a Einstein here. Also she was dead. So how, how do we know that that's what she thought? I mean, we, yeah, we had that's a good point. Uh, they say to this day, on certain nights you can still hear her screaming. Another popular and typical Crybaby Bridge story says that a woman once threw her baby off the bridge and hung herself afterward.

I've heard that exact one. Um, so that's the story of the screaming bridge of maude hughes road. Like I said, that's probably 25 or 30 minutes from me, okay, maybe a little closer, maybe a little further, but this one whoa egypt road, salem, salem, Ohio, is really close to me, like salem Ohio has got to be like not even 15 minutes from me.

Like salem Ohio is in the Dayton area, wow, okay, although the bridge is off egypt road near salem Ohio, it is actually on what used to be West Pine Lake Road, which now dead ends to the east of the bridge. Legends attribute attribute the crying baby to one that fell in and accidentally drowned. There is also a rumor that there is a cult of some sort in the woods surrounding the bridge.

Around here, the satanic panic must have really boomed in the 80s, because every friggin place, whether it's Frankenstein's castle, which is this creepy tower. That's actually just kind of a cool stone tower. We've talked about it before on the show, whether it's that place or there are a few other like creepy spots. There's a creepy windmill out in the woods, stuff like that.

It's always people in cloaks and Satanists gather there. Yeah. And I remember even hearing that as a teenager and being like, but do they really? Yeah. Is that even a thing? Like, are you for real? It, If it wasn't, it is now. I'm sure there are some people who are like, oh, okay, I can do that. That sounds like fun. Party. Yeah.

I just don't know what it is about around here. They sure do love their Satanists. Okay, let's see. Yeah, there's also rumor about a cold of some sort surrounding the woods. In 2010, there was a murder of an elderly woman that was found strangled to death and burned just off the bridge. Oh, okay. so Salem is not a very nice area. I, I, I, I didn't volunteer that immediately.

Yeah. Yeah. You don't really want to hang out in Salem, Ohio necessarily. Uh, I was getting that impression. The closed road remains as an access way to high voltage utility lines. Yay. The baby cries have been said to be heard at night or during the day. Huh. So it's closed now. Like it would be hard to get to. You can't drive up to it.

You have to walk. Okay. Yeah. But there, I mean, since, since you have the high, the high voltage lines, you definitely get, you can get there. Oh yeah. And here's the last one. I don't know exact. Oh, this one's over by, uh, this is more over by Pennsylvania. I think. Okay. Uh, Weisner road. This Crybaby Bridge is in the area of the melon heads.

We've talked about the melon heads on here when I did spooky on the road. I talked about the melon heads in Michigan, but there are melon heads reportedly in Ohio. Melon heads are these supposed people who have weird heads because of either some people claim genetic experimentation. Some people claim inbreeding and some people even around here sincerely believe they exist. I don't really have an opinion.

Maybe they do. It's some weird. But a lot of people believe in melon heads out here. Yeah. I was more of a lemon head kid. That's what I wanted to do. The bridge is on Wisner Road in Chardon Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, just north of Kirtland Chardon Road. A large section of the road is permanently closed. Closed. The bridge lies just before the south end of the closed section.

I like how a lot of these are on closed roads. That makes it even scarier. Yeah, yeah, because nothing is scarier than a road that dead ends unless it like- I mean not into a cul-de-sac, I just mean like, and there's no more road. Do you remember when I first came to visit you and I got horribly lost, like in like a pine barony area?

Yes, yeah, yeah, the first time that I met you. That was not the first day, that was the first time we met in person, right, or was? Yeah, yeah, I think I think it was. So I, I drive out to see you. I lived in north jersey, you lived in central jersey, so I drive down. It's like hour and half or something, maybe less, and as I'm driving, I- this is before this would have been like 2007 or 6 or something- so I didn't have a gps and there were no smartphones that I could afford.

