The Last Smear

Well darn it, I overlooked the 2012 passing of James Moseley, the man behind Saucer Smear, and the author of at least one major UFO prank.

• Funny guy.  Last issue of Saucer Smear is here.
• Moseley did some 'serious' UFO-ology, too, he actually interviewed Harry Truman at one point.
• Asked about the most credible stories he'd heard, he gave various answers:
• Cash-Landrum, although this was pretty obviously some radioactive flying government  thing...that was never publicly disclosed and served no apparent practical purpose...so that clears that all up.  The involvement of John Tower lends credence to a possible extraterrestrial explanation, however.

I can kill you whenever I damn well please. But not today.

• The Lonnie Zamora Incident, which occurred in New Mexico in 1964, not far from where they saw the Roswell weather balloon, but is much more difficult to explain.
• Project Blue Book officially classified it as "Hush This The Fuck Up"
• I also learned about Valentich from Moseley, but some work in 2013 may have come up with a plausible explanation for that one.  More detail here..."his deep belief in flying saucers may have contributed to his death—and not in the way some saucer buffs imagine." 
• Forgot to Aviate -> Navigate -> Communicate ?
• Student pilots should not report UFOs unless/until they are in full control of the aircraft. 

In one Saucer Smear Moseley expressed the view that, as interesting as UFOs are, the people who investigate them are probably even more interesting.  He was cheerfully agnostic about it all, a stance I respect more with each passing year.

And you know, Laird, Sagan wanted to believe, too.