Chiropractor Tom Payne was glad to have finally found Bigfoot, although the creature’s famed 16-inch appendages were missing.

Bigfoot, an 8-feet-tall carved wood statue was stolen from the end of Payne’s driveway where the imposing creature had stood for 5½ years. When they located the statue a block away from Payne’s office, his big feet had been sawn off.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the case but they offered no motive for the theft. The feet were not recovered.

Now, if the next Bigfoot evidence comes in the shape of 16-inch footprints…

There was a time when every woman wore a girdle. In the early 50s, glamor demanded those perfect lines and contours. Tummies were slimmed, hips made smooth, busts enhanced and reshaped – long line bras and girdles slimmed bulges and created curves. All of these items were generally very restrictive and uncomfortable.

The sixties brought us freedom, we were the generation that “let it all hang out” and prided ourselves on loving nature in its gloriously unbridled beauty.

Then came the women’s movement and bra-burning. Women were not going to be held to archaic standards of beauty; we demanded to be seen as equals and measured by the worth of our intellect and capabilities rather than the measurements of our figures.

Well as they say, everything old is new again. The latest trend in Hollywood is spandex undergarments – a new take on an old girdle. The most popular brand is Spanx who market a complete line of slimming garments for everyone from the very slim to plus sizes as well as maternity undergarments.

Everyone from Tyra Banks to Gwyneth Paltrow admits to wearing slimming undergarments to achieve that sleek look. Watch out girls, girdles are back!

Shop for Spanx garments at Amazon

If you’re over fifty – if you’re a boomer – then you will automatically recognize the words Bigfoot, Yeti and Sasquatch.

Legends about Bigfoot go back hundreds of years into Native American history (Sasquatch is a Salish Indian word meaning “wild man”) and sightings reported in America can be traced to the 1830s but Bigfoot first stepped out of legend and into the American consciousness in a big way in 1958.

That was the year that Ray Wallace discovered Bigfoot footprints in Humboldt County, California. The find launched a half-century of interest in the hairy, humanoid creature of legend and inspired thousands of individuals to spend their lives searching for more evidence of the large ape-like creature.

Following Ray Wallace’s death in 2002, his family came forward and admitted that he had perpetrated a hoax. They claimed that Ray had made the footprints himself using 16 inch carved feet that he strapped onto his boots. The amazing thing is that this revelation made little to no difference to the true believers and the search for Sasquatch continued in earnest.

Fuel to the fire of their imaginations was the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967. Shot at the Bluff Creek area of the Six Rivers National Forest in northern Californa, the film showed a large, hairy, bipedal creature as it ambulated out of view. The film was studied by experts on both sides of the question of Bigfoot’s existence, especially because it allowed study of the creature’s gait. Although questions remain, the film has never been proved to be real nor has it ever been proved to be a hoax.

Born in 1958, the year of Bigfoot’s great publicity surge, was Jeffrey Meldrum, a tenured Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University. Meldrum became a believer after finding some 15″ footprints in Walla Walla, Washington. Originally assuming the footprints to be a hoax, he then noted anatomical traits he says could not be faked. Meldrum, the author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, has found that his belief in Sasquatch embarrasses his academic colleagues and he has become an outcast amongst the faculty at Idaho State.

Bigfoot has even made it in Hollywood, starring alongside John Lithgow in the 1987 film Harry and the Hendersons in which a family on a camping trip hits a bigfoot with their station wagon and takes him home.

Look for books on bigfoot and you will likely find them in the “paranormal” section of your local bookstore. Yet the legend continues, fueled by occasional sightings, findings of footprints or other evidence. 50 years after Bigfoot made it big, his existence is still a hotly debated issue.

More about Bigfoot:

Bigfoot at 50 – Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization

The International Bigfoot Society

A Mars satellite is sending back some of the most detailed images of the planet ever taken. The camera beaming images back to earth is called HiRISE, or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera (you can see why the acronym is important). For those of us who are part of the first generation in space, this is exciting stuff.

Now one of the fabulous new photos is bound to be a big disappointment. I am sure we have all seen this picture of the famous Face On Mars before in numerous places.

Now based on this low resolution picture from the Viking Orbiter I taken in 1976, a popular conspiracy theory arose that it was an artificial structure created by highly intelligent extraterrestial life forms that NASA was hiding from us. Now the HiRISE has sent back some excellent pictures, showing that unfortunately, it is just an outcropping of a rock formation.

Scientists will continue to receive new images until October 6. They are looking for evidence of longstanding bodies of water on the surface.

It is expected that once it is proved that the Happy Face crater and the Mars Valentine Heart are not outer space alien greeting cards to earthlings, thousands of websites will be taken down until the owners have figured out how NASA faked the HiRISE pictures to cover up their plot to keep average citizens from contacting extraterrestrial life.