Apparently, the Oscar awards ceremony was held this past Sunday night. I say “apparently” because, well, I joined many who didn’t watch it. If reports are accurate, I didn’t miss much. A question I have for those few who did tune in is, “Have you actually seen ANY of the nominated movies?” I mean, the theaters near me were shuttered, and streaming recent releases was costly if you did it on a steady basis. Nevertheless, I trust the winners are happy.

Speaking of movie stars (who sometimes seemingly live on another planet), did you see the news that the federal government (home to many others unconnected to Earth) is planning to release the much-anticipated “unidentified aerial phenomena” report sometime soon. Now, of course, that’s government speak. Most regular folks just call them flying saucers or UFOs.

It’s possible we could actually see the movie Men in Black writ large. Maybe Elvis didn’t really die and just went home as Tommy Lee Jones’ character told us.

It’s no secret that for decades ordinary people have told all who would listen about their sightings of unexplainable items in the sky. Extensive research showed that stories abound. For example, the summer of 1952 was very hot in Indiana. Toward the end of July many reputable Hoosiers reported seeing egg-shaped objects as big as a house spotted in the early morning skies. They were “glowing a blue-grey color, and each had a long, brilliant ‘tail’ extending from the back of it, kind of like that of a meteor.”

You know, it would be one thing if those were certain left coast denizens or maybe illegal moonshine operators reporting the unknown objects. But we’re talking about heartland folks, the kind who don’t usually make things up nor alter their state of mind with potent plants and herbs. The residents of Franklin, IN also reported the objects were “dog-fighting” all over town. The state police even added to the story, keeping an eye on the objects for a reported five hours.

But the Air Force, alas, disavowed any knowledge of strange phenomena in the skies.

On July 14, 2001, around midnight, drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike reported 15 minutes of orange and yellow lights in a “V” formation.

Tic-Tac-shaped objects have also been reported. On November 14, 2004, a ship at sea as part of the USS Nimitz carrier strike group, pulled up such an unknown craft on radar 100 miles off the coast of San Diego. Other similar objects had been tracked at 80,000 feet high one second and hovering right above the ocean the next. An attempt to intercept the craft resulted in its hightailing away at three times the speed of sound. In 2017, a similar-shaped object appeared over the Atlantic Ocean.

On November 7, 2006, if you happened to be near gate C17 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, you might have witnessed a dark grey metallic craft hovering overhead. A dozen United Airlines employees and a few other witnesses claimed they saw it around 4:15 P.M. It hung around for about five minutes before rocketing skyward and blowing a hole in the gray skies . . . big enough so that those watching saw blue above.

Then there’s Stephenville, Texas, a couple hours away from Dallas. Dairy farms dot the landscape. But on the evening of January 8, 2008, more than a few residents saw white lights above Highway 67, “first in a single horizontal arc and then in vertical parallel lines.” A local pilot thought the strobe lights “spanned about a mile long and a half mile wide,” and travelled about 3,000 miles per hour . . . without making a sound.

I’m not quite sure when the new government report is due to be released, but it should make for interesting reading. Many people have a theory about why Roswell, New Mexico is off limits to the general public. Maybe we’ll finally find out why.

Visits from extraterrestrial aliens (versus the kind crossing the southern border) might explain a lot. I mean, who would you nominate as being from another planet? Nancy Pelosi? Donald Trump? Joe Biden? Ted Cruz? Vladimir Putin? Any Kardashian? Lady Gaga? RuPaul? Long-time viewers of Saturday Night Live will remember that the Coneheads always claimed they were from France. Have you ever run across someone you perhaps thought seemed a little “other-wordly?”

If the new report has any basis in truth, it sure would explain a lot of things. And it would definitely be an Oscar-worthy story.

 

©MMXXI. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer