O is for Owl Worship

Image: By Aarkwilde (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (The owl statue is on the left.)

The conspiracy theory: Once a year, the richest men in the world gather at a place called the Bohemian Grove to worship at the scaly toes of a gigantic owl statue.

Here's some factual tidbits from Wikipedia:

Bohemian Grove is a 2,700 acre campground in Monte Rio, California owned by a private men's club known as the Bohemian Club, and they do host an annual get together of bigshots from businessmen, university presidents, media moguls, and U.S. government officials including ex-presidents.

They're not supposed to conduct business on these retreats, but the Manhattan Project was discussed in 1942. Military officials and J. Robert Oppenheimer were present.

The notion of owl worship comes from their Cremation of Care ceremony where they release their worries and embrace fun. Along with pyrotechnics, there was a recording inside the statue to dictate the ceremony. Guess whose voice was used for several years? Walter Cronkite.

Sounds like fun to me. Who do you think might attend these days?