November 3, 2025 • 31 mins
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_05 (00:16):
Don't look up the internet.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Okay, we're good.
Great, grand.
Wonderful.
unknown (00:26):
Great.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
All right, let's go.
Ready?
Welcome to Crip Crip CryptidCorn.
Whoa.
Welcome to uh uh We need thebuttons.
We need the buttons.
What's the family guy one whereit's like the 101 the hawk?
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Yeah, the hawk.
You should do 101.5 the hammer.
Oh no.
Hold on, my smoke alarm'sbeeping.
SPEAKER_01 (00:53):
I gotta find where it came from.
But yeah, welcome everybody toCryptic Corner.
Um Cryptids.
Oh, we're bringing it back.
Um bringing it back.
Yeah, so I know we mentioned awhile ago, but we we ended
Cryptic Corner a while agobecause as much as Doug and I
love Cryptids, our heartsweren't really in making the
(01:15):
outlines, and we decided onthings literally like 10 minutes
before recording.
It was just it wasn't going tobe.
SPEAKER_02 (01:23):
We weren't organized and we were trying to do too
much shit.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
It was in that point.
Yeah, it was in that thatdiluted point when we were like,
let's record 10,000 things, andthat's gonna end up being
healthy and long lasting, yes,for sure.
Um so we decided heart of thegate.
Yeah, we decided recently, um,now that we restructured
everything, and Doug and I, youknow, we work together, we
(01:48):
understand each other's work umschedules.
We figured we could make CrypticCorner happen and and actually
make a little effort into it.
Yeah, make it a bit morequality.
So um I I really enjoyed thefirst episode we did with
Cryptic Corner.
We never got back to that kindof quality, in my opinion, when
we did the Jersey Devil.
I wrote out a whole fuckingthing for the Jersey Devil.
(02:11):
Um looking back, it doesn't makemuch sense when it's like two
people reading shit off, butlike I I just liked creating my
own little like uh um outlinenarrative.
Narrative, yeah.
It's it was my own narrative,something that I put together
based off of my research.
From then on, we just likebasically read off the Wikipedia
page.
Um I neither worked well, Idon't think.
(02:35):
I don't think a narrative isgonna work too well with two
people reading off it becauseit's I Doug's not gonna be able
to read things off in my voice,and I'm being very distracted.
Not with that.
Yeah, but um we brought it back,and the way that we're doing it,
I think, is gonna be a make alittle bit more sense.
Um, so here's cryptic corner.
(02:55):
Um we got one that is a littlebit more um lesser known, and
it's a lot of mystery behind it,and we're actually it's like
cryptic corner 1.5.
We have kind of two things we'retalking about, so I'm pretty
excited for it.
Um Doug, do you want to kind ofkick us off a bit?
SPEAKER_02 (03:14):
Yes.
Yes, yes, I do.
Alright, so tonight, hold on, mykid is being a fucking
ding-dong.
Get all right, so what are wetalking about tonight, Mike?
We're talking about I feel likeI caught you off guard.
SPEAKER_01 (03:33):
Well, yeah, because I I gave it to you thinking you
would start it off.
That's okay.
So I was gonna start it off.
SPEAKER_02 (03:41):
I was gonna start it off, but then I was gonna have
you, I wanted you to just tellus who it was, and then I'll
start us off.
SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
Yeah, so alright, so I will.
Um you got anything for us?
Now, I know what you're thinkingby the name of this guy, but
we're not talking about theCatholic Church here.
We're talking about the Popelick monster.
And the Pope's probably licked abunch of things, but this ain't
that.
SPEAKER_04 (04:07):
But how many people have licked the Pope?
That's not a good question toask anybody.
SPEAKER_02 (04:11):
No, that kind of the Pope probably licked a lot of
people, but let's get into it.
Oh god, destroy your religions.
SPEAKER_04 (04:21):
Um, all right, so the only reason your brain went
there is because you know whatis happening.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Um, so what is the Pope Lick monster, you ask?
Uh well, it's a half-man goatcreature said to live near, you
guessed it, Pope Lick Creek.
I I so the name is literallyjust the the region.
Is that creek?
Um it's a terrible, terribleplace.
(04:51):
Um just plagued, plagued todeath.
SPEAKER_01 (04:55):
No, uh it's it's off of uh it's like 20 minutes from
Louisville, uh Kentucky,Kentucky.
SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
Louisville?
Yeah, just out just outside thetown and like near like kind of
a foresty area.
Um Corbin adjacent.
Yeah, Corbin is further south.
unknown (05:11):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
Technically, maybe maybe near.
Um, but yeah, so he's uh he'ssaid to live in Poplik Creek
below the Poplik train trestle.
Um now, uh if you're unfamiliarwhat a train trestle is, um
think of like a giant bridgegoing through a valley where
(05:35):
there's no like waterunderneath, it's just grass.
Uh but it's like reallyhigh-raised train tracks.
It's it's that thing in thevalley.
SPEAKER_01 (05:43):
It's that thing in standby me when the kid that the
kids run across when the train'scoming.
Oh there you go.
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
That's what it's trusting.
Long story short, gotcha.
Um but as I mentioned before, itis described as a human goat
hybrid.
Um, and this actually haschanged over time.
Uh, some people would say sheep,some people would say goat.
Um but uh yeah, it's a the bodyof a man, powerful fur-covered
goat legs, a smooth-skinned facewith an uh with like an aquilane
(06:13):
nose, wide eyes, and uh a crownsits uh like uh like on its
head, he's got horns,essentially.
Mike, the way you write, I hateon its crown sits short.
Yeah, I'm not fucking reading apoem.
All right, so uh he can mimicvoices and hypnotize victims as
well.
SPEAKER_03 (06:33):
I understand what you're talking about.
I've tried to read Mike's notesbefore and just been like, how
does your brain function?
SPEAKER_00 (06:39):
Fuck you.
SPEAKER_02 (06:40):
I seriously, it it drives me mad sometimes when I
look at his notes, but it'sfine.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
The problem is when I when I type my mystery stream
of consciousness, it's all ofit.
I type it out how I think of it,not how it yeah, and it's scary.
SPEAKER_04 (06:57):
Well, the thinking pattern is terrifying.
Like that's it's concerningnothing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:03):
And this fucking thing is like me big and evil
and mean.
That's how I type shit.
It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
I should have run, I should have proofread this
prior.
You told me, I mean, I wastalking I skimmed it.
I was talking to Amanda thisweekend.
SPEAKER_03 (07:19):
I was talking to Amanda this weekend, and Mike
came up and she was like, Ithink sometimes Mike thinks
faster than he can process thewords that make up the thoughts.
And with that in mind andthinking about your notes, I
would um yeah, that makes totalsense.
SPEAKER_02 (07:40):
A hundred percent that yeah, that kind of
thoughts, but I like when toread what the last bit said, and
like I I saw it and then it likeit just like didn't compute.
I was like, alright.
No.
Oh, please continue.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:57):
Anyways, so yeah, it's got fucking horns on its
head, um, but also it's beenknown to like mimic voices, and
some people might say that ithypnotizes folk uh as well.
Uh Mike, you want to give ussome more like of its origin
story here?
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Um fucking sure, dude.
So some tales say that thepublic monster is a circus freak
who has vowed revenge on othersfor being mistreated.
