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Howl-o-ween
qaz submits a story about a
remote-controlled graveyard. Supposedly this site is another computer-controlled setup, but it's not responding at the moment. Still looking for a pumpkin carving pattern (the Ellen Feiss pattern is nice too)? Or perhaps you'd prefer yet another punkin-chunking machine, a new model which has several news stories about it: here and here. And if spooky stories are more your style, everything2 is running a scary story contest (see last year's for ideas).
The Ripley's museums have those silly graveyards inside, and Ripley's also has those Haunted Adventure places. Somewhat similar.
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
Has everyone seen today's FoxTrot?
"I feel like I should send Microsoft some of this."
Heh.
-Russ
Me
Here is scary halloween-reading for geeks :)
The problem in the world today is communication. Too much communication - Homer Simpson
No one posted this? Weird
.5).
http://hiptop.bedope.com/
It's a halloween scavenger hunt. The objective is to use your Hiptop mobile device, and take pictures of as many things on the list as you can. There are 5 teams (which are closed, sorry johnny-com-lately's), each vying for the fabulous prizes being awarded to the one team that score the most points (each item on the list has a point value. McDonalds is 1, White Castle 2. George W. Bush is 8, Al Gore is
Th
In the US, halloween is second only to xmas for total dollars spent, and comes in third for total number of parties (after new years and the super bowl). Also for a more detailed description of the integration in american culture, see here
Do what I do...
I usually spend the day dressed up as my evil twin (at leat it's cheap!).
Yet Another Web Site
Heaven forfend we should have a little fun...
Not everything is a conspiracy, ya know.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
Check out this guy's carvings... http://www.grumpkins.com
He carves giant pumpkins, and they don't look like the standard run-o-the-mill jack-o-lanterns, thats for sure!
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Hmm. The tux pumpkin is a helpful tutorial, basically it says to make a pumpkin with tux on it all you need is:
1.A Pumpkin
2.Artistic Ability
3.Expensive Software
4.Something called a light board (sounds arty)
Wow! Simple!
you know, if i could draw tux i wouldn't need a kit...
That's nothing compared to the world-record-holding Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator (A "Marvin the Martian" reference for those who don't watch enough Warner Bros. cartoons).
I love satin! Soft, smooth, shiny. Satin is definitely not "pure evil." Pure lux, is more like it. What's this AC's problem with satin?! Where would the post 9-11 world be without satin pajamas?! We must fight for the love of satin or the terrorists will have already won!
Uh... he probably meant "Satan." Whatever.
It comes from the Celtic traditions:
People believed around this time, spirits walked the earth. They would put out their fires, in order to make their homes less appealing to the spririts. They also dressed up, and acted strange, in order to make the spirits think they were already posessed, so they would move on.
Children would also go door to door, and ask for "treats" in exchange for singing a song, or reciting a poem. This tradition was brought to America by Irish immigrants in the mid 1800's
Listen to NPR a little, no conspriacy here
You'll have to wait until February to see a holiday that was truely concocted by merchandisers to sell thing (namely cards and flowers)
---Lane
In reality, the origins of Halloween is much more complex that that. Check out this article to find out more. In particular:
It's funny that the whole Halloweeen thing may be an early example of "embrace and extend". The early church rescheduled All Saint's Day to coincide with an older pagan holiday, then told people to go ahead and have fun on the new enhanced hybrid holiday.
Gee whiz, don't be so negative.
You don't need a day off to have a holiday. Some holidays are just for fun. Are all of the holidays in your country _serious_ holidays? Don't you just want to go out and play sometimes?
Not everyone in America celebrates halloween so extremely. It's mostly celebrated by people 35 and under (with many exceptions), and is a big holiday for many college kids, geeks, artists, and people who veer from the mainstream.
I'll give you a perspective from someone in the San Francisco, California area. Halloween is a holiday because:
- It's fun
- It's creative. I get to exercise my creative juices by decorate my house in spiderwebs, skeltons and blacklights. Next year I'm planning Robotic flying ghosts in my front yard.
- It's an excuse to dress up
- The children love it
- It's an excuse to party. Halloween is by far the biggest holiday in the San Francisco area. In the city, you'll have parties that stretch for 10 blocks, with tens-of-thousands of people dancing and having a good time.
- Day of the dead is tomorrow (Big holiday in Mexico and here in California).
Now, there are historical roots to the trick-or-treating, and the dress up, and pumpkins, and the day of the dead, but I won't go into that now. (Wait, looks like you're from the UK. You should know the roots already!)
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
No, it started when three witches went around eating children, until one family offered them sweet gingerbread children. That's the story of the first caramel cod....yar, I mean, Halloween.
''I intend on shooting in competition, and I'm going to change my barrel size to regulation so I can compete with the other big guns,'' he said.
The fact that there is a "regulation" barrel size for a pumpkin shooting competition scares me.
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
In the "Discomforting amount of attention paid on a teenage girl, leave her alone and start meeting some adult women already" sort of a way.