I'm Laura Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.

And if I sound a little funny today?

No, I have not been possessed.

I have a cold, but we must bring you your entertainment.

Now, on one strange thing, we've covered quite a few close encounters.

The alien enthusiasts in our audience or euphologists, if you're nasty, are no doubt aware

that such experiences are ranked depending on what kind of experience the hapless human

has with an extraterrestrial phenomenon.

Whether it be a faraway saucer-like blur in the sky or a huge-eyed alien staring directly

into your face, there's a classification for that.

Normally, our tales of the extraterrestrial have focused on men, and, weirdly, on law enforcement,

who seemed to have a proclivity for getting into roadway chases with UFOs.

Of course, there was the Flatwoods monster who was seen by a woman and some teens,

and which may have been a cryptid or an alien depending on who you ask,

or possibly even an owl.

But that's technically a story for another episode.

Our episode, actually, one that already exists, so scroll back a few.

Moving on. Over the course of the show, we've brought you what the UFO Handbook,

a guide to investigating, evaluating, and reporting UFO sightings, describes as close encounters

of the first type, folks who've cited UFOs.

We've also brought you purported close encounters of the third type,

which the guide's author, Alan Hendry, describes as citing of and direct interaction with alien life forms.

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