Man unsettled by appearance of decapitated snowman on his lawn

While shoveling his walk early this morning, Mr. Arthur Brown was startled to discover the decapitated remains of a snowman lying on his lawn.  What he at first mistook as possibly a snow covered soccer ball, on closer inspection turned out to be a head.  The snowman’s carrot nose and a single arm lay nearby.  The rest of the torso was missing.  The remains lay a few feet from an alley that runs along the property, indicating that a car may have stopped and deposited the snowman’s parts sometime during the night.

“It was pretty gruesome.  Nothing prepares you for a sight like that.  I mean, some kid probably made that snowman, and for some sicko to come along and remove the head and throw it in some stranger’s yard, what kind of evil person does such a thing?” Mr. Brown said.

Suspicion immediately fell upon some neighborhood vandals.  “Over the holidays we had a group of teens stirring up trouble.  They took the lights from one neighbor’s festive display and rearranged them to spell the word ‘TITS’.  Real cool,” Mr. Brown said sarcastically.

According to police, this most recent discovery is not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern of snowman slayings city-wide.  “This is our third snowman slaying this month,” said Detective Russ Cole of the Riverbend Police Department.  “Somebody in this town really hates fucking snowmen.  At first he’d try to bury the remains under some fresh powder or hide them behind some bushes.  Now he’s just leaving them out in the open, like he’s trying to send us a message.  I tell you, spring can’t come soon enough for this town.”

Pressure on LIV Golf to acquire some underdogs

Within minutes of amateur Nick Dunlap’s historic PGA Tour victory, Greg Norman’s texts were lighting up with demands from his Saudi overlords to bring the same level of excitement and drama to LIV Golf.

“Are you seeing this, Shark?  Why don’t we have any Cinderella stories?  LIV needs drama, Greg Norman!  Spare no expense.  Buy us some amateurs!  Get us some underdogs, Shark!” the texts read.

The Alabama sophomore’s improbable victory over some of the PGA Tour’s finest highlighted what’s special about the PGA Tour and exposed one of LIV Golf’s most glaring weaknesses.  LIV Golf can’t produce the high-drama, engrossing narratives that are a recurring attraction on the PGA Tour.   

A tour composed almost entirely of entitled, overpaid wicked stepsisters playing exhibition golf will never produce any Cinderella stories.  Who looks back on any NBA season and goes, “Wow, that was some All-Star Game!”?   

I know, somebody’s going to come at me with the Chili Dippers defeat of the Sandbaggers in the team finals as an example of pressure-packed, LIV Golf high drama at its finest.  Sure, I’m old school and I don’t get it.   

“Greg Norman,” the texts continue, “get me a journeyman golfer who is about due for a breakthrough victory.  We need a couple of almost washed up tour veterans who yearn to taste victory one more time.  Buy me some fearless young guns ready to announce their arrival to the world.  Whatever it takes, Greg Norman.  There is plenty of money in the bottomless PIF.”

State university grad admits most of his college party stories were ‘borrowed without attribution’

A former Indiana University student is coming clean today after it was recently revealed that most of his college party stories were either wholly or partially lifted from other people’s work, and that he failed to properly credit the source of those stories. 

“It is with a heavy heart that I admit to you today that I have at times engaged in duplicative language when relating past tales of college drunkenness.  I hope that today’s admission can be a critical first step in winning back the trust of friends and loved ones,” said 48-year-old Kyle Simmons.  

The admission stems from an incident that occurred at Nick’s English Hut in Bloomington, Indiana, following a recent IU basketball game.  Simmons sat at a table of fellow alumni, throwing back pounds of Bud and swapping beer-soaked stories, when a middle-aged gentleman at a table nearby overheard a tale that sounded awfully familiar.  After the man confronted Simmons, Simmons agreed to publicly correct the record.

“The stories I’ve been telling all these years are actually the work of Kevin “Corn Dog” Edwards.  For the record, I never inadvertently vomited on the back of my roommate’s head.  That was Corn Dog.  Nor did I ever perform an acrobatic ten minute keg stand.  Again, credit where credit is due, that was the great Corn Dog.  Finally, I never belly flopped from a stairwell into an inflatable pool of Milwaukee’s Best.  That remarkable feat was performed by the flying Corn Dog.  

