S1 Ep41: The Fisherman's Ghost and the Homunculus

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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 Fisherman's Ghost and the Homunculus. Your family has a place at the beach, right? Yes, we do. Okay. Well, if memory serves, it's near an aquarium. Yep, it is. It's a stone's throw from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Oh, very cool, sir. Super close also to where Weekend at Bernie's was filmed. Really? I don't know which is cooler. Right. Well, but you should be very proud, yes. Well, the Fort Fisher Aquarium seems pretty great, though. You know, albino alligator, I think, right? Yep, that's right. There are otters, and they even have a bald eagle, right? Yeah. I'm not sure how that's an aquarium thing, but I have seen one up close, and they're no less impressive. Have you seen an American bald eagle? I have seen this one. Oh, you've seen this one? Because it's there at the aquarium. It has a broken wing, so it can't fly. So they nursed it back to health, but it stays in a habitat there, and you can walk by. It's outside, so it's got a pretty good life, honestly. I mean, I don't know how it likes living at the beach, but it's a little humid. But they're throwing it, like, live food every day, probably. Yeah, like, taking the work out of it. But, right, if it's cousin the osprey, loves fish. So there you are, living right in a restaurant. Well, I've seen a bald eagle about three or four feet away from it at this walk-through zoo. It was an occasion. They have a very intimidating stare. Yes, they do. So I was staring back. I was doing a staring contest with it, and then it won by letting out what looked like squeezing an entire tube of toothpaste from its... Yeah, so it's like, man, you eat a lot. That's impressive. And so, you know, it won. Yeah, the Fort Fisher Aquarium, it's amazing. If you're in North Carolina, folks, I highly recommend it. The albino alligator is Luna, who I first saw when she was, like, two feet long, and she is much, much bigger now. And the bald eagle's name is Maverick. Anyway, one of my favorite spots on the East Coast, yeah. One of the things that's fascinating about the stories we hear on the show, and especially in the Dead Letter office, are the stories that center around a culture. And tonight's story from Sam is a great example of that. Sam worked at an aquarium in the UK, and like all gigs with a crew, there was a culture there. Yes. Well, you know, we've always talked about how high traffic areas and water might attract visitors from the other side. And I haven't really given this much thought before, but, you know, an aquarium might be the perfect amplifier for just that. That's right. It could be. I mean, if we talk about rivers and lakes and bodies of water, why wouldn't an aquarium, especially ones with large tanks, maybe do something similar? Well, tonight's Dead Letter is actually a double hitter with two shorter stories. The first one being connected to the aquarium in the UK that we just mentioned, and the second one taking place stateside here, presumably, also not too far from me in North Carolina. These are short, so, Forrest, I'll read the first one, and you can read the second one, because I know how much you love homunculuses. Or is it homunculi? I don't know. A homunculi. Doesn't matter. Yeah, I think either one's accepted, and I kind of do, but at a distance. Here's the first of the two stories that come to us from Sam. Hello, Scott and Forrest. Loving the Dead Letter office format, the last two Dead Letters I listened to reminded me of things that happened to me. Episode 26, No Place Like Gnome, and episode 27, The Scented Ghost. I, for many years, worked in an independent aquarium in the UK. The building had been an oyster farm in the 70s before being converted into an aquarium in the early 80s, with various additions over the years. I mention this to stress how much of a maze this place was behind the scenes. Narrow passages, different floor levels, and weird attic spaces. Weed closed to the public over the winter so that we could do large refurbishing jobs and major maintenance. The seawater running through tanks and pipes would act as a heat sink, making the whole place barely above freezing, damp, and smelling of saltwater and fish. There would be just the aquarist team, a maximum of seven of us on site. Safe to say, we all smelled exactly like the aquarium, of fish, algae, and saltwater. While working, usually in the attic spaces, we'd encounter what we described as the old lady smell ghost. A seven or eight foot orb of intense floral perfume that would randomly appear, sometimes even moving through a space. The smell always reminded me of bergamot, patchouli, and rosewater perfumes that women of my great-grandparents' generation would wear. The smell never lingered. It would be there, and then it would be gone. The only other odd thing that happened in the building is that once, after a colleague had given a public talk in front of our shark tank, someone approached him saying that they were a medium, and that there was the ghost of an old fisherman, complete with yellow waders, woolen knit jumper, and yellow hat, watching them approvingly from the back of the crowd. After these messages, we'll be right back. Astonishing Legends is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you can save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. 