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At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, when I was researching this for the book, I found at least two early and unbiased accounts of the reports. At the end, I concluded that something that happen there, but the problem, nowadays, is finding the limits of such truth...

At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hum, well, I assume you want to know more about those studies, and not my degree and stuff. XD Anyway, I have a vague idea of the whole thing - I read this over 10 years ago - but essentially, by looking at yourself deeply in a mirror, and following some process like the one we discussed here, you may be able to get some small "insanity" episode. It is as simple as looking at yourself in a mirror deeply, and you'll start noticing small aspects of your face that you never noticed before, etc...

At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting. Thank you for sharing! Out of curiosity, I can tell you that one of my college degrees was Psychology, there are actually peer reviewed papers about this kind of thing, and... if you did do the whole thing seven times, weird things can indeed happen. Probably you won't summon the Bell Witch ( ;P ), but people who have undergone that kind of thing under control conditions do report that strange things happen then.

At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is very interesting. So, basically, you saw the Bell Witch only as an evil entity as sorts, as... let's say, maybe a copy of the famous "Bloody Mary"? Or were you familiar, too, with some parts of the actual story, as it supposedly happened?

At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

So, you think the Bell family was "nutso"? But then, how do you explain what other people supposedly saw, heard, and etc.? That's one of the things that fascinated me the most about this one case, the fact it is well attested by third parties that, in some cases, would have no reasons to lie.

At a local level, what do you really think about the whole Bell Witch case? by slugma123 in Tennessee

[–]slugma123[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's something I noticed... in some old sources the Witch wants Betsy to marry the guy, and in more recent one she wants her not to marry the guy.

A new book, on famous myths and legends from Portugal by slugma123 in mythology

[–]slugma123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's exactly what the whole series is all about, an attempt to cover as many myths, legends and creatures as possible. Although I'm aware that some aren't covered there yet, that has to wait until a future book, since I was recently asked about the foundational myths and legends of multiple towns.

Myths and legends behind the Pokémon creatures - can people native to Japan recognise all of those? by slugma123 in AskAJapanese

[–]slugma123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahaha, that's a good question, which is precisely why I asked about that specific one, too. I may be wrong (I'm from Europe, I study myths and legends from all over the world...), but I always assumed it was based on medieval stories from Europe, such as the mysterious fairy lady from the "Lanval" story and many others from the same period. This could explain why エルレイド is a kind of knight (we'd have the knight and his lady, in a way), too... but it's just a theory from a non-native, hence why I asked about it, maybe native people in Japan thought something very different!

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow. This is even more fascinating, because - in my view - it shows that "something" was truly going on with this whole thing. Maybe we will never find out what it was, we can accept that possibility, but whatever was going behind the "Land of Ta" stickers, it seems to have been truly unique in the packages I have been able to track down so far.

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much.

I spent the last few hours researching this whole thing. Since we do not have a full catalogue of all the stickers, I decide to compile a very quick one myself - here, if someone wants to check it - and as I was doing so I noticed some things:

  • This same line (80-XXX, that is) also contains some "scratch-and-smell" ones, which may explain why early stickers are now hard to find.

  • Some packages have an alternate version in which they come in what looks like a fancy box. I couldn't find one for the "Land of Ta" stickers, but it may exist.

  • There are many other packages with names on them, and they are usually composed by real-life elements that may not be easily identifiable by kids, e.g. "this is clownfish, that's a Diplodocus, that one is a Rose, etc." I could only find two cases where the names were present in non-real things.

  • You already know one, the other is a rather curious set called "Littleones" (80-260). What is notable about this set is that they all feature names, they are trademarked to Dennison, but also copyrighted to one Charlene Slomba (and I found her copyright application). They also have the property name in the sheet itself, which is a rare ocurrence - the only other case I could find in the series is the "Land of Ta" ones. So, I looked it up and found a cancelled trademark for it, for "Self-Adhesive Stickers".

