Monthly Spooky | Long Island Shark Attacks, Vampire Kits & Centralia’s Mine Fire

Conversation transcript, edited from an automatic transcription. Minor transcription errors may remain; not checked word for word against the audio. This is an archive of the original discussion, including its contemporary references and opinions. Speaker changes are not individually labeled.

Today, we talk about sharks, spiders, unwelcomed intruders, and a town on fire from below. Get comfortable. Turn off the lights. It's Monthly Spooky. Hello, my friends, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Monthly Spooky. I'm, of course, your host, Henrique Couto. You probably, I assume, would know me by now from the feed. And I am joined by my co-host, who, you're doing a great job. You already look mortified. I know. I know.

You're so afraid already. It's wonderful. Good. When I asked you to co-host a new podcast with me, were you like, you were like, what's it like? And I was like, it'll be scary. And you're like, good. I already find it very scary. Yeah, I was like, oh, that's perfect. My default state of being. This is my good friend, Michelle. She's going to be my co-host on this month and roundup of everything scary that we're doing to, you know, appease the spookies in my audience.

I'm experimenting with calling them spookies. I don't know if they'll like that or hate that. I don't know either. I mean, I kind of like it, although then they'll be like, oh, you mean like that weird movie with the guy with the balloons who's trying to celebrate that kid's birthday party? That's a movie called spookies. And I, I can't really say that you should watch it. And I'm not just talking to you, Michelle.

I mean, to anybody, I'm not sure that I would recommend watching it. Although there's a great rap song about spookies from the last drive in with Joe Bob Briggs that literally the hook of the song is, hey, we'll watch it. Spookies. It's a very confusing movie. But anyway, I could like, I caught myself. I almost talked about the movie spookies for like five minutes. That would have been a horrible way to, to spend a day.

But I want to thank you, Michelle. So Michelle's a dear friend of mine. She's a musician. She is a comic artist. In fact, your comic you're working on right now. Tell everybody a little bit about it. Cause I think it's really up their alley. Oh, um, okay. It's just a comic. It's just a, I guess it's like a zombie comic. I mean, are there zombies in it? Yeah. I mean, technically there aren't zombies in it yet.

I mean, there are now, but in the parts that are released, it's basically still a mystery as to what's going on. But now I've spoiled it. Cause it's zombies. I think everybody knew. Yeah. I mean, I did tell everybody. Well, that'll do it. But, uh, so where can they check it out? Um, you can, you can check it out on, on webtoon, the website webtoon. If you look up, um, it's called at the end of everything.

Um, it's on like the canvas section. You could maybe find it. You could try to find it. You can try, but, uh, I really want to thank you, Michelle, for, uh, taking on this new show with me. I really do appreciate it. It's fine. And, uh, and for joining me in the, uh, the new recording crypt that I built. I mean, how do you like it? Does it look nice? Is it, uh, did I overdo it with the severed heads?

Are there too many severed heads or too few? I mean, I don't know. It depends what you're going for with heads. Like, like, like probably too many. Cause I don't know if you want them stacked on top of each other like that, but I mean, I kind of liked it. It kind of felt like it was like postmodern, like rock stacking, you know, like people do to ruin nature and, uh, public parks.

I was going to say, yeah, but it's, it's severed heads instead. I guess that's less, that's more environmentally friendly. Well, I mean, I couldn't stack them if they weren't severed. That literally wouldn't work. Yeah, I guess. So, well, thank you. Uh, I, I talked to a feng shui artist, um, but it wasn't to like figure out how to stack that. It was to cut their head off to put. Oh, like the pile of.

I was like, what do you think would be the best way to have this pile of severed heads? And they were like, well, you definitely need one more. And I was like, got it. So we're in. So the show is basically going to be Michelle and I talking about kind of the spooky side of life because we both enjoy the macabre from time to time. Um, especially me, I guess. Michelle is just such a sunny human being.

Oh yeah. That's all. So, uh, without further ado, let's just get into the first episode by heading into our first segment of the spooky news. The spooky news. So the first story I have for us today, Michelle comes from Newsweek. It says, uh, girl, six years old, hilariously arms herself against vampires, werewolves, and witches. Oh. Yeah. Uh, the article states, a mom was in hysterics after seeing the odd assortment of items her daughter packed for their road trip, including garlic, a fake candle, salt, and sage to fight, quote, monsters.

Are you sure that she's just not cooking something? You sure she's not just Italian? Uh, I love a fake candle is in that, is in that kit, that vampire hunting kit. I mean, like, is it the kind of candle that like is battery operated or how is it fake? That's my assumption is that it's probably a battery operated candle. I think that she just liked the candle and she wanted to cook some food because those are great spices.

Oh, yeah. What's your favorite thing to cook with sage? I don't know. Okay, fair enough. Elise Bryant from Long Beach was double checking her six-year-old daughter Coretta's bag as they packed up for a five-day trip up the central coast of California. She told Newsweek, I started laughing when I pulled out the items, but I wasn't surprised. A lot of the items are from her monster hunting kit that she made and usually carries around in a cardboard box.

Wow. Wait, so normally she carries a monster hunting kit and that's fine. First of all, I love that it's not a, it's not an in case of monsters kit. This kid is rocking hard. She is going monster hunting. She's like, no, mom, they're pigs and I hunt them in the woods. I'm going to kill skin and eat a monster. And she's this adorable six-year-old girl. Oh my gosh. She's got like, she's missing most of her front teeth because her adult teeth are coming in.

Like, she's just totally like a picturesque, goofy six-year-old girl. I love this. Like, it's not that she's missing her front teeth. That's because she's been punched by like vampires or something. I like that you're, you're in six. You're like, I'm pretty sure vampires punch. I'm pretty sure that vampires punch people. I mean, I, I mean, maybe they punch a little bit, but I always assume the vampire is going to bite or backhand.

Cause I feel like a backhand kind of just fits the vibe. I don't know. That's mean. But, but punching someone in the face or then biting them to turn them into the undead. That's like a little bit more on the level. Yeah. You just, you got to subdue them, I guess first. Um, to go on further, it says she explained to us, this is a quote from her mother. She explained to us that the aluminum foil or quote silver is for werewolves.

The sage is for evil spirits and the garlic salt has two purposes. Garlic to fight vampires and salt to keep away witches. So that's interesting. So first of all, a werewolf is just going to kill her. Yeah. Aluminum foil is not silver. Yeah. I know you can, you could probably get away with silver plated against werewolves. We'd have to talk to an expert, but I feel like silver plated would be enough to kill a werewolf.

Maybe. But aluminum foil. I don't know about that. I mean, maybe if you throw the thing covered in aluminum foil, the werewolf will think it's leftovers and go for it. Cause they're hungry. Yeah. And I like that. Those like in the garlic salt has two purposes. Garlic to fight vampires and salt to keep witches away, which is of course, as you know, legendarily suffer from high blood pressure. Yeah. Yeah. So, oh, this is so cute.

She learned this from Hocus Pocus, her favorite movie. She's used to the, she's used the fake candle before for quote unquote seances that she has with her collection of rat finger puppets. Oh, I know. I started with like the cutest possible story. Yeah. I love this. After initially finding the stash, Bryant shared a tweet along with a photo to her account last week, which ranked up nearly 130,000 likes. She wrote, I checked my six year old's bag that she packed for our road trip and found sage garlic salt and all of her desiccant dolls, a fake candle foil, which she referred to as silver and three flashlights.

What does she know about this trip that I don't? That's so cute. That's the kind of thing I would do when I was a kid. I had a vampire, a vampire kit once I was a kid. I, you know what? I was such a nerd and I watched the lost boys so much. I did. I really did. I had a steak. I remember cause I got my mom, this must've been so embarrassing for her.

I got my mom to go to Lowe's and buy me a steak. Like a garden steak. Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Yeah. I didn't figure that my mom's the one who figured that out. I was like, I want a steak. And my mom was like for dinner. And I was like, no, like for vampires. And she was like, what? And I was like, where do you get like a pointed stick?

And my mom thought for a minute. She was like, I think you can get at the garden section at Lowe's. Yeah. So mom came back and had garden steaks for me. That's so nice. Oh, my mom was, you know, always very sweet about how weird her son was. She was like, you know, well, I mean, it's like, it's like, what's she going to do? Get mad, yell at me and hit me.

The kids at school are already doing that. So what do you need? What do you need to add to it for? You know, chatting to Newsweek, Bryant admitted she didn't allow Coretta to bring all her supplies to fight off ghosts and ghouls. Well, now we know they're dead. Yeah. What? Come on. Quote. I didn't let her bring most of it, not because I didn't approve, but because all of those items are really special to her and I didn't want her to lose them on one of our stops.

