Jersey Devil The Jersey Devil, a legendary cryptid from the Pine Barrens; Frank successfully completes a trivia quiz on the creature’s lore—including its origin as the 13th child of Mother Leeds—before sharing his personal theory that cryptids and UFOs are interdimensional beings slipping through "thin" spots in our reality. The duo concludes by discussing the limitations of human perception, suggesting that our brains may "photoshop" out strange phenomena that don't fit our standard three-dimensional understanding of the world. The Overnightscape https://youtube.com/live/FDUyZuOkit0 Transcript (AI transcription) So Frank, how's New Jersey these days? Well, New Jersey is like Antarctica at this point. It's very frigid, a lot of ice and snow everywhere. Other than that, it's Jersey. There's nothing else like Jersey. It's one of the greatest places in the world and a very weird place as well. The garden state. Yes, absolutely. Welcome to Mondo Frico. How's everybody doing today? My guest is going to be Mr. Frank. Do we do Frank Edward Nora for your guest appearances as well? Yes. Frank Edward Nora. Yes. You all three of them. Okay. I wasn't sure. Frank Edward Nora. We're going to talk a little bit about the Jersey devil. Frank is a big proponent of the state of New Jersey, as you just heard at the intro. And so what if you had to say, what's your favorite thing about New Jersey?
besides the Jersey devil, obviously, what would it be? Well, I mean, to people outside New Jersey, it has this horrible reputation and people think it's just this dirty smelling, like piece of crap place to live. But when you're here, you understand, first of all, it has pretty much everything. It's like, if you took the entire United States and sort of crushed it down into this tiny, tiny, tiny area, New Jersey is that. So we have weird, We have the mountain lands in the north with people who are hunters out west. Down south, we have these weird pine barrens, which we're going to talk about with these weird hillbilly-type people. We have cities. We have seashores. We have everything. And it is by far the most densely populated state in the United States. But beyond all that, so people that are here generally love New Jersey. Because you get to know all the roads and towns and areas.
It's almost like driving through different dimensions. They're so distinct. Like I would take drives even down to where my parents used to live. And each of the different ways I could go had such a different feeling. And I don't think I've ever seen that in other places. But beyond all that, there is just this weird sense of strangeness and greatness that is very hard to pin down and put into words that exists here in New Jersey. And everyone knows about it. You know, there's that magazine Weird New Jersey that very much touches on all of that stuff. But it is something of a magical place. And the fact that everyone looks down on us just makes us more, you know, makes us love New Jersey all the more. In fact, there's the New Jersey Hall of Fame opened recently in the American Dream Mall. And they have a whole movie about that aspect. It's about New Jersey overall, but about how people in New Jersey, you know, take that as a mark of pride. And of course,
As we're going to talk about, we have the best state monster of any state. We have the Jersey duck. The best state monster, of course. And it's certainly a different monster, I would say. Definitely. Well, if folks don't know, Frank has a show called The Overnightscape that's been going on now for 24 years. I couldn't remember. It was like 23 years. 23 years. 23 years. Okay. Yeah. And you can catch it at the overnight. I misspelled night there. Dang it. Overnightscape. I forgot the T. Yeah. Theovernightscape.com. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. That's more like it. That's it. Theovernightscape.com. And so you can, I've been listening to Frank for 23 years now. Yeah. Pretty much. I think I caught you really early on. So.
Well, you were doing the, what was it called before that? You were doing a different show. Well, you were kind of doing a bunch of different things prior to the Overnightscape emerging. And I remember I listened to that stuff and contacted you way back when. What was it called? Bluffcosm.com. Yes, Bluffcosm.com was my first internet radio website. And then when podcasting started, I actually took your XML feed to make my XML feed. We both started real. We were some of the first podcasters, you and I. I know. Isn't that crazy to think about? I'm like, it's been, yeah. So we just entered our 27th year of doing the show, the Static Radio. And then I'm doing this thing here. It's goofiness here, Mondo Frico. That actually appears on Static Radio as well. But yeah, so it's been a long time going.
going here? It's amazing. I'm trying to decide, you know uh if it's i like to think of it as something that's been really, really good and positive. But then i also think about oh gosh i've been doing this for 27 years. Is there something wrong with me you know you gotta ask yourself these things. I don't know. I ask myself that all the time, what, what is going on with this stuff? But, uh, you know, I have faith in the people of the future that they will discover our works and enjoy them on into the far future. Yes. Yeah. Let's just do that. Let's go with that. I mean, it's been an interesting ride and, and you and I've actually did a thing on another project called prior caster. We talk about all that stuff. So, but here on Mondo, you know, we talk about weird things and I think, uh, let's just go into the quiz, shall we? Yes.