So I get lost. I have map quest directions printed on paper in my day, um. So I get lost and I'm like, okay, well, no big deal, I'm just gonna drive on this road until I get to something you know like a gas station, a turnaround, just anything. So I drive and drive and drive and drive, and sure enough, the road just ends in a wooded area with two abandoned factories on either side and a car with no tires in front of one of the buildings.

And I just remembered shrugging and going, I guess I die. Like, I guess this is the end of me. Yeah. So I got nervous. I turned around. I drove the other way until I finally found somewhere. I got directions. I figured it out, whatever. But the next, no joke, the next day, I went to Best Buy and bought my first GPS because I was like, well, that was the first time I'd ever been so lost.

I actually wondered if I could get unlost. It was very scary, actually. It's funny now, but I was really creeped out. Yeah, I can definitely imagine. Luckily, your mom made me dinner and that cheered me up. So, um, yeah, now we're gonna go to maryland. Wow, there are only two more states. I'm surprised. I feel like there are more, but maybe, maybe they're not reported in here.

Uh, that's why I'm always transparent about we're using wikipedia. That way they get the blame when they're not thorough, and not me. Uh, in weird maryland: your travel guide to maryland's local legends and best kept secrets. Author: Matt Lake. We've had lunch with Matt Lake. Yeah. Remember my big British friend? Yeah. Yeah. I forgot. He writes on the weird books, a bunch of them.

He wrote weird New Jersey or he wrote weird Pennsylvania. Oh, cool. Yeah. I don't know if I knew that. Yeah. That's my buddy, Matt. Matt is easy to remember because he is a very large Englishman. He's like six foot two. He's he's such a nice guy. Oh, man. Matt Lake. Mark Moran. Don't know him. And Mark Shurman also don't know him. none of them are as cool as Matt like include three first person narratives of Crybaby Bridge experiences in Maryland.

The locations mentioned are the governor's bridge road bridge, the governor's bridge, Roach bridge, uh, one on lots ford vista road and a third unspecified, but possibly described the lots ford vista road bridge as well. The latter narratives make mention of purported satanic churches near the bridge and the appearance of the goat man. Wow, I love how the world of like weird state things and urban legends and everything is like the mcu.

It's like: oh man, in this Crybaby Bridge the melon heads showed up, like maybe they're teasing a melon heads legend. Next, the goat man was out there. Oh, baby, the goat man's coming. Next, you know, um, and you didn't have any jersey devil or anything growing up, did you? We weren't in that area. Sorry, it's okay, I'm not upset, I'm just disappointed.

Yeah, I know, um. So now we're moving to our final state that's listed in here: texas, texas and texas. Adorable, such a big state, only three. Oh, that's so cute. The first, texas, is dick, a dick home. Uh, cry baby bridge or spook bridge, located about 25 miles west of Texarkana. Well, Texarkana, we did an entire episode on the Phantom Killer on Terrifying and True.

That was a murder that happened in Texarkana. A bunch of murders. You should definitely check that episode out if you haven't already. And the movie The Town that Dreaded Sundown is based on the Texarkana murders. That's also near where Boggy Creek happened, where the Legend of Boggy Creek occurred, where the Bigfoot, the folk monster, Folk Arkansas. So Texarkana is already quite a spot.

Yeah. 25 miles west of Texarkana runs across County Road 4130 located four miles south of DeKalb, Texas. Legend says that a mother driving a car plunged into the creek and the baby drowned in the near freezing waters. So this see it's interesting. See like so we're getting further away from where these stories tended to originate. And now the stories are becoming a lot different.

Like that one's a tragedy. It's not it's not something somebody did on purpose. Yeah. It's like a mother's car crashed and her baby didn't survive because the waters were so cold. So let's see what Lufkin, Texas has for us. Jack Creek, a stream west of Lufkin, Texas, has for years been known as Crybaby Creek. Supposedly because a woman and a baby died when their auto veered off a wooden bridge and fell into the steep creek.

