One of the latest crazes amongst the “I Want To Believe” UFO/cryptozoology woo-woo crowd is the “rod” phenomenon. In short, “rods” are bugs caught on video… out of focus, and with too-long-for-clarity exposures, the bugs appear stretched out and with multiple sets of wings. Numerous experiments to catch rods, or catch them on high-speed video, have shown them to be such mundane things as moths. See here for more.
So I’m looking at some old photos, specifically photos of a bird that has been nesting on my property for several years. Territorial little bugger… whenever I get anywhere near, it shoots out of its rain-gutter nest and hovers overhead and bitches at me. I’m managed to get a few halfway decent shots of it, including this one:
But, HARK! What’s that behind the bird???
Why, it’s a ROD! Well, a stubby rod. Looks like not so much a multi-winged stick as a brick with fairy wings, but still, it fits the general rod description. A closeup:
Now, out here in Utah farm country, magical beasties from beyond the ninth dimension of doom are a bit of a rarity (unless you go up to Logan and walk through one of the hippiefied art festivals), but flying insects are a constant. Step outside after dark with a good flashlight and you’ll be mobbed with moths.
<> But simple explanations like “it’s an out of focus bug” won’t satisfy some people. The fact is, sometimes, the world is much blander and less magical than we might wish it to be; the ghost is actually just a shadow of a tissue, the Brownies who eat the goodies you leave on the porch are actually racoons, the manufactured causus belli turns out to be an honest assessment of the facts then known, the vast governmental conspiracy turns out to be just nineteen pissed-off Muslims with boxcutters, the rod turns out to be a fricken’ bug. Some people when confronted with the facts about their cherished bits of wacky beliefs will feel crushed, like some bit of wonder has been sucked out of the world. Others will simply refuse to accept the evidence, choosing instead to believe the fantstical and assume that the facts are lies. And still others will see wonder in the mundane, and will continue to look for the answers to lifes mysteries, whatever those answers might be. Even if it’s just a moth.
PS: Another photo seemed to show another “rod.” Infested with the damned things.
Oh, and courtesy Attack Cartoons:
