美国国家公共电台 NPR The Lore Of Bigfoot Lives On At North Carolina Bigfoot Festival

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

People from across the country gathered this weekend in a small North Carolina manufacturing town to celebrate Bigfoot. The first-ever Bigfoot Festival in Marion, N.C., brought everyone out from Sasquatch skeptics to yeti explorers quick to share tales of sightings and howls. From member station WFDD in Winston-Salem, David Ford³ reports.

DAVID FORD, BYLINE⁴: Marion's Chamber⁵ of Commerce Director Steve Bush is ambivalent⁶ when it comes to Bigfoot.

STEVE BUSH: I'm going to say until I physically⁷ see him - I want to believe. But until I physically see him, I'm going to say no at this point.

FORD: But, personal skepticism aside, Bush says he was quick to support the Bigfoot Festival. This is a city in transition, with old furniture factories and textile buildings downtown retrofitted into hip⁸ retail⁹ shops and microbreweries.

At first glance, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a cute Bigfoot festival - yeti T-shirt booths, Sasquatch yard signs. But then there's the Bigfoot juice stand run by Allie Webb. She claims the earthy, woodsy-smelling concoction¹⁰ is both an insect repellent and a Bigfoot attractant.

ALLIE WEBB: I believe that the Bigfoot juice does work. We say that it's good for up to a mile and a half away. Just because you don't see Bigfoot, doesn't that mean that he didn't see you and decide to turn around and run.

FORD: Webb's also quick to point out that she has a witness. Festival organizer John Bruner has led the Bigfoot 911 explorer team for years here. He says they used the juice about a year ago and finally hit pay dirt.

JOHN BRUNER: We were doing an expedition. And I had one across a forest service road about 30 yards from where I was at. And I got a really good look at it.

FORD: And the feeling...

BRUNER: I've been hunting Bigfoot for 40 years and doing research. And it was just totally exhilarating for me. And it was kind of like - you know, I finally got to see one. After all I've went through and all the time I've spent in the woods, I finally got to see one.

FORD: It's a sentiment shared by many other researchers here at the festival, like Lee Woods (ph).

LEE WOODS: The female we saw probably right between 11:30 and 11:45 at night. And we saw her through what's night vision. And that was the first one I'd ever seen.

FORD: Woods stands behind a booth alongside other experts answering festivalgoer questions, displaying Bigfoot photos, casts and even field recordings¹².

(SOUNDBITE OF INDISCERNIBLE SOUND)

FORD: That may be the sound of a yeti crying out, or it may not. Teams here use modified digital recorders with long-lasting batteries. They're carefully hidden - recording¹¹ forest sounds for up to 15 days at a time.

For many here at the festival, the Bigfoot-calling competition will be the high point for seasoned hobbyists, like Woods and for Sasquatch newbies like Irys Frankon (ph). She and her family drove from Clarkesville, Ga.

IRYS FRANKON: Well, because we're still trying to find out if he's real or not. And there's possible sightings everywhere, to be totally honest. And we just still believe in them. And we could eventually get one.

FORD: Frankon hopes to call Bigfoot out of the forest and onto Main Street.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: What is your name, young lady?

FRANKON: Irys.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Irys, have you been working on a call?

FRANKON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You're ready?

FRANKON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right. Here we go.

FRANKON: (Screaming Bigfoot call).

(APPLAUSE)

FORD: Eventually, Bigfoot-calling champions were announced, and the daylong festival wrapped up. There were no Bigfoot sightings, but stories were shared. Thousands and thousands showed up for the occasion. And more than one Sasquatch skeptic¹ was converted. The lore² lives on.

For NPR News, I'm David Ford in Marion, N.C.

(SOUNDBITE OF MIJA'S "NEVER B ALONE")

1 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

2 lore   

n.传说；学问，经验，知识

参考例句：

• I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他，向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
• Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。

3 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

6 ambivalent   

adj.含糊不定的；(态度等)矛盾的

参考例句：

• She remained ambivalent about her marriage.她对于自己的婚事仍然拿不定主意。
• Although she professed fear of the Russians,she seemed to have ambivalent feelings toward Philby himself.虽然她承认害怕俄国人，然而她似乎对菲尔比本人有一种矛盾的感情。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

9 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

10 concoction   

n.调配(物)；谎言

参考例句：

• She enjoyed the concoction of foreign dishes.她喜欢调制外国菜。
• His story was a sheer concoction.他的故事实在是一纯属捏造之事。

11 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

12 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