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. I wanted the experience, the culture of building hard things that others have not done before. Where do you imagine we are in the timeline of this technology? There will come a point when it will mature. Right, yeah. My cell phone is a mature technology at this point. How far are we from that point with quantum? By 2029, we'll build the first fault-tolerant quantum computer. That is one that can run a very, very large, large problem. To learn how IBM is building the future of computing, visit ibm.com slash quantum. And now, we return to the shadows of this dead letter. I love this. And it's funny, the smells, the bergamot, the patchouli, the tea, all that stuff reminds me of my grandmother, who's, you know, God rest her soul. But I remember, not the patchouli so much, but the bergamot. And she wore a perfume called Tea Rose that smelled amazing. Oh, there were some classic older women perfumes that were very popular during the day. One of them, worn by an older relative of mine, was White Shoulders. Oh, White Shoulders. And then some of the ladies will know the brand. Very distinctive. And if you smelled it, you'd be like, yep, that smells like great, you know, aunt or great grandma or somebody. But, well, I do love stories about smelling things that should not be there. I have a very strong sense memory for smells. You know, none really bother me except, you know, the usual, of course. But, yeah, some smells that I like or ones that are bad are in my brain bank forever. And they just kind of register. And then sometimes I'll be in a place and it's just, I can smell that. And it brings back a lot of memories. Now, there is a word for that called phantosmia, P-H-A-N-T-O-S-M-I-A. And essentially it's the condition where you detect smells that are not actually in your environment. And it can happen. Supposedly. Yeah, phantom smells. And they can be pleasant or unpleasant. They can be sudden or stay with you. They can be constant. It possibly can lead to a diagnosis of some kind of health condition. But usually it's harmless. And what AI would tell us here, this is just reading from a definition, from a spiritual perspective, especially in the context of parapsychology, the term for a clear sense of smell, quote unquote, or being able to detect psychic information through smell is clairaliance. The clairvoyance, clairaliance. This could include smelling scents associated with deceased loved ones or as a sign of their presence. So there's a name for that. And they go on to say, of course, it's a public service announcement. It's important to note that if you are experiencing phantom smells, especially if they are persistent, it's advisable to consult a healthcare professional to rule out any underlying medical causes. And there's always that joke about burnt toast and having a stroke that you smell sometimes burnt toast. Yeah, obviously. That's one that most folks know. If you smell something like that and there's no toast being made and you are usually prone to possibly having a condition like that, definitely seek out medical help immediately. But the other term for it is, yeah, clairofaction or psychic smelling or, again, clairaliance. It's one of those words that's hard for me to pronounce. So it is a thing and I've experienced it. You might have too, but that's, I've relayed this before in a, recently in a dead letter office where we were at the Waverly Sanatorium. And I think down in the morgue area and it's very dank and, you know, a bit of a wet basement smell to it. It's not totally awful. You know, what had a worse smell was, get your shot glasses ready. The Sally house. That had a real, yeah, like. Ancient house smell. Grandparents kind of old folks smell, but like worse. You know, not saying that it's all old folks do, but it's that kind of a very musty, the place is clean, it's dusted, you know, but it's not scoured through. Okay. Cause nobody's living there full time. So it is just very musty, a little different than, you know, like it's just a wet dampness of Waverly where, you know, there's still some rain coming through and it gets wet in there and that trickles down. And so one of the weird things that happened to