POINT PLEASANT, W.VA. - Point Pleasant, West Virginia, the tiny West Virginia village that calls itself home to "The Mothman," the man-sized beast with wings and large reflective red eyes that reputedly terrorizes the townspeople, is adopting a new mythical West Virginia creature to help boost tourism: mysterious newspaper tycoon and principal owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates G. Ogden Nutting.
"Frankly, we haven't had a Mothman sighting for quite some time," said Mayor Jingo Bang, "and the tourism was slipping. We needed to come up with something, so I spoke with the town officials at Loch Ness [in Scotland] about cutting a deal to bring their mysertious creature here. That fell through because they said the monster doesn't like to travel anymore, but then our town council said, 'Mayor, we've already got a mysterious creature of our own right under our noses -- Mr. Nutting!'"
“Oggie” is the official name conferred on Mr. Nutting by the Point Pleasant Chamber of Commerse. “We thought our tourists would connect with ‘Oggie’ like they have with ‘Nessie’ [the Loch Ness Monster in Scottland],” said Mayor Bang.
"Oggie" has long been the subject of wild speculation in these parts of West Virginia. “Some people don’t believe he exists, but I saw him myself up at the old power plant back in ’66,” said local barber Perry Comosinski. “Oggie’s eyes weren’t as red as the Mothman's – that’s how I could tell the difference. But he's every bit as scary.”
Not everyone is in favor of adopting Oggie. Like the Mothman, it is rumored that whenever Oggie appears, tragic things occur. "That's a real concern," said Mayor Bang. "After all," the Mayor shudders, "look at that terrible thing that happened to Pittsburgh when he showed up -- the Pittsburgh Pirates!"
