The last Wednesday of every month is a "Weird Wednesday" on Absolute Michigan, when Linda Godfrey brings you 100% of the USRDA of Michigan weirdness. You can listen to Linda's latest podcasts and read her blog at uncannyworld.com and also check out her books including Weird Michigan & Strange Michigan.

Michigan must seem a lovely place to UFOs, since they so often are sighted cruising the Wolverine State's night skies. The sightings hearken back to the strange "airships" flap of 1897 when vehicles that looked like lighted dirigibles (and may have been exactly that!) were reported over Galesburg, Holland, Bay City, Saginaw, Port Huron, Muskego, South Haven and other cities. One landed near Howard and treated locals to the sight of a naked giant. (See the full report in "Strange Michigan: More Wolverine Weirdness.")

More recently, Michigan skies seem almost clogged with otherworldly visitors. A recent issue of the online newsletter "Filer's Files" by George Filer (majorstar@verizon.net), issue 21-2009 profiled four Michigan sightings reported to him and to MUFON (MUFON Michigan)

On May 17, 2009, in Rogers City, a man and woman spotted a very bright round light heading east, and then saw what they thought was an F-16 jet chasing it. The man considers Rogers City a "UFO hot spot."

On May 5, 2009, a Melvindale man first spotted a white sphere heading east about ten pm, and then about twelve minutes later, another ball-shaped object moving toward the first one. In another twelve minutes, one of the lights returned

On May 10, 2009, a Waterford observer witnessed a strange sight directly over his neighbor's home, about 20 feet from him. He described the phenomenon as three spheres of white light hovering 30 feet over the house and slowly circling one another in varying patterns. The sight finally made the witness so uneasy that he (or she) felt compelled to stop watching.

Another person reported a sighting from last fall (2008) near Flint. Two people saw a bright, oddly shaped object which seemed to "flip" over as they watched.

Many other sightings, including the Dearborn man who saw 15 men dressed like elves standing near a landed craft with colored lights, and the Detroit UFO flap, can be found in both "Weird Michigan" and "Strange Michigan."

It's hard to say why Michigan seems so attractive to alleged aliens. Perhaps it's all the water. Or the Vernor's and pasties. Whatever their reason for buzzing the state, it's widely rumored that the zippy, self-reversing actions of their spacecrafts were the inspiration for another Wolverine phenomenon ... the famed Michigan Left Turn!

More Michigan UFO fun at absolutemichigan.com/ufo.