Annette Sawyer of Lufkin said visitors who come to the site at night claim they have heard sounds resembling a baby crying. Okay. Very similar. It is. One visitor supposedly found the imprint of a baby's hand on her auto window after returning from the bridge. There are stories- and, forgive me, I try to know a lot about folklore and urban legends, but there are stories of train tracks where, supposedly, if you park your car and like idle or not idle, but like kind of coast over the tracks, you'll find children's handprints on the back of your car if you put talcum powder on it.

Well, that's nice. You've never heard of that? Um, not that in particular. No, wow, no, there are a bunch of spots like that too, but I don't think they're Crybaby Bridges now. Now, I gotta know. Uh, children's handprints, talcum powder, ghosts. I'm so good at google, yep, found it, wow, yeah, haunted, oh, wow. So it looks like this, that, um, There are several of these ghost tracks in San Antonio and stuff like that.

And there are Crybaby Bridges where they say if you sprinkle baby powder on the bumper of your car, you'll see little handprints in the powder after they push you. So the idea is that you see the handprints because they're trying to get you out of the way. They're trying to save you. Yeah. There is a Crybaby Bridge around here or a train track that has that legend.

I've heard that one as a kid that you find children's handprints all over the back of your car. So anyway, what was I saying? one visitor supposedly found the imprint of a baby's hand on her auto window. Okay. So now we've got our final Texas story. Port Neches or Neches. Sarah Jane Bridge on East Port Neches Avenue in Port Neches, Texas, is said to be the bridge from which a baby of the same name was thrown into the alligator infested water by a man who had murdered the child's mother.

Oh, no. Now we're back to that evil crap. All right. Yeah. There we go. It is said Sarah Jane can be heard crying from the water when one stands on the bridge on hot summer nights. The child's mother, a headless ghost wandering the woods nearby, can also be heard whispering, Sarah Jane. As she searches for the forest with a lantern. The legendary Sarah Jane is Sarah Jane Block, who lost no children and lived to the age of 99.

Huh. So here's the really interesting part. We're almost done with this story, um, but this, you know, in my opinion, folklore is a lot like Crybaby Bridge stories: they never get old. Uh, took chella a second, but she got it, yes. So this is a section about the controversies regarding Crybaby Bridges. Apparently, in 1999, maryland folklorist jesse glass presented a case against several Crybaby Bridges being genuine folklore, contending that they were instead fake lore that was knowingly being propagated through the internet.

And in 1999, when people were like you mean that thing for nerds with spreadsheets, I was on the internet in the early 2000s getting creeped out by readings: folklore, shit. Yeah, that was my favorite. According to glass, nearly identical stories of Crybaby Bridges in maryland and Ohio began to appear online in 1999, but they could not be confirmed through local oral history or the media.

That's extra tricky for me because you know, I was born in 86, so I really don't. I mean, I remember the 90s, but I don't remember them that clearly. Yeah. So it's like, I can't be like, oh, no, I heard all about that in the 80s or in like 91. Actually, I might have only heard about in the 2000s. Right. Right. Among Glass's examples was the story of a bridge located in Westminster, Maryland, which concerned the murder of escaped slaves and African-American children.

It's located specifically on Rockland Road, just off Uniontown Road outside of Westminster City Limits past Route 31. In the 1800s, the story held that unwanted black babies were drowned by being thrown off this bridge. Regional newspapers such as the American Sentinel and the Democratic Advocate, which usually covered racially motivated murders of this period, make no mention of the events described online. That is interesting.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, but that's kind of how a lot of these things are probably. It's not real at all. I think it is funny, though. It's like it's only fake lore if it was developed recently. Yeah. Like if it was made up recently, it's fake lore. If it was made up 20, 40, 50 years ago, you're good. Yeah, exactly. However, in their book, Weird U.S., Your Travel Guide to America's Local Legends and Best Gept Secrets, authors Mark Moran and Mark Shuler Shurman relate the story of a purported Crybaby Bridge in Lotsford Vista Road.

