I join the armies of bloggers talking bout the Religion Video

First off, if you haven't yet, watch this to know what the hell I am talking about.

First I'll give my brief take on the guy. His name is Jefferson Bethke and this isn't his first dog-and-pony show when it comes to uplifting God-based youtube videos.

He seems like a nice guy, real believer. He's talented, attractive and involved with people who know their video editing.

Before I critique anything he says, I want to make it known that I am not "hatin" on the guy. I admire his faith. I respect it. I also fully acknowledge that I am a poor judge of many things and there's plenty of beams in my own eye to deal with before I try to remove the speck in his.

But that's not fun or interesting, so I'm going to deal with his message now instead.

Jefferson seems like a real believer. Jefferson seems like a guy who's popular at parties....he kind of says so in the video.

But Jefferson's message, one that I don't blame him for, is wrong. I don't blame him.

He is the latest in a long line of Christians indoctrinated into the idea that God is a personal notion, meant to be experienced individualistically and not communally.

His view that religion is the problem and God is the cure is illogical, but not without MASSIVE support.

I submit right now that if I asked my facebook list to decide if they like his video, it would be a massive yes.

And there is a lot to like. He talks about hypocrisy being bad. And self-righteousness being a bad thing. He mentions some important truths about God....but it's all dressed up in wrongs.

I would address all the things I find wrong, but as you all know, I'm a Catholic, and my views line up with the orthodoxy for the most part so here's parish priest/rapper known as Fr. Pontifex with his own slick edited reply.

I agree.

I believe Mr. Bethke's views are the natural conclusion of protestantism. I don't mean all protestants agree with the whole thing, they don't. I mean that when the word of God has no interpretive authority, when everyman should define the meaning his or herself, when no one has any more right than another to preserve the truth.....eventually we reach a point where religion become usesless, and the truth is lost.

Depending on how bad this blog post goes over, I've written by own poetic reply to Mr. Bethke. Should I post the text? You shant see me rapping.

Explaining my absence of late

I've been sick with something. Doctor said it was low blood pressure and a virus..... I'll say he's probably on the mark, but damn have I felt crappy and useless for almost 3 weeks.

I'm a little better today, but if I don't feel pretty much back to normal in a couple days I'll be going back to see the man for round three. In fact, as weird as this was I might just schedule that anyway to be safe.

On top of that Kelli's mom is doing better despite another hospital trip because of another allergic reaction to a different blood pressure medicine. Spent the weekend with her and her family's delayed Xmas party.

So that's the dealio. I nabbed me a freelance writing assignment (small pay but something) for Friday night covering high school hoops so I better feel better by then.

That's all I got folks. I'll be blogging away again just as soon as I feel like it. Which is hopefully soon.

Do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?

Funny story, vulgar language.

On the way back from Cici's for lunch, three nerds (of which I am one) were debating Kirk and Picard....somehow that happened.

Me and Richard supported Picard, Jason liked Kirk.

Jason: Captain Kirk could be the smartest person in the room without having to have everyone know it. Just because he didn't spend all his time in his private study with his reading glasses on doesn't mean...

Me (interrupting): Did he even have a private study?

Jason (instantly): He had a Fuck den!

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Argument over. I stand corrected.

My Kings Island "Ghost" stories

Ok so here goes. Again I worked at Kings Island for nine seasons or so, mostly in Merchandise. I worked two shifts in food and spent a year in Loss Prevention.

All the usual ghost stories I heard about were posted two blog entries ago. What follows is my account of the unexplained that I saw.

Please note, I do NOT claim that these really are ghost stories, but they are weird and I was a little creeped out.

Both events occurred in Action Zone, the area of the park near Drop Zone.

For the first, the year was probably 2003, I can't remember but I was an assistant supervisor of the store On Location, directly below Drop Zone and X-Treme Skyflyer. It was an earlier night, after close. We'd finished up fast. There was no one in the store but me. I'd already sent my last employee home, shut the big garage doors out front and I was finishing up my stock order for the next day.

I was sitting at the office desk in that store. To give you the layout, it's a long narrow stockroom with an island shelving unit in the middle.  There was one door to the sales floor, which I could not see from where I sat since it was around the corner, and a door that exited outside, which was immediately to my left.

I could see from this position, about 75 percent of the stockroom. So I'm sitting there filling out this form and I hear what sounds like someone pulling a cardboard box off a shelf. I'm not phased at this point because teenagers don't know how to stack stuff in a stockroom so things move or fall plenty.

Just as I'm getting up to go I hear it again, followed by the sound of a box hitting the floor. I can't see it from where I am. I walk around the corner and see an unopened box of 'Unicorn pops" (the 2 footlong spiral sucker candy on a stick) had fallen.

This is a little weird since it's a long heavy box and I can see where it had been sitting, but I pick it up and put it back. I go back to the desk and gather my things and right before I leave, the same thing happens again.