SPEAKER_04 (08:29):
Um I can't take any of these sentences seriously.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Well, it's a fucking fictitious goat man, so you
shouldn't anyway.
SPEAKER_04 (08:41):
Wow.
We don't know surrealism fromMike.
Damn.
SPEAKER_01 (08:47):
Um people say that it's a when I when I say circus
freak, the tale is that um itwas basically on a circus train,
um, and it kind of was beingbullied and mis misused and uh
basically just degradedthroughout its entire time at
this circus, and finally it gotbooted off the train at Pope
(09:09):
Lick Creek, and it's vowedrevenge on the human race for
the way it was treated in thiscircus.
There are other tales, there's alot of tales of the origins of
this guy, but another tale saysthat the creature escaped from a
train derailment, which linksthe creature to a uh what is
called a ghost train sightingthat also happens in Pop Lick
(09:31):
Creek of a train uh incidentthat happened in real life in
1909.
There was a no one was hurt, butit was a train delivering
Christmas presents and um othergoods that uh derailed in Pop
Lick Creek.
And people still to this day saythat they see this ghost train,
(09:51):
um, and they think the two mightbe related.
Uh uh uh I don't know.
You you tell me.
Um I don't know.
You tell me.
You fucking figure it out.
Um other myths, this one's myfavorite, uh, claim that the
creature is some fucked upreincarnation of a farmer who
sacrificed goats to the devil inexchange for satanic power.
(10:15):
Um you see other tales likethis.
SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
R.I.P.
SPEAKER_04 (10:22):
I implore you to look that up.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Now, an interesting thing with this one is you do
see similar tales like this justacross the world in general, of
people being turned intomonsters uh by the devil in
pursuit of power, um, or umleaning on the devil for power.
I mean, that's just like a triedand true um like tale of the
devil.
If you hear any type of likemyth having to do with the you
(10:45):
know, satanic power or thedevil, it's usually a guy making
some sort of sacrifice to gainsome sort of power.
I mean, that's also the wholemyth of like the crossword the
crossroads where you give up youknow your soul for the power
places.
Every myth ever something.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (11:01):
Almost every myth ever has something to do with
somebody something that'spowerful, granting a wish to
someone who asks it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:07):
Uh Mashed Potatoes Johnson himself, you know?
Yeah.
Um now the creature itselfunfortunately has no official
reported sightings, but the mythstill does live on.
Some say that the monster, thePoplik Creek monster, is a
metaphor for the dangers of thetrain trestle itself.
This is coupled with the factthat many kids like to search
(11:30):
for the monster um down at thePoplik Creek and the Trestle.
This unfortunately results in uha slew of train incidents and
deaths.
Um just so many people bytrains.
SPEAKER_00 (11:45):
Yeah, so many people and how do you not hear it
coming?
Like it's a fucking train.
SPEAKER_04 (11:50):
You know, I I thought that as well until I
read a story about a man who wastaking a phone call while
walking on the train tracksbecause it was relaxing to him,
and the train blew its horn tolet him know it was there.
So I mean, I guess talking, andyou know what he does?
He goes, I can't hear.
SPEAKER_01 (12:13):
Um hold on, hold on.
I can't hear.
I don't know why, but I can't.
I kind of get a little bit.
I mean, right now, Jason, you'reit sounds like you're on a
train, so I get I get a littlebit.
SPEAKER_04 (12:23):
I gotta fix this, I gotta fix this issue.
I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
Um so um in the late 80s, a movie was made about the
creature, and uh during thefilming of this movie, two kids
were killed in a train-relatedincident, and in 2016, a
26-year-old tourist uh was alsohit by a train while searching
for the monster.
Um, the woman who died, Raquel,uh, was with her boyfriend who
(12:50):
survived being hit by the trainbecause he just clung on to the
side of it.
I'm assuming it kind of like I'massuming the train just kind of
like like like what's the wordI'm looking for, like um just
barely scraped.
Yeah, grazed him and he justused the momentum to just cling
on and just roll with it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:07):
Like a fucking hobo in the wind.
SPEAKER_04 (13:09):
He just was like a hobo in the hobo in the wind.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
A hobo in the wind.
Um it's also hobo's in the wind.
SPEAKER_01 (13:27):
You're five thousand hobos in the wind.
Um it's also worth noting uhthat the creatures myth could
have originated from a poem thatwas submitted to the Atlantic
Monthly in 1966.
Um this poem was called TheSheep Child, and it was about a
half man, half sheep, whichhelps with how Doug mentioned
(13:49):
before.
The myth itself is kind of uh upin the air, is if it's half
goat, half man, or half sheep,half man.
SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
Yeah.
While I was doing my researchfor this, and I I came across
like a uh a really good articleactually on like the Ohio State
University website, actually.
Uh pretty good reason.
SPEAKER_03 (14:09):
The Ohio State University website.
SPEAKER_02 (14:12):
The T M dot Edu, dude.edu.
Long story short, damn.
Just some things that I noticedfrom a lot of the stuff I was
looking at is that the goat andthe sheep story kind of seems to
be all over the place.
Like a lot of a lot of the thethings you hear about this uh
(14:33):
interchange between the two.
And I thought to myself, I'mlike, okay, well, the goat and
the sheep are like huge icons inhorror movies.
You see that trope commonlyused, like you know, take for
like the witch, for example.
Um like the idea of a goat and asheep are really drastically
different, though, when youthink about like their meanings.
(14:55):
Um, like uh a sheep is kind ofmore of like a malleable person,
whereas like uh a goat, I guess.
SPEAKER_04 (15:05):
Um and I think where you were going with malleable
sheeple and shit.
You can find them all over theplace and they won't find you
easily.
SPEAKER_02 (15:16):
Swing my sheep over my head all the time.
Um no, but basically, the thethe reason I'm bringing this up
is because uh I think peoplestarted to lean into the goat
because it was it was justscarier.
Like that that's really all itwas.
Like it had more of a menacingtone to it.
SPEAKER_01 (15:31):
And like we mentioned before, too, the goat
is more or uh the goat is justmore what's the word I'm looking
for?
It's attached to other myths.
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
It's yeah, like it's attached like like Black Phillip
and like um Yeah, there's moreof a there's a more of a satanic
connotation to a goat than asheep has.
Um, and a lot of yeah, it itagain, like I said, it really
just kind of feels like theywere just trying to go scary on
it.
Yeah, exactly.
Um but yeah, this this articlethat I was mentioning, um, they
(16:00):
they bring it up uh that uhbasically uh they go they go
into this whole thing abouttradition, and that uh this guy
felt I forget his name, but Ishould have wrote it down.
I don't know why I didn't.
Uh this guy made a film aboutthe public monster, and this was
before uh the internet really exlike was a thing.
Um, and he he basically quotedthis guy saying, Yeah, he's
(16:23):
like, I went around to all thesepeople that lived in the town,
and I couldn't get a goddamnlike straight story from anyone.
Like everyone I talked to thatlike had seen or knew about the
Public Monster had completelydifferent stories.
SPEAKER_01 (16:38):
Everything they said was just like Ron Shick
Schicklinicked was his name.
SPEAKER_02 (16:44):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (16:47):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (16:49):
Well whoa, watch it there, bud.
Um, so well, yeah, he it longstory short, he talked to so
many people and they justcouldn't give him the same
story.
