Kiwi Bigfoot: Hey Mate, I’m A Guy!

Remember the fellow who felt no one would read his New Zealand sarcastic writings about people at the Ohio Bigfoot conference? You know, the guy that acted like he had not talked about real people? The person that sent along a weak “apology“? Well, he’s back.

On May 24, 2009, over in New Zealand, Leigh “That Guy” Hart (above) penned another column. Maybe he wanted more humorous attention in North America, but what he has done has continued to show himself to be not funny.

In the midst of Hart’s newest article, below is a middle that should have been excluded. But it is there, and I have extracted it for some commentary. Read that portion here, unedited, for your own reactions, and then I’ll have a few things to say.

Here goes, just in from across the Pacific, in the New Zealand Herald (4:00AM Sunday May 24, 2009):

As usual there has been a lot of mail through the box this week, most of it seems to have come from the Bigfoot community. They have been sending me hate mail by the sackload and abusing me in blogs so actively that I have had to install some more RAM in my computer to read it all.

This, of course, is a direct result of my recent article about the Bigfoot conference. The feedback has come from all over the world, which is not surprising as Bigfoot is clearly a global phenomenon, but most of it seems to come from an outspoken woman by the name of Loren Coleman.

I don’t think I met her at the conference, but if I had I am sure I would remember her. She seems to run a Bigfoot-related site that keeps all the other Bigfoot sites supplied with enough information about me and my article to ensure it doesn’t die a natural death.

Personally, I am not sure whether Bigfoot exists, but if he does the only way researchers like Loren are going to find him is if Bigfoot walks into an internet cafe and logs into one of their half-arsed chatrooms. The fact is, Bigfoot probably has better things to do with his time.

For the record, there are some serious researchers who actually venture into the field looking for clues and are doing reputable research.

I met some of these people while I was at the Ohio conference and they will feature positively in the TV show later in the year. I don’t want to make the mistake again of tarring everybody with the same brush. I don’t want to dwell on this any longer other than to say that I believe I overstepped the mark and offended some individuals. I have apologised on-line and in person to them, and I meant it. I don’t owe women like Loren anything, and I hope she and her fellow “Blogfooters” enjoy the “lighthearted doco” later in the year. Let’s move on.

I suppose if Leigh Hart was even half-serious about his research for his forthcoming “mockumentary“ about Bigfooters, he would know that I am a male.

Perhaps it is different in New Zealand, but in North America, “Lauren” is the general female spelling, and “Loren” is the masculine form of a name, which means “laurel-crowned.” A few women may be named “Loren,” but that is extremely rare.

It would seem, if you were going to mention someone in a column, you might want to check beforehand. Anyone that does the slightest amount of googling of “Loren Coleman” and “Bigfoot,” quickly discovers my gender.

Even if Leigh Hart tries a quick save now and says he merely wanted to attempt to pull my chain, getting my gender incorrect is a rather weak joke.

What becomes rapidly evident, from what Leigh Hart has written, is that he really doesn’t know me or even tried to look. What he does demonstrate is that he is trying to make his theme about a “them” vs “us” schism.

Following in the footsteps of people like the late Erik Beckjord, Hart (above) tries the old technique of creating some kind of division between authors (bloggers, writers, chroniclers) and fieldworkers (expedition folks, campers, weekend trekkers, field investigators). Of course, Hart fails to understand that I have been and am both. Leigh Hart doesn’t realize that by the time he was born (July 20, 1970), I’d already been doing fieldwork for over ten years ~ and had traveled extensively throughout “swamp ape” country in the American Midwest and South ~ as well as already having written national magazine articles on my field research.

Having done investigations, since March 1960, in forests, bottomlands, swamps, libraries, and fields in every state (but Alaska) in the USA, throughout Canada and in selected spots in Mexico, well, these details are in my bio here and elsewhere, for Hart to easily read. Most of the well-known Bigfoot authors and bloggers have completed anywhere from a few years to several decades of fieldwork in their younger and older days.

But then Hart would have had to do some background research before he decided to take me on in his column. Hey, I did read of and checked on him before I wrote about his hoaxing. That seemed the logical and respectful thing to do. Hart would have learned that I don’t hang out in “chatrooms,” never have, and that the books, articles, and blogs I’ve written are not “chatrooms.” But that guy Hart does not seem to be distracted by the real facts about people. He’d rather go forward with making fun.

Frankly, I am tired of thoughtless ridicule producers like Leigh Hart coming along and reinforcing their pre-conception of a split between “field folks” and “bloggers” in Bigfoot studies. It’s more in their minds than in any kind of reality, and that’s the more dangerous underlying theme here.

It’s all about pitting “blogfooters” against “Bigfooters,” isn’t it, to guys like him, for that gets him off the hook when he can’t take responsibility for his nasty personalized remarks against named individuals. He’s doing it again. He just can’t help himself, I suppose.

For starters, Hart could get his facts straight, as to knowing who is “Loren Coleman.” But then, that’s all part of his wannabe-Borat-type gag, isn’t it?

For the record, one of the most frequently reproduced images of me all over the Internet is below. If Leigh Hart asks, tell him I am the one with the blue shirt. I take it that he probably already knows that.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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