October is normally the month when a lot of weirdness breaks out, and it started right on schedule this year.

Of course, Halloween comes up at the end of the month, the night when kids dress up as a variety of overmerchandised cartoon characters and adults use plastic masks as an excuse for orgies of self-indulgence that would make Bacchus blush. But there's more to October than just one holiday. Across the country, the weather takes a marked turn for the cooler, and that change in the air sparks some sort of weird gene in humans and animals, bringing on feats of oddity seldom seen in the saner months.

It must be prime time for our little green pals, too, as evidenced by recent doings in Ohio.

In southern Ohio, there is an American Indian structure called Serpent Mound. All manner of theories have been evinced as to the astrological, mystical or extraterrestrial significance of the mound and its shape, and that last school of thought will no doubt be given a boost by what has materialized across the road: a crop circle.

As you can see, this is a fairly ornate circle, although it doesn't have the sheer acreage of some of the more renowned British circles, or the menacing sense of purpose of the ones in "Signs."

Or does it? There's a central point, a mothership, perhaps, with three smaller objects spinning off, connected to the center by some sort of umbilicals.

Contrast that with the circle at right, found not far away from the first one. This one's more spare, and looks more than a tiny bit lopsided. If pressed, I'd say this one was the product of a pretty determined hoax artist.

In a famous debunking program that's made the rounds of all the cable science/learning channels under several titles, a group of Brits got together, led by a pair of men who claimed to have created the "original" crop circles, and manufactured all manner of odd and alien-looking shapes. From the air, you'd think that Marvin the Martian and his whole family had spent the whole night laying rubber up and down Farmer Joe's wheat field.

However, our British friends, convincing as they might be, can't explain a couple of small points: examinations with a Geiger counter inside the two circles above indicated higher radiation inside the circles than in the surrounding area, and the stalks showed evidence of heat having been applied during the bending process. Unless someone was running about with a REALLY big steam iron, there must be an as-yet-undiscovered explanation.

The farmer who owns one of the fields, Keith Johnson, said that one researcher from the University of Michigan carried a Global Positioning System unit into the circle. When he turned it on, the unit immediately quit working. Couple that with the Geiger counter readings and you've got some pretty disturbing stuff.

Now, just for a moment, imagine you're an alien. You've got fantastically advanced technology, can travel intergalactic distances, and can elude at will all forms of visual or electronic detection. You come across a planet full of sentient beings who are not too many steps out of the cave, compared to you, and you realize from observation that they've got a fascination with flying.

Imagine next that humans aren't the only creatures in the universe imbued with a sense of fun, with an urge to just flat mess with people. Doesn't it make perfect sense that at some point Stevie Saucerjockey is going to swoop down and leave a little agricultural graffiti before bopping off to mess with the reverse engineering projects at Area 51? If YOU had the keys to the galactic cruiser, wouldn't YOU do it? I would in a heartbeat.

Crop circles are far too huge a subject to cover in one column. If you'd like to do some more exploring, check out the Crop Circle Connector (although the navigation's fairly clunky) or Crop Circle Research.

Tell Me A Story

Here we go in the general direction of Halloween again! Two years ago, I asked you send in your own local ghost story reports, with Web links to online resources if possible. Let's do it again! If you've got a local ghost or haunted spot or something that's just flat creepy, let me know and I'll get as many of them as I can cram into the Halloween edition!

I welcome your comments, complaints, stories and professions of undying love. Large cash grants are also accepted. Just click here, type and send.