So every story about the PublicMonster was different, and um
they they kind of just werebringing up the point that like
uh this is like a tradition inthe town to tell the story, and
(17:11):
that's really it.
And it's it's uh oh fuck, whatare those things called?
Tulpas?
SPEAKER_01 (17:15):
Tolpas, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (17:16):
Tolpa.
So many people have this idea ofthe same thing that they've all
that's that's what I think thisis.
SPEAKER_01 (17:27):
Um I had a theory about Tulpas that I want to
bring up in the bonus afterthis, something that brought me
into existential dread onenight.
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Um but yeah, uh what do you got anything else, sir?
SPEAKER_01 (17:40):
Um yeah, so with all uh we have a couple different
things to talk about.
First and foremost, um with allthe talk between the Poplik
monsters, um like myths andwhere it comes from.
There's the myth of it um youknow coming from a circus act,
it falling off of a train and itpopping coming up here, um,
(18:02):
ghost trains itself.
Um, you know, honestly, it'sit's hard to say where this myth
lands.
And I think this all leads toone big question.
And to me that question is isthe Pope Lick monster truly a
hybrid of man and goat?
Or is it more of a hybrid ofsteel and steam?
SPEAKER_04 (18:26):
You know I I I'm trying to find the connection
here.
I don't trains team locomotives.
SPEAKER_00 (18:38):
You people do not appreciate what I bring to the
table.
SPEAKER_02 (18:41):
I read this, I I now understand what you meant
earlier.
I read this earlier and I waslike, I hate that.
Trains!
SPEAKER_00 (18:49):
This whole thing is trains.
We're talking about ghost trainslater.
It's trains.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
You no one here appreciates me.
None of you have to do it.
Don't give this man thesatisfaction.
And I hate you all.
I I that was a very clever uhand in my in my defense that was
supposed to be the end bit, butI put it in a horrible spot, and
now I'm embarrassed because thatwould have been a great cap off
to this entire thing.
But we're gonna keep sodefinitely.
SPEAKER_02 (19:16):
Yeah, why did you cap it off?
Why didn't you cap it off withthat?
What why now I have to talkabout this last bit that's
because I forgot about theseother I forgot I wrote it there.
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
I wrote it there because I thought of that pun
like first, and I wrote it down.
SPEAKER_03 (19:29):
Then why did you say it's you wrote you wrote it,
realized it was in the wrongspot, and then said it anyway.
You just said it anyway.
SPEAKER_01 (19:38):
I can't keep up with what's in here out here.
SPEAKER_04 (19:41):
He did just go over this.
SPEAKER_02 (19:43):
So to follow up with that, yeah, with those crickets,
I have to say, so some good hascome out of the Poplik monster.
Uh Medazoo made a card.
Um the town of Louisville,Kentucky had a Halloween.
SPEAKER_03 (19:56):
Louisville.
There's a new pronunciation.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
Louisville.
Lubert.
SPEAKER_04 (20:06):
Louisville.
SPEAKER_03 (20:08):
Everybody here just says Louisville.
Like you're swallowing it as itcomes out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_04 (20:17):
Just forget most of the letters in it, and you just
first oil's just all roof.
Good to be back.
Damn.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
Good to be back.
SPEAKER_04 (20:29):
So Pope Popelijk monster has nothing to do with
the Pope or the act of licking.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
Well, it's finished.
SPEAKER_04 (20:35):
It's a town called Poplik.
Finish, Doug, finish.
SPEAKER_02 (20:39):
Doug, I'm gonna let you finish, but no, I don't
think so.
In fact, the Hollow event theHalloween event, Danger Run, is
theorized to be where the circustrain origin was created.
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's like Louisville has a fun, like,
yearly Halloween run where theytell the story and they go on
like they have like haunted hayrides.
Yeah, they have like haunted hayrides where like they tell the
myth of the Public Monster, andlike it's theorized that on one
of these like tours and runs,like this is where the main like
myth of it being a circus freakum uh came out.
(21:16):
Oh, okay.
I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (21:17):
It's it's actually really funny.
I did read something about thistoo, where they were like, Yeah,
like the Poplik Monster wasbrought up in like 1909, but
then wasn't written about until1980.
SPEAKER_05 (21:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
They're like, what happened in the 70s some years
between that?
Well, a lot of nothing.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
Um it is No Popes were licked.
No pupes were licked in 70 yearsfor 70 years.
Now, something that I want tobring up.
Unfortunately, that's kind ofthe end of the Pope Lick
Monster.
Um, that's it.
There's not a whole lot on thisguy.
There's not a lot, yeah.
But I there's one thing that ithelped bird scooter us into that
(21:57):
I find very fascinating, andthat is the thought of ghost
trains.
I don't know what it is, maybeit's Alan Rails.
Um, I love that guy from Rickand Morty.
SPEAKER_04 (22:09):
Yeah, I was gonna say the ghost train man.
SPEAKER_01 (22:11):
Vindicators 3, Alan Rails.
Parents were killed by a train,so now he can call upon the
spirit of that train.
All aboard.
Um, but I just I there'ssomething very fascinating to me
about like um like not livingthings having a spirit, like
(22:32):
like ghost ships and ghosttrains, and like how there are
like ghost car things, too.
There's something veryfascinating about that to me.
Um I I love that concept of youdon't have to be alive to have a
a ghost of you.
It's it's it's it it falls intothat category of like hauntings,
what is it called?
Um, where it's not they're notsentient, it's just reliving
(22:53):
that same thing on recursively.
Echoes, echoes, yeah.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
For like multiple dimensions and there being
crossover where like this thingis the just that thing in
another dimension.
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah.
And I I just thoroughly love thethe the concept of this because
it's like at what point can cananything have a ghost?
Like, am I gonna walk through myhouse one day and there's a
ghost of like a frying pansizzling up bacon?
I don't know, but that'sfascinating.
SPEAKER_04 (23:20):
Like the green beans that I undercover.
I think a potato in your sink,yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:26):
I think that's and forgot the connotation of a
ghost train, a ghost ship, etc.
Uh I like the idea that likeyou're not gonna see a ghost
frying pan because there's notraumatic event with a ghost
frying pan, you know what I'msaying?
Like the like some of the thingsthat we may or may not be
talking about here in a momentare are like things that have
(23:48):
like a a bit of like a like ahuge energy to them that would
be like negative, you know whatI'm saying?
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Also, slapping Mothman's ass so hard in Discord
came up with a really goodquestion.
Could a necromancer raise aghost car?
That's a great question.
SPEAKER_04 (24:06):
Uh what does that work?
What you're talking about?
So if okay, actually, we'rewe're gonna combine some
concepts here.
If necromancy and tulpas existin the same space that we are
in, then I don't see why not.
Like, why the fuck wouldn't yoube able to resurrect a dead car?
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah, that's fair.
Anyway, I want to talk about acouple uh uh ghost trains here.
So uh Doug, I guess you and me,there's there's really only two
here that matter.
I guess I'll do the first one ifyou want to do the second one.
Um but so the first one is theLincoln Funeral Train.
And um, this is from AAR.org, umwhich is a railroad uh website,
(24:48):
which is very fascinating.
Uh this is the Association ofAmerican Railroads.
Uh so that's very fascinatingthat they have an AER.
I think it's it's just reallycool that they have a uh a page
dedicated to this stuff.