me, and I think back and, you know, you always tease me about not having, or me claiming not to have any kind of paranormal experiences. And I would say like, yeah, they're very subtle. And the ones that you immediately question about yourself and your own perception, your own senses. Did I see that? Did I smell that? Did I hear that? Tess, while she was there, heard something whisper in her ear and she felt a little brush of hair go by near her ear. As if somebody was close by, it was the push of the, uh, the breath, exhalation. And for me, this one, I didn't really think about it. I did at the time, but I didn't really tell the story much. Uh, you know, we, we spent all day in the house for a few hours. I'd left my camera bag, backpack in the rental car. And really the, the only thing I had on me was, uh, the full spectrum camera and it had a road microphone and it had, of course, the, uh, the foam, uh, windscreen on it. And didn't really have anything else. So after we were, got done and wrapped up there, I put the camera back in the camera bag and I can't remember if we went out to, uh, eat after that, but it was a while. Then we got back to the hotel and, uh, I opened the bag and I got a huge whiff right in my face of that Sally house smell. Yeah. It had gotten. Yeah. Yeah. Just that mustiness. Yeah. And it was just, it was so much that it, it made me, um, think twice or I, I was taken aback. I was like, Whoa, it's just like, uh, don't forget I'm still here. Yeah. And that's the thought I had. It's just like, it's just saying like, I haven't really left yet. Was the DR-60 in that bag? No. No, I don't know. I, I, well, I took that in as well, but you were, maybe you threw it at me. Like, I don't want to see this again. Yeah. So I put it, I put it back in its little otter case and squirreled it away, but that's a sealed case. And I did have a microfiber cloth protecting it, but I didn't open that. And so it was just so weird. It's like, okay, this bag was not in the house. Right. And the only thing I could rationally think of that would cause that smell to, you know, rush at me, bum rush me was, I mean, this is all solid plastic, except for this foam microphone, uh, you know, the little boom mic windscreen that goes over. It's like, maybe that absorbed some of the smell. Yeah. It's hard to say. But it was only in there. It doesn't really make sense, honestly. It didn't make sense at the time. That's why it was kind of weird. And then, uh, the other thing is that, you know, I smelled the, the foam microphone cover and it's like, it didn't really smell. It wasn't like it was really pungent there either. Right. It's like, well, it's not like this thing reeks. And then I put it back in the bag, the camera in the bag. And I think then we got dressed and went to dinner. And I think later that evening, I, I opened it up again. No smell. Yeah. So it's not like it lingered there. It was just kind of like, I'm still here. Smell this. Smell you later. And I did smell it later. So that was odd. And then the camera again, shut off like five times by itself, but I didn't think of anything of that. It was just like, you know, this is a cheap camera. There was a lot that happened. There was a lot that happened. So back to the, but at Waverly though, we all, all smelt the smell of roses suddenly kind of waft through. And it wasn't in this kind of really defined cloud, you know, just kind of walk through like, it's like, Hey, do you smell it? Like, yeah, roses. Yeah, exactly. And our group of, I don't know, four or five smelt it and that we kind of walked through it and then it just dissipated, but that's not the place you'd expect to smell roses. And it wasn't any of us. We're not wearing rose perfume. So I'll chalk that up to, again, kind of a cliche almost. Uh, but the, there's a very definite trope of smelling roses. And I just recently saw there's some meaning to that. Some folks think it's, uh, uh, mother Mary, uh, it's some angelic kind of smell because it's good, right? It's not like the smell of rotting flesh, which is, that's a sign to turn and run. Yeah. Burning feces as another bad one. Uh, so thank goodness. I've not smelled anything really horrible like that. That wasn't natural, you know, like a decaying animal in one of these old haunted buildings. What did you think about, uh, for people across the pond, you might not know, I, I don't know, but there's a, a fish stick company fishing frozen food company out of the U.S. Are you saying that song, Mr. Yeah. Yeah. Out of Gloucester, uh, called the Gorton or Gorton. Yeah, the Gorton's Fisherman. I was about to say. Which was, yeah, the first thing I thought of when they were describing this fisherman with the yellow hat and, you know, the yellow standing in the back, nodding approvingly. I, I mean, a little bit, I had to smile. I