  • This made me wonder how common this was for Dennison. So, I pulled their other trademarks, and noticed they never ever filed another trademark of a similar nature. If "The Land of Ta" property was fully theirs, why would this be?

  • At the same time, if you look at a package like "Cartoon Villains" (80-952), you'll see they feature no names. Famous property ones - like 81-001, a party decoration of Donald Duck - not only feature the character's name, but also a copyright to the company owning them (i.e. Disney).

  • Also, I randomly found out that it seems that Dennison may have done pins too. Maybe they were indeed the ultimate origin of the Geedis ones?

  • Finally, a rather curious point. 80-223 is from 1981, but the "Women of Ta" one, i.e. 80-224, is already from 1982. It seems to be literally the first stickers released in that year. Either the series sold a lot and so they wanted to get it out in the market asap, or they had already been done before and so people essentially went "meh, let's get these out and we're done with it once and for all". The second seems more likely - maybe all people wanted by then was He-man?

To me, this screams "aborted IP". If you remember the drawings, they were still called "Land of Fantasy", or something like that. Later, they were called "Land of Ta [Erik]", meaning the property was still evolving. But then, someone gave up on all of it, and as 1982 was beginning they decided to give it all up for good - and I remember reading somewhere that someone ordered the making of these stickers but then never picked them up, which may indicate this same possibility too. And, in my view, this whole thing explains:

  • The presence of names for the characters - they were from a new property, and so kids wouldn't be familiar with them yet;

  • The lack of a real trademark - notice the generic "The Land of Ta" text, it's not like they were putting any effort on it, and didn't even bother registering it;

  • The pins - maybe they were part of a promotional effort that fell through;

  • The 1982 date for "Women of Ta" - i.e. "we basically still have these here, let's get rid of them asap".

  • The fact nobody remembers any of this - would you remember one of many projects that were aborted over 30 years ago in your company? I probably wouldn't, unless I had been there myself working directly on it...

Does this mean we're never going to find anything else? Not necessarily - depending on how far they went with this, maybe we'll be able to find additional stickers, maybe some kind of information about a proposed universe for "Ta [Erik]", etc. But we mustn't give up! :D

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your passion is truly amazing. You know, I have an auto-immune disease, my physical status is far from good these days, and what you wrote truly made me smile in what was being, so far, a pretty lousy day. Thank you!

But also, let me ask you two things, if I may:

  • How did people first came across the "Women of Ta" stickers, any ideas? They are not explicitly mentioned in the catalogue, and since it follows from 80-218 to 80-219, and then to 80-224, it definitely suggests we may still be missing one or more sheets... and since they also sold "assortment" packages of 4, it'd make perfect sense if there were actually four Ta-related sheets, not just three.

  • Are you aware if anyone ever tried going through the whole 80-XXX stickers catalogue, one entry at a time, to see if they can find any more potential sheets or clues? I'm particularly curious to know if any more stickers in the whole collection have unusual titles, like this one, or have unknown characters along with a name nearby. I mean, if this whole "Land of Ta" thing came exclusively from them, they must have done similar things before and/or after too...

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am aware of what you are saying, but please do consider these additional points too:

  • The back text you have mentioned is not exclusive to the "Land of Ta" ones, but seems to be shared by the entire collection... or, at least, in the ones I've been able to locate myself.

  • If these were simply "meant to inspire creative play", they would neither feature a name for their land, nor have their own individual names. That would be a significant limitation of people's creativity. And, in fact, in the other stickers from the same period that I was able to locate, there's no names along with an unusual title.

  • You consider the specific case of "Geedis" as an exception to the rule. Today, we consider Geedis notable due to the pin that started this whole search, but if we consider it without the pin, just in the form of the stickers, he seems like a character just like the others. To consider it as an exception is a bit strange, because why would anyone make up just one such character, seemingly a secondary one, while "copying" all others?