Oh, come on. Come on. I know that's not the reason. It sounds to me like her mom is trying to feed this girl to ghouls and ghosts. I was going to say, or her mom's a vampire already. No, no. No. No. Well, unless her mother was a vampire after the photos were taken, because there's a picture of her with her daughter. Although she is wearing sunglasses and that is sketchy. Hmm. Maybe she's a master vampire.

Maybe. My favorite thing in writing, and I mean, we've even done this on Weekly Spooky. The phrase master vampire is the best because it's just like when you want a vampire, but you also want the freedom of playing free form jazz. You make them a master vampire. Oh, yeah. They're master vampires. They can be out in the daylight and they show up in photographs and, you know, oh, yeah, the master vampire.

You can do anything. Yeah. To finish the quote, she said, at home, we really try to follow her lead and let her explore her interests, even though they can be a little spooky. The only thing I've given a firm no to is her request for a Ouija board. So she keeps asking her family and friends to give her one secretly. Frankly, I'm going to pull up. I'm going to pull my card.

I am not a parent. I mean, I am a parent of two elderly dogs, but I'm going to say it right now. I think that it's much like getting a pet, getting your Ouija board. Yeah. Most kids will be like, oh, get me a dog. If you get me, I swear I'll walk it and I'll let it outside to use the bathroom and I'll feed it and I'll change its water. And then they don't do any of it.

The parent has to do all of it. Yeah. So this kid is like, give me a Ouija board. Come on. I already have garlic salt and I have sage and I have like, she's going to actually take care of the, she's going to actually take care of the rest. She, yeah. I mean, her mom should just sit down with her and be like, listen, Ouija boards are a big commitment. You have to make sure at the end of the conversation, you say goodbye and you have to be really careful.

And you know, and if you can do that, maybe for your birthday, we'll get you a Ouija board. If you're good. If you're good. If you're good. So that's a pretty great story. I enjoyed that one. Here's another one. I felt like this one is important. This is from NPR. It says spiders can fear other spiders. Oh, it's universal. If you're not so fond of spiders, you may find kindred spirits in other spiders.

Researcher, Daniela Rossler worked with jumping spiders and found that they know to get away from the presence of other possible predator spiders, even if they've encountered them before. She talks with the host, Maria Godroy about her research and what Halloween decorations do to the poor spiders. If arachnids can have arachnophobia, sorry, that read a little weird, but it's mostly a headline, but so they're afraid of other spiders. Well, I mean, that makes sense because because spiders sometimes eat other spiders and jumping spiders eat other spiders.

So they know that they should stay away from them. So if anything, spiders should be more afraid of spiders than we should be afraid of spiders. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. There are very few spiders that eat humans. Yeah. Just like five. Five. Just like, and I can name them Ron, Steve, um, chintzy chintzy. Actually, I like chintzy, but, um, uh, yeah. Don't ever say the chintzy mincy spider to him though.

He'll get really upset. And that's kind of a racial slur. Um, so, so, um, do you, how are you with spiders in your home? I like spiders. They're allowed to be here. If I see them, I don't do anything about it. Um, uh, I did accidentally yesterday. I was outside pulling some weeds and mosquitoes were attacking me and I felt something on my leg and I hit it and it was a spider and I was so upset and I think I killed it.

Um, well, first of all, it would be weird if you didn't kill it. Like if you were just that weak. Well, it's like a little crumbly and it's like, Oh God, like a dead spider. Yeah. Oh no. You should have finished it off. No. Well, I thought maybe I just stunned it and it would be okay. I don't think that sounds likely. I'm sorry. Well, for the record, I think I'm the same way.

I let spiders live in my house because they eat the other insects. But I will say if a spider is on my bare skin, it, it probably is not going to live. Oh, sorry. Not sorry. Uh, I mean, if, if I usually, I look down and see what the, the thing is on my body before I hit it. If, if, if I hadn't been like constantly being bitten by mosquitoes, I wouldn't have immediately squatted it.

Yeah. Um, cause I, you know, I very often have just bugs on me. Like I just looked down and there's like a giant ant. It's just very often. This is always bugs on me. First of all, that's, that's funny and all and partially a joke, but also true. Like bugs just crawl all over me all the time. You just wake up and just piles of bugs. And you just gotta like slowly like pick through them and figure out what the good bugs are and what the bad bugs are.

What's the difference between a good bug and a bad bug? Um, a good bug is a bug that doesn't hurt me. And then a bad bug is a bad, is a bug that does hurt me. That's it. Okay. Do you have an example of like a bad bug you find? Um, like a mosquito. Oh, so it's, it's, it's, it's, it's entirely based on species and not necessarily nurture. Like it's not like a beetle that had a really bad home life.

No, cause they, they, they can turn it around. You know, that's really sweet of you to say. Yeah. You don't, you don't know what he's been through. That's true. We don't know. Yeah. And that's food for thought. My friends, that's something you need to think about. So, um, some other stories that I found really interesting. Um, apparently there has been a spat of shark attacks on long Island. I heard very briefly that there have been shark attacks.

Yeah. So NPR reports sharks mistaking feet for fish are likely behind the long Island attacks. I don't think it's a mistake. You have, you have theories about shark attacks. Well, and this is a, you know, perfect timing because shark week is just, uh, just ending when we're recording this. So they must've heard. Uh, okay. So this article says a series of five shark attacks in two weeks on New York's long Island probably has many beach goers in the Northeast hesitant to wade into the water, but the sharks aren't targeting humans.

They're after fish. This sounds like it was written by big shark. That's what I was going to say. Just a shark. I just, there are a lot of typos that would suggest this was typed with fins. I'm noticing that I'm trying to clean it up as I read it out loud. Uh, a sand tiger shark nursery located just off the long Island coast and an, an abundance of bait fish close to shore could explain the recent string of unwanted encounters.

According to Florida program for shark research, uh, director Gavin Naylor, the sand tiger shark is one of the more menacing looking creatures lurking beneath the ocean surface. It can grow up to 10 feet in length and has a set of jagged teeth protruding from its jaws. See, I, I don't know, man. So you're, you're, first of all, it doesn't really bring, does it help us that much to know that, that the sharks are biting our feet because they think they're fish?

Well, it's a, it's an honest mistake. According to the shark. It's an honest mistake. I mean, what are they like? I mean, like further down to say like, you know, uh, the, uh, director Gavin Naylor suggests you put, uh, like you put socks that make your feet look like gophers or radishes, just anything that's not feet or fish. Cause I don't, I just, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with this information, but it is a little terrifying.

Yeah. It's like, don't worry. You're going to get bit by a shark, but it wasn't on purpose. Like I don't, don't worry. It's a case of mistaken identity, but also you no longer have a leg. So, so are you afraid of sharks, Michelle? Yeah. Yeah. They're big and they have big teeth. They have many big teeth. Yeah. Just rows and rows and rows of big teeth. Yeah. Uh, when was the first time you went to the ocean?

Do you remember? Um, no, but I live on the coast, so I wouldn't, you know, like, I mean, you, I was probably like, you live in Philly. Well, okay. But I live, I live in like, I live on the East coast and I grew up in New York and New Jersey. So I probably was there way before I can remember being there. That makes sense. First time I went to the ocean, I was, I think nine years old, but it was the ocean in, uh, up in new England, which is very cold.

Yeah. Um, and I was terrified of sharks growing up. Um, I watched jaws for the revenge. The hear me out best jaws movie, um, is part four. That's the one where the shark follows them from, uh, New York down to the Bahamas because now it's personal. Yeah. Yeah. But that movie has an opening sequence where a, uh, young man is in a boat and he works at like for, um, like a shore police or whatever, you know, in a shore town.

And, uh, he's the son of the main character from the original jaws. And at one point as he's trying to get some driftwood off of a buoy, the shark attacks and it happens really fast with like lots of fast cuts and water splashing around and stuff. And then when it ends, he's wearing like, he's wearing like a rain slicker and he reaches down to the rain slicker and realizes he has no arm.

Like the arm is just gone. He starts reaching for it. A little like six year old Henrik is just like eyes wide open, terrified, mortified. Just, oh my God. And I watched jaws, the revenge, just that opening scene again and again when I was a kid, cause I was so mortified, but also fascinated, which is to this day an accurate statement, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. But my God. Uh, so that's, that was the beginning of my absolute fear of sharks and, uh, yeah.