That's how I've usually told that story I think. But there's a caveat I don't think I usually tell, probably because it takes away my certainty of the events and some creepy fun. When the box fell again, I didn't go look. I got the hell out of Dodge. Also, since I wasn't an early shift the next day, I didn't ever see whether that box, or some other box had fallen. Still, it was as Jimmy Kimmel playing Karl Malone would say, "a spooky time."

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The other incident happened a year or two later I think. I'm really not sure now, it might have been the same year. I do know that I'd just closed up shop at On Location, but I don't think it was my store at that point.

Nevertheless, I'd gone back to the store to get something and I decided to take a slightly different path back to the Resale office near the front of the park. The usual path people take from Action Zone to the front takes them along the Festhaus, to the front gate.


I chose, because I thought it might save a few steps, that I'd head past Stunt Crew Grill and Congo Falls to a little used path that comes out next to the old Paramount Theatre.


So I'm heading that way and I pass Delirium and the ride's PA gives the "Smoking is not permitted in lines at Kings Island" speech. I assume it's on a timer and whatever. Then as I pass Congo Falls it does the same. I then hear Drop Zone's PA do it. I keep walking and as I get on the path, FaceOffs system does the same thing.


I mentioned it to someone in passing later and they told me that those messages get played when someone hits a button.

Was someone messing with me? Maybe. Still was weird.


Anywho, that's really all I got. Other than that the dark empty amusement park does often seem spooky, because dark empty amusement parks will do that.

James defends Kings Island, I respond.

Fellow blogger and friend of the show James Gabbard took issue with some of the things I said in my review of the Ghost Hunters episode at Kings Island.

Check out his take on my review and on the episode here www.asimpleletter.com

A little background (in case you don't click on his blog). James worked at Kings Island in several shops in 2008. I worked in just about every shop from 2000 (or was it 99?) to 2008. We both worked in the Merchandise Department.

James agrees that it wasn't a great episode of Ghost Hunters....so we're cool on that.

James says that while the guys in the show are ghost hunters, their primary aim is to make an interesting TV show. I agree completely.

And if they wanted to make this more interesting, why not at least in that opening sequence discuss the rumors of hauntings all over the park? We've all seen episodes of this show (Remember that lighthouse) where there were 5-10 or even more little ghost stories explained.

Sometimes they'd narrow the investigation to a handful, but they acknowledged them at least. A spooky ghost hunting show is made MORE interesting by talking about MORE ghosts.

I didn't explain myself well at one point in my hasty response. At the end I mention that though Ghost Hunters was there for a week, we saw only a little bit. Well, mea cupla. That's the nature of reality TV I get it. But that doesn't change the fact that stumbling about the kiddie dark ride and the carousel with nothing but their naked eyes and flashlights isn't the standard of ghost hunting this show usually tries to live up too.

This story here talks about the powder mills and doesn't say there wasn't one on the site of KI. There might have been, but the reporter I emailed yesterday at the Cincinnati Enquirer was not aware of the it at the time we communicated. Maybe there was one, maybe not, but what a boring thing to mention when THERE HAVE BEEN REAL DEATHS at the park.

I suggested that these were ignored because of KI/Cedar Fair management not wanting to discuss them. James disagreed.

First the little girl in the blue dress they were after the whole episode is often seen in the waterpark, but there was not investigation there. James claims that the waterpark renovations were the reason for this. If there were lots of torn up construction out there, maybe that could be the case, for safety, but last photos I saw showed only them tearing up the old softball fields. Admittedly, could be more by now.

But James thinks it was to not reveal things before they're done out there. Well they've already revealed all the new attractions in a map and anyway the haunted zone out there I'm familiar with is behind On Shore (Matilda's now I think), not near the upgrades.

But here is my biggest issue with what James had to say.
"Tower Johnny was killed while climbing the Eiffel Tower and either being cut by wire cables or falling to his death. Black Sunday was three different deaths at the fault of the park. Racer Boy was supposedly a death from one of the carts on the Racer back at Coney Island, in which he fell out. There are tons of deaths at the park, and tons of spirits- but do you want to scare people into going into the park if the rides have killed people? No. That's likely why they first stuck to these stories."

That's Kings Island's problem, not TAPS. TAPS is trying to make an interesting show and hunt for ghosts. They investigated one area in depth and that area is barely utilized by the park anymore.

TAPS has told stories way more intense then some possible 1800s girl lost in a 1972 era restaurant. They usually do way more and they always spin it at tourist sites so as to not scare people off. In this case, they just didn't investigate.

I understand that looking over the whole park would have led to a long long long show. I understand limiting the investigation. But to not mention the rest. To ignore the most likely causes of any spiritual activity (assuming such exists) is not like TAPS in other episodes I have seen. That's why I think KI came down on them a little, but I'm blaming them too, since they probably agreed to the terms.