“I’d like to thank Corn Dog for the opportunity to set the record straight.  Some say I stole Corn Dog’s work.  Let me be clear, I object to that characterization.  I never stole, I merely borrowed Corn Dog’s stories without notifying him or providing proper attribution.  I sincerely regret my use of replicated phraseology and hope that my alumni group will see fit to keep me on as a member,” Simmons concluded.

United States calling for humanitarian pause in ongoing Hall & Oates dispute

As the nation embarks on what could be an extremely contentious presidential election cycle in 2024, Americans are calling on chart-topping rock duo Hall & Oates to set aside their professional differences for humanity’s sake.  

Experts agree that a possible Hall & Oates separation has the potential to spiral out of control very quickly.

“I’m sorry, but we need a unified Hall & Oates right now.  We’ve got war in Ukraine.  The fighting in Israel and Gaza is tearing us apart.  We have two unintelligible geezers running for president.  Come on, Hall & Oates, say it isn’t so,” complained former Obama campaign chief David Axlerod.     

Officials inside the administration agree, the American people are clearly not ready for a protracted legal battle between Daryl Hall and John Oates.  

“The administration needs to get on top of this.  This is not good for an incumbent president going into an election year.  The images of Hall & Oates fighting it out in court every night are not something the country is prepared to handle.  Like a flame that burns a candle, the candle feeds the flame,” said one senior administration source.   

Mediators are working furiously around the clock in an attempt to resolve the conflict before it escalates further. 

“My friends wonder why I call them all the time, what can I say?  I don’t feel the need to give such secrets away,” a court appointed mediator revealed, but declined to elaborate.

However, counsel for the defendant, Oates, has filed several motions decrying the aggressive tactics employed by Hall’s attorney. 

“She’s deadly, man, she can really rip your world apart,” Oates’ attorney wrote in his brief.

For now, Americans are just trying to make the best out of a potentially catastrophic situation.

As one fan revealed, “My baby heard Hall & Oates were suing each other and she just split.  No warning.  She’s gone.”

Local man’s outdoor Christmas decorations attract scrutiny

A Fishers area man is facing the possibility of hefty fines today after his outdoor Christmas decorations were deemed to be in noncompliance with his neighborhood association’s bylaws.

Jeff Ross has been ordered to pay $500 for multiple violations ranging from a Santa that is too large to excessive and obtrusive lighting displays.

“My Santa is over eight feet tall, which is a violation, and my lighting display exceeds the number of lights allowable per square foot.  Also, there seems to be an issue with the frequency with which the lights twinkle,” Ross said.  

“Residents’ holiday light displays shall not exceed 12 bulbs per square foot and shall not dim or change colors more than once every three seconds,” the community’s bylaws state. 

Having exhausted all his appeals, Ross has resigned himself to paying the fine and removing the offending decorations.

“They came and deflated my Santa yesterday, and they snipped the wiring on several strands of lights.  I mean, I get it that they have their rules, but did they need to slice up Santa with a Stanley knife?  The kids are pretty traumatized,” Ross said.

Asked for comment, the neighborhood association issued a statement:  “We’re looking into the excessive force complaint leveled against our compliance officer.  We strongly condemn violence in all its forms.  If we determine that the rights of the jolly old elf were violated, we will take appropriate action.”

Another lost guru Part 5

Origins

As evasive as George Peters tended to be about his life prior to becoming a guru, much of what he did reveal to journalists, prospective biographer Lionel Rolfe and Church of Naturalism collaborator Susan Shore turns out to be verifiable.  Census records confirm George Peters’ real name was George P. Fitzpatrick and that he was the son of Cyril G. and Ada Florence (Farwell) Fitzpatrick.  He was born in 1938 or 1939 and spent the first decade plus of his life being raised in New York.  Corroborating information revealed to Lionel Rolfe, newspaper reports indicate his father was a New York City detective, but Cyril’s alleged wartime stints in Army Intelligence and White House Secret Service could not be confirmed.  In fact, the exploits of Cyril G. Fitzpatrick, New York City robbery detective, appear in newspaper accounts both before and after World War 2, making it clear that whatever intelligence work he may or may not have been involved with during the war ceased when he returned to his robbery division gig after the war ended.  Following Cyril’s death in 1953, Peters’ mother married Ward McCarron in 1954, and the couple along with George resided in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  