Quiz. Quiz. Quiz. All right. So we're going to go into the quiz on the Jersey Devil. I'm going to ask you five questions. They should get harder as we go along. So the earlier ones will be easier. The later ones should be harder. And it's multiple choice. So don't, you know, you wait for your choices in case. All right. First question. Where is the legendary home of the Jersey Devil? Is it A, the Pine Barrens, B, a slightly damp corner of the Newark Airport baggage claim, C, the Appalachian Mountains, or D, the Great Dismal Swamp? That would be A, the Pine Barrens. All right. You got it right. This is an easy one. You also mentioned the Pine Barrens already. Yes, already, yes.
So as we move along here and get a little tougher, what is the most commonly cited number of children that Mother Leeds had before the birth of the devil, the Jersey Devil? Would it be A, 8, B, 10, C, 12, or D, 47, but 45 of them were just very enthusiastic squirrels? That would be C, 12. Oh, my gosh. It was the 13th child. Yes. It was the devil. Yes. All right. Two for two. Frank is killing it. All right. So let's move on here. Number three. The period of most intense sightings that brought the creature national and international attention occurred over a single week in what specific month and year? February 2012 when he lost his car keys near a Wawa. July 1890, January 1909, or December 1855? I'm going to have to guess the 1855. Going with D, 1855? Yeah.
It was January 1909. You were very close. Okay. Very, very close, right? I mean, they're all old. I mean, the Wawa one was obviously out of the… It was not anywhere near it. So, okay, well, you're two for one now. Still going to win it, I think. So, in 1909, one of the most famous reported encounters involved a postmaster and his wife. In what specific town were they claimed to have been trapped in their house while the creatures circled outside? Was it A, Trenton, B, Gloucester City, or if I said that correctly, C, Atlantic City, D, Freehold, or E, inside a hollowed out artisanal cheese wheel? I would have to say Gloucester City. Oh, Gloucester City. You want to change your answer or you think that's it? Final answer. All right. Gloucester City. So I actually came close to saying it correctly. So that was right. All right. So you got
Three for one. You're doing fantastic. You're going to win now. This is inevitable. You're in the Super Bowl. Can we say that? We're not saying it about monsters. It's a big game. Yeah, it's a big game. The historical non-supernatural Leeds family in New Jersey was significant. Which of the following is true about Daniel Leeds, who founded the family's presence in the state and whose almanac printing business was may be related to the legend. Was it A, he was a famous Quaker abolitionist who fled the state. B, he was a prominent early New Jersey Almanac printer who was in a political and religious feud with the Burlington Quaker establishment. C, he invented the Taylor Ham versus pork roll debate just to annoy people. Or D, he was an explorer who first mapped the Pine Barren regions. That's a mouthful there. I think the answer is B.
B, he was a prominent early New Jersey almanac printer who was in a political and religious feud with the Burlington Quaker establishment. Yes, final answer. That's right. Wow. Four correct, only one wrong, which was a year, which I always think those are the hardest questions, to be honest with you. Don't you? Yeah, it can be tough getting that actual year. Yeah, nailing down a year is just too much, I think. Well, congratulations, you won that. So you really, you know your devil lore. Let's take a quick break and then we're gonna come back and I'm gonna read a little story and then we're gonna talk about it. Here we go. Mondofrico. Mondofrico. Mondofrico. Mondofrico, that's what you're listening to and watching right now. So here's a quick story about the Jersey Devil, just to give you some background in case you didn't know.
The Jersey Devil is a legendary cryptid said to inhabit the remote pine barrens of southern New Jersey. The most popular version of its origin story dates back to 1735 and revolves around a woman known as Mother Leeds, often identifie