And we already talked about that. And they said that it made believer that that that bridge has made believers out of skeptics. So the text included from their informant makes no mention of escaped slaves, but does repeat the familiar component of such legends such as an out of wedlock child birth. So, yeah, that's a nice rundown of the Crybaby Bridge. And now it makes me wonder, Chell, is there a Crybaby Bridge we can send you to for a report?

Probably not. What if there is? There's not, will you go? Will you go and like record yourself with your phone? It depends on how far away it is, maybe sorry, I have to say hi to gig. Oh, found a Crybaby Bridge in bucks, bucks county. Where in bucks county? Uh, van sant, hold on, I'll look it up. Geez, you're so rude. Um, also there's, uh, oh, it's in new hope.

Oh man, that's far, is it? It's like an hour. Van sant covered bridge, sometimes called van sant- uh, oh, it's van sant, with a d in there- was built in 1875 south of new hope near washington crossing historic park. There are rumors that van sant's bridge could be haunted. The bridge is allegedly a Crybaby Bridge where a young woman killed her child and then herself.

Her cries, the story goes, can still be heard at night. And this is from VisitBucksCounty.com. Dope. I think that's the only one. Oh my gosh, everything is about New Hope. Wow. But there's like podcasts and YouTube channels all about it. I'm excited now. So anyway. Alright, well we're going to go to a break and we'll come back and we're going to wrap things up, talk a little bit about horror media, things we're up to, Michelle's podcast, which is doing a lot of cool stuff.

You've published so many episodes already. I know, I know. But we'll be talking about all that and a little bit more after these quick words. All right, we're back. And during the break, Chella and I were looking at a very scary video of a Crybaby Bridge near her, the Van Sant covered bridge. The video would have been annoying if it wasn't so charming because it was made by like 12 year olds.

Although now I feel like an old guy. They were probably like 16 or 17 because they did have a car. Yeah, they had a car. Yeah. But they sounded like little kids. They were like, oh, my God, did you film that you were filming? You were filming? And I was like, oh, man, if this is fake, I love it. If this is real, I love it.

It doesn't matter. So but before we get out of here, wanted to talk about real quick about Chicano, about how he's doing, just because I didn't talk about it at the beginning of the show. My dog Chicano, for those who don't know, he has cancer, but he's been going through chemotherapy. It is going very well. He's had seven treatments. He's about to have his eighth in two weeks.

It's going great. Everything's looking good. The oncologist says it's good and I have, it's all good news. Good. So I'm looking forward to in two weeks, he will no longer be receiving chemotherapy and then we can both begin to recover from this whole mess. But we can't say he's in remission, but it sure does look like he's in remission. And then they're going to check him in three months and yeah, it's all looking really great.

I'm really glad. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you to everybody who has helped either in any way. I mean, it doesn't have to be just financial, just by checking on me, by listening to me complain, by liking statuses. They all help. They all really do help. And the folks who have went to weeklyspooky.com and clicked on help my dog, we've raised $4,000 for his medical bills, which is almost half of his medical bills.

And I laugh because it's so much money, but that's still a massive, massive help. That's such a huge relief because people would always say, like, if there's anything I do, let me know, and I'd be like, well, honestly, like the treatment is what it is. The only thing that I can have any control over is paying for it. You know, other than that, I just gotta ride it out.

So, yeah, but he's doing great. Thank you to everybody who who has shared and cared and and written me, and I just really am thankful and grateful. And this entire show he's been sleeping on my feet. So, yeah, my feet are actually pretty cold, so it was nice that he was sleeping on them, yeah, but, uh, so, beyond that, Michelle, tell everybody a little bit about, if they don't know, you have a podcast, it's called.

Michelle explains anime poorly. Yeah, and you just released. How many episodes have you released now? Do you even know? No, but I, I would assume if chainsaw man was 12 episodes and that would make 13. So whatever 13 plus 11 is, was that 24? Oh, wow, man, you're good, it's 24. I just check the publishing thing. Yeah, that includes the one that releases.