As Peters revealed to Rolfe, it was around this time, when Peters was 16, that “he married a young woman who claimed to be French.”  Indeed, newspaper reports from October 1955, describe an episode where George Fitzpatrick, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ward McCarron, eloped with Jo Ann LaNette, 15, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacques LaNette, Fort Lauderdale.  The pair had planned to go to New York, but only had enough money to buy bus tickets to Baltimore.  Eventually, the teenage couple returned home to Fort Lauderdale, and in 1956 George P. Fitzpatrick joined the Navy.  An announcement in the Fort Lauderdale News dated March 18, 1956 confirms he graduated from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center north of Chicago.  While not an official Navy confirmation of service, it seems unlikely Peters and his parents would falsely fabricate such an announcement, and it backs up Peters’ account and other previously unverified newspaper reports. 

With much of Peters’ origin story seeming to conform to reality, the questions become even more relevant: did the Navy and/or CIA perform mind control LSD experiments on the future cult guru George Peters?  Could the American military or intelligence community bear some responsibility for creating the LSD promotor and new age occultist?

Whether or not George Peters was one of its subjects, it is absolutely the case that the Navy performed LSD experiments on human subjects.  A Department of Defense memo dated September 20, 1977 revealed that the Navy participated in five programs where drugs were administered to human subjects for the purpose of mind control or behavior modification.  The programs ran from 1947 to 1973, and probably the most well known was called Project Chatter.  Led by Navy Lieutenant Charles W. Savage, Project Chatter research was conducted at the Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland and ran from 1947 to 1953.  Peters claimed his experience occurred in 1957, placing it outside the timeframe of Dr. Savage’s involvement.  However, it’s possible the program continued under someone else’s direction, or Peters could have participated in a myriad of other LSD programs underway at the time.

It is widely reported that at one time the CIA purchased a significant portion of the world’s LSD supply and seemingly made it available to just about any researcher or institution willing to study its effects on humans.  Famously, author Ken Kesey participated in LSD experiments at the Menlo Park VA hospital around the time he began One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1960.  Also, in the 1950s, LSD pioneer Dr. Sydney Cohen conducted experiments at Wadsworth VA Hospital in Los Angeles, California.  Where George Peters was introduced to LSD cannot currently be determined, but California would be as likely a place as any.  

By 1960, it appears Peters had abandoned his family, which included a wife and three children.  In a newspaper feature from the 1980s, the then remarried but former Mrs. George Fitzpatrick describes being broke in San Diego in 1960 with a five-month-old baby she could no longer care for.  So she put the child up for adoption, as she would do with Peters’ two other children.  As a member of the U.S. Navy, it seems probable that he and his family spent some time living in San Diego.  While in California, did he become a subject of the LSD experimentation going on at the time, and did that experience cause him to become disillusioned and wander from his family?  Whatever life-altering, consciousness scrambling experience befell him, the trip was only going to get much longer and much stranger. 

Sources:

The Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Herald Examiner

The San Francisco Examiner

The Chicago Tribune

The Fort Lauderdale News

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) 

Fat Man on the Left: Four Decades in the Underground by Lionel Rolfe  

Mind Styles, Life Styles by Nathaniel Lande 

General Counsel of the Department of Defense memo, September 20, 1977

More Snapchat predators arrested

Last July, Kegan Kline of Peru, Indiana was sentenced to 40 years in prison on 25 counts ranging from child exploitation and possession of child pornography to obstruction of justice.  During the Kline investigation, it was revealed that he had communicated through social media with 14-year-old Liberty German of Delphi, Indiana in the days leading up to the murders of Liberty and her 13-year-old friend Abigail Williams in February of 2017.  According to 13WTHR, “Court documents show Kline saying he would talk to girls, even if they were under the age of 16, and that he found them on Instagram and then told them to message him on Snapchat.  Kline allegedly claimed to have received pictures from all of the girls he chatted with and had saved them.”  The investigation revealed Snapchat was Kegan Kline’s preferred platform for soliciting sexual abuse material from underage girls.  