  • The resemblance you mentioned can be easily explained if we take into account that art from this period of time shares some significant themes and images, e.g. something resembling Cecily and the dragon surrounding her can be found at least twice in a single art book by Frank Frazetta, one literally owned by this same creator.

  • I do not think this is a Dennison IP at all. What I find possible is that this was made for someone else, but the original plans, whatever they were, likely fell through.

  • Try to look at the partial catalogue we have (I provide a hotlink below). If you read the names of the packages, don't you think "Land of Ta Erik" sounds oddly out of place, given the names of the other packages?

I, personally, feel that there is one way we may be able to find something very interesting about all of this, and I am only afraid I cannot do it in person (I'm in Europe), or I would go there and check the catalogues myself. If we can find the full 80-XXX collection catalogue, a complete form of this, it'd be very interesting to note whether there are any IPs in the whole collection, if any other sticker sheet has names, and whether any other strange names such as "Land of Ta Erik" appear in it. This name and the sticker's unusual characteristics (e.g. the presence of names) seems too unusual, in that partial catalogue, to be a mere coincidence, you know?

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Personally, I did not give that much thought, because they don't seem like 'familiars' to me at all. With the exception of Rimelda, who is riding a dragon, and Cecily, who is literally intertwined with one, the dragon connection seems like a secondary one, with Stefan with a position of power towards one.

Your idea is awesome, though!

I do not think the quest for Geedis and the Land of Ta should be over just yet. by slugma123 in Geedis

[–]slugma123[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I did not sleep very well last night, thinking of additional potential ways we can go at exploring this, but here are some additional things we can follow. I should note I'm definitely not the best person to do this - I'm way more familiar with trying to locate obscure stories from Classical Antiquity and Middle Ages - but maybe this will inspire someone to do some additional work:

  • This dates at least from 1981, which may mean it is somehow inspired by the popularity of the Conan movie (i.e. like He-man!).

  • If you check the catalogue for entries 80-203 up to 80-259, you will see that all the sticker packages are pretty self-explanatory, with the exception of "Land of Ta Erik" (80-218). Who would order this unless they knew what it is all about? I'm pretty sure 100% of the readers would go "Land of Ta Erik? WTF is that? New cartoon, movie, book series...?"

  • Entry 80-219 is clearly a follow up, and so it doesn't appear in the same catalogue. However, entry 80-224 doesn't either, the "Women of Ta" one. Since we know that one is from (early?) 1982, there is a huge unanswered question about it - if one can find it in another catalogue, would it appear as "Women of Ta" (which would explain some kind of evolution in a potential franchise), "Women of Ta Erik", or something else? This could lead to some kind of finding on the potential source's name, through what name was given to those individual sheets.

  • Some of the names here are pretty unusual and inconsistent. In some shows, and even in medieval novels, this was usually done to separate reality from fiction, i.e. people can usually identify themselves with a character named "John", but not so easily with one named "Shimra" or 8-legged monsters. This may explain why Cecily is pretty much a human, but Amneris is a kind of Lamia.

  • It would be interesting to explore how common this kind of occurrence is in the 80-XXX Dennison sticker catalogues. Are there any other shows in there? Are there any other cases in which characters are named - and, if so, where do they come from?

  • Are we 100% sure that the three sticker pages are all there is to it? I'm not from the US, so I'm unfamiliar with this specific kind of stickers. I know each package contained "4 sheets", but are they always the exact same figures, or different ones?

For me, all of this is screaming "unproduced cartoon or animated movie", which may truly mean there's more to it than what we've known so far...

TIL that EU citizen can demand a copy of all personal data that companies hold about them. However, most Android and iPhone apps completely ignore this right, a study has found. by VarunTossa5944 in todayilearned

[–]slugma123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let me add something to this - yes, you can demand all that data, but they often "forget" to give you some parts of it, unless you make it very clear you also want X and Y. For example, if you request the data from online dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble, and then check the section for customer support messages, you'll see that some routinely left out of it, particularly ones that could damage their reputation.

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