I also understand that there may be nothing to all the stories that I have heard. But then if they investigated them, they should have said they found nothing. And if they didn't they should have acknowledged that as well.

In the second half of the episode they communicate with ghosts with a flashlight system. They set up remote cameras, used infrared, they did a LOT more. They did, essentially what they always do.

But at Kings Island, they had flashlights to see with, and a digital recorder. That's it. No remotes, no infrared, no anything but walking about, seemingly at random outside of the International Restaurant.

Ghost Hunters want in to KI all the time and so I understand, they're usually refused. I do know some who have pulled it off and if I can get their stories, I'll publish them here. (Word is there are multiple ghosts in Attitudes/Rock Shop stock room).

Here a pro group got a swing at it, but they missed big time.

At lunch I'll share my two creepy KI stories with anyone willing to read.

Also, hell yes facebookers. This blog usually gets like 12 views a day. Yesterday we got 200.

My review of Ghost Hunters at Kings Island

So Ghost Hunters did an episode at Kings Island. Naturally they had many challenges to deal with.

The park is much larger than other places they’ve done.  The time means they couldn’t go after every ghost story and Kings Island probably (I admit to speculating here) probably limited their access.

That said, they found something. Female voices in the International Restaurant. One says it’s looking for it’s mom. Sounded pretty clear actually.

But here’s the thing….I know most of this show is the people speaking in scary tones and saying “OMG did you hear that?” But on the other hand, they usually seem to legit investigate things. They do EVP and measure electromagnetic fields and put up cameras and such…..they didn’t do any of that except the audio EVP.

Observing that, plus seeing they did a better investigation in the next half of the episode, and knowing how KI controls spin, I think either KI management or the scope of the park’s size caused them to not do a thorough job.

I submit that they wanted to do KI, and KI said ok but on these conditions…..and the rest is a subpar episode of a so-so show.

They focus the whole thing on an alleged little girl in a blue dress who is in fact part of park legend, and they investigate two three places she might be and for some reason wander about the carousel and the haunted house. Then they wander about White Water Canyon.

They don’t investigate near the Beast, or near the Tower, or in the Festhaus or in 95 percent of the park. They pretty much investigated the IR and wandered around. Terrible job.

They ignored Tower Johnny, may have fabricated the story about a munitions factory on site (there is one two miles away where  there was a big explosion in 1890ish). They ignored Racer Boy and really just everything.

Someone needs to investigate why they half assed this investigation. I really do think these guys try to find things when they go “hunting” but when it comes to the Kings Island investigation, it’s like they didn’t even try.



Don Hellbig told the Cincinnati Enquirer that Ghost Hunters filmed every night for a week. Did they really find nothing else useable? If not, ok but they should have showed some of it.

I give it a half star out of 5.

Also, way to totally ignore everything but the rides department. Merch forever, food never!

Kings Island on Ghost Hunters tonight

So with the announcement that at 9 p.m. Ghost Hunters will air a new episode featuring a weeks worth of filming at Kings Island, I thought I'd share a couple stories.

The tales of hauntings at KI are old and I won't go into detail on them here but here's a glance at the one's I've heard of most. Anything to them? Guess we'll see tonight at 9 on Syfy.

(Edit: I learned these stories from other employees and guests over the 10 years [9 seasons] I worked at the park.)

Tower Johnny - Ghost of a kid named John who died on the tower in 1983 on senior night. One story says he fell, another says he was decapitated or cut in half by elevator cables. He haunts international street mostly but allegedly haunts the Beast as well, since story goes the elevator cables were dumped in the woods out there.

Johnny is often credited for power surges or other mischievous events that cause problems but don't really do any harm. Kind of a prankster ghost. I've heard almost every ghost story at KI attributed to Johnny at one point or another.

The International Restaurant (above main entrance) is allegedly haunted, but I don't really know the stories well. Something about burners just turning on, weird voices etc. Creepy feelings.

Then there is Racer Boy, who mysteriously appears and disappears in Coney Mall.

Then there's the haunted White Water Canyon tower where a ghost allegedly throws rocks at the back of it. A similar story exists in the waterpark at the store just off the train but that is sometimes attributed to the "little girl in a blue dress" that is seen around there and in the parking lot. She's allegedly buried in the cemetery on property.

And yeah, so there's a cemetery on the property between KI and the Great Wolf Lodge. You can see it from the main road easily. See a photo at http://www.forgottenoh.com/Cemeteries/kicemetery.html

Then there was Black Sunday. I don't remember what year but in one day a drunk woman died on a ride called Flight Commander, and 3-4 people died in a bizarre electrical situation at the lake in Octoberfest (by the Viking Ship).

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So that's the history as I recall it. Feel free to add. I'll add my own stories to this later today if I have time.