was like, you know, cause then, and then I heard, trust the Gorton's Fisher. I mean, that's exactly what I thought it was. Cause he wore the, the outfit and first he's a caricature. And then I think the old timey, I remember being a kid and I think they had an actor, of course, and he looked the part with the scruffy beard and he's got the, he's got the thick jumper, as they say, the sweater, as we would say over here on this side of the pond or the jumper, if you're in the UK, thick turtleneck sweater. It's like exactly how you would picture him. And he approves of their handling of the seafood. The other person I would like to, I mean, I love that little button on the story there, that little hook that not only all this weird stuff's happening, but there's a guy there that approves. Cause usually it's like, oh, there's a guy glowering at you and he does not like what you're doing. Like, come on, we're just doing our jobs. Just let us, I mean, I'm doing well. I mean, can we not just get some approval here? But again, like to hear that somebody there approves and if it couldn't be the, uh, Gorton's fishermen, I would take Mrs. Paul. She's also a fish aficionado, uh, and a brand mascot. Uh, she would be good. But my first overall choice would be Quint from Jaws. Hoopa! Yeah. The thing that is interesting about the idea of a fisherman being at an aquarium, you know, posthumously, it's like, he might be pretty fascinated. You know, he's fished the ocean, he knows all these different fish and like may, you know, has practical knowledge and maybe he's like, oh, you know, I want to get, I want to get academic about this in the afterlife. So he decides to go hang out at the museum and learn about the fish things he didn't know from just netting them and where they lived. You know, I don't know. It's, it's an interesting idea. Yeah, no, I do. I do like that idea. And, um, let's see here. I would say that, uh, he also gets a perspective of the ocean and ocean life that he normally didn't because again, he's sailing the, uh, the, the seas there above the water line and so now he gets to see under the water. So yeah, I think you're, there could be a fascination there and why not hang out there? So. All right. Well, uh, why don't you read Sam's second story here? I'm so excited to have you read this one. It's, it's short, but it's right up your alley. One of, uh, one of the things that I love talking about with you, but, uh, we'll save it for the listeners here. Uh, if you, if you don't mind, go ahead. Okay, there we go. The other part of my story actually comes from the other side of the pond and took place on my partner's property in the Piedmont area of South Carolina. I suffered from insomnia. So I often got up in the night to go sit on the couch so as not to toss and turn so much waking them up. One night I was sitting up, not really doing anything. When I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, assuming one of the black barn cats had snuck in, I looked over to see a small figure. What I had first assumed to be a cat stood on its back legs, actually appeared to be the jet black silhouette of a small person, maybe a little over a foot tall with a hunched rounded back and the head jutting forward from the shoulders, rather than on top like a human. At first, I thought it might have had a sack slung over its back, but I think it was actually closer to the depictions of the Pukwudgie. With the rounded back being the silhouette of a mass of spines or bristles, it walked a few feet across the dining room before walking behind a table leg and not coming out the other side. I suppose this could be described as a shadow figure, albeit a small one, but it very much seemed like a harsh silhouette, just without the backlighting to create it, rather than a shadow with a softer edge. There's so much that's fascinating to me about this. I always like the, you know, tiny people, that's a freaky thing. It's like, oh, I thought it was a cat stood on its back legs. And it's like, okay, if your barn, that's by the way, if your barn cat's coming in the house and walking around on its back legs, equally frightening. Could be, could be, but you know your cat, right? I mean, it's one thing for a cat to do that for a couple of steps when it's freaking out or playing with something. But if it's walking all around the house, like with a cup of coffee, no bueno. But still, I think it's interesting when Sam talks about it having a really harsh edge to it, which there's a lot of things about that that are appealing to me in terms of the story, because it's like, oh, well, that seems like a really well-defined, both literally and figuratively, event. It's not a trick of the eye when you're seeing a very clear border, necessarily, moving around. But, you know, some folks might say, oh, well, he must have