That's fun to me.
But so one of the most famousghost trains in American history
is the Lincoln Funeral Train.
After the assassination ofPresident Lincoln in 1865, a
(25:10):
funeral train carried his bodyon a 1600-mile journey from
Washington, D.C.
to its resting place inSpringfield, Illinois.
This train, covered in blackcloth and adorning a morning uh
crip, uh became a morning cremorning crep.
What?
Depressed, a depressed pancake.
SPEAKER_04 (25:29):
Um I heard morning crate or uh like and I thought
of just like a I'm upset becausesomeone died, so I'm gonna have
some real thin pancakes aboutit.
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
That's it's it's called uh C R E P, yeah, like a
morning crip, like a depressedpancake.
SPEAKER_04 (25:43):
Like a Swedish pancake.
SPEAKER_01 (25:45):
Yeah, um but the legend the legend of the Lincoln
funeral ghost train arises fromum the belief that on the
anniversary of Lincoln's deathor any other significant dates,
a spectral train reenacts thefuneral procession.
Witnesses have claimed to seethe eerie train moving silently
along the tracks, drawn by alocomotive draped in black and
(26:08):
lit only by dim lanterns.
It is said to be accompanied byphantom mourners and the sound
of tolling bells.
As the story of Lincoln uhfuneral ghost train spreads
through history, it reminds usof the enduring signification of
Abraham Lincoln's legacy and themournful echoes of the past that
continue to resonate throughtime.
Four scores and several ghosttrains ago.
(26:34):
Well shit.
SPEAKER_02 (26:36):
Yep.
Uh this one isn't as cool, butcould be kind of creepy.
Um, this is the Phantom Expressof Marshall Pass.
Um and the Alley Express ofMarshall Pass.
Yeah, I bought some great stuffoff of it.
Um, so in the rugged and remoteterrain of the Rocky Mountains,
(26:58):
there's a haunting legend of ashadowy locomotive known as the
Phantom Express.
This ghost train is believed tohave traversed the treacherous
Marshall Pass, which was part ofthe Denver and Rio Grande
Western Railroad in the late19th century.
Uh the pass was known for itsdangerous conditions, and
witnesses have described seeingan old-fashioned smoke-belching
locomotive thundering down thisnew desolate route, emitting an
(27:22):
unsettling otherworldly glow.
Could you imagine just likebeing up in like a fucking on a
mountain and you're just atrain, bro?
SPEAKER_00 (27:31):
It's glowing.
SPEAKER_03 (27:34):
I feel like this is somebody that just got hit by an
airplane and didn't realize it.
SPEAKER_04 (27:39):
I don't know, man.
I just I found a maca plant likea mile back.
I took a bite.
I didn't think anythinghappened, but is that maca?
SPEAKER_01 (27:46):
Is that what it's called?
I thought it was matcha.
SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
That is something else.
No, it's it's maca.
Oh the hallucinatory root thatgrows in Mexico.
Yes, that's maca.
Oh, red.
SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
I think he's thinking of matcha.
That's what I was thinking then.
SPEAKER_01 (28:03):
Yeah.
Anyway, yeah, that's creepythough.
Just a train in the mountains.
All aboard.
SPEAKER_02 (28:10):
The train grew arms and jerked me off.
It was weird.
SPEAKER_01 (28:16):
Locahotion, you know.
What the fuck?
Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03 (28:23):
What the fuck?
It doesn't even make sense.
It doesn't make sense, but itmakes sense.
That's what I hate.
SPEAKER_04 (28:28):
I understand what you were trying to do.
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (28:30):
That's what it is.
He finds that weird sweet spotwhere it's like you understand
what he's trying to do, but itdoesn't make any sense.
But you hate that it makesenough sense that you understand
it.
SPEAKER_04 (28:40):
You understand what you're trying to do.
And then you think of ninethings that would work better,
and you just get angry.
SPEAKER_03 (28:46):
No, it's not even that.
It's just it's it's that I'm madthat I'm mad that I understand
it.
That's what that's all it is.
It's as simple as that.
Because I want to be able to belike that doesn't make any
sense, Mike.
But that but I know, but deepdown, yeah.
Deep down, I know that I knowthat it makes enough sense.
(29:07):
Yeah.
And you're mad about that.
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_04 (29:10):
Because he didn't actually say a full sentence.
SPEAKER_01 (29:13):
Like well, that's the PopLick monster, everybody.
I feel like I'm being bulliedhere, but I'm okay with it.
You are boogity boogity boogity.
Let's go racing, boys.
That's not what I thought themost.
SPEAKER_03 (29:27):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
Um you have too many of those.
Uh yeah, no, that that's that'sPopLick uh and some ghost trains
in there.
SPEAKER_04 (29:38):
Yeah, I've never I've never heard of the Pop Lick
monster.
Um neither did I.
I would never have I would neverhave learned anything about it
unless you brought it up.
SPEAKER_01 (29:46):
I Googled weird obscure cryptids, and this was
the first one to pop up, and I Iget why.
There's like a paragraph ofinformation to it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:53):
Um but yeah, we like to hit those uh obscure ones,
you know.
SPEAKER_01 (29:57):
Yeah, I want to I want to hit the small boys.
I don't want to AttackingBigfoot.
Nah, fuck that.
Everyone knows that.
SPEAKER_04 (30:02):
We should throw a uh a new bonus into the into the
rotation where we just call itCryptid Factory.
And we make our own cryptids.
Sure.
Based on snakes, but with dicks.
Snakes.
Huge snake dicks.
We're already off to a fuckingfantastic start.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
Snakes on planes.
There's your fucking cryptid.
Snakes on trains.
SPEAKER_04 (30:26):
As long as they have dicks, I'm good.
I don't care where they are.
SPEAKER_02 (30:32):
It's a bunch of snakes, but they have Crohn's
disease.
SPEAKER_04 (30:36):
They have Lou Gehrings' other disease.
I don't even know what the fuckwe're talking about anymore.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
Alright, everybody.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
How long is this episode?
SPEAKER_00 (30:49):
That was Cryptic Corner.
SPEAKER_02 (30:51):
32 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (30:52):
Oh, that was Cryptic Corner.
That's all it needs.
That was Cryptic Corner.
Expect one of these hopefullyevery month.
Expect nothing, actually.
But we're hoping.
SPEAKER_02 (31:01):
Expect nothing, enjoy great.
Something.
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
Expect nothing, enjoy something.
There you go.
Yeah, hopefully we get one ofthese.
Hopefully we get one of theseout every month.
This is really fun.
I enjoyed this thoroughly.
So we'll see if we can keep thisup.
unknown (31:16):
Thanks for watching.
SPEAKER_04 (31:17):
I do love learning about these little like cultural
niches in the world and why theythink the ways they do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:24):
Exactly.
So thanks for joining us on thiscryptic corner.
Have a blessed day.
Those of you that are listeningon Discord, hang out.
We're doing one more thing afterthis.
Don't look up the internet.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Okay, we're good.
Great, grand.
Wonderful.
unknown (00:26):
Great.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
All right, let's go.
Ready?
Welcome to Crip Crip CryptidCorn.
Whoa.
Welcome to uh uh We need thebuttons.
We need the buttons.
What's the family guy one whereit's like the 101 the hawk?
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Yeah, the hawk.
You should do 101.5 the hammer.
Oh no.
Hold on, my smoke alarm'sbeeping.
SPEAKER_01 (00:53):
I gotta find where it came from.
But yeah, welcome everybody toCryptic Corner.
Um Cryptids.
Oh, we're bringing it back.
Um bringing it back.
Yeah, so I know we mentioned awhile ago, but we we ended
Cryptic Corner a while agobecause as much as Doug and I
love Cryptids, our heartsweren't really in making the
(01:15):
outlines, and we decided onthings literally like 10 minutes
before recording.
It was just it wasn't going tobe.
SPEAKER_02 (01:23):
We weren't organized and we were trying to do too
much shit.
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
It was in that point.
Yeah, it was in that thatdiluted point when we were like,
let's record 10,000 things, andthat's gonna end up being
healthy and long lasting, yes,for sure.
Um so we decided heart of thegate.
Yeah, we decided recently, um,now that we restructured
everything, and Doug and I, youknow, we work together, we
(01:48):
understand each other's work umschedules.
We figured we could make CrypticCorner happen and and actually
make a little effort into it.
Yeah, make it a bit morequality.
So um I I really enjoyed thefirst episode we did with
Cryptic Corner.
We never got back to that kindof quality, in my opinion, when
we did the Jersey Devil.
I wrote out a whole fuckingthing for the Jersey Devil.
(02:11):
Um looking back, it doesn't makemuch sense when it's like two
people reading shit off, butlike I I just liked creating my
own little like uh um outlinenarrative.
Narrative, yeah.
It's it was my own narrative,something that I put together
based off of my research.
From then on, we just likebasically read off the Wikipedia
page.
Um I neither worked well, Idon't think.
(02:35):
I don't think a narrative isgonna work too well with two
people reading off it becauseit's I Doug's not gonna be able
to read things off in my voice,and I'm being very distracted.
Not with that.
Yeah, but um we brought it back,and the way that we're doing it,
I think, is gonna be a make alittle bit more sense.
Um, so here's cryptic corner.
(02:55):
Um we got one that is a littlebit more um lesser known, and
it's a lot of mystery behind it,and we're actually it's like
cryptic corner 1.5.
We have kind of two things we'retalking about, so I'm pretty
excited for it.
Um Doug, do you want to kind ofkick us off a bit?
SPEAKER_02 (03:14):
Yes.
Yes, yes, I do.
Alright, so tonight, hold on, mykid is being a fucking
ding-dong.
Get all right, so what are wetalking about tonight, Mike?
We're talking about I feel likeI caught you off guard.
SPEAKER_01 (03:33):
Well, yeah, because I I gave it to you thinking you
would start it off.
That's okay.
So I was gonna start it off.
SPEAKER_02 (03:41):
I was gonna start it off, but then I was gonna have
you, I wanted you to just tellus who it was, and then I'll
start us off.
SPEAKER_01 (03:48):
Yeah, so alright, so I will.
Um you got anything for us?
Now, I know what you're thinkingby the name of this guy, but
we're not talking about theCatholic Church here.
We're talking about the Popelick monster.
And the Pope's probably licked abunch of things, but this ain't
that.
SPEAKER_04 (04:07):
But how many people have licked the Pope?
That's not a good question toask anybody.
SPEAKER_02 (04:11):
No, that kind of the Pope probably licked a lot of
people, but let's get into it.
Oh god, destroy your religions.
SPEAKER_04 (04:21):
Um, all right, so the only reason your brain went
there is because you know whatis happening.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Um, so what is the Pope Lick monster, you ask?
Uh well, it's a half-man goatcreature said to live near, you
guessed it, Pope Lick Creek.
I I so the name is literallyjust the the region.
Is that creek?
Um it's a terrible, terribleplace.
(04:51):
Um just plagued, plagued todeath.
SPEAKER_01 (04:55):
No, uh it's it's off of uh it's like 20 minutes from
Louisville, uh Kentucky,Kentucky.
SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
Louisville?
Yeah, just out just outside thetown and like near like kind of
a foresty area.
Um Corbin adjacent.
Yeah, Corbin is further south.
unknown (05:11):
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (05:14):
Technically, maybe maybe near.
Um, but yeah, so he's uh he'ssaid to live in Poplik Creek
below the Poplik train trestle.
Um now, uh if you're unfamiliarwhat a train trestle is, um
think of like a giant bridgegoing through a valley where
(05:35):
there's no like waterunderneath, it's just grass.
Uh but it's like reallyhigh-raised train tracks.
It's it's that thing in thevalley.
SPEAKER_01 (05:43):
It's that thing in standby me when the kid that the
kids run across when the train'scoming.
Oh there you go.
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
That's what it's trusting.
Long story short, gotcha.
Um but as I mentioned before, itis described as a human goat
hybrid.
Um, and this actually haschanged over time.
Uh, some people would say sheep,some people would say goat.
Um but uh yeah, it's a the bodyof a man, powerful fur-covered
goat legs, a smooth-skinned facewith an uh with like an aquilane
(06:13):
nose, wide eyes, and uh a crownsits uh like uh like on its
head, he's got horns,essentially.
Mike, the way you write, I hateon its crown sits short.
Yeah, I'm not fucking reading apoem.
All right, so uh he can mimicvoices and hypnotize victims as
well.
SPEAKER_03 (06:33):
I understand what you're talking about.
I've tried to read Mike's notesbefore and just been like, how
does your brain function?
SPEAKER_00 (06:39):
Fuck you.
SPEAKER_02 (06:40):
I seriously, it it drives me mad sometimes when I
look at his notes, but it'sfine.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
The problem is when I when I type my mystery stream
of consciousness, it's all ofit.
I type it out how I think of it,not how it yeah, and it's scary.
SPEAKER_04 (06:57):
Well, the thinking pattern is terrifying.
Like that's it's concerningnothing.
SPEAKER_01 (07:03):
And this fucking thing is like me big and evil
and mean.
That's how I type shit.
It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
I should have run, I should have proofread this
prior.
You told me, I mean, I wastalking I skimmed it.
I was talking to Amanda thisweekend.
SPEAKER_03 (07:19):
I was talking to Amanda this weekend, and Mike
came up and she was like, Ithink sometimes Mike thinks
faster than he can process thewords that make up the thoughts.
And with that in mind andthinking about your notes, I
would um yeah, that makes totalsense.
SPEAKER_02 (07:40):
A hundred percent that yeah, that kind of
thoughts, but I like when toread what the last bit said, and
like I I saw it and then it likeit just like didn't compute.
I was like, alright.
No.
Oh, please continue.
SPEAKER_01 (07:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (07:57):
Anyways, so yeah, it's got fucking horns on its
head, um, but also it's beenknown to like mimic voices, and
some people might say that ithypnotizes folk uh as well.
Uh Mike, you want to give ussome more like of its origin
story here?
SPEAKER_01 (08:16):
Um fucking sure, dude.
So some tales say that thepublic monster is a circus freak
who has vowed revenge on othersfor being mistreated.
SPEAKER_04 (08:29):
Um I can't take any of these sentences seriously.
SPEAKER_01 (08:34):
Well, it's a fucking fictitious goat man, so you
shouldn't anyway.
SPEAKER_04 (08:41):
Wow.
We don't know surrealism fromMike.
Damn.
