Status Updates From Men in Black: Investigating...

Contains a lot of information about MIB cases from outside the United States, in particular the UK and Australia which is not a surprise considering that Jenny Randles is British. A lot of the cases seem to be civilian pranksters and conmen impersonating Air Force personnel, to the point the RAF and USAF both conducted investigations into civilians impersonating officers from both British and American militaries...

A whole chapter on Men In Black that turn out to be members of the very UFO group they're scaring shitless, and on creepy right-wing UFO groups that engage in exactly that sort of behaviour to scare their rivals (and everyone else). I suppose UFOlogy is like night-shift: a good percentage of the people you work with are there because would nobody put up with them anywhere else.

The Solway Firth Spaceman! The only issue of 'Fortean Times' I ever bought (£3.50 a week pocket money didn't go very far even then; I decided I'd much rather have chocolate) had this story in it, and I've often wondered whether Templeton had admitted it was a hoax in the intervening years (he hasn't). In lots of ways I was very much a 90s child, ha.

'She allowed Dr. Dale to take [the skin flake] home with him and he used his contacts at a Manchester university to gain access to a scanning electron microscope. The study of the residue was strange. Nothing about it was obviously extraterrestrial - nor was it human. The chemist who carried out the examination said that it most closely resembled animal skin - possibly a pig - but could not positively identify it.'

After some generic intimidating phonecalls, UFO witness 'Shirley Greenfield' recieves 'another mystifying call. This was to invite her to a Manchester city centre hotel so that she could be vetted for a plush job. The job paid well, but would involve her moving immediately to Zimbabwe. According to the caller she had applied for the post. Shirley had done no such thing and so did not attend the interview.' Hee!

Fleeting references to 'Dark Skies', the 'Men In Black' movie and 'The X Files', yeahhhh. ♥