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Halloween fun facts

10/31/2013

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Man, I love Halloween. It might even be my favorite holiday of the year. Candy and costumes -- what an awesome combo. Sure, as a mom, I'm not particularly fond of the heavy sugar intake but if my kids only puke once a year I figure I'm ahead of the game.

I still remember my first Halloween in Germany when we lived on a U.S. military post. Little German kids would come dressed in costume, walk up to our door, and speak tentatively to us in stilted English. "Halloween?" They would ask -- that is, they'd ask the first time. Once we put candy in their little bags they'd go to the next place and smile, "Halloween! Halloween!" I could only imagine what they were thinking. Probably something like, " My folks weren't lying about this crazy American holiday. This is so cool!" Only a few knew to say, "Trick or treat." We didn't care. The joy on their faces transcended the language barrier.

In celebration of the day, I've compiled a few fun Halloween facts. But first, another anecdote from earlier this week...

One of my son's teachers asked the class: "What do you get when you cross a teacher with a vampire?" Spoiler alert: The teacher's answer was "a teacher who gives blood tests." My son came up with a different answer. He yelled, "A teacher who sucks!"

His teacher was not amused. 

As a fake punishment for his cleverness, I was going to share a silly Halloween photo of him when he was a baby. I stopped myself but, as penance for this almost betrayal, I'm posting an old Halloween photo my friend, Lisa, took of me:

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The costume was kinda sorta Kiss inspired, my one (failed) junior high attempt at being a rebel. 

Okay, now for fun Halloween facts. Hope you enjoy them. If you're also interested in Halloween keyboard characters, click the bat.
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Otherwise, just read on. I hope you enjoy them and have a Happy Halloween!

FUN HALLOWEEN FACTS:

- $330 million dollars a year is spent on costumes -- pet costumes. All costumes combined? Over $2.5 billion. We spend about that much in candy, too. The estimated projection for Halloween candy sales in 2013: $2.25 billion.

- In Alabama, it's illegal to dress up as a priest.

- In Hollywood, California, there is a $1,000 fine if you use Silly String on Halloween.

- Jack-o-lanterns were first carved by the Irish. (The Halloween tradition began with the Celts.) They used turnips, rutabagas, and potatoes.

- As for records, Boston, Massachusetts holds it for the most pumpkin jack-o-lanterns lit at once. The number: 30,128. The largest pumpkin in 2013 was grown by Tim and Susan Mathison from California. The weight: 2032 pounds!

- In the United Kingdom, white cats are considered to bring bad luck instead of black ones, like in the United States.

- Michal Jackson's song "Thriller" is the most played Halloween song on U.S. radio stations.

- The highest grossing scary movies: 1. Jaws ($260MM), 2. World War Z ($202MM), 3. What Lies Beneath ($155MM) -- for the rest of them click here for the IMDb list.

- The movies that scared the poop out of me when I was a teenager: Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street. What scared me as an adult: The Ring. (shudder)


That's it. Be safe and try not to get too many cavities tonight!



photo credit for pumpkin photo:
By Matthew Gordon (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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Halloween keyboard characters

10/27/2012

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Many of you know I love keyboard characters. If you don't, what's wrong with you? To get up to speed, check out my post on keyboard animals as well as my page with lots of cute keyboard characters.

Anway, since it's Halloween season I decided to create some spooky keyboard characters for you. Not all are winners, but I don't care because I had a lot of fun making them. Here they are: (Side note, if you want to recreate them, I used the Verdana font.)

The first group: a keyboard bat, pumpkin, a kinda sorta werewolf, and a couple of witches, too.

keyboard bat, keyboard pumpkin, keyboard werewolf, keyboard witch
Now for the darker side of Halloween. ;) Here's a keyboard ghost, zombie, and mummy!
keyboard ghost, keyboard zombie, keyboard mummy
I decided to try a couple of keyboard faces, too. Here's a Young Frankenstien and a vampire.
keyboard frankenstein, keyboard vampire
I hope you enjoyed them. And remember, if you have any of your own that you'd like shared on this website, just submit them on my contact page.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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The Scariest Part of Halloween

10/28/2010

10 Comments

 
Halloween costumes sure have changed over the years. In the Seventies, they were far less cool and far less money than the ones we have today. Back then, they consisted of two things: a thin, molded plastic mask and an even thinner fabric jumpsuit with the character’s body imprinted on it.
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The seller wanted $791.99. Seriously.
They came in a box and cost $3.99. I found this picture on Ebay to give you an idea. Makes you want to rock n’ roll all night, huh?

I can still remember wearing them while trick-or-treating, particularly the masks. Seeing out of the eye holes was such a challenge (I’m surprised more kids didn’t stumble into the street and get hit by cars), plus my face would start feeling sweaty and gross as soon as I put one on. The end of the night was the best part, though, because the thin rubberband that kept it strapped to my head never failed to get horribly tangled in my hair.

Ahhh, the memories. Why don’t they have masks like that anymore?

Alas, now I am a grown up and buying costumes for my own kids. It’s been fun.  That is, of course, until recently when my daughter became a teen.  I have to say, it’s quite an experience and I can’t say it’s been pleasurable.

This year my daughter is volunteering at our family museum’s Halloween party, so she needs a costume. Last week we decided to go shopping for it.

Oh. My. Lord.

The women’s costumes are NOT the same as the girl’s. Not that I didn’t expect to see some of the sexy standards. You know, the slutty nurse, et al. But a slutty Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz?’ Since when did she wear a blue gingham mini-skirt and above-the-knee schoolgirl porn stockings? And those red sequined stilettos? Tell me, what’s next? Hermione Granger with a belly shirt and garter belt?

The entire section was filled with ‘check these puppies out’ necklines, ‘don’t bend over’ skirts, and -- dang! --  so many fishnet stockings I was tempted to string them together and go angling for tuna.

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This bee can buzz off.
Luckily, we got our hands on the last remaining G-rated costume: a 1950s girl in a poodle skirt. Did you hear me, Big Box Mart? THE LAST ONE. Isn’t that telling you something?

Most girls graduate from kids’ clothes to women’s in junior high. By then I know they are long past dressing like Dora the Explorer, but no mother in their right mind is going to buy, much less allow, their daughter to strut around in a sassy “Major Trouble” soldier’s costume that won’t let her sit down without showing her hooha. (Or is that ‘hooah?’ Sorry, Army joke.)

Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Do I sound like a real prude? Tell me what you think and have a
Happy Halloween!  


 

Bee photo from:  DivineLegs000's photostream on Flickr

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