SPEAKER_01 (08:47):
Um people say that it's a when I when I say circus
freak, the tale is that um itwas basically on a circus train,
um, and it kind of was beingbullied and mis misused and uh
basically just degradedthroughout its entire time at
this circus, and finally it gotbooted off the train at Pope
(09:09):
Lick Creek, and it's vowedrevenge on the human race for
the way it was treated in thiscircus.
There are other tales, there's alot of tales of the origins of
this guy, but another tale saysthat the creature escaped from a
train derailment, which linksthe creature to a uh what is
called a ghost train sightingthat also happens in Pop Lick
(09:31):
Creek of a train uh incidentthat happened in real life in
1909.
There was a no one was hurt, butit was a train delivering
Christmas presents and um othergoods that uh derailed in Pop
Lick Creek.
And people still to this day saythat they see this ghost train,
(09:51):
um, and they think the two mightbe related.
Uh uh uh I don't know.
You you tell me.
Um I don't know.
You tell me.
You fucking figure it out.
Um other myths, this one's myfavorite, uh, claim that the
creature is some fucked upreincarnation of a farmer who
sacrificed goats to the devil inexchange for satanic power.
(10:15):
Um you see other tales likethis.
SPEAKER_02 (10:21):
R.I.P.
SPEAKER_04 (10:22):
I implore you to look that up.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Now, an interesting thing with this one is you do
see similar tales like this justacross the world in general, of
people being turned intomonsters uh by the devil in
pursuit of power, um, or umleaning on the devil for power.
I mean, that's just like a triedand true um like tale of the
devil.
If you hear any type of likemyth having to do with the you
(10:45):
know, satanic power or thedevil, it's usually a guy making
some sort of sacrifice to gainsome sort of power.
I mean, that's also the wholemyth of like the crossword the
crossroads where you give up youknow your soul for the power
places.
Every myth ever something.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (11:01):
Almost every myth ever has something to do with
somebody something that'spowerful, granting a wish to
someone who asks it.
SPEAKER_01 (11:07):
Uh Mashed Potatoes Johnson himself, you know?
Yeah.
Um now the creature itselfunfortunately has no official
reported sightings, but the mythstill does live on.
Some say that the monster, thePoplik Creek monster, is a
metaphor for the dangers of thetrain trestle itself.
This is coupled with the factthat many kids like to search
(11:30):
for the monster um down at thePoplik Creek and the Trestle.
This unfortunately results in uha slew of train incidents and
deaths.
Um just so many people bytrains.
SPEAKER_00 (11:45):
Yeah, so many people and how do you not hear it
coming?
Like it's a fucking train.
SPEAKER_04 (11:50):
You know, I I thought that as well until I
read a story about a man who wastaking a phone call while
walking on the train tracksbecause it was relaxing to him,
and the train blew its horn tolet him know it was there.
So I mean, I guess talking, andyou know what he does?
He goes, I can't hear.
SPEAKER_01 (12:13):
Um hold on, hold on.
I can't hear.
I don't know why, but I can't.
I kind of get a little bit.
I mean, right now, Jason, you'reit sounds like you're on a
train, so I get I get a littlebit.
SPEAKER_04 (12:23):
I gotta fix this, I gotta fix this issue.
I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01 (12:28):
Um so um in the late 80s, a movie was made about the
creature, and uh during thefilming of this movie, two kids
were killed in a train-relatedincident, and in 2016, a
26-year-old tourist uh was alsohit by a train while searching
for the monster.
Um, the woman who died, Raquel,uh, was with her boyfriend who
(12:50):
survived being hit by the trainbecause he just clung on to the
side of it.
I'm assuming it kind of like I'massuming the train just kind of
like like like what's the wordI'm looking for, like um just
barely scraped.
Yeah, grazed him and he justused the momentum to just cling
on and just roll with it.
SPEAKER_02 (13:07):
Like a fucking hobo in the wind.
SPEAKER_04 (13:09):
He just was like a hobo in the hobo in the wind.
SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
A hobo in the wind.
Um it's also hobo's in the wind.
SPEAKER_01 (13:27):
You're five thousand hobos in the wind.
Um it's also worth noting uhthat the creatures myth could
have originated from a poem thatwas submitted to the Atlantic
Monthly in 1966.
Um this poem was called TheSheep Child, and it was about a
half man, half sheep, whichhelps with how Doug mentioned
(13:49):
before.
The myth itself is kind of uh upin the air, is if it's half
goat, half man, or half sheep,half man.
SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
Yeah.
While I was doing my researchfor this, and I I came across
like a uh a really good articleactually on like the Ohio State
University website, actually.
Uh pretty good reason.
SPEAKER_03 (14:09):
The Ohio State University website.
SPEAKER_02 (14:12):
The T M dot Edu, dude.edu.
Long story short, damn.
Just some things that I noticedfrom a lot of the stuff I was
looking at is that the goat andthe sheep story kind of seems to
be all over the place.
Like a lot of a lot of the thethings you hear about this uh
(14:33):
interchange between the two.
And I thought to myself, I'mlike, okay, well, the goat and
the sheep are like huge icons inhorror movies.
You see that trope commonlyused, like you know, take for
like the witch, for example.
Um like the idea of a goat and asheep are really drastically
different, though, when youthink about like their meanings.
(14:55):
Um, like uh a sheep is kind ofmore of like a malleable person,
whereas like uh a goat, I guess.
SPEAKER_04 (15:05):
Um and I think where you were going with malleable
sheeple and shit.
You can find them all over theplace and they won't find you
easily.
SPEAKER_02 (15:16):
Swing my sheep over my head all the time.
Um no, but basically, the thethe reason I'm bringing this up
is because uh I think peoplestarted to lean into the goat
because it was it was justscarier.
Like that that's really all itwas.
Like it had more of a menacingtone to it.
SPEAKER_01 (15:31):
And like we mentioned before, too, the goat
is more or uh the goat is justmore what's the word I'm looking
for?
It's attached to other myths.
SPEAKER_02 (15:39):
It's yeah, like it's attached like like Black Phillip
and like um Yeah, there's moreof a there's a more of a satanic
connotation to a goat than asheep has.
Um, and a lot of yeah, it itagain, like I said, it really
just kind of feels like theywere just trying to go scary on
it.
Yeah, exactly.
Um but yeah, this this articlethat I was mentioning, um, they
(16:00):
they bring it up uh that uhbasically uh they go they go
into this whole thing abouttradition, and that uh this guy
felt I forget his name, but Ishould have wrote it down.
I don't know why I didn't.
Uh this guy made a film aboutthe public monster, and this was
before uh the internet really exlike was a thing.
Um, and he he basically quotedthis guy saying, Yeah, he's
(16:23):
like, I went around to all thesepeople that lived in the town,
and I couldn't get a goddamnlike straight story from anyone.
Like everyone I talked to thatlike had seen or knew about the
Public Monster had completelydifferent stories.
SPEAKER_01 (16:38):
Everything they said was just like Ron Shick
Schicklinicked was his name.
SPEAKER_02 (16:44):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (16:47):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (16:49):
Well whoa, watch it there, bud.
Um, so well, yeah, he it longstory short, he talked to so
many people and they justcouldn't give him the same
story.
So every story about the PublicMonster was different, and um
they they kind of just werebringing up the point that like
uh this is like a tradition inthe town to tell the story, and
(17:11):
that's really it.