As this blog has previously pointed out, Snapchat comes up time and again as the platform of choice among Indiana predators apprehended by state and federal law enforcement.  Undoubtedly, a little research would likely reveal that the Snapchat platform is quite popular among child predators outside the Hoosier state as well.  With that in mind, a reasonable person might assume that if a company’s product is routinely utilized for victimizing children, and if that company’s name keeps appearing in news item after news item as the go to platform for perverted criminal low-lifes, then that company might seek to eliminate the problem, if for no other reason than to quash the endless stream of bad publicity.  However, it’s hard to see where Snapchat is doing anything of the sort.

On November 11, Westfield, Indiana police arrested 20-year-old Benjamin Owen Rollo of Westfield and charged him with seven felony counts, including child molestation, sexual misconduct with a minor and possession of child pornography.  According to 13WTHR, Rollo “is accused of using a Snapchat account to pressure young girls into meeting up with him, or into sending explicit photos.”  

If you thought Snapchat alerted authorities to Rollo’s predatory behavior on its platform, you would be wrong.  The mother of a 12-year-old victim discovered the messages on her daughter’s phone and contacted Westfield police.

As 13WTHR reports, “The victim’s mother learned of the attack by confiscating her daughter’s cellphone, where she found messages between her daughter and friends about the attack. The victim told friends she snuck out with a friend to meet Rollo on July 22, 2022. Rollo allegedly drove to the friend’s home, then drove the victim and the friend to Grand Park. 

“When the victim asked where they were going, Rollo would not say.

“Rollo allegedly forced the 12-year-old in the back of a car during the attack. The victim deleted Rollo’s contact from her Snapchat in the hours after. 

“Through her Snapchat account, investigators found Rollo had dozens more victims throughout the area, and that he used his Snapchat account, ‘johnny.backer,’ to target young girls. 

“Police served a search warrant to his home in West Lafayette on Nov. 11, and he consented to a police interview.

“When asked about photos and images sent and received, specifically on Snapchat, Rollo advised he has asked young girls and teens for explicit images and has sent his own images, ‘15-20 times.’ Rollo also confirmed to police 12- and 13-year-old females are who he is attracted to. When asked further, he advised that he did not know, it is just ‘what he’s into.’

“His Snapchat account also revealed he raped a 14-year-old girl who he picked up in Carmel in December 2022. Multiple messages reportedly showed Rollo telling the girl what happened was not rape, and to please delete their interactions.

“Rollo confirmed the “johnny.backer” account was his secondary account, because he was not comfortable using his real name. While en route to the Hamilton County Jail, detectives asked Rollo how many images were on his phone of younger girls — he said well over 1,000 images.”

While it may be the case that Snapchat has no way of identifying the individual behind an anonymous account, and maybe they’re unable to determine in what area of the country the messages originate, surely the content of these messages should be cause for alarm and referral to federal authorities.  It seems likely that some of the victims probably used their real names and locations, would it not be possible for Snapchat to notify local police that there is a predator in their midst?  Rollo was able to determine that the girls he was messaging were local.  Why can’t Snapchat identify potentially criminal and predatory behavior and notify the appropriate law enforcement agencies?   

It would be nice if Rollo was the only serial Snapchat predator terrorizing tweens and teens in the Hoosier state.  Then everyone could breathe a sigh of relief that finally the Snapchat rapist was behind bars and everyone could feel safe again.

For immediate release, November 14, 2023, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana:

“Jacob Glenn, 26, of Cicero, Indiana, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of a child.

“According to court documents, Jacob Glenn used Snapchat to communicate with girls between 13- and 15-years-old, falsely claiming to be a teen boy and offering to purchase nicotine or vape pens in exchange for sex. Glenn’s Snapchat username, ‘theplugfogshyde’ was intended to indicate that he could obtain vape pens for others he met online.

“On two occasions in 2021, Glenn coerced and enticed a girl between 12- and 15-years-old, to sneak out of her home after midnight to get vapes from him, including on Christmas Eve. Glenn picked the child up and drove her to a nearby truck stop where he told her that he would not accept cash for the vapes. Instead, Glenn stated that they could work out a “deal” where she could pay him with sex. Glenn picked up the same child again on January 17, 2022, and coerced and enticed her to engage in sex acts in exchange for vape pens. He used his phone to record the sexual conduct he engaged in with the child and instructed her to not tell anyone about his abuse. Glenn later used Snapchat to send a copy of the child sexual abuse video to two other minor girls.

