Episode 103: Cats, Coffee and Cryptids with Dan Trout

“Coffee, Cats and Cryptids.” Acrylic on canvas. 2022. Inspired by the work of Louis Wain and the style of Vincent Van Gogh.

Long,, long ago, before Fox was born and I ever said the phrase “It’s like six degrees of John Keel” to Morganna, we used to have our Athens family over for dinner at least once a week. After dinner, we’d have coffee and dessert, and sit and talk about whatever weird stuff we’d read about in the latest issue of “The Fortean Times.”

The talk would go on long into the night, with multiple pots of coffee being made and drunk. Ideas would percolate with the coffee and stories would be told and retold, analyzed, theorized deconstructed and reconstructed. Thing on the Stairs would slink down the steps, and hunker in a sparkling grey mist at the bottom, and listen to the tales and laughter.

Dan and I were usually the last two awake. Everyone else would tap out and go to bed around two a.m.

This episode is a taste of what those long ago evenings were like, minus the coffee, the cats on our laps and Thing on the Stairs.