Sweet Mysteries of Life

There are many things in this world that are mysterious, but I believe there are THREE that are at or near the top of the list.

The first -- naturally -- is Bigfoot. You know, Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman, the Yeti, etc, etc.

I’ve written about the elusive monster before, but it continues to amaze me how many people still think there could actually be a giant hairy creature or two wandering around the mountains and forests of the world in 2023.

I mean, what will it take to get folks to finally say: “You know, Bigfoot ‘sightings’ have been reported for more than 50 years, yet no one has ever found a dead one or gotten a clear picture of this apparently extremely shy dude. I’m beginning to think it’s all just a Big Hoax.”

But maybe not. There’s something about a legend of a big hairy thing wandering around the landscape that titillates folks. I guess it makes backcountry camping a little more ... exciting?

But where is the Bigfoot evidence? How about just some bonafide hair from the shaggy beast, some distinctive, not-fake giant footprints – or even some Bigfoot scat?

As Beavis and Butthead would often say: “That would be cool!”

OK, that’s No. 1 on my list of most mysterious stuff in the world. Second would be aliens and UFOs.

Recently, there has been furious debate at the highest levels about whether they actually exist. We’ve seen footage of unidentified objects high in the sky that even our fastest jet pilots can’t seem to lock in on or get close enough to take a decent picture.

Congress actually held hearings earlier this year on UFOs – although they were closed to the public and the press – so we really have no idea how much credence to give this topic.

But what about Roswell and Area 51, where the Toppest of the Top Secret Stuff the government has on the subject is apparently stored. Why can’t the American taxpaying public ever get a chance to tour the facility and see what’s actually there?

Why must it remain off-limits to the common people? That tends to stoke the mental flames of conspiracy lovers who can go on indefinitely claiming the feds have all kinds of alien-and-UFO secrets locked up there.

I believe – in 2023 – that people could handle the news if there actually are UFOs and – obviously – the aliens that operate them. Yes, it would turn everything we think we know on its head -- but I think we could adapt.

And finally, there still remains great mystery about what REALLY happened on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

Yes, there was the highly-criticized Warren Report that concluded Oswald acted alone that terrible day. A later 1976 Congressional investigation saw things a bit differently, coming to the conclusion that more than one gunman may have been involved.

But WHY does the government STILL have some parts of the investigations blacked out for almost 60 years? What would it hurt NOW to release the entire, uncensored reports?

If you’ve been studying the incident for years as I have (I was 13 at the time), you know there have been several other possible actors who might have been involved: the anti-Castro Cubans, upset about Kennedy's failed Bay of Pigs invasion; the Mafia, due to the Kennedy administration's crackdown on organized crime; the FBI and the CIA, both of which weren’t particularly happy with Kennedy; and the Russians (at the time, the Soviet Union), the world's OTHER superpower that had been humiliated in 1962 by Kennedy forcing them to withdraw their missiles from Cuba.

For my part, I’m planning to finally take a Road Trip to Dallas this Fall to scope out Dealey Plaza for myself. I’m pretty sure I won’t be solving any decades-old puzzles, but at least I’ll be able to walk around the area and imagine my own theory of what happened that fateful day.

And with any luck, I may even spot Bigfoot flying a UFO while I'm there...