And it's it's uh oh fuck, whatare those things called?
Tulpas?
SPEAKER_01 (17:15):
Tolpas, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (17:16):
Tolpa.
So many people have this idea ofthe same thing that they've all
that's that's what I think thisis.
SPEAKER_01 (17:27):
Um I had a theory about Tulpas that I want to
bring up in the bonus afterthis, something that brought me
into existential dread onenight.
SPEAKER_02 (17:36):
Um but yeah, uh what do you got anything else, sir?
SPEAKER_01 (17:40):
Um yeah, so with all uh we have a couple different
things to talk about.
First and foremost, um with allthe talk between the Poplik
monsters, um like myths andwhere it comes from.
There's the myth of it um youknow coming from a circus act,
it falling off of a train and itpopping coming up here, um,
(18:02):
ghost trains itself.
Um, you know, honestly, it'sit's hard to say where this myth
lands.
And I think this all leads toone big question.
And to me that question is isthe Pope Lick monster truly a
hybrid of man and goat?
Or is it more of a hybrid ofsteel and steam?
SPEAKER_04 (18:26):
You know I I I'm trying to find the connection
here.
I don't trains team locomotives.
SPEAKER_00 (18:38):
You people do not appreciate what I bring to the
table.
SPEAKER_02 (18:41):
I read this, I I now understand what you meant
earlier.
I read this earlier and I waslike, I hate that.
Trains!
SPEAKER_00 (18:49):
This whole thing is trains.
We're talking about ghost trainslater.
It's trains.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
You no one here appreciates me.
None of you have to do it.
Don't give this man thesatisfaction.
And I hate you all.
I I that was a very clever uhand in my in my defense that was
supposed to be the end bit, butI put it in a horrible spot, and
now I'm embarrassed because thatwould have been a great cap off
to this entire thing.
But we're gonna keep sodefinitely.
SPEAKER_02 (19:16):
Yeah, why did you cap it off?
Why didn't you cap it off withthat?
What why now I have to talkabout this last bit that's
because I forgot about theseother I forgot I wrote it there.
SPEAKER_01 (19:26):
I wrote it there because I thought of that pun
like first, and I wrote it down.
SPEAKER_03 (19:29):
Then why did you say it's you wrote you wrote it,
realized it was in the wrongspot, and then said it anyway.
You just said it anyway.
SPEAKER_01 (19:38):
I can't keep up with what's in here out here.
SPEAKER_04 (19:41):
He did just go over this.
SPEAKER_02 (19:43):
So to follow up with that, yeah, with those crickets,
I have to say, so some good hascome out of the Poplik monster.
Uh Medazoo made a card.
Um the town of Louisville,Kentucky had a Halloween.
SPEAKER_03 (19:56):
Louisville.
There's a new pronunciation.
SPEAKER_02 (20:00):
Louisville.
Lubert.
SPEAKER_04 (20:06):
Louisville.
SPEAKER_03 (20:08):
Everybody here just says Louisville.
Like you're swallowing it as itcomes out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_04 (20:17):
Just forget most of the letters in it, and you just
first oil's just all roof.
Good to be back.
Damn.
SPEAKER_01 (20:28):
Good to be back.
SPEAKER_04 (20:29):
So Pope Popelijk monster has nothing to do with
the Pope or the act of licking.
SPEAKER_01 (20:34):
Well, it's finished.
SPEAKER_04 (20:35):
It's a town called Poplik.
Finish, Doug, finish.
SPEAKER_02 (20:39):
Doug, I'm gonna let you finish, but no, I don't
think so.
In fact, the Hollow event theHalloween event, Danger Run, is
theorized to be where the circustrain origin was created.
SPEAKER_01 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's like Louisville has a fun, like,
yearly Halloween run where theytell the story and they go on
like they have like haunted hayrides.
Yeah, they have like haunted hayrides where like they tell the
myth of the Public Monster, andlike it's theorized that on one
of these like tours and runs,like this is where the main like
myth of it being a circus freakum uh came out.
(21:16):
Oh, okay.
I thought that was interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (21:17):
It's it's actually really funny.
I did read something about thistoo, where they were like, Yeah,
like the Poplik Monster wasbrought up in like 1909, but
then wasn't written about until1980.
SPEAKER_05 (21:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:29):
They're like, what happened in the 70s some years
between that?
Well, a lot of nothing.
SPEAKER_01 (21:34):
Um it is No Popes were licked.
No pupes were licked in 70 yearsfor 70 years.
Now, something that I want tobring up.
Unfortunately, that's kind ofthe end of the Pope Lick
Monster.
Um, that's it.
There's not a whole lot on thisguy.
There's not a lot, yeah.
But I there's one thing that ithelped bird scooter us into that
(21:57):
I find very fascinating, andthat is the thought of ghost
trains.
I don't know what it is, maybeit's Alan Rails.
Um, I love that guy from Rickand Morty.
SPEAKER_04 (22:09):
Yeah, I was gonna say the ghost train man.
SPEAKER_01 (22:11):
Vindicators 3, Alan Rails.
Parents were killed by a train,so now he can call upon the
spirit of that train.
All aboard.
Um, but I just I there'ssomething very fascinating to me
about like um like not livingthings having a spirit, like
(22:32):
like ghost ships and ghosttrains, and like how there are
like ghost car things, too.
There's something veryfascinating about that to me.
Um I I love that concept of youdon't have to be alive to have a
a ghost of you.
It's it's it's it it falls intothat category of like hauntings,
what is it called?
Um, where it's not they're notsentient, it's just reliving
(22:53):
that same thing on recursively.
Echoes, echoes, yeah.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_03 (22:59):
For like multiple dimensions and there being
crossover where like this thingis the just that thing in
another dimension.
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah.
And I I just thoroughly love thethe the concept of this because
it's like at what point can cananything have a ghost?
Like, am I gonna walk through myhouse one day and there's a
ghost of like a frying pansizzling up bacon?
I don't know, but that'sfascinating.
SPEAKER_04 (23:20):
Like the green beans that I undercover.
I think a potato in your sink,yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:26):
I think that's and forgot the connotation of a
ghost train, a ghost ship, etc.
Uh I like the idea that likeyou're not gonna see a ghost
frying pan because there's notraumatic event with a ghost
frying pan, you know what I'msaying?
Like the like some of the thingsthat we may or may not be
talking about here in a momentare are like things that have
(23:48):
like a a bit of like a like ahuge energy to them that would
be like negative, you know whatI'm saying?
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Also, slapping Mothman's ass so hard in Discord
came up with a really goodquestion.
Could a necromancer raise aghost car?
That's a great question.
SPEAKER_04 (24:06):
Uh what does that work?
What you're talking about?
So if okay, actually, we'rewe're gonna combine some
concepts here.
If necromancy and tulpas existin the same space that we are
in, then I don't see why not.
Like, why the fuck wouldn't yoube able to resurrect a dead car?
You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah, that's fair.
Anyway, I want to talk about acouple uh uh ghost trains here.
So uh Doug, I guess you and me,there's there's really only two
here that matter.
I guess I'll do the first one ifyou want to do the second one.
Um but so the first one is theLincoln Funeral Train.
And um, this is from AAR.org, umwhich is a railroad uh website,
(24:48):
which is very fascinating.
