Phyllis Galde has no gills. She can't dissolve into mist before your eyes. Her eyes don't have the cat-like slits that TV aliens have. It's disappointing, because as the new owner of a magazine specializing in UFOs, sea monsters, ghosts, Bigfoot, fish-people and Gef the Talking Mongoose, you expect her to be a little more … unusual."I just try to be a level-headed Norwegian and have some common sense," said Galde, a friendly 58-year-old Lakeville grandmother who looks apple-pie normal.But normal is only skin deep. Her life revolves around the bizarre, as reflected in the pages of her magazine, Fate, the 56-year-old journal of the paranormal.After managing it for years, she bought the 20,000-circulation monthly magazine in March. Now, from a house on a leafy cul-de-sac, Galde runs a modest empire of weirdness from around the world that lists actor Dan Aykroyd and artist R. Crumb as fans.And she is taking weirdness in a whole new direction.No more of that New Age hokum, she said. The previous publisher, Llewellyn Ltd. of St. Paul, printed stories about crop circles, channeling and crystals with supernatural powers.

"We just can't prove that stuff," Galde said. "We don't print anything we can't prove. There is no scientific evidence for that."Evidence? Is there evidence of UFOs flying over Transylvania? Or frog-men? Or giants?These stories are based on what people sincerely believe they have experienced, explained Galde."A lot of these things we don't say are true," Galde said. "We say, 'Here are the reports. You decide.' "

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