Thursday, July 24, 2008

Editorial Redux: Krantz and Meldrum: Both Scientific Outcasts

The late Grover Krantz was a giant of a man, and indeed a giant in the field of cryptozoology. He faced much ridicule and rejection and scorn from his scientific peers, and his academic career suffered because of it, but the man stuck to his guns and persevered despite the indifference of his peers at Washington State University. For that alone, he should be commended. Now, a similar situation is occurring on the campus of Idaho State University with another scientist who has dared cross the intellectual line and study Sasquatch, and that's Jeff Meldrum. In a new article published by the Associated Press and sent to 163 news agencies worldwide, Dr. Meldrum is called various things by some of his peers at the college, mostly behind his back. He was described as a "hulking figure" by the article (which sounds more like a description of Krantz then Meldrum), and some basic facts about the mystery were gotten wrong in the article, which is pretty typical for the media anyway, but to see some of the absolutely nasty, uncalled for comments from his fellow peers are absolutely unfounded and full of jealousy. Dr. Meldrum kind of reminds me of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, not being allowed to join in any reindeer games. He is now pretty much going through what his colleague, Dr. Krantz, went through. In fact, Dr. Meldrum has a good chunk of Dr. Krantz's collection. The article states that Dr. Meldrum's tenure is in some bit of jeopardy, but Dr. Meldrum confirmed to another source that it is not. So, Drs. Meldrum and Krantz are, unfortunately, scientific outcasts. But I am sure that they will get their due one day when a creature is found.

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