That hasn't. That is about to release, right, yeah, so what are you talking about right now? For those who like anime, they want to, they should check out your podcast. Uh, what are you talking about right now? Um, I'm talking about try gun stampede, the, the uh new try gun adaptation, we think, I guess, we think I don't know anymore. No, I mean, it's basically like an almost alternate universe.

Trigon slash fan fiction. Like a reboot? Yeah, but not at all. Oh, okay. Like, it's a reboot if, yeah. No, go on. Share your real feelings. Don't be afraid. No. No, it's not bad. I mean, the writing isn't great, but it's so wildly different than the manga that it is honestly just kind of unsettling. Okay. It just is. It's just weird. And, you know, Trigun, the original anime, the 98 anime, was also very different than the manga.

But they had a reason, and that was because the manga wasn't finished publishing yet. So it had to have an end that wasn't the same, but this doesn't really have that excuse. So, well, so if people want to check that out, they can go anywhere. They listen to podcasts and type in Michelle explains anime poorly and they can listen. It's really the best possible option for you because it's like this show, but without me talking.

So it's much better for your mental well-being. No. So now that we've gotten that covered, do you have anything from Reddit for us this week? I have something if you want. It's about sleep paralysis. I love talking about sleep paralysis because I suffer from sleep paralysis. Yeah. Yeah. And we did an episode about sleep paralysis, you and I. We did. In the early days of the show.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, go on. So it's actually a response to an Ask Reddit thread that was like, what's the scariest situation that you found yourself in ever? And so a lot of them were like things that were scary, like, you know, outside stuff, you know, are being followed. But this one was there's like it's like the 80s. And this dude has a roommate like they're living in an apartment together.

and his roommate has been suffering from sleep paralysis a lot and it's like really bothering him and he's finally like listen can you do me a huge favor can you come into my room at 3 a.m tonight and and basically he said like just kind of stay with me and like talk to me if this is happening and the guy's like sure man i'm always up at 3 a.m so so he does he goes into the to his friend's room at 3 a.

M and his, his, his roommate is like not awake but looks like he's in, like is his expression of terror on his face. And so he does what the roommate told him to do, which was, like I think he said like turn on the light and then like just talk to me. So he starts having this like one-sided conversation with his friend, like you know, just saying things trying to get him, make, make him feel safe, and he says something like.

He says something like: um, like you see, yeah, there are no monsters here, right, monsters. And then he hears from above the guide that he hears. He hears wrong and he's just like what? Oh, and he just, he, just like, stops what he's doing and he like turns on his friend's boom box and pretends like he didn't hear it and waits for his friend to like look relaxed again and then leaves and then finds a new apartment.

I, I mean, I like the ending part, the finds a new apartment part, is very fair: yeah, there are no monsters here, wrong. So what would you? You've had some roommates in your life, what would you do? Um, exactly. Actually, it would do exactly what he did. I pretend I didn't hear it, because that's the first thing to do. I don't want to give them fuel.

I probably wouldn't turn on a boom box because that would probably upset my but I would just pretend I didn't hear it and just keep talking until the roommate relaxed, and then I would find a new place to live, exactly. Oh, that, that's really creepy. Yeah, I like that. And that's extra creepy because, like, if you don't know your roommate really well, there's already like a creepy element to living with a stranger.

So I can appreciate that quite a bit. Yeah, do you have another one? For us? That was the best one, That is a good one. No, that's okay. That's okay. No, no, no. And we are running out of time anyway. So Michelle. Yeah. Do you have anything you want to say to the people listening to this? No. Ouch. Well, I want to say thank you guys for listening.

If you enjoy what we're doing here, please make sure to make sure you're subscribed on your favorite podcasting app. And while you're there, leave us a review, a five-star rating or review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartMedia. It makes a huge difference. It really allows the show to find a new audience. So I will leave you with Michelle's lovely voice and we'll see you next month.

I don't, I don't have a lovely voice. Oh no.