just been falling asleep. And as you always saying, it's a hypnopompic, hypnagogic state. He popped up and saw this thing. And we don't hear a lot of these stories. It's about tiny humans in the home. And we've covered a lot. You know, everybody talks about the fae and gnomes and gremlins and whatever else and the unseen little tricksters. Right, right, right. And that's what the Pukwaji is, or Pukwaji, as I've heard a Native American say it. And now I always try to say it that way, but I still don't get it right. But I think it's a friend of Allison Jornland's, actually. Either way, don't follow them into the woods. They'll take you over a cliff. But this one inside your house, like, I don't know. I would, you know, that's the whole nuke it from space situation for me there. Because look at a tiny thing is running around on the floor that it doesn't seem natural. I'm not down with that. Well, your first description there, of course, if you're of a certain age and was able to watch this as a kid, you may remember Karen Black, the fabulous actress in her Trilogy of Terror from 1975, where there's a little tiny, I think it's a tribal, like a doll that comes to life. And it creeped me out so much, I don't think I've watched it since. It would be comical now, I'm sure. Yeah, right, right. Or kitschy elements, certainly. There certainly was then. That's why my parents were like, it's fine to watch. It was just kind of cool. But this thing, if I remember correctly, there's a magical chain around its waist. I don't know where, somebody gave it to her or something. And it falls off, and then it comes alive, and it terrorizes her. Hence the Trilogy of Terror. Anyway, look that up, folks. A lot of you our age, we're going to be like, oh, it's a classic. I know it. Karen Black. But that was just a little thing with a tiny spear and a knife chasing you is scary. These things, though, the other really good description I go back to is from our friend Amelia Cotter. And that's the small, because this also ties in with the color of it. And it's a small little person, gnome-like. You remember, I think it was her uncle that saw the more traditional cartoon gnome. Yes. He even had a little belt, which I love, and the tunic. For folks wondering what this is, she came on the Astonishing Junk Tour, which is a Patreon exclusive show at patreon.com slash astonishing legends. But Amelia came on and told this story there. Yeah, terrific guest and stories there. But the one she saw, I think what she described is being grayish, that there was some definition, but it was like the chroma was turned off. You know, it was just kind of gray or not even black and white. Just very gray, but had some defining, you know, marking to it. And just a very odd encounter. And that one also, well, of course, yes, they're table height. So it also ducked around a coffee table or something and disappeared. And this one, I like the fact that it, yeah, it kind of popped in and out of existence and it disappeared. But the coloring is different. And the description at first of being possibly a shadow figure is interesting, but also the description of the head being cocked forward. As if a little human, the head, of course, sits on your neck that's just straight up from the, from the body. This one is not so much like a hunchback, but it's just like a, like a toy or something that it, where it's kind of cocked forward. You know, like, you know, the first thing I thought of was the first stage of the, um, xenomorph. That pops out of your belly, an alien with the like hunched forward, tiny little head. Right. It's kind of a, right. That's just for, yeah, to save space. Just an angry, wet Muppet. But still, it's like, it's scary. Yeah. No, this one, uh, as Sam describes, it has a bit of a hunchback because he thought it was a, uh, a backpack, a rucksack, uh, first over its back. Now Patty's shack, Patty's, uh, backpack shack. We've got so many backpacks, you're going to have a heart attack. Oh, what a great clip. I watched that recently again. By the way, Emily, my wife wrote that, not Paula. I gave Paula credit for that sketch last time. It was Emily, my own wife that wrote it. Yeah. Yeah. Give, give us the, give her proper credit. Pat and Patty's backpack shack on Saturday Night Live. Look it up on the SNL app or something. Okay. Right. And who was in it again? Horatio Sands. Horatio and maybe Scarlett Johansson. I can't remember now. Look it up. It's funny. Yeah. Chicago accent thing. Anyway, I digress. Yeah. So at, uh, yeah, in this case, so it's, uh, just a rounded back, no spines, nothing to describe it as, uh, as other kind of creatures, but it is kind of gives me on the mind or puts me in the mind of, uh, something that's old. Yeah. With a hunched back or, you know, hate to say it, but maybe a little deformed in some way, but characteristic of, of some kind of creature. And also, uh, not like a shadow person where it seems like a void of light or as we often like to say, it's not 2d black, but like it's blacker than black, but you can see a little shape to it, a little 3d modeling. Yeah. Some bed, a little light kind of shaping it a little bit. This is different. Yeah. And the other thing too, that's, I thought was really interesting was how it disappeared behind the table leg visually. Like it, it went somewhere that it shouldn't have disappeared behind and never emerged. What's happening there? Yeah. There's a little doorway. I believe that as a kid too, there's certain spaces you can go into. Of course, you know, uh, the time bandits that you're, you're disappearing into the shiffer rope and you think that's funny. And then you hear so many stories of adults saying like, yeah, there's something that comes out of that China hutch or the cabinet. Yeah. There's something about portal spaces and perhaps behind this piece of furniture there, there's one that kind of opens up a little bit. And, uh, what is this person doing? I don't know. I mean, it's just fascinating, but then you wonder is, uh, and people are going to say like, it's insomnia. You were sleepwalking. Obviously you saw that. And then, you know, just unfortunately, I think for people's stories, so many of these happen in the middle of the night, once you've woken up, but the person will claim and they swear, I wasn't sleeping, you know, I have insomnia. I wish I was sleeping. I wasn't, I was fully awake, not doing anything, just watching, uh, you know, watching this happen and I just want to correct myself because I think I mentioned this, uh, well, I think I mentioned Peter in the last one I was referring to, he kind of famous, uh, psychic investigator appeared in a lot of shows. Certainly he did in, in the TV series sightings and their, uh, episodes of a haunting in the heartland, which dare I say it again, features the Sally house. Yeah. I don't want people too tipsy, uh, listening to these shows, but that one, uh, he has a great line. It's like, why does this happen at night? He's like, well, our nighttime is their daytime. So they're just, uh, more energetic at night when things are quiet and dark. And that's when a lot of these things happen. And then people will say you were just sleeping. So in the case of what this thing was doing there, it didn't give off any kind of, um, to your point, I don't think it was observing anything or just, it just maybe seemed like it just popped in. Yeah. It was not, uh, there's other stories that we've heard where they're kind of mischievous in that kind of old fashioned folkloric way. They're taking something or they're upset that you're there trotting on their territory. That's like in the woods. They seem to be kind of like, you shouldn't be here. This is a magical place. Get out of here. And, uh, they run off here. You're intruding, uh, they're intruding on your space. Yeah. They're just kind of popping in. So anyway, it's just fascinating. And you wanted to bring up the, uh, the idea of the concept of the homunculus. Yeah. The homunculus, which you've mentioned on the show over the years, you know, tiny people, tiny human beings that I guess this comes from an alchemical idea originally, ancient writings that, you know, suggest that people, human beings start out as teeny tiny people from the jump, like from the get go. But there's also connections to the golem and connections to all kinds of history with regard to that stuff. What do you think about that and the idea of tiny, fully formed dudes? Well, uh, you know, one of the first things I think of is, uh, it's Woody Allen describing Wallace Shawn, uh, from the movie Manhattan from 1979. He's talking, no, he's talking to it with, um, Diane Cannon and they, they have a meet, I think in a clothing store and she says, oh, he's, that was my ex-husband. And he's like, you know, that little homunculus, I'm just surprised that little homunculus is, uh, you know, basically he's, he's quite, uh, she says, well, he's quite devastated for a little homunculus. He's quite devastating. Something like that. And hit the charm of Wallace Shawn. Well, of course he was joking. And, uh, but I am kind of fascinated about alchemy in general and the idea that you can imbue something with a spark of life and, and bring it to life. And I don't know if you want to read some of these passages, but you found some excerpts here. One of my favorite alchemists, Paracelsus, he discovered zinc, by the way. Yeah. And some other things, but very classical, you know, when I read this, it's like very classical, uh, I concepts within alchemy and, uh, involving putrefaction. So I don't know if this is, this is kind of gross, but, but there's, there's apparently a way, uh, not only