Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge

Cthulhu Fhtagn Peruvian Meteorite

Posted by Dr. Joan Bushwell on September 19, 2007
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Steinn (Dynamics of Cats) reports that Mars Invades Peru.

This must be smack-dab in the middle of physical-type scientists’ radar screen since my Rocket Scientist(tm) friend sent a similar blurb from Yahoo News.

I expect Scully and Mulder have been called in to investigate. Rocket Scientist(tm) mysteriously alluded to the Colour Out of Space in his e-mail, signing off with the baffling words:

Ph-nglui mglw’nath Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

The Thing From Beyond the Stars is either a meteorite that released volatiles or a man-made object containing similar gaseous substances as Steinn rationally suggests. Rocket Scientist ™, who has experience in these matters, likewise remarked that a man-made object was a possibility. Now my friend is also usually quite measured, but on occasion, he claims that he is the reincarnation of Abdul Alhazred. So I’m worried. Maybe – just maybe – Cthulhu Fhtagn Cheezburger.

My hat’s off to Steinn for that masterful alliteration and to gwyn for directing me to the LOLTHULHU site.
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Footnote:
Purchasing that collection of Lovecraft short stories the weekend before last wasn’t such a great idea. I blame Warren for spinning me off on a Lovecraftian trajectory

Note added in proof.
LOLTHULHU was previously cited on Pharyngula. I should have known.

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  1. #1 Doug Alder
    September 19, 2007

    LOL I think everyone who saw that news article had something similar in mind – It’s not Cthulu though – it;s waiting to take the white house in ’08 ;) it’s the Martian overlords seeking revenge for polluting their planet with various spacecraft these past few decades :)

  2. #2 Hank Roberts
    September 19, 2007

    Some programmer at the Aeres Aereonautics and Space Agency got a sign reversed or an octal point wrong when calculating that lander’s descent retrorockets’ timing.

  3. #3 Warren
    September 20, 2007

    Huh huh huh. Titicaca. Huh huh huh.

    About a decade back I came across the complete suite of HPL fiction in Arkham hardcover and immediately snapped it up. While that was probably a good idea, I can’t say I care for the effect that the books seem to be having on the literature around them. Hemingway seems to be gibbering about elephants with three-lobed burning eyes; Melville’s whale appears to have sprouted tentacles; and Sagan seems to be fixated on the chthonic depth and breadth of space and time (though he always was a little like that anyway).

  4. #4 gingerbaker
    September 20, 2007

    Wikipedia –

    “Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide cult centered in Arabia, with followers in regions as far-flung as Greenland, Louisiana, and New Zealand.[10] There are leaders of the cult “in the mountains of China” who are said to be immortal. Cthulhu is described by some of these cultists as the “great priest” of “the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky.” [11]

    The cult is noted for chanting its horrid phrase or ritual: “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn “, which translates as “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” [12] ”

    Ptui!

    Man, this is some weird sh1t. :)

  5. #5 Doc Bushwell
    September 20, 2007

    The Cthulhu cult is strangely pervasive. It even has evangelists:

    Campus Crusade for Cthulhu

    Warren, it’s not just literature that becomes infected. I swear that the sr. VP of our division sprouted tentacles in a fit of pique at a meeting recently.