This and that
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Regarding the feature on changelings [ FT373:30-37]: in the film Changeling (2008) directed by Clint Eastwood, a young boy goes missing, and the authorities claim to have found him again, but the child they recover is different from the one that disappeared, and the mother (played by Angelina Jolie) refuses to be duped. Then a dark story unfolds involving serial killers, unwarranted psychiatric detention and John Malkovich saving the day – for a change.
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I was delighted to read the Dark Tourism feature on the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker [ FT379:30-36]. Back in 2008 I helped out on CND’s 50th anniversary documentary “Beating the Bomb”. My role was transcripts, and research and technical assistance to the producers. I recommended the Protect and Survive Literature and suggested that I visit Kelvedon Hatch to acquire unique visual elements. I met the Kelvedon Bunker cat – a black cat named, appropriately enough, Catastrophe. The documentary premiered at London’s Prince Charles Theatre in 2009 and has gone on to make appearances at various festivals, as well as having a dedicated website since 2010.
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I have been following the saga of The Mystery of the Symbolic Eye Floaters from the start [ FT369:76, 379:75], and the latest development delights me. If our intrepid anomalous experiencer is receiving the image of a Peruvian jaguar god projected into his head from afar, then we should pay heed. I propose that he front the project for a Mayan ziggurat, smack in the middle of the Green Belt, with the Chac-Mool proudly atop it, ready to receive the first initiate to have his heart torn out to appease the dragon that eats the Sun. This will make the rainy afternoons just fly by.
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Andy Paciorek’s observations on grieving [ FT380:74] made me want to let off steam about the controversy over the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM V, which states that anyone grieving for longer than an arbitrarily arrived at length of time is suffering from a mental illness. This is one of the most despicable things I’ve seen our modern society do. I mean, after almost two millennia, we’re still “getting over” losing Jesus, aren’t we?
James Wright Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex