S1 Ep29: The Dog Walker

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Shop eBay for millions of finds. Each with a story. eBay. Things people love. Astonishing Legends Network. The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter Office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too. Join us weekly in Blanket Fortiana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter Office. Tonight's episode, The Dog Walker. Welcome back to Blanket Fortiana for our next Dead Letter reading. And this one is fascinating because not only is it a ghost story, but it takes place in broad daylight on a bright sunny day. Yes, this comes to us from listener Karina, a resident of the seaside suburb of Semaphore, Australia, which is a beautiful area from what we can tell with a little cursory research online and some Google Earth vicarious traveling. Yes, and maybe one day it'll be a full four. That's a dad joke. Sorry about that. Not even a dad. But it would be semi four. But yes, it's a beautiful community that is now a northwestern suburb of Adelaide, just 12 miles north up the coast from where the Somerton Man was found in 1948. Ah, you can almost walk there. It'd be a long day, but you can do it. Our old friend, the Somerton Man, we covered him quite some time ago, although there have been some new developments. But look for our episodes on him in our back catalog. Now, Karina's story is quite different, however. She, too, saw a mysterious man near the beach, but it was 2015, not 1948, although he was dressed like someone from the 1920s, and he was only there for a moment before vanishing into thin air. Yes, and not only the man disappeared, but also the three dogs he was walking. So, Scott, I believe it's your turn to read this one, sir. To preface this, Karina originally sent this in around Halloween a few years ago. I thought you might enjoy my ghost story at this appropriate time of the year. So many ghost sightings people put down to sleep paralysis, a creepy environment influencing your state of mind, etc. But my story takes place on a very bright, hot summer's morning when I was very much awake, and my ghost, in quotes, was about three meters from where I stood. So I got a good look. I live in Semaphore, which began as a 19th century seaside resort and is now a suburb of Adelaide. My house is a block from the Esplanade, and I often go for morning walks along the beach, which is exactly what I was doing on this day, about three years ago. I cross the road, which tends to be a bit busy with morning traffic, and approach the corner of a little laneway, barely more than a car's breadth wide, to accommodate one-way traffic, really only used by locals. I have to say, my mind was fairly blank and my mood neutral, just to my own little reverie, which is my usual frame of mind when walking. This whole thing took a matter of seconds to play out, but I remember it so vividly because it puzzled me at the time. As I approached the corner, I shot a look over my shoulder to make sure there wasn't a car just about to turn down the lane. In doing this, I also caught a brief look at the morning sun, just rising over the rooftops. It was going to be a very hot day, and the light was already quite intense, so the sun temporarily affected my vision, as it does. I saw a man standing on the opposite corner of the lane. He was about five foot eight inches tall, muscular but stocky build, perhaps in his 30s, and was wearing fairly baggy pants, lace-up boots, a baggy white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a cloth cap. His clothes weren't appropriate for the weather that morning, and although they may have appeared a bit quaint, maybe in the style of the 1930s or 40s, he might also have just been your regular garden-variety hipster. He was also completely solid and opaque, and not ghost-like in the slightest, so I wasn't in the least afraid or suspicious. Because of having just looked at the sun, he was slightly silhouetted and desaturated, although not completely gray, and I could make out details of his clothes very easily as he was so close, down to the buttons on his shirt. Another thing, he had three greyhounds on chain leashes with him. Although the man was completely static as he might have been while waiting to cross the street, the dogs were moving a little, shifting about on their feet, turning their heads, etc. I darted a quick look over my shoulder again just as I began to cross, but when I looked back where the man was standing, he had disappeared in what was literally a split second. The laneway is lined with high fences, the sides and backs of people's properties, with no gates or gardens, and so he still would have been in view if he'd walked down the laneway, but he wasn't there. I looked back at the road in case he was crossing. He still would have been on the road such a brief second had passed, and he wasn't there either. Once I crossed the lane, I peeked over the high garden gate of the house on the corner, and all that was there was a serene-looking white cat sitting on the porch. No dogs, no man. I was completely flummoxed. It was then that I realized that not only had I not heard the gate open or close, I had also not heard any noise whatsoever. No clink from the dog's leashes, no dogs panting, no footsteps from the man, and they had only been about three to four yards away at most. Then I realized also that it was wrong that I could make out so much detail in the man's clothes but had not seen his face. It was as though where his features would be, he was vague and featureless, and yet not what you could describe as being in shadow, certainly not with such a bright sun which would have hit his left side. At the same time, on some subconscious level, I reached for a logical explanation, that my vision was still affected by the sun. But why see so much detail in his clothes and the dogs he was walking, but not his face? My conclusion, that I'd either seen somebody and his dogs completely disappear, or else it was an apparition of some kind. I've often wondered if perhaps there was a greyhound kennel in the area in the early 20th century, but I haven't found any evidence of that. I absolutely swear that this truly happened, and of course, it stuck with me vividly because it's not every day someone disappears in front of you. This experience wasn't in the least bit creepy, though, just very baffling. Well, have you ever had somebody disappear in front of you? Or, let me put it this way, have you ever sensed or thought that somebody may have, let's not say vanished, it puzzled you that they just went away so quickly and it struck you as odd? I've had that happen. I usually chalk it up to my senses being not great, because it's not just with people. I know I've had that feeling. Also, I thought I saw a car there, or I thought I saw a plane there, or I thought I saw something, and then I look back and it's not. And I was like, okay, so I made a snap judgment that was wrong, but my mind told me there was an object there, but there isn't really. And so then, of course, the next thing I do is like, oh, I was confused. I wouldn't in this case, I think, if I saw a man dressed in 20s clothes with three greyhounds, I would be like, that's pretty well defined. Yeah, this is a different situation. Now, I think that happened to you driving, this is probably maybe six months ago or a year ago, you were talking about that kind of sensation where you were driving and you thought you saw a car in another lane. I think that's what I was just thinking about, and I had forgotten the circumstance, and I couldn't enunciate it to you. You'll have to remind me of my own story. Well, it was, no, it was just something where you, and I don't remember the exact details, because it's a little complicated in that you were, it was a car passing you on the road, or it was going to turn, and then you thought it was, it had gone, or you expected it to see the car there, and suddenly it was just vanished. Yes, I have had that happen, and I've had that happen a few times, which probably means that I have dementia. That's happened to all of us. Not to joke about that, by the way, folks, and just for people who are like, you shouldn't joke about that, it's in my own family already, so I say it with full knowledge of what it means. But I have had that experience, yes, and like I said a minute ago, when you asked me about this, specifically with cars, and recently, and not on the regular, but just sometimes I'll just be driving, and I try to have spatial awareness of all the vehicles around me and know where they are, and sometimes I'll be like, oh, there's a guy in my blind spot, and I'll look over, and that car is gone, and there wasn't an off-ramp, there wasn't, like, I don't know where it went. So that definitely happens, but I chalk it up to me just being, getting old. Well, I think in that case, what I'm trying to elucidate here, that to me is more like sleight of hand, okay? Now, we all know card mechanics and magicians who are good at sleight of hand pickpockets, they all can make it seem like something disappeared, but obviously we know it didn't. And I'd heard long ago, and I'm sure I'm wrong about this, that it was, your eye picks up, or your brain does 14 images per second, it's something kind of low, and you can be easily fooled by visual sleight of hand, let's say. Sure. You know, where something disappears, and it's happened to me too. I mean, the only other thing where it struck me as strange, and I told the story a long time ago, and I hope it didn't sound weird at the time, but I think it may have been back when we were talking about the episode, Are We Ever Alone?, perceiving something that you turn around, it's like, wait, that was there a second ago, now it's not here, and then you feel kind of weirded out. Back when I used to jog, I'd be on a very major street, and there's a few people jogging out, it's a very popular, Los Feliz Boulevard, be a very popular place to jog, and as people would pass me who are much more in shape, and actual joggers, they sometimes would inspire me to try and keep up. It's like, okay, they just blew past me, let me see how long I can keep up, as a little bit of inspiration, and I just remember one time this jogger passed me, and then they took a turn to the right down a neighborhood, and it's like, they're only, I don't know, it seemed like maybe five, maybe ten seconds at the most, and I caught up to that spot, I looked down the street, and they were gone. Yes. It just seemed a little odd, now it didn't freak me out, it's not like it was, they disappeared, you know, vanished into an open desert, where they couldn't be seen, obviously there's a lot of different apartments there. Yeah, driveways, and driveways, and most people, like I said, they had a ways to go, you know, people would often take a turn down a street, and then you'd catch up, and you'd see them jogging, you know, continuing on. It was just odd to me that, like, wow, that person must have ducked into an apartment, or maybe they were home already, and they just quickly ran inside, although that seemed too quick, you know, to get your keys, and get inside, and you're not hearing the door close or anything. So it just seemed kind of odd that they were gone, but I would chalk that up not as a ghost, because they ran right past me, it's like I said, it was, I don't think it was a ghost jogger, it was just me missing some visual time, let's say, and not noticing that they went somewhere, but it struck me as odd at the time, I'm like, well, that's weird, I think you would just expect to see them, and you didn't. In this case, though, it's not like the car passing, or the jogger, or worth anywhere to go, this was, as our author says, about three meters away, so you're talking between nine, and closer to ten feet. And that, they're there, you're not mistaking them for somewhere else, and there's nowhere else to go, so it's even more uncanny, that they just kind of vanished. Now, what did they see? Well, we've talked about this since we started the show, and one of our good friends also saw somebody from a past era, on board the Queen Mary, our second show. Queen Mary and the Haunted Valentine. That's right, so our good friend, Marty, and his wife, Alice, it was Marty that saw somebody in his cabin, and he looked over, and actually, as I remember the story, he was sitting on the bed, putting his socks on, they were about to go out to dinner, and he looks up in the full-length mirror that's behind the bathroom door, which is slightly ajar, his wife is on the other side, getting ready, and in the mirror, he can see a gentleman on the other side of the bed, in the mirror, also getting ready, dressed in like a coat and tails, look like something from the 20s. 20s or 30s, but he described him as looking like Baron Munchausen, John Neville, the great actor, that kind of a distinguished look about him, looking straightforward and getting ready, and our friend Marty was just like, he said he was frozen, just like, because either one, there's an old guy that snuck into our cabin without us knowing, or two, it's some kind of ghost, and as he also described, the person was also seeming like he was getting ready for dinner, as well, and then he also knew, he said his neck was straining, he was getting a neck ache in that few seconds, because he was straining so hard to keep his attention and gaze focused on what was in the mirror, that he knew if he turned around to look at him directly, it would go, and then eventually, the spell broke a little bit, and he turned his head, and of course, it was gone, and he also vanished, and that's somebody in the room, so that's also unmistakable, there's nowhere for him to go, there was no guy in the room, but what was it? And then we ask Marty, he's like, well, what did you feel like? Did it feel like a spirit? He said, no, it was just kind of, he said it wasn't ghost-like, or that it was a presence, it just seemed like, like I was seeing a visual echo, and we've come to since learn that that is also one of the many types of things that people see, that it's not necessarily a spirit, it could be like a visual echo from the past, of just somebody who was there, and somehow, you know, again, as we've gone on these now 10 years, doing the podcast, we've learned a lot, when we didn't know anything, and now we just know a little bit more than that, but still next to nothing, but we've learned a few terms, and ideas, and concepts, which have informed our thinking on this, and our speculations, and in this case, it seems like maybe that was, you know, what Marty saw, by the way he felt, he said, yeah, it wasn't a presence, the guy was moving, but he didn't seem to notice me sitting in the bed, there was no interaction, I just felt like it was kind of empty, but I was actually did see something, it was just not, like a ghostly spirit feeling of any kind, didn't, other than that, it was amazing, and impossible to see, but he saw it, and very close by, probably the same distance, between two or three meters, so what are we seeing here? Well, we don't really know, of course, I don't think we ever know what it is, but it could be something like a visual echo from the past, somebody that was also out that morning, walking three dogs, on the beach, on a nice day, yeah, and again, a little bit of, as I was saying, that the concept of the stone tape theory, yes, human interaction, and energy has imprinted itself on the objects, and environment around it, like it was, the vibes were encased in stone, and occasionally, you walk by, and it triggers the play button, and you see something pop up, and often happens in theaters, hospitals, churches, and there you go, if you put the right crystal, yeah, but I do think that that's interesting, it does seem to me, it does seem to me more like that, more than it would be an interactive thing, it's like an echo from the past, the thing I wonder about when you're seeing that stuff, is, are you actually looking at an echo, or are two presents, and I mean by presents, P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S, like, was it present for the guy with the dogs, and present for Karina, but those two presents overlapped for a moment, they were experiencing the same thing, at the same time, and I know that Einstein said, that time occurs all at once, I think it's an illusion, that it's linear for us, but, I think so, I think it was, that everything is happening at once, but even if I'm wrong about that, I think the first thing we think, when you hear a story like this, if you believe any of this at all, the first thing you think is, oh yeah, they just, gosh, they saw something from 100 years ago, that's really wild, but what if instead of seeing something from 100 years ago, you and 100 years ago are directly interacting in what is the present for both parties, that's a question I have, it's like, what kind of phone call is it, are you listening to a tape, or are you actively communicating with someone who's living in that time period? Well, that's a good question, I'm glad you brought that up, because it just sparked another memory of mine, and, again, you never really know what's going on, I think, and I think even after we pass away, and I do believe in the afterlife, maybe you don't get the answers then either, so, maybe it's just all, that part is wholly unsatisfying, but you are in a better place, as they say. In this case, though, it reminds me of another story, because you talked about, well, what clues can we take from this to determine what kind of an interaction it was, and what kind of an experience, and it was a great story that we got for Halloween, I think at least a couple of years ago, I hope to read this one eventually, I think maybe it is in our queue coming up here, but it was a great story in the fact that it offered a glimpse of an interaction, the gist of it was, one of our great listeners here, she worked years ago, I believe in Texas, that had like an old West Town portion, but mainly it was old rail cars that were, these were famous rail cars built, not Pullman coaches, but equally famous, I think, they were restored to original late 19th century condition, or mid, even mid 19th century condition, and they would give tours, and so she worked with an older woman who was kind of her mentor, I think, on the tours, and well versed in the history, she was much younger, I think maybe it was like a summer job, or a college kind of job, but they both dressed in period costume, as all the people did there, as they gave tours, and they would bring people in, into the rail car, explain the history of it, let people kind of look around, and then they ushered them out, and they kept very close detail on the number of people in groups, and so, like I said, you don't want people- I don't remember this story now, yes. Right, you don't want people lingering around, so she goes into one of the cars, the last group was ushered out by the older woman, and then she was in there, and not expecting to see anybody, but there's four gentlemen in the last car, and they were also looking like they were in period costume. Right. And she walks in there, and of course, she's in period dress, and probably, not a hoop skirt, but something, like a bustle probably, something of the era, and they look annoyed at her presence of her, like, barging in on them, but they turned to look at her, there was some interaction there, instead of an echo- That was interactive, right, there was communication. They noticed her, to your point, it was like, maybe that was more like a time overlap. Right, I mean, but this person, just think about this, if you've got two people in a city, forget what time period they're in or from, and they're out walking, and one's crossing the street, and the other one's doing her own thing, it's like, they wouldn't necessarily regard each other or interact, you know, they might, they might glance and smile and say hi or wave, but it's not unusual for them not to necessarily, it doesn't necessarily define the nature of this interaction that they didn't, because they're doing these public things that people do with blindly all the time or whatever. I'm really good on the analysis of what happened. Well, no, that's what I'm saying is that you, because, you know, lack of interaction doesn't point to one thing or another. I think if there was interaction, yeah, I think there was interaction. In some cases, like, if you're right in front of somebody, like, if Marty had stood up on the Queen Mary and been like, oh, where are you going tonight? And then the guy answered him, you know, it's one thing, but it's like, the fact that two people are changing in the same cabin that shouldn't be in the cabin together and not interacting, it's like, okay, you're, this does seem like there's a wall between them in terms of communication. Whereas we can't obviously say that in the case of this dog walker and, and Karina, but still. I did look into the kennels thing and the greyhounds, and I was interested about that. And there is a history of greyhound racing in Australia. And there is a track not too far from where she was about five or six miles east of it called Angle Park. That's still open to this day, but it does not go back to the twenties. That park broke ground in 1972. And prior to that, racing was done further, a little further away as the crow flies, not as far, but to get there is a long way because of water and inlets and the shoreline and stuff. That was another track that was built in 1956. There are tracks in Australia that date to the twenties or early thirties, but they're nowhere near semaphore, but there are greyhounds and they're racing them and they're still racing them, even though that's a controversial thing that's still happening in Australia. I thought that was interesting. So then, of course, then the next thought I thought was like, well, maybe this was just a guy who was on vacation, you know, forget what time period. And he's like, he's down at the beach with his three dogs and he's going out to walk on the beach. And it was some long ago moment that she intersected with or something. He's just out walking. You mean walking his dogs from a past era. Yeah, exactly. It wasn't just a guy in baggy clothes. No. Although that would be fun. But like, I mean, even if you did that, even if you said, Hey, I'm going to dress up old timey and walk my greyhounds, you're like, but you're still going to have a hard time completely disappearing in a matter of seconds. Yeah. Well, there's that fact. Like I said, you have to take these, all these factors into consideration because that's what makes the story noteworthy. She walked a little further away, turns around, the guy's still there. And then you just keep on going. It's like, Oh, well, it's a guy who likes to, he likes old timey fashion. I know people that glom onto different eras where there was 1940s noir and they, they wear the baggy pants over their navels and the guys too in the short fat ties. Well, like she said, Oh, maybe it was just a hipster. And it's like, yeah, that's like the time traveler, right? You see, we've seen the famous time traveler story and he's wearing the sweater and he's got a gum on it or something. And he looks like a young Kramer with the, with the, the curly hair and the glasses. You know, there's also, there's always fashion trend centers of every era. Doesn't necessarily make him a time traveler, but he does look out of place. In this case, it's the reversal because the guy looks out of place. We were just talking about Max Headroom in the eighties and like, that was the baggy pants with the pleats. Remember that? And then eventually that was a fashion ban, a fashion mistake of the day. Nobody wore the baggy pants and the pleats and the, you know, the heavy woven knits anymore and the pirate shirts and the baggy shirts. And so, yeah, it could be a guy, but like I said, the button on the story is that he just vanished. And what I, well, I like the other detail of the story though, the vagary, the fact that you don't remember or recall or could not see the face very well. That's fascinating to me. Is that, and maybe again, maybe it's just, she couldn't recall. Maybe just something in your, you know, you weren't paying attention as much to his face. You were looking at the clothes, which were unusual. Why would the face be that unusual? And so people would say like, well, you just noticed the clothing because that was out of time or place seemingly. And you just didn't pay attention to the face. But the fact that the face was vague, let's say, was fascinating. Yeah. I love that too. And it seemed like it didn't occur to her while she was looking at him, but not until after the fact, when she tried to recall it. Again, going back to the reaction, it's like, I don't think you have to get a vibe every time you can see these things. And it's the place, the setting also, she was in her familiar, comfortable space, walking her path that she usually does where she's kind of meditative. So it was very comfortable setting. You know, it's like, you're not in a haunted house. And then you see this and they're like, oh my gosh, you're creeped out because nobody else, it's a lockdown and nobody else is supposed to be there. Right. And she lives there. She knows the area. She's going to know if she has the quirky neighbor with three greyhounds who likes to dress up from the twenties. She's going to know if there's some kind of thing going on in town, a play or a festival where she would know all that stuff. Cause it's her home. It's, she's not visiting and, and has been put on. It's like when you go to Williamsburg, Virginia, there's a whole big section of town that's people in period costumes, churning butter and doing stuff. And of course you're going to see them at Taco Bell and whatever, but you'll know. This is, this a time slip. No, it's just somebody who's supposed to be fake churning butter down the street. People like to set various rules and constrictions upon these stories. I think to give themselves a sense of control or knowledge about this and hence a little power to be less frightened of these things and that, uh, nope, you got to, you know, that person didn't die there. Uh, so it cannot be their ghost of this famous person or it can't be this or that. I think it's still pretty open and, uh, the, the rules aren't hard and fast, but we talk about ghost sightings and usually, like I said, we were talking about interaction and people would say like, well, I'm trying not to put this in the category or firmly, you know, like I, I know it's a visual echo. It can't be a ghost, but also the non-interaction is not a sign of anything other than a lot of people report ghost happenings and there's no interaction. What was different, at least by a very well-studied, well-respected and knowledgeable paranormal author, Brad Steiger, rest in peace. Uh, he was terrific. I loved his books, but I remember him talking about what got him interested in the paranormal and, um, the subject and his experience with the, with spirits. And, uh, I remember his anecdote about growing up when his parents had an old kind of a ranch house that he grew up in, which was an old converted stagecoach, uh, station. And so it had a lot of traffic coming through, but of course, you know, that was a hundred, over a hundred years ago, but when he was a kid, he would see ghosts all the time, old timey, old Western ghosts, cowboy ghosts. You know, again, I'm going off of his experience. He said, no, what was different is that, yeah, I've had experiences since then, but what was weird is that when I was a kid, they would talk to me, they would see me, they would interact with me. And I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I knew that this was special. That marked it, uh, as being different, the amount of interaction and the fact that they would converse with him. He said, a lot of times, yeah, you would have people see ghosts and they don't really interact much. They may know you're there or sense your presence, but that type of interaction is somehow not allowed or not possible with the amount of energy it takes. So anyway, it's fascinating. I love this, the sighting. Uh, it's one of those things that it it's remarkable, but also you don't get any answers from it because like I said, the one time I thought I saw something at Waverly, like I still, we've talked about this ad nauseum, but where you just are unsure what you saw or if you saw anything at all. And so that's, to me, that's different. This is a much more solid thing. That would be much more satisfying. Well, the anachronistic clothing makes it easier to spot the person, but all of this does make me wonder if we're seeing things all the time and we just don't know it. That's a good point. Like the person that you saw on the paranormal lockdown, like if you're not paying attention, say you drive by a golf course and you see 