Boston's Bigfoot Research Institute: An early fascination with poetry — and Bigfoot

826 National is a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization with locations in eight cities across the country. Our goal is to assist students ages six to eighteen with their writing skills, and to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Our work is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

There are eight local chapters of 826, including Boston. While we think the goal of 826 is one of the noblest pursuits, we have a special love for Boston. The executive director of 826 Boston, poet and longtime writing teacher Daniel Johnson oversees not only volunteer-staffed writing programs, but also the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute.

Our students have to walk through the Bigfoot Institute to the tutoring center, and so pretty regularly, Bigfoot or the chupacabra appear in their writing...

Below is a short excerpt from an article published at The Boston Globe's online site boston.com. Its great to see a successful non-profit organization encourage the young ones to read and write creatively, and to use the Big Guy as inspiration is all the better.

An early fascination with poetry — and Bigfoot
By Amanda Katz
Globe Correspondent / December 19, 2010
In 2007, Boston opened its own chapter of 826 National, the nonprofit cofounded by Dave Eggers to foster writing among students, ages 6 to 18. As executive director of 826 Boston, poet and longtime writing teacher Daniel Johnson oversees not only volunteer-staffed writing programs, but also the Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Institute, housed in the center’s Roxbury storefront. His first book of poems, “How to Catch a Falling Knife,” was released in April.

Given your work at the Bigfoot Institute, what are your preferred books on Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or yetis?

That’s a good question, and it relates to my early love of reading. My brother, who was eight years older than I am, had a book on Bigfoot, with a black and white cover and a pair of glowing red eyes in the woods. I remember looking at the pictures of the Patterson-Gimlin footage, and fixating on that book, but not being able to read it.

We carry one of the definitive Bigfoot texts: “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science” by Jeff Meldrum. And we have a book that our kids absolutely love called “Cryptozoology A to Z” by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark. Our students have to walk through the Bigfoot Institute to the tutoring center, and so pretty regularly, Bigfoot or the chupacabra appear in their writing, like a deus ex machina. You know, there’s a wedding, and there’s a problem, and then suddenly Bigfoot appears. Like a Bigfoot ex machina.

Read the rest of the interview here.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Src: An early fascination with poetry — and Bigfoot
Loren Coleman was there in the beginning

Man Kicked Off Nature Preserve Trying to Bait Bigfoot

We can only imagine what the Wile E. Coyote blue print looked like when this gentleman came up with this plan. While we applaud his efforts and enthusiasm, we don't recommend trespassing.

Area Man Kicked Off Mineola Nature Preserve Trying to Bait Bigfoot in His Toyota
Patrick Michels, Wed., Dec. 15 2010 @ 5:04PM
A man from Lancaster spent Monday night in a nature preserve 75 miles east of Dallas trying to lure Bigfoot to his black Toyota sedan, police say.

Mineola Police Capt. Jack Newman tells Unfair Park he responded to a trespassing call Tuesday morning to find the man camped out in his car along the Sabine River, with bait on the roof of the car he said was meant to draw the reclusive forest giant out of hiding.

"He had some pieces of orange and a piece of steak and some nuts right on the top of his car," Newman says. Next to a tree about 20 yards away, he says, the man had scattered a few more orange pieces. "I don't know if he'd been trying to coax him over to the car or what."

"He'd heard something about Bigfoot down around the Sabine River," Newman says, though as far as he knows, the biggest wildlife draws around the preserve are deer and wild hogs. Fanning the flames of mystery, Newman says he can't release the name of the man, who he says left the scene when asked. "He didn't know he wasn't supposed to be in there," Newman says.

A report from KMOO radio in Mineola, though, says there have been fresh rumors of a Bigfoot sighting on private property near the preserve. One possible explanation: the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy held its annual conference in nearby Tyler in late October, though as Noah Bailey pointed out after hearing me on the phone this afternoon, Mineola has been a hotbed of Sasquatch activity for years.

Buster Green, a Mineola Nature Preserve caretaker who works for the city, says he spotted the man Tuesday morning and spoke to the would-be hunter briefly before calling police. "He was rolled up there sleeping in his vehicle when I come by," he says. Green says the man had a camera in his car; KMOO reports he was otherwise unarmed. "He said he'd come down here on kind of a whim," Green says.

"He was a big boy. He's over six-foot, 230-ish," Green says. "He didn't need nothing to be hunting Bigfoot. He could've gone down there with just a switch."

SRC: dallasobserver.com

External Links
KMOO report on same incident
other Reports in Wood County Texas
TexasBigfoot.org

Sasquatch Israel

At a 9th anniversary 9/11 rally, a proud sign-holder advocating for the reality of Bigfoot is accused of trying to send an anti-semitic political message.

Here is the reprinted commentary from the American Power blog.

"Then turning around, I saw this kid yacking it up for the crowd, obviously having a blast with this ugly Jew-hating sign. And what does that mean, "SASQUATCH ISRAEL"? This is a play on the "legitimacy myth" of Israel's existence. As there's of course a "Sasquatch myth," it's worth noting the implied comparison: that Israel is also an ape-like beast existing only in historical folklore. Absent legitimacy, Israel has "no right to exist." This kid's sign is but one more example of eliminationist anti-Semitism. And look at how overjoyed he is in boasting this hatred. Creepy." --Donald Douglas

Below is the "overjoyed" kid



Douglas apparently didn't notice that the sign actually had three words, all spelled correctly, rather than two words with one of them spelled incorrectly: Sasquatch Is Real. It didn't have anything at all to do with Israel.

Src:http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/12/beware_of_sasquatch_israel.php