“Glenn engaged in a similar course of criminal conduct with another minor girl he met on Snapchat between December 2021 and January 2022. The second victim was less than 14-years-old. On January 9, 2022, after a conversation via Snapchat, Glenn picked the second victim up near her home, drove her to a nearby truck stop, and engaged in sexual conduct in exchange for vape pens. Glenn also attempted to convince a child who was a friend of the second victim to engage in sex in exchange for vapes, but they did not meet in person.

“A law enforcement review of Glenn’s Snapchat account found conversations between Glenn and multiple other girls between thirteen and fifteen years old. In some of these conversations, Glenn offered nicotine or alcohol in exchange for sex or nude images.”

Two serial Snapchat predators, who were practically neighbors, locked up within days of one another.  Surely now the children of Hamilton and Marion counties in Indiana can use Snapchat without being solicited for sex.  

For immediate release, October 19, 2023, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana:

“Isaiah Austin, 21, of Indianapolis, Indiana, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to coercion and enticement of two minors while required to register as a sex offender, and illegally possessing a firearm.

“In February 2021, Marion County probation officers conducted a compliance visit on Austin at his home. During their search, officers located a cell phone which contained multiple images and videos of child sexual abuse, as well as images of Austin holding firearms. Officers also uncovered text and Snapchat messages between Austin and a 14-year-old girl, beginning in early January 2021, less than a month after he was released from custody. In these text and Snapchat messages, Austin detailed sexual acts he wanted to engage in with the child and instructed her to send him sexually explicit images of herself.”

So in one small geographic area of central Indiana, during a time span of just a few weeks in the fall of 2023, three men were either arrested or convicted of child sexual abuse and/or child exploitation, and they all utilized the social media platform Snapchat as a tool to facilitate their depraved, criminal deeds.  That’s without even mentioning another Westfield man who got 38 years for similar offenses made possible by the social media platform Kik.  Maybe central Indiana is just a hotbed of child predators, but it’s probably more likely that this is happening in hundreds, if not thousands, of communities around the country.  Setting aside the disturbing question of how there can be so many sexual deviants preying on American children, why is eliminating this threat not priority number one with Snapchat and other social media companies?     

In testimony Tuesday before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on social media and the teen mental health crisis, Arturo Bejar, formerly of Facebook and Instagram testified that a survey of 13-15-year-olds on Instagram revealed that 13% of respondents had received unwanted sexual advances in the last seven days.  The number is astounding.  In any seven day period, a teenager has about a one in eight chance of being approached by a predator on Instagram.  Given enough seven day cycles, it is a near certainty that a young person will receive unwanted sexual advances about every two months or so.  It should be clear to anyone that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Kik are cesspools of child exploitation and predatory grooming.  Making these platforms safer for young people should be the top goal of executives at these companies above all other considerations.  If a skate park or an arcade or a coffee bar existed where every week kids had a one in eight chance of receiving unwanted sexual advances, that place would be shut down.  Social media companies should face the same threat.

Office personnel have no answer for “The Deflector”

Employees of Graphplex Corp. are running out of options when it comes to dealing with a shifty employee who stumbled into their mix some time ago.  Known to office staff as The Deflector for his ability to deflect any projects or tasks thrown his direction, management and staff find themselves struggling for answers of what to do about the scourge in their midst.  Emails that land in his inbox immediately get bounced to another.  Questions brought to his attention are deftly waved off in another direction.  Tasks planted on The Deflector’s desk are quickly and stealthily transplanted onto another.  Even efforts to develop a Deflector detector to keep oneself from falling prey to The Deflector have thus far proven unsuccessful.  Nearly all Graphplex employees have at one time or another discovered an unexpected document on their desk or had a surprise phone call thrust upon them courtesy of The Deflector.  All this while The Deflector reclines in his office chair, scrolling casually through his mobile device and posting to social media.  