that, but in the Islamic alchemist tradition, Islamic alchemy around the time of Paracelsus and the, the work, uh, called Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. Well, there's a lot to unpack there. Yeah. And, uh, just throughout folklore and history, this idea that you can create life through the right processes, you know, I don't think it's a concept or just ill-informed or, uh, ignorant that, you know, obviously when babies are born, they don't look like full adults. You know, and I think that's the case here is that what you're creating is something that looks like a fully formed adult, just very small and maybe with some parts exaggerated. Yeah. That's connected to pre-formationism, which in the history of biology is that is a, an earlier theory that organisms are created from miniature versions of themselves as opposed to evolving into what becomes a human being. Yeah. Well, if, did you, uh, want to read this part here and, uh, uh, how, maybe not. We'll put the link to the Wikipedia homunculus page in the show notes for this for sure. Folks, check it out. And, uh, you can, you can read about these bizarre. Employment of warm fermenting horse dung. So, yeah. Yeah. Well, let's move on from that. But again, it's an, it's an ancient idea that life can be created. But in some fascinating thing that I read in this passage here is that quote, the fully grown homunculus was supposedly greatly skilled in art and can create giants, dwarves, and other marvels as quote, within a quote, through art, they are born and therefore art is embodied and inborn in them and they need learn it from no one. So they innately can, uh, they're creators of their own creation. So that's a fascinating concept. You're creating something that's innately able to create other things as an art. As we know, the, uh, the golem, which I want to do one day. Of course, a lot of other shows have covered the golem or golem. I would prefer, I'm going to say, I'm going to say both. People are going to be like, you're talking about Lord of the Rings. It's a different thing, you know, like. Well, it's a, uh, somewhat, but not completely. I mean, that's, that's the kind of, a little bit of the concept there. It's like a, uh, it's a form creature. Remember the orcs were created or they're brewing works, orc life through somewhat magic and, uh, alchemistry of, of some sort. And the, uh, the golem, most people know this, I think that are interested in this kind of thing is, you know, formed by clay, but you bring it to life where a rabbi or somebody puts a prayer or instructions rolled up in a little tiny scroll in the mouth of the golem. Um, and it does your bidding. And in one theory of folklore is that it was created to protect the Jewish people from bad things and people, bad people. And that, uh, it was strong. And then there's a Roddy McDowell movie where the, I think one is brought to life and it's nearly indestructible. That's a fun movie. Oh, that sounds fun. Yeah. Because you have this thing that's basically, yeah, you cannot destroy it. And, uh, and of course there's an X-Files episode of something similar. I think that's, uh, that thing's made out of trash maybe in the, but basically you get something to do with your bidding. Yeah. That's right. And so, uh, it's a very old concept, I think, uh, since people were considering how people were made and how, uh, and magic, you know, the very early ancient, uh, roots of magic and, uh, creating life, uh, because what more ultimate power is there. You do as God does. So anyway, it's kind of fascinating. This thing, again, it's just kind of popping in. Did somebody else create it? Is it more like the egregore, a creature that somebody else created and now they're running around like the bros trying to create the, my little ponies by a concentrated thought. We've talked about all that before, but yeah, is it something that was brought to life? Was it grown, hatched? Who knows? But, uh, I thinking here, who knows? I have no idea. But the thing is, uh, it sounds to me like an entity that is, uh, like all the other things we've seen that are just strange creatures from some other plane of existence. Well, Sam, it seems like you might be one of those folks who is a little more connected to the other side than everyone else. We would advise you to keep your eyes open and really engage with what is unseen to most people. There might be a lot more going on around you than you're noticing. Thank you for sending your stories in. And folks, if you have a story, send it to deadletterofficeatastonishinglegends.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-Wendell at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music, arranged by Alan Carissia, who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. 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