Uh, and, and, and knowing that like, so the first time I went to the ocean as an adult was Long Beach Island, New Jersey, which of course is great. Cause it's like, it's like, oh good. The Jersey area, you know, where the original shark attacks that inspired jaws, they happened on the Jersey shore. So that's good. That's good. Good, good, good. Go for it. You'll love it. Um, other thing I want to mention before I move on from the subject.

Of jaws, the revenge is, uh, is that, uh, there was a moment in the film where somebody is underwater looking for a shark. They don't know the shark is evil yet. It's down in the Bahamas. Cause they don't know that the shark is evil and sharks aren't very common in the Bahamas. So they're like, oh my God, we heard there's a great white down here. And that's so unusual. We have to study it.

We're, you know, scientists. And while he's down there on his radio, the guy on the other side is going, duh, duh, duh, duh. And I was like, so are we in a universe where jaws exist, but this is the part four of jaws. I guess. I guess so. That's weird. It is meta bending baby. Yeah. So, um, let's see what else they have to say. The sand tiger shark is one of the more open.

I already read that part. Sorry. Uh, however, as far as sharks go, this big fish shouldn't be cause for alarm. This is written by a shark. Yeah. We know sharks are eating humans, but please humans swim more. Yeah. We have babies to feed. I mean, what? The sand tiger is a relatively docile species of shark that wants little to nothing to do with humans, but loves feet like fish. Apparently that's my addition to this quote.

What? Um, attacks are almost always carried out by smaller juveniles that accidentally bite someone while chasing fish. That doesn't sound like we shouldn't worry or that it's no cause for alarm. It's just little kids. They don't know what they're doing. Oh my God. Uh, quote off the coast of long Island. There are lots of juvenile sand tiger sharks, a lot of them. And usually we don't have a problem with them, but as you've probably heard reported, a lot of the bait fish, um, are actually closer in this year or closer in this year.

And there's a lot more. Naylor said it's a statistical fact that sharks don't target people. If they did, we'd have about 10,000 bites a day. So what you're saying is, well, if sharks wanted to get us, they get us. That's what you're saying. Yeah. I am positive. This article written by a shark. I don't know. Without a doubt. I, for one, feel much safer now. So I will go in the water.

With your feet bare. With my feet. You're going to bring them. Yeah, I wasn't going to, but now I'm, I'm pretty convinced. I'm throwing them in a sack and swinging it over my shoulder, heading to the beach with my feet in the bag. Okay. So one, uh, another one that I found really interesting. A lot of these are from NPR because NPR makes it very easy to find bizarre stories. Huh. Uh, NPR, uh, article says scientists discover an ancient forest inside a giant sinkhole in China.

I heard about that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, then you tell everybody about it. Oh, that's all I know. And you don't have the article in front of you. Uh, cave explorers stumbled upon a prehistoric forest at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in South China earlier this month. Sinkholes such as these are also known in Chinese as Tian Kang or heavenly pit. Hmm. Uh, doesn't sound that heavenly to me. Um, at 630 feet deep, the sinkhole would hide the Washington monument.

And then some, the bottom of the pit holds an ancient forest spanning nearly three football fields in length with trees towering over 100 feet high. And according to the Chinese government, it is one of 30 enormous sinkholes in the county. So this is, this is sounding a lot like Godzilla versus Kong. I know you probably haven't seen that one yet, Michelle. Um, in Godzilla versus Kong, they talk about the hollow earth theory, the theory that inside the earth is another earth.

Uh huh. This is, I'm getting tired of, of having to stop believing or of having to, um, uh, stop ignoring conspiracy theories once they become true. I'm getting tired of that happening. Sorry. But excuse me, but apparently there's a prehistoric forest at the bottom of a giant sinkhole. And this is just kind of whoop-dee-doo. I guess that's what happens. Wait, I'm, I'm actually really confused. Um, because I mean, when I was like, unless they're using sinkhole in a different way that I am familiar with the word sinkhole, I would think a sinkhole would be a spot that, um, sunk because the earth underneath it was unstable, causing a hole.

If that were the case in this case, how would that even make sense? How are the trees growing? They don't have any light. Well, because there's a sun in the middle of the earth. But now I'm just talking about hollow earth theory. If the trees are, then the trees would have to grow down to get to the sun. Like, why would they grow? Oh, you're not wrong. Yeah, that's no, that I don't understand that.

Let's read on. The sinkhole was discovered by cave explorers outside Ping's village in Lei County, South China's Guangxi Zwang Autonomous Region. A team of explorers descended into the pit on May 6th, where they found ancient trees and other plant life, according to the news release. Um, so they were in a cave. I don't understand. I don't think this is what we would consider a sinkhole. Yeah. If it's just a hole, because that's when I, when I originally heard about it, I didn't, my brain didn't say like, oh, sinkhole, that's new.

I just thought they meant like a big, deep cave. So like, maybe there's less light, but there's still like, uh, flora and stuff down there. That's the only thing I can. And that, that's cool. That's not like, whoa, that's scary. It's just kind of like, ah, yeah, there's things in the ground. Oh man. See, that sounds scary to me. You haven't seen, uh, you haven't seen like the, uh, the descent. No.

Oh man. We need to watch the descent together. You would, you would enjoy it. It's a very terrifying movie about spelunking. Oh, which by the way is the best, most fun word that there is. It's a good word. Yes. But yeah, it's about climbing into tight caves and stuff, but there are monsters inside that eat flesh. It's very scary. Um, karst is a type of topography ideal for geological wonders like the sinkhole in lay County created by groundwater dissolving the limestone rock beneath the surface.

According to the U S geological survey, about 20% of the United States is made up of karst landscapes, including attractions such as Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico and mammoth cave in Kentucky. That's interesting. I mean, I've been to mammoth cave. Um, yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a really big cave. Yeah. I'm sorry. I wish it was more exciting, but that's what my experience was. I was like, wow, this is a huge cave.

And then, and then I like got McDonald's or something. Oh, sorry. No, the McDonald's was great. Yeah. Uh, it was consistent. Were you going to say something about caves? Um, they're cool. I don't know. About 13% of China is covered by karst topography. According to NASA with the Guangxi region being a prime example of its beauty. Karst landscapes vary in size and shape depending on the surrounding climate. Uh, George Venny, executive director of national cave and karst research Institute told live science or live science quote in China.

Yeah. You have this incredibly visually spectacular karst with enormous sinkholes and giant cave entrances and so forth. Venny said in other parts of the world, you walk out on the karst and you really don't notice anything. Sinkholes might be quite subdued only a meter or two in diameter. Cave entrances might be very small, so you have to squeeze your way into them. Okay. It sounds like the sinkhole is what gave access to this place.

It's, it seems like, um, like maybe it's, it, you know, has like little sinkholes. So it's been light has been filtering down. So yeah, that's cool though. I want to go there. That is cool. I mean, I like how all of the sources for information are not Chinese, almost as if they have some kind of totalitarian regime that runs all of their media. Um, Venny's Institute is the sister organization of the team that discovered the new sinkhole, the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey.

Chen Lixin, uh, who led the Guangxi cave expedition team said the prehistoric trees at the bottom of the pit are almost 130 feet high and the dense brush on the forest floor stands shoulder high. According to the news release. Cool. I want to live there. What, what would you do if you live there? Like, how would you get yourself set up? Did you just like get some wood and then make a house and then you live there?

I don't know. You would cut down those hundreds, those prehistoric 130 foot trees just to make yourself a house? No, but I figured that there's probably, if they're 130 years old, there's probably some that are dead. So I should just be able to find wood. Okay. Fair enough. I mean. If I can, I can just make it out of brush or like dig into the ground even further. Oh, make it out of Adobe.

Yeah. Yeah. Adobe house. So our last story for today, I wanted to go with one that is, um, I want you to brace yourself, Michelle, because I know you are a woman who lives alone. Oh. And I am a man who lives alone. So how often do you worry about intruders? Um, like only when I wake up at 3 a.m. And I'm pretty sure someone's in my house. But how many times were you right?

I don't know. You're like dozens. Well, this story is about an intruder that broke into a Tennessee couple's house. Oh. So please brace yourself. From NPR reporting, this dog broke into a Tennessee couple's house and snuggled her way into their bed. No. Julie and Jimmy Johnson are no strangers to dogs. They have three of their own that regularly sleep in the bed with them in their home in Southeast Tennessee. But recently the couple woke up to find a large tan dog sandwiched between them that not one of them that was not one of their own.

Wow. I could see this happening to you, Michelle, because you need a dog. It's got to happen. No. No. I will say, though, I'm impressed that a dog would just get into the house that already has dogs. I would assume my dogs would have something to say if a new dog just came in. Yeah. I guess maybe. Yeah. Maybe they thought that he was cool. And they were like, oh, totally. You can go snuggle with the humans.