Of course, the thing everyone knows but cannot talk about is where The Deflector derives his extraordinary powers of deflection.  Born and raised the dull and dim witted son of a politically connected family, he was placed in the midst of this group of unsuspecting office workers due to his parent’s connections to upper management and their desire to be rid of the dependent pest.  Unable to productively contribute in even the most superficial and half-assed manner, it was then that he quickly and expertly honed his powers of deflection.  The Deflector can spend hours viewing videos of game shows or shopping for ugly sweaters on Amazon.  Some have even taken to cozying up to The Deflector in the hope that participating in his devilish schemes is the only way to avoid falling victim to them.

Even as the author rushes to put the finishing touches on this anonymous memo, The Deflector is peppering his inbox with forwarded emails.  A vacation would be nice, but a week away from work would merely guarantee The Deflector a free and unguarded workspace in which to deposit his manifold deflections.

Massive interstellar doobie passing through solar system continues to puzzle scientists

Scientists have confirmed that an object first identified in 2017 passing through our solar system is a massive, deep space doobie hailing from a distant galaxy.  Calling the object Oumuamua, astronomers have traced its origins to the Sativa star system located 35 light years away in the obscure Crystal Skull Galaxy.

Little is known about this hidden galaxy except observers in 2008 were able to identify a handful of habitable planets, and that deep radio bursts originating from that location were broadcasting Hawkwind’s Space Is Deep off their 1973 live album Space Ritual.  This left scientists puzzled as to why a recording by an earthbound rock band would be disturbing the neighbors in a far flung galaxy.

“We don’t consider our music to be bound by this earth at all.  It is totally unsurprising that our music is rocking outer space,” said Hawkwind founder Dave Brock in a recent interview.        

The object is believed to be a minimum of 100 meters long and 35 meters thick, making it three times longer than the largest known terrestrial doobie.  Unable to identify its means of propulsion, scientists have noticed that its tip usually glows more brightly when it accelerates, and that it emits a long swirling plume of exhaust.     

Efforts to communicate with the object have produced modest results.  Revealing a lack of familiarity with earth measurements of space and time, a communication from the space joint claimed it had been travelling for over 10,000 Dopesmokers, presumably referring to the length of time it takes to listen to legendary stoner rock band Sleep’s 1998 classic, Dopesmoker, which clocks in at a little over an hour long.

Astronomers agree more study is warranted.  As for Brock, “Just imagine the wicked cosmic jam I could produce if I got a hit off that spliff.”

Foul brew

On a recent morning, I decided to grab a cup of dark roast coffee at a Starbucks I often stop at on my way to work.  A great group of young people work there and they nearly always serve up a fine brew with kindness and courtesy.  On this particular morning, however, things started going south shortly after I pulled up to the drive-through window.  I gave the young man $2.85 for my $2.84 order, and he handed me the cup of coffee.  Almost immediately, the 85 cents in coins seemed to confuse the young gentleman.  Granted, I had fished around in my change drawer to come up with a quarter, five dimes and two nickels, and the combination of coins seemed to present quite a challenge to his powers of arithmetic.  Eventually, he had to pull out a calculator to finish the job.  In the meantime, I’m sitting there feeling like the lord of all tightwads while waiting for my penny in change, but I didn’t want to just drive off because sometimes I screw up and hand over the wrong amount.  As I waited, however, a foul odor that can only be described as the smell of decomposition began to fill the inside of my car.  Penny in hand, I began to pull away as the odor of dead, decaying animal carcass grew in power and potency.  Thinking perhaps some varmint had crawled up under the hood and died, and the vent was blowing the smell into the cab, I quickly turned off the fan.  But this did nothing to stifle the inescapable smell of death that now surrounded me.  Then my attention turned to the cup of coffee.  I picked it up and took a sniff.  The horror!  From what ancient crypt did this foul brew flow?  Quickly, I weighed my options.  There was no way I was going to drink this roadkill roast that currently sat in my cup holder.  But I couldn’t survive a morning of work without a cup of joe.  Fortunately, another coffee shop lay up ahead and I swerved into their lot.  After pouring the java of death into a sewer grate, I went inside and explained my predicament to the young ladies behind the counter.  They set me up with a fresh cup of brew for which I tipped them generously.  I held the steaming cup to my nose and took a big whiff.  Ahh, it smelled like charred wood and fresh dirt, just the way I like it.