Swamp Thing Actually a Hippie

 

FLORIDA — The legend of Swamp Thing might be just that: a legend. Swamp Thing–otherwise known as Alex Olsen–is most famous for being a personification of plant matter that grows in the swamp. Swamp Thing has had a very diverse image in the media: a scary swamp monster, a super hero, an environmentalist. It seems the latter is the most appropriate. Swamp thing is not a monster, nor a superhero–he’s just a hippie.

“It began as sort of a protest, but it’s actually quite a comfortable lifestyle” says Olsen (Swamp Thing), 59, and a long-time Florida resident. “The big corporations and their environmentally toxic practices, and our smog-producing society is what drives a man to become a Swamp Thing.”

Olsen’s hair (often mistaken for plant growth) is very thick, and when braided, resembles thick weeds. “I started growing it back when I was playing the dulcimer in the South Carolina-based band Granola Gravy (now defunct band of the late 60’s and early 70’s).”

During the late 1980’s, Swamp Thing spent some time in South Carolina. “I spent some time hanging out with my buddy, the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp”, Olsen says. “Now some people think he is some kind of myth of cryptozoology, but he’s just a man like me.”

Olsen says that the Lizard Man was exaggerated by the media to be some kind of mythical creature. “We’ve been calling him Lizard Man for years. That was his nickname in the band, because before Granola Gravy, the band was called the Lizard Men of Scape Ore Swamp. He’s very tall… about 6′8, but you know how people like to embelish height saying that he’s 8 feet tall or something.”

Olsen says that he’s going to do some collaborations in a jam band tour. “Yeah, the band Moe. invited me to play dulcimer to a couple of their songs on their set”, Olsen says. “And I’m going to do a set as well, some new original material, and some Willie covers, and maybe something by the Marshall Tucker Band.”

Video Game Causes Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Kids of the 80’s

 

Philadelphia–A study conducted by the Philadelphia Research Center of Mental Illness has narrowed down an alarming correlation between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)–the mental quirkiness often associated with television character Monk, and celebrities such Howie Mendel, and fanny-pack/bandanna/sunglasses enthusiast, Hulk Hogan–to the video game Q*Bert. An alarming rate of OCD has been detected in children who were born between 1978 and 1989, who may have been exposed to playing the 1980’s video game “Q*Bert” as children.

 ”The game’s character has a very obsessive-compulsive habit”, researcher Martin Clemens says. “He has the obsession of symmetric, color-based uniformity, and acts out on them with the compulsion to change geometric blocks into the same color”.

Clemens says that Q*Bert does not stop until all of the colors are the same, and efforts to change the colors back by Q*Bert’s nemesis are responded with the compulsion to change the colors.  According to Clemens: “Q*Bert can’t be OCD himself… you have to help him act out on his compulsions to win the level”.

Q*Bert was released on many different video game consoles between the 80’s and early 90’s, which increases the contagious diffusion of OCD to spread to other potentially obsessive-compulsive people. Clemens says that adults who had played Q*Bert showed an obsessive interest with using elevators, stacking blocks, symmetry, and color uniformity. “There is this idea that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ colors, and all of the bad colors must be changed to the good colors”, Clemens explains.

As therapy, Clemens recommends a reversing the compulsions through playing older video games that are not as obsessed with uniformity and perfection: “We often find that our OCD patients benefit from playing not-so-organized games like many of the 90’s Super Nintendo games based on movies, athletes, and TV shows.  There is less likely of compulsion for organization because a video game based on Shaq has never had a clear objective”.

Bloggledoggle hot-button question: Do you think there is a link between OCD and video games?

 

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