Sounds like a cool dog. Yeah. I mean, I can't pretend it's not a cool dog. Um, so further on, it says, quote, you could see light coming into our curtains in our bedroom. And I feel my husband not just roll over, but kind of startled, like almost a jump roll over. And it woke me up, Julie said. And in a quiet but stern voice, he said, Julie, whose dog is this? Julie was admittedly confused, thinking it was, of course, either Hollis, Jupiter or Zeppelin, one of their three dogs.

I love you learn so much about people by the name of their pets. Yeah. That's really great. I love that. I'm so glad that we got to hear the name of the dogs. Um, and, and that Hollis is like a total, like Southern gentleman name, like from the olden days. But then Jupiter is of course, like a planet name or a Greek God. And then Zeppelin, which is either you're really into Led Zeppelin or you love blimps.

So I, that's a great, like, I wish I could come up with the, the connecting sinew between Hollis, Jupiter and Zeppelin. The other possibility is that they're all three rescues and therefore were named by totally different people. It's true. Yeah, possible. I hope that's the case because please, for the love of God, if you're out there, rescue a dog. I'm talking to you, Michelle. Why don't you rescue a dog? No, I'll bring it to you.

No, I'm allergic. Some dogs are hypoallergenic. Yeah, I tried that once. That didn't work. How did you try that once? Like, I had a dog when I was growing up. Oh, yeah, that doesn't count. You were a child. You didn't know any better. Oh. Julie was admittedly confused. Oh, sorry. My husband just went to kind of pull the blankets up a little bit, almost like they were going to protect him. And at that point, the dog got even further up on our pillows and snuggled in and was just 100% content being there, Julie said.

That is so adorable. Oh, my God. There's a picture of her with the dog. Oh, man. It's a big pit mix, a big tan pit mix. Wow. With a big, goofy tongue. Very, very cute. Wow. I have two pit mixes that no one would ever guess are pit mixes. And they have, well, Henwolf has a really big head and like a pit bull. But Chicano just looks like a little pointy baby.

He's so cute. It didn't take much time after that to realize that the strange dog was not a threat, but instead a cuddle bug and maybe a bit of a bed hog as it pushed the Johnsons to both sides of their king bed. After taking a look at the dog and realizing it must have had owners who took care of it, Julie said she started taking some selfies of the bizarre and funny situation.

She then posted a few photos to Facebook. And what she said was the weirdest post I have ever had to make, asking her friends if anyone recognized the dog. It didn't take long before Julie received a message from a person saying they were the dog's owner. It turned out that the dog, whose name is Nala, had slipped out of their collar while on a walk and ran into the woods the previous day ahead of the large thunderstorms that were in the area.

After a quick photo verification, one of Nala's moms was on their way to get her. So apparently what happened was this dog broke into their house and snuggled with them because there was a big thunderstorm and she was scared. So that is about the cutest thing I've ever heard. And the dog was returned to its owners. Oh, my gosh. There's a picture of the of the three dogs with Nala. One is a full size poodle.

One is is some kind of a beagle mix. And one is like a lab. They're very cute. Very cute. If you're a dog lover like me, that's a story that would definitely make you feel feel good inside. So not all intruders are bad unless you're Michelle and you're afraid of dogs for some reason. So, well, you know, Michelle has a cat named Giggs. So at least she's not an animal hater by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks. So, all right. Well, we're going to we're going to talk about Centralia, Pennsylvania here in a moment, a place that you and I have both been to together. But first, we need to go to a quick word from a few sponsors and then we'll be right back. All right, my friends. Have you ever played that game Silent Hill? It's a foggy town because there's a fire burning underneath it. And Silent Hill is based on a true story.

The legend of Centralia, Pennsylvania, the town on fire. And Centralia, Pennsylvania is not that far from you, Michelle. No, it's not. In fact, you and I went there about five or six years ago. Yeah. And it was an interesting experience. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But first, we want to give you a little bit of knowledge. We want to drop a little knowledge on you about Centralia. So according to Wikipedia, which, by the way, is the best source for all information.

But according to Wikipedia, Centralia is a borough and near ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Its population has declined from 1,000 in 1980 to four residents in 2020. Wow. When we were there, there were more than four residents, but not much more. Yeah. I mean, I think we saw like four houses. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't mean there are people in the houses. But well, remember, there were there was at least one house that was a duplex and they'd torn the other half down and there were buttresses holding it up.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently, they're real hateful about you trying to keep living there. So when your neighbor moves out, they just tear down half of the house you're a part of. Yeah. Well, you live in a duplex. So how does that make you feel? Would you? Would you? How would you feel if they tore if they tore the other half of the building down and you had to use buttresses to hold it up?

I feel pretty good. Is that so? Yeah. It's something I've always wanted. So what to live in a standalone house or to have buttresses? Standalone house. But they're just a bonus. It is completely surrounded by Cunningham Township, a real estate. All real estate in the borough was claimed under eminent domain in 1992. Yep. And condemned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Centralia's zip code was discontinued by the Postal Service in 2002. State and local officials reached an agreement with the seven remaining residents on October 29th, 2013, allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths.

Until their deaths. Wow. After which the rights to their houses will be taken through eminent domain. For those who don't know, eminent domain is a law structure that started in the United States in the 90s that basically allows the government to take your property under certain circumstances. And it's been abused a lot by the federal government. This is the part where I slipped my tinfoil hat on. And no, but it's also been used to protect people.

We have a lot of history, especially in Pennsylvania, seems to have a lot of history of towns that are eminent domain. Hmm. Like, oh gosh, what is it? Livermore, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh. I actually visited Livermore, Pennsylvania. But here's the tricky thing. Livermore, Pennsylvania is basically just a, and this is off my memory, is just a cemetery on top of a hill because the town was flooded. Oh. Oh. Oh. And the legend is that, you know, at certain days you can see the top of the church steeple under the water.

And then people will be like, you could still hear the people screaming. And it's like, what were they screaming about? Because they moved everybody out and then intentionally flooded the town so that it wouldn't accidentally flood. Maybe they're just screaming like, I don't want you to flood the town. That was where my house was. My favorite delicatessen was on that street. Yeah, that's what I would be screaming. But it is interesting.

And there are lots of urban legends of flooded towns. So the interesting thing about Livermore, before I get back to Centralia, is that I was taken to Livermore, Pennsylvania, to the Livermore Cemetery by a friend who lived in Pittsburgh who believed that Livermore Cemetery was the cemetery from Night of the Living Dead, the horror movie. But this was in the early 2000s, like 2002, 2003. So no smartphones or anything like that.

So he thought that. And the craziest thing is when we got to Livermore Cemetery and we were parked where you could park and then we have to hike in because it's all overgrown and stuff. There was a guy with his little daughter, like 10-year-old daughter, telling her, this is the place where all the zombies came out in that movie. And the little girl was all like, this is so wild. This is so crazy, Dad.

You know, all this stuff. And I was like, whoa, we're actually going to see the cemetery. So we took photos and stuff. A year and a half, two years later, I found out that's not the cemetery where Night of the Living Dead was filmed. That's an urban legend that it was filmed in Livermore. It's weird. Because Livermore was a legendary, like, folkloric town in Pennsylvania already. It was shot in the Evans City Cemetery in Evans City, Pennsylvania, which is much easier to access and is not a flooded town.

And to this day, people visit the Evans City Cemetery to celebrate Night of the Living Dead. I've been there five times. I love that cemetery. It's really cool. And Evans City is a cool town, too. So if you love Night of the Living Dead, just go to Evans City. So I don't want to bore you with all of the details of Centralia. But I will tell you, basically, long story short, it became a mining town in 1856.

In 1856, the first two mines in Centralia opened. The Locust Run Mine and the Coal Ridge Mine. Afterward, a few more mines opened. And so this town, this area was, like, massively, massively mining. And it was branched off of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Lehigh-Mahana. How do you say that? I don't know. I'm not there. I can't say it. M-A-H-A-N-O-Y. M-A-H-A-N-O-Y. I don't know. You live there. You're supposed to know.

I don't live in Nepal. I don't know how they pronounce their words. It's like when you taught me how to say Schuylkill, which is not what it says. But you're like, it's Schuylkill. It's the Schuylkill or something. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. So that's to give you the basics. There were lots and lots of mining going on. So now we get to the fire. And this is, I mean, because this is what makes, put Centralia on the map.

Although, ironically, it didn't actually put Centralia on the map. It took it off the map. Yeah. But so analysts disagree about the specific cause of the Centralia fire. David DeCock, author of Fire Underground, the ongoing tragedy of the Centralia mine fire, concluded that it started with an attempt to clean up the town landfill. In May of 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill located in an abandoned strip mine pit next to the Oddfellow Cemetery just outside the borough limits.

We visited that cemetery. Remember? Yeah. That was the first place we saw. We'll talk about that more. I figure once we get through all of the details, we can talk about our trip there. Okay. So, let's see. On May 27th, 1962, the firefighters, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire and let it burn for some time. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not fully extinguished. An unsealed opening in the pit allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia.

By contrast, other sources claim that the fire had started the previous day, when a trash hauler dumped hot ash or coal discarded from coal burners into the open trash pit. The author of The Day the Earth Caved In noted that borough council minutes from June 4th, 1962 referred to two fires at the dump and that five firefighters had submitted bills for fighting the fire at the landfill area. Hmm. The borough, by law, was responsible for installing a fire-resistant clay barrier between each layer of the landfill, but fell behind schedule, leaving the barrier incomplete.

Oh. Well, you know, it's almost, this is, I'm guessing, 1962. Thank God government is not as incompetent now as it was then. Uh, this allowed the hot coals to penetrate the vein of coal underneath the pit and start the subsequent subterranean fire. Mm-hmm. Another theory proposes that the Bast Colliery fire of the, of 1932 was never fully extinguished. Oh. And that, that fire reached the landfill area by 1962. However, a miner named Frank Jurgill Sr. disputes that theory.

Jurgill claims he operated a bootleg mine with his brother near the landfill from 1960 to 1962. I love this guy. This guy's the best. I love that so much. It's just like, hey, hold on. We were selling booze illegally back then. I'll tell you what really was going on. If the Bast Colliery fire had not been extinguished, the brothers would likely have been overcome or killed by the noxious gases via many interconnected tunnels in the area.

So you have this giant abandoned mine underground of Centralia, Pennsylvania in the 60s. And through some kind of mishap, my guess would be a combination of total incompetence. The mine catches on fire. And unfortunately, this might blow your mind, but coal burns very well and very long. Yeah. And once you get it going, it's hard to get it to stop. Like, you know, I would love to see what it's like when you burn like a giant brick of coal, like a, like a 50 pound chunk of coal.

Because I've only ever burned like briquettes, you know? Yeah. I'm curious what the burning is like. So in 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem. Wait, what? Yeah. So they knew and they were just like, oh, it's probably fine. The whole, the whole town's burning underneath us, I guess. Wait. So the fire started in May of 1962. Yeah. And then the next thing is in 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem.

What? I don't know. It's fine. There's like, yeah, it's on fire, but it's not, you can't see it. It's not a big deal. I mean, it's underground. Yeah. You guys don't even like you. If you knew what was living underground, you'd be so creeped out. You know, you guys don't, you know, what you can't see can't hurt you. So in 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas station owner, then Mayor John Coddington inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level.

When he withdrew it, it seemed hot. I was, I thought you were going to say it was on fire. I thought that was what I was going to say too. So that is a concern when you're like, huh, this giant 500 gallon tank of gasoline is very warm. There's a sentence you don't want to hear ever. Oh my God. He lowered a thermometer into the tank on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 172 degrees Fahrenheit and 77.8 degrees Celsius.

How hot does gas have to be to like explode or catch on fire? I wonder. I don't know. I guess we, I guess it's time to fact check. How hot does gasoline have to be ignited? Okay. Gasoline's flashpoint. Oh, actually it's pretty high. It's, it's, it's really high actually. What is it? Um, uh, uh, 495 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay. So it's not like he had to run right then, but it's not good.

But of course that's, that's when that's to ignite gasoline with heat alone. The moment there's a flame involved, all bets are off. So please kids don't go and boil gasoline. But if you do use a thermometer to let us know, just keep the windows open, please. It's not really safe. That's, oh boy. Our first, our first lawsuit. How pretty. Um, okay. So statewide attention to the fire began to increase culminating on February 14th, 1981.

This has spanned so much time already. It's like, yeah, it's like, oh, we have a really big problem. I will get to it in a couple of years. It's fine. It's. Oh, it's about to get dark. On February 14th, Valentine's Day, Romantic 1981. A 12 year old resident named Todd Dobosky fell into a sinkhole four feet wide and 150 feet deep. That suddenly opened beneath his feet in a backyard. Oh, that's the kind of sinkhole that I meant.

Yeah. Imagine for a second living in a small community, like a rural community, like Centralia, and the ground is under, is on fire. Like, do you think people are like using the bathroom and going like, why does my toilet smell like it's flushing into boiling poop? Like, like it had to be, but it had to be like melting plumbing or, or destroying plumbing. It had to be like melting septic tanks, right?

It would have to cause septic tanks to burst because they're mostly plastic. I guess. I don't know. I mean, maybe it'll mention this later, but I'm just like, I'm just, my mind is blown by the idea that the town is on fire underground. And also that people were just like, eh, like just work, just like chill out. Like, what's your problem? Like, relax. What's your deal? Uh, so, um, his cousin, 14 year old Eric Wolfgang pulled the Bosque out of the hole and saved his life.

Oh my God. Yeah. Well, because it was only four feet wide, I'm guessing he was able to hold on for a little bit. Yeah. Okay. Um, the plume of hot steam billowing from a hole was tested and found to contain a lethal level of level of carbon monoxide. Okay. That checks out. Yeah. At the time of the sinkhole collapse, then incumbent representative James Nelligan and governor Dick Thornburg were visiting the town to assess the area.

That's a coinkidink. Yeah. If I ever heard one, um, although there was physical visible evidence of the fire, residents of Centralia were bitterly divided over the question of whether or not the fire posed a direct threat to the town. I love that. Yeah. I know that there's a lot, there's more than enough to make fun of about Americans about us. Like there's plenty, but there's something I find so charming about, look, I'll decide if I'm in mortal danger, pal.

All right. You just buzz off. All right. I'll decide if this is going to kill me and my family, pal. All right. I bought this house fair and square. So you take your little notepad and your, and your little chicken, little underground fire worry and buzz the hell off. I don't know why they're New Yorkers, but I don't know. I mean, but legitimately though, like how often do towns just have underground fires that make the towns uninhabitable?

Basically never. Sure. So why? Yeah. And this is the eighties. So it's not like you could go on Google and be like, is my town on fire underground? Yeah. And even if you did though, it would all be conspiracies. Oh yeah. Clippy comes up. I noticed you're under eminent domain. Can I help? It would be nothing but conspiracies. Yeah. I love that. It says, although there was physical, visible evidence of the fire in the real disaster is above ground.

Steve Kroll Smith and Steve couch identified at least six community groups, each organized around varying interpretations of the amount and kind of risk posed by the fire. In 1983, the U S Congress allocated more than $42 million for relocation efforts. Nearly all of the residents accepted the government's buyout offers. More than 1000 people moved out of the town and 500 structures were demolished. By 1990, the consensus or the census recorded 63 remaining residents.

In 1992, Pennsylvania governor, Bob Casey invoked eminent domain on all property in the borough, condemning all the buildings within a subsequent legal effort by residents to overturn the action failed. In 2002, the U S postal service discontinued Centralia zip code 17927. Only 16 homes were still standing by 2006, which was reduced to 11 by 2009. When governor Ed Rendell began the formal eviction of the remaining Centralia residents, only five homes remained by 2010.

The Centralia mine fire extended beneath the village of Burnsville. Sorry. Sorry. Burnsville. Sorry. Yeah. We're really sorry. Burnsville. I didn't mean to laugh. Okay. I was, I'm, I'm very immature. I'm sorry. Uh, the village. Burnsville. I'm sorry. Okay. Jesus. The village of the said village, a short distance to the South and required it to also be abandoned. Whoa. We need to go to Burnsville. We do. Oh, I smell road trip and also sulfur.

Um, all right. Uh, this is about the condemnation and abandonment. Few homes remain standing in Centralia. Most of the abandoned buildings have been demolished by the Columbia County redevelopment authority or reclaimed by nature. At a casual glance, the area now appears to be a field with many paved streets running through it. That's completely true. Yeah. When we went, remember we were just trying to find anything. Yeah. And it was actually really hard to find much of anything except that we found that cemetery by total luck.

Right. Um, and we'll talk about that more in a minute. I'm, I'm, I'm teasing it, you know, cause when we were talking about like, what are we going to do on the first, what are we going to talk about the first episode? I was like, well, Centralia. Cause we've like literally went there. Like we, we have, it writes itself. It makes its own gravy. Burnsville. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should feel very bad about myself for that.

