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Monday, July 25, 2005

Crazy like a fox, or just crazy?

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PZ Myers • 10 Comments

The Pagan Prattle has some amazing items being advertised on e-bay—I liked this one.

WELL AS YOU KNOW IM A WHITE WITCH. AS MOST WITCHES I LOVE TO MAKE POTIONS AND BREWS IN MY MAGICKAL CAULDRON. I HAD THE MOST LOVING WITCHES FAMILIER FROG. I KNOW MOST WITCHES HAVE CATS. BUT ONE DAY MANY YEARS AGO BY OUR POND I WAS REFLECTING ON WHAT ONRY THING I COULD DO NEXT. ALL THE SUDDEN THIS FROG JUMPED UP AND SAT ON A ROCK BESIDE ME. I ALMOST FELL OVER WHEN HE STARTED TALKING TO ME. WE ENDED UP TALKING FOR HOURS AND HE AGREED TO COME HOME WITH ME AND BE MY WITCHES FAMILIER AND I NAMED HIM MERLIN.I WAS SO HAPPY. I WAS NO LONGER LONELY. THROUGH THE YEARS HE GAVE ME SO MUCH WISDOM AND WAS ALWAYS THERE TO TALK TO. ONE DAY DECIDING IT WAS A PERFECT DAY TO TRY A NEW BREW. I GOT OUT MY CAULDRON, DRAGONS BLOOD, SAGE, EYE OF NEWT, AND ALL MY OTHER WITCHY GOODIES. MERLIN SAT ON THE TABLE WATCHING ME AND GIVING ME FROGGY ADVICE OFF AND ON. AFTER PUTTING EVERYTHING INTO MY NEW EXPERIMENT BREW,AND I STARTED CHANTING DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE AND THEN.... MERLIN DID SOMETHING ODD. HE JUMPED IN MY CAULDREN!! I WAS SO UPSET I GRABED MY SPOON AND FISHED HIM OUT. TO MY DISMAY SOMETHING HAD WENT HORRIBLEY WRONG. MERLIN TURNED INTO A RUBBER FROG. SINSE THEN I HAVE BEEN IN TEARS EVERYTIME I LOOK AT HIM. I HAVE DECIDED TO OFFER IT ON EBAY SO I DONT HAVE TO SEE HIM DAILY AND MAYBE IN TIME MY BROKEN HEART WILL MEND.

This same person is also selling vampire stakes, alien poop, and gnome snot. I guess there is a market for everything.


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Comments:
#32818: — 07/25  at  11:10 AM
I've always wanted to study alien poop.

-----
"As with all of ID, the important thing is first to have the concept. Production can then follow as a matter of course.” -Dembski



#32819: — 07/25  at  11:33 AM
And you know this White Witch will get a fortune for ol' Merlin, too. Reminds me of the famous Ebay "haunted painting," which came complete with a story about how it frightened kids, gave off sinister vibes, and how objects inside the painting itself moved, etc etc (I must admit that the painting itself was startling in its weirdness, and if I believed in the supernatural I would have run screaming from it). It had a suitably weird title too, "The Hands Resist Him" or something, and the artist itself was, well, definitely an artist, not quite your avergae Joe. The seller (who was not the artist) fetched $1200, I believe, a good sum for a painting that otherwise, according to a skeptical art dealer, was a $4 garage-sale piece.

Meanwhile, can witches brew potions to improve their spelling and grammar?


#32820: rob loftis — 07/25  at  12:16 PM
I wonder if the all-caps and the bad grammar are intentional, like part of the sales routine. The person is thinking, "People will be more likely to pay $100 for a rubber frog if I come accros as a genuine crazy," or maybe, "The real crazies write in all-caps. Maybe they won't believe I'm one of them unless I speak their crazy-person code."


#32822: — 07/25  at  12:34 PM
Fox. Definitely.

I wonder...does this Ebay-weirdness-sells phenomenon expose a possible business model? Can I make a living as a...um..."freelance crazy-Ebay-creative-writer?"


#32823: jay denari — 07/25  at  01:06 PM
Having known several witches, I think I can fairly say that most of them aren't so wacky, but there does seem to be a slightly higher incidence of odd ideas, some of them truly mentally ill, in that community. Many are perfectly sane and balanced, holding jobs and so forth in the mainstream society but espousing a different spiritual viewpoint, usually rooted more in ecology than magic. For most, communicating with other lifeforms is important, but not nearly as literal as this ad implies.

I think a fair number of "new agers" (including, but not limited to, witches) find acceptance in that community in part because 1) our mainstream society still has a fairly strong stigma against mental illness and 2) our mainstream religions are still largely close-minded when it comes to serious abuses being committed within their folds.


#32844: — 07/25  at  07:20 PM
She is mots likely a sane seller who has found her niche, but her customer base are certified wackos. If you can sell nonwrinkle creams and magnetic jewelry you can sell other poop as well.


#32847: Matt McIrvin — 07/25  at  08:21 PM
I'll vote for "like a fox", PZ.


#32852: — 07/25  at  09:08 PM
I was about to mention that bloody painting (the painting's real story can be found here. The haunting story is here, and series of pictures which accompanied it is here.) E-bayers seem to lap up complicated or amusing backstories, there was the infamous God-in-a-box, Marian visitation cheese-on-toast, a haunted NES, and lampoons on lampoons too. I doubt many of the buyers believe this sort of silliness, more awarding points for effort and to earn bragging rights after the items achieve internet fame.

I really, really loath that painting. I was going to say the same thing as BP about how much more horrible the blooming thing must be to believers of the supernatural, and I can well believe people making themselves ill with fright. Bill Stoneham must've been a ridiculously creepy little kid.

-Schmitt.


's avatar #32863: Nullifidian — 07/25  at  11:25 PM
Personally, I think Bill Stoneham has nothing in the creepiness department on Salvador Dali, George Grosz, H. R. Giger, and Francis Bacon (the modern British painter).

"We are obliged, therefore, to spread the news, painful and bitter though it may be for some to hear, that all living things on earth are kindred.” Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire



#32877: — 07/26  at  07:58 AM
Don't forget Zdzislaw Beksinski!


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