Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, ancient artifacts, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.

The Bunnyman is a strange legend that originated somewhere in Virginia. Some say he’s an escaped convict who successfully evaded an attempt to stuff him into an insane asylum. Some say it’s the kid from that Mercer Meyer book all growed up.

Nobody said that. What’s apparently accepted, however, is that some guy dressed as a bunny used to carry an axe around for the purpose chopping through lovers’ car windows.

There’s a bunny-lady you know. She’s really into rabbits, and has even had cosmetic surgeries to make herself look more like Jessica Rabbit – seriously – check her out down there.

If you’re of sane mind that may scare you a bit – but at least she’s not an alleged wanna-be axe murderer.

That is to say – she’s no Bunnyman. ‘Bunnyman?’ you ask inquisitively, ‘What is the Bunnyman?’ Well for that answer we’ll let the government website for Fairfax County, VA give you the weird, weird Bunnyman background:

“There is a story that a man dressed as a bunny haunts the residential neighborhoods around our nation’s capital. Silly as this may sound at first, the Bunny Man has been a fixture of local legend for at least 30 years. By 1973 the so-called “Bunny Man” had been reported in Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His infrequent and widespread appearances tended to occur in secluded locations and usually tell of a figure clad in a white bunny suit armed with an ax threatening children or vandalizing property. By the 1980s the Bunny Man had become an even more sinister figure with several gruesome murders to his credit. Although he has been reported as far south as Culpepper, Virginia. his main haunt has been the area surrounding a railroad overpass near Fairfax Station, Virginia frequented by party goers, the now infamous “Bunny Man Bridge.”"

Stories of the Bunnyman committing horrific murders are the ones that keep most of the local kids up at night – stories like this one from associatedcontent.com:

“Long ago, at the time of the Civil War, there was an asylum for insane criminals near the town of Clifton. As the area grew more settled, the residents successfully petitioned to have the asylum closed, fearing that an inmate would escape. The time came to transfer the inhabitants of the asylum to another place, and the residents’ fears were realized. During the transport, there was an accident on the road, and carriage holding the inmates overturned! Most of the inmates fled into the woods. It took weeks to capture them, but eventually all were accounted for – except for two of the inmates. Searchers would find mutilated, half-eaten rabbits hanging from trees from time to time, but not the escaped inmates.

“Then finally, one of the escaped men was found one day in October, mutilated and hanging from the Fairfax Station railroad bridge. It was assumed that he had been murdered by the other inmate, who came to be known as the Bunny Man. Police resumed their search for the Bunny Man. As they got close one day, the Bunny Man ran onto the railroad tracks and was hit by an oncoming train, laughing maniacally as he chose death rather than capture.

“The good people of Clifton thought that was the end of the Bunny Man. However, around the following Halloween, mutilated rabbit carcasses were found. Sometimes people saw a figure like a large bunny walking under the railroad bridge. This went on for years, until one Halloween when some teens decided to stake out the Bunny Man Bridge. At midnight, there was a bright flash of light, and the teens were found cut and hanging from the railroad bridge. Since then, some people are brave enough to go to the Bunny Man Bridge on Halloween, but they don’t stay until midnight.”

Well that certainly sounds terrifying – but it also sounds a tad typical for an urban legend. Throw in a sewer alligator and a transparent hitchhiker and you’ve got yourself the makings of a fine 7th-grade sleep over.

There are two Bunnyman stories, however, that after long study by someone else have been found to be the source of it all. And apparently, they’re true.

This according to the irrefutable Wikipedia:

“The first incident was reported the evening of October 20, 1970 by USAFA Cadet Bob Bennett and his fiancée, Dusty, who were visiting relatives on Guinea Road in Burke. Around midnight, while returning from a football game, they parked their car in a field on Guinea Road to talk. As they sat in the front seat with the car running, they noticed something moving outside the rear window. Moments later the front passenger window was smashed and there was a white-clad figure standing near the broken window. Bennett turned the car around while the man screamed at them about trespassing, including “You’re on private property and I have your tag number.” As they drove down the road they discovered a hatchet on the car floor.

“When the police asked for a description of the man, Bob insisted he was wearing a white suit with long bunny ears, but Dusty remembered something white and pointed like a Ku Klux Klan outfit. They both remembered seeing his face clearly, but in the darkness they could not determine his race. The police returned the hatchet to Bennett after examination. Bennett was required to report the incident upon his return to the USAFA. It was later confirmed in Fairfax Police records that the man was in fact wearing a bunny suit with ears instead of a Ku Klux Klan suit.

“The second reported sighting occurred the evening of October 29, 1970, when construction security guard Paul Phillips approached a man standing on the porch of an unfinished home in Kings Park West on Guinea Road. Phillips said the man was wearing a gray, black and white bunny suit and was around 20 years old, 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and weighing about 175 pounds (79 kg). The man began chopping at a porch post with a long handled axe saying “All you people trespass around here. If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to bust you on the head.” The man then ran into the woods.”

And there you have it. A spooky legend based on a creepy actual occurrence or two. And we’re honestly not sure which sounds worse.

If we had to choose though, we’d say the one with the murders would win.

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Are you a fan of tedious, formless, mostly improvised songs that go on for three hours longer than the point of normal human endurance?

You are? Well have we got some good news for you! Phish – the defunct jam-band predominantly famous for a) having some ice cream named after it and b) totally soundtracking that epic hacky sack marathon you and your buddies had in your parent’s backyard one afternoon back when you were 28 – are reuniting.

Phish have announced three special comeback dates in Virginia for next March, their first since disbanding in 2004. We’ll definitely be attending the Phish reunion shows – it’s been too long since we last caught beard nits off a hippy after stumbling into the middle of a drearily self-satisfied drum circle in the carpark of an old WWF arena.

Rolling Stone once called Phish ‘one of the most important bands of the Nineties’ – recognition that puts them right up there with Kula Shaker, Sugar Ray and the band that did the theme tune to Friends.

But it’s easy to see why Phish received a title like that – more than most bands, Phish flourished because of the community behind them. Their meandering, overlong, improvised jazz fusion jam workouts were simply a soundtrack to huge open-air festivals where friends could meet, play frisbee, get ripped to the tits on stolen cough medicine and twirl around like cocks in a spirit of universal brotherhood.

So it was a bittersweet day when Phish announced that they were splitting up in 2004. True, it meant that you’d never get to see a group of millionaires in their forties play 20 songs in a row that all seem to sound exactly like the one that directly preceded it in a disused airbase any more, but at least the spirit of Phish would live on in that delicious Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavour and the crappy rave scene from The Matrix Reloaded.

Until now. Because now, you see, Phish are back. According to The LA Times:

The Vermont-based jam band, will reunite for shows March 6-8 in Hampton, Va., and is expected to announce additional performances for 2009. Rumors of a reunion have been heating up since… three of the four Phish members played together in July at the Rothbury Festival in Michigan. All four showed up last month and played at the wedding of their road manager Brad Sands.

Phish played at a wedding? We’re not sure how we feel about that. On one hand it’d probably be quite fun to see all your elderly relatives get so overwhelmed by the band’s elaborate jazz-rock grooves that they end up buying a bunch of laughing gas balloons from a hippy in the corner. But on the other hand The Squirming Coil isn’t exactly Agadoo, is it?

But still, we’re genuinely pleased that Phish are getting back together – and more pleased that their first shows aren’t until March. Because that’ll give you plenty of time to ditch your job at the law firm and dedicate your life to getting your beard long enough to put elastic bands in again. It’ll be fun.