Um, but that also answers my question as to, is it going to keep spreading and make other towns go on fire? Which I guess the answer is. Yeah. I don't see why not. I wonder if Burnsville were just a bunch of like wimps who were just like, okay, we'll leave. And meanwhile, Centralia is just a bunch of Epic chads. They're just like, nope, not leaving. Centralia home of the original Epic chads.

That needs to be a t-shirt. I would wear it every day. Home of Epic chads. Um, okay. Uh, the area now appears to be filled. Yeah. Many streets. Uh, some areas are being filled with new growth forest. The remaining church in the borough, St. Mary's holds weekly services on Sunday. It has not yet been directly affected by the fire. The town's four cemeteries. Oh, there were four cemeteries. So we, we, I don't know which one we saw.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, nothing's labeled anymore, you know? Cause it's like, I guess if you left labels up and stuff that suggests that people are supposed to be there. If they're like, well, cause if you have a sign up that says like, this is this cemetery, it's like, well, then that says that people are supposed to come and see it. I just thought the signs fell down. I mean the same thing, not maintaining it.

I guess. Uh, the only indications of the fire, which underlies some 400 acres spreading along four fronts are low round metal steam vents in the South of the borough. Several signs warn of underground fire, unstable ground and dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. Additional smoke and steam can be seen coming from an abandoned portion of Pennsylvania route 61. The area just behind the hilltop cemetery. Okay. That's where we were. Um, and we'll talk about Pennsylvania route 61 in a little bit.

Cause that's like the best part of going to Centralia. And apparently it's like completely closed off now and you can't do it. And you can't, um, the area just behind the hilltop cemetery and other cracks in the ground scattered about the area. Route 61 was repaired several times until it was closed. The current route was formerly a detour around the damaged portion during the repairs and became a permanent route in 1993.

Mounds of dirt were placed at both ends of the former route, effectively blocking the road. Pedestrian traffic is still possible due to a small opening about two feet wide in the north side of the road. Uh, the underground fire is still burning and may continue to do so for 250 years. No. How come nobody just digs it up and just puts it out? I don't know. You ask your Congressman. You live in Pennsylvania.

You can start calling your Congressman. I don't think I live in the same thing. You can call your representatives and just be like, I care about Centralia. You'd be the only person. What about Centralia? Yeah. What about the aptly named Burnsville? Yeah. What about Burnsville? Poor Burnsville. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not renew the relocation contract at the end of 2005. Um, the last remaining house on Locust Avenue was demolished in September of 2007.

It was notable for a period of, uh, for a period for the five chimney like support buttresses along each of the two opposite sides of the house. The house had formerly been supported by a row of adjacent buildings. Another house house with similar buttresses was visible from the northern side of the cemetery, just north of the, of the burning partially subsumed hillside. Uh, wow. This is so interesting. Uh, residents, John Kamarnsky and, uh, and John Lottie, Lottie, Lottie.

I'm guessing they were just known as the Johns in that town, uh, were evicted in May and July of 2009, respectively. In May of 2009, the remaining residents mounted another legal effort to reverse the 1992 eminent domain claim. They were still fighting. I love that. USA, USA. I love that. I just love that. They're like, no, what we want is what we want. Like, leave us alone. I love that so much.

In 2010, only five homes remained as state officials tried to vacate the remaining residents and demolish what was left of the town. In March of 2011, a federal judge refused to issue an injunction that would have stopped the condemnation. The borough council still had regular meetings as of 2011. It was reported that the town's highest bill at the meeting reported on came from PPL, a power utility at $92 and the town's budget was in the black.

In February of 2012, the Commonwealth court ruled that a declaration of taking could not be reopened or set aside on the basis that the purpose for the condemnation no longer exists. Seven people, including the borough council president, had filed suit claiming the condemnation was no longer needed because the underground fire had moved and the air quality in the borough was the same as that in Lancaster. In October of 2013, the remaining residents settled their lawsuit, receiving $218,000 in compensation for the value of their homes, along with $131,500 to settle additional claims and the right to stay in their homes for the rest of their lives.

Yay! In April of 2015, I think, in April 2020, amidst the early part of COVID-19 pandemic, the property's current owners made the decision to cover over the graffiti highway section of old Route 61. Several mounds of dirt were laid over the area, thus ending a decades-long fascination with the desolated stretch of road. So, um, I have one thing left to mention, which is that there was a time capsule buried in 1966.

The town's residents and former residents decided to open a time capsule buried in 1966, a couple years earlier than planned, after someone had attempted to unearth and steal the capsule in May of 2014. Wow. The capsule was not scheduled to be opened until 2016, 50 years after it was buried. Wow. Items found in the footlocker-sized capsule, which had been inundated with about 12 inches of water, included a miner's helmet, a miner's lamp, some coal.

Oh, great. Yeah, bury some coal. A Bible, local souvenirs, and a pair of bloomers signed by the men of Centralia in 1966. People are weird. People are so weird. I like that we think we're weird now. Yeah. But we were so weird. So, we went, you and I went to Centralia, and I, when was your surgery? Because that was when we did it. I don't know. You don't remember what year your shoulder surgery was?

I don't know. It was one of those years. Oh, wait, I can do this. 2017. It was 2017? Mm-hmm. Okay, I'll believe you. So, in 2017, I came to help you out while you were recovering from your shoulder surgery, and I surprised you, I think, by saying, hey, we're going to Centralia. Or maybe we decided that before I got there. We did? Sorry. Ah, it was still a surprise. Shut up. So, we went to Centralia.

So, first of all, we drove out. It's in the middle of nowhere, pretty far out. And when we got there, we literally couldn't find anything. I mean, we saw a couple houses, lots of roads that go nowhere. We drove up and down tons of roads that were, like they said, it was just roads going through fields. Mm-hmm. Like, there were fields that had grids of roads and just nothing there. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And we did see a couple of houses. Mm-hmm. I think my favorite was the one house that not only was only half of it with a buttress, but it also had an above-ground pool in the backyard. And I was like, man, people living in Centralia got the life. Yeah. They, like, beat the government. And they have a pool. Yeah. And it's on fire underground. And they really don't have a lot of neighbors.

That's cool, too. That's true. That's completely true. Man, lucky. So we ended up lucking out and we found the gates to a cemetery on top of a hill. Mm-hmm. And I remember we went up there and that was pretty cool. I mean, you know, if you're going to go to some place that's supposedly not necessarily haunted, but supposedly creepy or spooky or interesting, the first place you should really go is a cemetery, of course.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's just going to be, that's almost too obvious. But it was the first and only place we saw. But do you remember what happened when we were finishing up at the cemetery? We were walking up the hill. Do you remember that? Uh, I don't know. I don't think you were with me when it first happened, but I was walking towards some, I was just walking in some direction and I saw slowly this giant hunk of highway raise up in my view.

And then I yelled for you. I was like, Michelle, come and see this. Yes. So we went, we walked down this very treacherous, this very treacherous hill that led into, um, what was it? Is that route? I just read it and now I can't remember what the name of it was. Uh, what route was, what state route is that? I don't know. You're supposed to live in Pennsylvania. State route 61. We found a segment.

I don't know. Was it like maybe a half a mile worth of highway? Maybe. Because we walked the whole thing and it was pretty long. Yeah. Imagine if you will, um, overgrown forest on every view and then just a highway that doesn't go anywhere. It's just dead ended on both sides and you can, it's long enough. You can't see the other end. So we got there and we were expecting, I'm not going to lie.

We were expecting and hoping to see like cracks in the earth, smoke billowing out of the earth. The, the, the screams of the damned Satan, you know, beckoning for us to join his minions, things like that. You know, normal shit. Yeah. Yeah. But instead, what we found was a highway with a billion penises drawn on it. This was the most graffiti I've ever seen in one place in my entire life. Yeah.

Me too. Probably. You're like, I'd have to think about it. It was just almost every inch was graffiti though. Like there was like nowhere. And, and I love, I love graffiti because graffiti has like three goals. One is to like leave a message for people to see. One is to scare people. And the other is just to be cool. Well, I guess the third is just penis. Yeah. Yeah. That's really what it comes down to.

So we would go around and we would find like patches where people had just drawn like six, six, six, the Satan lives here and stuff. But then there are other spots where it would just be like dicks. And then, and then other parts where it would be swastikas, you know, like they're just trying to scare you. Yeah. I never, I, in a, in a general, in a general setting, I never take swastika graffiti seriously because in a general setting, it's probably just somebody wanting to get a rise out of somebody because swastikas definitely do that.