Uh this is the Association ofAmerican Railroads.
Uh so that's very fascinatingthat they have an AER.
I think it's it's just reallycool that they have a uh a page
dedicated to this stuff.
That's fun to me.
But so one of the most famousghost trains in American history
is the Lincoln Funeral Train.
After the assassination ofPresident Lincoln in 1865, a
(25:10):
funeral train carried his bodyon a 1600-mile journey from
Washington, D.C.
to its resting place inSpringfield, Illinois.
This train, covered in blackcloth and adorning a morning uh
crip, uh became a morning cremorning crep.
What?
Depressed, a depressed pancake.
SPEAKER_04 (25:29):
Um I heard morning crate or uh like and I thought
of just like a I'm upset becausesomeone died, so I'm gonna have
some real thin pancakes aboutit.
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
That's it's it's called uh C R E P, yeah, like a
morning crip, like a depressedpancake.
SPEAKER_04 (25:43):
Like a Swedish pancake.
SPEAKER_01 (25:45):
Yeah, um but the legend the legend of the Lincoln
funeral ghost train arises fromum the belief that on the
anniversary of Lincoln's deathor any other significant dates,
a spectral train reenacts thefuneral procession.
Witnesses have claimed to seethe eerie train moving silently
along the tracks, drawn by alocomotive draped in black and
(26:08):
lit only by dim lanterns.
It is said to be accompanied byphantom mourners and the sound
of tolling bells.
As the story of Lincoln uhfuneral ghost train spreads
through history, it reminds usof the enduring signification of
Abraham Lincoln's legacy and themournful echoes of the past that
continue to resonate throughtime.
Four scores and several ghosttrains ago.
(26:34):
Well shit.
SPEAKER_02 (26:36):
Yep.
Uh this one isn't as cool, butcould be kind of creepy.
Um, this is the Phantom Expressof Marshall Pass.
Um and the Alley Express ofMarshall Pass.
Yeah, I bought some great stuffoff of it.
Um, so in the rugged and remoteterrain of the Rocky Mountains,
(26:58):
there's a haunting legend of ashadowy locomotive known as the
Phantom Express.
This ghost train is believed tohave traversed the treacherous
Marshall Pass, which was part ofthe Denver and Rio Grande
Western Railroad in the late19th century.
Uh the pass was known for itsdangerous conditions, and
witnesses have described seeingan old-fashioned smoke-belching
locomotive thundering down thisnew desolate route, emitting an
(27:22):
unsettling otherworldly glow.
Could you imagine just likebeing up in like a fucking on a
mountain and you're just atrain, bro?
SPEAKER_00 (27:31):
It's glowing.
SPEAKER_03 (27:34):
I feel like this is somebody that just got hit by an
airplane and didn't realize it.
SPEAKER_04 (27:39):
I don't know, man.
I just I found a maca plant likea mile back.
I took a bite.
I didn't think anythinghappened, but is that maca?
SPEAKER_01 (27:46):
Is that what it's called?
I thought it was matcha.
SPEAKER_04 (27:50):
That is something else.
No, it's it's maca.
Oh the hallucinatory root thatgrows in Mexico.
Yes, that's maca.
Oh, red.
SPEAKER_03 (27:59):
I think he's thinking of matcha.
That's what I was thinking then.
SPEAKER_01 (28:03):
Yeah.
Anyway, yeah, that's creepythough.
Just a train in the mountains.
All aboard.
SPEAKER_02 (28:10):
The train grew arms and jerked me off.
It was weird.
SPEAKER_01 (28:16):
Locahotion, you know.
What the fuck?
Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03 (28:23):
What the fuck?
It doesn't even make sense.
It doesn't make sense, but itmakes sense.
That's what I hate.
SPEAKER_04 (28:28):
I understand what you were trying to do.
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (28:30):
That's what it is.
He finds that weird sweet spotwhere it's like you understand
what he's trying to do, but itdoesn't make any sense.
But you hate that it makesenough sense that you understand
it.
SPEAKER_04 (28:40):
You understand what you're trying to do.
And then you think of ninethings that would work better,
and you just get angry.
SPEAKER_03 (28:46):
No, it's not even that.
It's just it's it's that I'm madthat I'm mad that I understand
it.
That's what that's all it is.
It's as simple as that.
Because I want to be able to belike that doesn't make any
sense, Mike.
But that but I know, but deepdown, yeah.
Deep down, I know that I knowthat it makes enough sense.
(29:07):
Yeah.
And you're mad about that.
Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_04 (29:10):
Because he didn't actually say a full sentence.
SPEAKER_01 (29:13):
Like well, that's the PopLick monster, everybody.
I feel like I'm being bulliedhere, but I'm okay with it.
You are boogity boogity boogity.
Let's go racing, boys.
That's not what I thought themost.
SPEAKER_03 (29:27):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (29:28):
Um you have too many of those.
Uh yeah, no, that that's that'sPopLick uh and some ghost trains
in there.
SPEAKER_04 (29:38):
Yeah, I've never I've never heard of the Pop Lick
monster.
Um neither did I.
I would never have I would neverhave learned anything about it
unless you brought it up.
SPEAKER_01 (29:46):
I Googled weird obscure cryptids, and this was
the first one to pop up, and I Iget why.
There's like a paragraph ofinformation to it.
SPEAKER_02 (29:53):
Um but yeah, we like to hit those uh obscure ones,
you know.
SPEAKER_01 (29:57):
Yeah, I want to I want to hit the small boys.
I don't want to AttackingBigfoot.
Nah, fuck that.
Everyone knows that.
SPEAKER_04 (30:02):
We should throw a uh a new bonus into the into the
rotation where we just call itCryptid Factory.
And we make our own cryptids.
Sure.
Based on snakes, but with dicks.
Snakes.
Huge snake dicks.
We're already off to a fuckingfantastic start.
SPEAKER_01 (30:19):
Snakes on planes.
There's your fucking cryptid.
Snakes on trains.
SPEAKER_04 (30:26):
As long as they have dicks, I'm good.
I don't care where they are.
SPEAKER_02 (30:32):
It's a bunch of snakes, but they have Crohn's
disease.
SPEAKER_04 (30:36):
They have Lou Gehrings' other disease.
I don't even know what the fuckwe're talking about anymore.
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
Alright, everybody.
SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
How long is this episode?
SPEAKER_00 (30:49):
That was Cryptic Corner.
SPEAKER_02 (30:51):
32 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (30:52):
Oh, that was Cryptic Corner.
That's all it needs.
That was Cryptic Corner.
Expect one of these hopefullyevery month.
Expect nothing, actually.
But we're hoping.
SPEAKER_02 (31:01):
Expect nothing, enjoy great.
Something.
SPEAKER_01 (31:05):
Expect nothing, enjoy something.
There you go.
Yeah, hopefully we get one ofthese.
Hopefully we get one of theseout every month.
This is really fun.
I enjoyed this thoroughly.
So we'll see if we can keep thisup.
unknown (31:16):
Thanks for watching.
SPEAKER_04 (31:17):
I do love learning about these little like cultural
niches in the world and why theythink the ways they do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:24):
Exactly.
So thanks for joining us on thiscryptic corner.
Have a blessed day.
Those of you that are listeningon Discord, hang out.
We're doing one more thing afterthis.
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