10 people playing golf, you don't know them. You don't, may have never met them. All 10 of those people might not exist in your same reality. You wouldn't know unless you went up to them and started talking to them or the people in the grocery store on the next aisle. That person is just like an avatar of a soul and it doesn't necessarily have to live in the same place you live when you step off that aisle. Yeah, that's a great point. I think, uh, some of the things we see may not actually be there, but they're not that disturbing. You know what I'm saying? It's like, that's what doesn't get your attention is that, you know, but that's the thing. Maybe it's more of a peaceful coexistence and like things are bleeding across and we just don't know what to look for. And it only stands out to us when something isn't quite right. But when things are all lined up, like in the, in the story that Forrest is talking about, like he says that he talks about a lot, but he's on a paranormal lockdown. They're packing up for the end of the day. And a guy crossed in the hallway, way down at a, in a locked down sanatorium that shouldn't have been there. Not part of their team, not anyone he'd seen before. And it was like, well, he's a guy in a baseball cap and shorts or whatever. And then also he vanished and didn't turn up anywhere else. And so for Forrest, right, you were like, well, that's just some dude that's lost or part of another group or something. Yeah. My point about that though, is that no one else saw them. That was Jim Willis and his wife, Steph was there and a couple of other people. And we were all scattered in a hallway section that was about, maybe we had staged ourselves about 20 feet down the hall. And, uh, we were all just kind of waiting there, conducting a, we're trying to recreate an experience where Jim saw somebody doppelgang him or, or his, uh, his team did, which was very odd. So we're trying to recreate that. And as we're packing up, you know, we could kind of hear people stepping down the hall. And so I think the word was like, all right, well, you know, it's like fishing, you know, not getting any bites in this spot. Let's move to another location. And I think it was Jim who asked like, well, are they, uh, the other team here yet? And I glanced up and somebody crossed in front of them or I thought he did. It's like, yeah, they're already here. And then my point about that whole experience is that later on, it's like Jim didn't see anybody else. I thought his wife, Steph had confirmed it. Like, yeah, that guy just crossed the hall or something like that. Did she noticed him? And then I asked later and she hadn't. We've now heard stories where people have seen something differently than other people did. Like the story from the boy scout camp where one person thinks they are being developed by a black mist. And then his friends say, Hey, who is that dude you're talking to? Yeah. So he saw black mist. The other guys saw a figure of a, of a dark shadowy man. And so I wonder like if anybody did see something, would they see it differently? Would they just see a white mist where I saw some college looking dude? Like so, or did I see anything at all? So anyway, great encounter. I'm glad that it wasn't spooky or scary, just really interesting and very clear. I would love to have that kind of clarity of what you saw rather than the vagueness of it, because that's even more unsatisfying. Well, Karina, thank you so much for sending your story into the Astonishing Dead Letter office. It's amazing to see a ghost right in the middle of the day. And based on the anachronistic clothing and the nature of his appearance, it very much seems like he was someone who was no longer with us. Or was it a time slip? If you have to be trapped between this world and the next, it could definitely be worse than walking three greyhounds down to a gorgeous beach in Semaphore. Let's hope rather than a lost soul, it was just an echo from the past. Folks, if you've been part of a time slip or seen an apparition, even solid like this, send your story to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. The Astonishing Dead Letter office is hosted by Scott Philbrook and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel. The show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees-Wendel at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music, arranged by Alan Caricia, who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. The announcer is John Bolton. That's me. Stories are lightly edited for length, content, and readability, but otherwise presented as they're sent to us. We're always looking for more Dead Letters, so if you have a story of your own you'd like to share, email it to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. Please include how you would like to be credited. First name only? First name last initial? Anonymous? A pseudonym? Let us know. Due to the number of emails coming in, we often cannot respond, but we do read them all. No part of this show may be reproduced anywhere without permission. Copyright, Astonishing Legends Productions. Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I recently spoke with IBM's new director of research, Jay Gambetta. We discussed his vision for the future of quantum computing. At IBM Research, what we always do is answer what is the future of computing, whether it's coming up with new algorithms, coming up with better AI, coming up with quantum, or coming up with just how do different accelerators go together. It's our DNA to answer the question of what is the future. Isn't it a perfect problem for IBM because you kind of need to have a legacy of building stuff? Yes. Building actual physical machines. Yeah, it's why I came to IBM. 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