That's true. Well, cause that's what bikers did in the 1960s and seventies. They all were like swastikas, but most of them were not neo-Nazis. They just wore them because it made people uncomfortable. Especially you people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It would really make me uncomfortable too. But so we walked from one side to the other and there were other people there checking it out too. We weren't even alone most of the time.

I did. I wanted to tell you this. I don't think I ever told you this. There was one spot where somebody had left in graffiti their, their Snapchat name. I don't know. I think, yeah, I remember that. I added that Snapchat. Oh really? And it's a woman who lives in Poland. Weird. I'm guessing she must've visited Centralia. Yeah. That's the only guess I have. So it was interesting. What was, what, what did you think of the experience?

I've been talking a lot. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was, it was way more penises than I thought I was going to see. And, you know, it was like someone would like make something within graffiti, draw something and then there'd be like a penis on top of it. Or like penises like going in its mouth, you know, like they do. And just penises drawn on top of former drawings of penises, penis supremacy.

Yeah. So, so yeah, I mean, I really like graffiti, but I didn't really enjoy that graffiti as much as I would have liked to, but you know. Well, it was overwhelming. Like if you wanted to publish the graffiti on that high, on that dead piece of highway, you would literally need a book's worth of photographs to, to catalog all of it because it was so big and so massive and just every inch was covered in graffiti.

Yeah. Yeah. So, but I do remember we had a funny idea. Do you remember our funny idea to play a prank on the Centralia visitors? Um, um, I don't know. I had an idea that we should put a chair at the end of one part of the highway and put a dummy of a clown just sitting there. And then I thought we were like, yeah, that'd be so great. Then I was like, we should put meat in the head so that there's like flies all over its head and it smells like it's rotting.

Yeah. We did not do that. So we have no fame to show for it. But we thought about it. So unfortunately, Centralia was not a very spooky place. I think, you know, 20 years earlier, it would have been a fascinating place to visit. Um, as far as like the smoke and creepy things like that. But I will say the creepy thing about the highway was there were giant sections where it was, it had burst from the ground breaking open in the past.

So that was pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, I wish it was actively smoking when we were there, but I'm sorry, Michelle. We tried our best. So do you have anything else you want to say about Centralia? No. The town on fire. You know, I was in a lot of pain when we were there. So I remember that. I mean, you were, you were fine. Oh, you were fine. Okay. So, um, well, we're going to take a quick break and, uh, we'll be back right after this and we'll be talking about some horror media news and wrapping things up.

But first a word from our wonderful and lovely and attractive sponsors. All right, my friends, we're back. Uh, just wanted to let everybody know from our last segment, I did look up a little bit about Burnsville. Um, the aptly named Burnsville. And I found out that Burnsville bunch of wusses. I was right. Centralia is original Chad's Burnsville. Everybody moved out by 1996. And, uh, there's no legend of big fat, uh, payouts from the government.

So sorry, Burnsville. Uh, we hope you, uh, you learned your lesson. And I, I just did have to point out that is hilarious. The hilariously named Asheville or Ashland. Ashland is nearby as well. Um, sorry, Ashland. So Pennsylvania has some of the most interesting town names ever. We do have good town names. Blue ball Virginville. Yeah. Those are my favorites. Any of yours that you like? Um, those are good. I don't know.

I've always been partial to Concha Hawken. Just fun to say. It is fun to say so. But, uh, so Michelle, first things first in the world of horror movies, a trailer dropped last month for Rob Zombie's version of the Munsters. Yeah. And I made you watch the trailer. Yeah. Um, at knife point. And, uh, it's getting a lot of backlash on the internet. A lot of people are mad. They're saying they hate it.

They think it looks cheap. Things like that. Um, but the film is not a big budget movie. It is coming straight to Netflix in October with a, uh, Blu-ray DVD and digital release in September. Okay. So Michelle, what are your first thoughts upon watching the, uh, the trailer to the Munsters movie by Rob Zombie? Um, I don't know. Cause they'd be, they'd be mean. Do you want to hear them? Oh, Michelle's got something mean to say.

I am all ears. Oh, um, no. I mean, I don't know. I just was watching it and I was like, um, is this real? Cause it's like a joke trailer. Oh, I'm sorry. I just like, I didn't think it was good. It did. There were parts of it that came across, like maybe it was an SNL sketch or something. Yeah. Yeah. But like not a good one. There's a such thing as a good SNL sketch.

I don't know. Yeah. So Michelle on a, on a scale, on a rating scale of one to five stars, how many stars do you give the trailer? Uh, like, like two, like something. Two stars. Oh, wow. If I just, if I'm just quiet long enough, it'll get to five. Keeps going up. Um, I, you know, I mean, first of all, I have to be honest, I'm a horror movie, you know, a fan majorly.

I've never been a fan of Rob Zombie's work. Yeah. And that's not a dig at him or his work or the fans of his work. It's just personally, his movies don't really, haven't really connected with me much. I need to watch more of them, but I haven't watched a lot. Will I watch the Munsters on Netflix? Yes. It's important to point out. It is a kid's movie. It's a PG kids movie based on a family friendly sitcom from back in the day.

I think that a lot of people on the internet have pointed out and a few people on YouTube have even done this. They've made the trailer black and white and said that it's, it's better in black and white. Yeah. I believe that's probably true. Um, the Munsters is beloved for its era and black and white, although there were some Munsters movies that were in color, but they weren't as glowing neon as the colors and the Munsters, uh, the current Munsters.

Yeah. The colors were very just like avant-garde and very in your face and things like that. Um, yes, he cast his wife as frigging Lily Munster. He always casts his wife in the biggest role he can in his movies. I think she's probably going to do a pretty good job. Um, the guy who played Herman, I thought was all right. Um, I do love grandpa. I think that the guy playing grandpa is the best casting in the whole thing.

He's being played by Daniel Roebuck, who's a very talented actor, very funny actor. Um, so I don't know. Michelle hated it. That's very clear. Michelle is, uh, do you want to say anything, you know, harsh and cruel to the people who made the movie about like, you know, do you, do you want to hurt their feelings directly or anything? They did a good job. I just didn't like it. Would you watch it?

No. I mean, if, if like someone was like, Hey, we're watching it, I'd be like, I guess we're watching it, but I'm not like going to go out of my way. When you say if someone, are you just mean me? If I were like, Hey, let's watch it. Is that pretty much that person? Are you talking about like your mom might want to watch it? I guess. I'm not going to want to watch it.

Well, she might actually. I mean, it looks fun. It might be fun. I'm hopeful that it's going to be really fun. Cause from the, the reports are that Rob zombie has been a huge monsters fan since he was young and that he's always wanted to make a monsters movie. So maybe it'll be awesome. Yeah. I'm excited to see a movie he wrote that doesn't, isn't plagued by constant, heavy, vicious swearing. His scripts tend to have a lot of like F words and C words is the, like, that's the joke that I make with our friends is that like a Rob zombie script just immediately has overuse of both of those words when you wouldn't expect it at all.

So I'm hoping that it'll be, it'll be fun. Yeah. But I will be, I'm going to, here's my opinion. I think it's a pretty bad trailer. I think it's like a poorly put together trailer. Yeah. But I am, I'm interested. Like I want to watch it and judge it, but I, but trailer, I think the trailer is not very good. Yeah. But I've liked a lot of movies that had crap trailers.

Yeah, sure. So you're, you're like, yeah, okay, whatever. It's bad. No, I, I agree with you. Michelle out. It sucks. Michelle out. That's, that should be your new thing. Okay. Let's do it. You're like Michelle out. Boom. Then I just stay here. And then you don't go anywhere. So, um, oh yeah. So the monsters, that's the big one right now. Um, uh, the movie, Jordan Peele's new film. Nope. Just opened in theaters.

Uh, you have not seen it yet. Although I'm viciously begging you to go see. Nope. I saw. Nope. Uh, in the theaters twice. I really like it. Good. Unfortunately, I feel like telling people why I liked it would ruin the surprise of why it's great. Okay. Well, so I don't want to say why I loved it yet. I want to wait until it's been out longer and I would love for you to see it.

Maybe next month we'll talk about it on the show. Maybe. Maybe we'll talk about it next month or maybe you'll be on the show next month. Maybe I'll be on the show next month. Oh, so, uh, before we get out of here, one thing I wanted to get in to involve in this program is Michelle's love of Reddit. Wow. So did you find anything on Reddit worth sharing today? Um, so most of the stuff I found on Reddit was not good at all.

I did find one story on the, our paranormal, um, about, uh, no, no, it was on, wait, what is it on? Get your story straight. Damn it. It's on, it's on the, the glitch in the matrix, right? Um, that I can, I mean, I, I could tell you about it. If you want. Yeah. Let's go. Let's do one. Do you want me to just say things about it? Yeah. Just read it and we'll comment as we go.

You want me to read it with like, okay. What were we supposed to do? I don't know. Okay. So it's kind of long, but she, this is by this person and it's called. Is that like you slash this person? No. Yes. What's their name? You can tell, tell their name. You slash lemon squeeze eight, one, three, two. That's what we get. Yeah. Do you need glasses? I saw you lean closer to your screen to read it.

No. Is it time, Michelle? Is it time for you to wear glasses? Okay. Anyway. Uh, I mean, we don't have to read the entire thing, but we get the gist across. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about it. Okay. So, okay. So anyway, this person says, eight months ago, a feral kitten got dropped off at my house by the mama. Mama never came back. The kitten was adorable, but very scared.

It made a home under my shed and I have fed him daily since. Took six to seven months for him to trust me enough to let him touch me. Anyway, he's gorgeous, uh, long haired. Uh, when he started allowing me to pet him, uh, I noticed that he was very matted down his legs and under his belly. Uh, I called around, but no groomer would see him without shots and sedation, which required a vet visit.

Um, in total, it was going to cost me $400. Uh, we don't have any local feral cat programs. Um, that's adorable. Oh, $400. As I'm looking down the barrel of like a $1,200 surgery for my dog. Yeah. Sorry. Cry babies. Um, so yeah. Anyway, she goes on to say she tried to cut the mats. Herself with scissors, but it was unsuccessful. It was like trying to cut through carpet, a carpet with sharp claws and an attitude.

I mean, that is a cat. Yeah. To me, that's a definition of a cat. Yeah. Um, so I made it, I made him an appointment the day of his appointment. I tried unsuccessfully to catch him and had to cancel at the last minute. I was trying to figure out some other options, but I had to, a trip home planned for the next day, uh, to visit family and decided it would have to wait.

Um, uh, I went home for three days and the whole time I was feeling off in quotation marks. Like I wasn't supposed to be there. It was a very weird feeling. Not bad, not in a bad way feeling. Just, uh, trip wasn't supposed to happen. Neutral sort of feeling, which sounds like a bad feeling, but what do I know? It sounds, that sounds bad to me, but yeah. Yeah. Um, when I got back from my trip, uh, I had an incident with a lamp that I posted here about.

Um, but I'm not going to tell you about that one. Cause I don't want to, she didn't say that. I'm saying that. Um, a few days later I was sitting outside when the kitten came out for dinner. I immediately noticed he had been groomed and not just hacked with scissors, but professionally groomed and all his madding was gone. His head and neck were cleaned up. Oh yeah. That's so weird. Yeah. Uh, I could chalk this up to a random good Samaritan, but if only I had neighbors, I'm in the middle of nowhere.

The cat is at my house 24 seven. He's always here. There's tons of strays out here in our County and they gen, and they are genuinely viewed as a nuisance. There's no way he befriended someone else. It would be crazy enough to spend $400 on an insane feral cat only to release him back into the wild. And what are the chances that they do that within days of me having an appointment to get it done?

Uh, I've, but I've kept a close eye on him since and have still yet to see him wander. So, so yeah, I don't know. Well, I mean, my first instinct would be, that's a different cat. No, she, no. Cause she answered that in the comments. No, he's long hair. He looks, he's very specific looking. She said that all the cats in the area are short hair and he's long haired. And she gave us a picture of what he looked like.

And he's like, he's like long hair, kind of like gray blue colored. And he's got like really distinctive colored eyes. So it would be weird. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, what do you think? I think that. I think that carbon monoxide has built up in her, in her house and that she actually did get him groomed, but she doesn't remember. Isn't that your answer to every Reddit problem is carbon monoxide. Yeah. Okay.

Um, but also, um, yeah, I think there's possible something's going on like that. But if you want my supernatural thing, I think that she switched to a different reality, like a different multiverse. Yeah. And she did or the cat did. Um, I think she did. Cause she was saying that everything felt kind of off. And also when she came home, there was something happened with her lamp. It was like, she had a bulb that had burned out in her lamp and she came home and she had bought a bulb, but she hadn't put it in yet.

She came home and the bulb was in the lamp and it was on. So I think she switched realities or she has carbon monoxide. Whichever you think is most likely is definitely what's going on. Yeah. Okay. Well, that is creepy though. Like I would be freaked out. Like my dogs, I have two big furry dogs and they haven't been professionally groomed in about six months. Cause I've been trying to save some money.

Cause it's pretty expensive to get a big dog like that washed and shampooed and everything. So I've been like shampooing them myself and brushing them myself, but they never get as incredibly fluffy as when they go to the groomer. Cause the groomers like they, they backcomb them and they blow dry them. They do the whole nine yards. Yeah. And they trim their paws up and everything like that. So if, if I woke up one morning and Henwolf just looked at me and she was like all fluffy and white.

And she had those little bows. Oh God. I would freak out. I would be so terrified. Yeah. I would be so mortified. Oh my God. That's not okay. Yeah. You just freaked me out, man. Good. Don't you, you told me before that you've been paranoid that like one day, like gigs will just walk up and she'll have like her normal, normal face. Yeah. She'll have, she'll, she'll be, I'm not as scared with gigs as I am with other cats.

Cause I'm very scared of my cats. Like just being a different cat. Oh yeah. Doppelganger cat. But gigs. Cause she's missing so much face. Oh right. But I do. I am afraid that one day. Yeah. I'm going to be like gigs. Why do you have a nose? And everyone's going to be like, she's always had a nose. That's the first response I would have. If you said, oh my God, gigs has a different nose.

Now I'd be like, what are you talking about? She's always had a nose. Yeah. So people don't know you'll, you'll get to know Michelle as time goes on. Her cat gigs is one of the sweetest, cutest cats in the world. And she's missing a large portion of her face. Yeah. So there you go. People say, people occasionally say inappropriate things about gigs's face on the internet. And I get very mad. Me too.

That's like one of the few times I've literally just unfriended someone is cause they've said something mean about my cat. That's not cool. No, it's not cool. It's not. Uh, well, oh, well, she's waiting. Oh, just like Henwolf is always waiting for me to get me. So, but I think we've reached the end of our first episode of monthly spooky Michelle. Yeah. Yeah. So I want to thank you all for hanging out with us and enjoying this little bonus episode on weekly spookies feed.

Um, I hope you enjoy the coming episode and I hope you enjoy the other bonus show. We're going to start running called terrifying and true, which is a true crime and paranormal, uh, edition of weekly spooky. That'll be published. Occasionally. We've got lots of new content. Also want to say a big thank you to speaker prime for, uh, have welcome, welcoming us to their service and helping us get, uh, advertisers and promotion and things like that.

I really appreciate it. If you have a podcast, cause a lot of people who listen to podcasts, uh, have their own podcast or interested. If you have a podcast that is doing decently audience wise, and you would like to grow it, please Google speaker prime and find out how they can help you too. Um, they're very cool. I really am thankful. I'm so excited after doing almost three years of weekly spooky to be just kind of expanding and growing and hanging out with everybody.

And if you want to join the conversation, send us an email at weekly spooky at gmail.com and we'll read it on the next monthly spooky. And, uh, if you have something you want to share with us, a paranormal story, a story of intrigue or fear or a new story you'd like us to cover, send it to weekly spooky at gmail.com. We would love to hear from you. And, uh, I'm going to leave Michelle to give us the final word this week or this month.

Why does this always happen? You heard it here first, my friend. So we'll see you next month with another bit of spooky. This is the part where you sing. Oh, I don't, you didn't tell me. Check your emails more. Monthly spooky is hosted by Henrique Couto and Michelle Antisocial. It's produced by Dan Wilder, executive producer Rob Fields. Original music composed for monthly spooky was created and performed by Ray Mattis. If you want to support monthly spooky and all the scary comings and goings, head to weekly spooky.com and click on Patreon for as little as $1 a month.

You can get access to exclusive shows and our undying appreciation. Make sure you're subscribed. So you don't miss any of our awesome and killer content. And a big thank you to our Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay just a little bit more to hear their names on the show. They are Christopher Sullivan, Brent McCullough, Gino Lyons, Karen Wimet, Jack Kerr, Jeff and George Hilton, Craig Cohen, and Kevin Fry. Thank you all very, very much.

Thank you.