I’d like to shake the hands of the marketing team who convinced a mainstream hardware chain to launch a major promotion around zombies.
Westlake Ace Hardware has an extremely elaborate campaign, both in-store and online, touting their products to zombies and humans alike. Their Zombie Preparedness Center lets humans browse through items for zombie defense and zombie-proofing the home, plus products for removing carpet stains and patching walls. Zombies can choose tools for bodily repairs (caulk, duct tape) and items for home and lifestyle (“Just because you’re rotting doesn’t mean your home has to smell like it”).
The sidebars in both sections are full of help content like, “Since I became a zombie, flying insects continue to swarm around me. Do you have anything that can clear an outside area of flying insects?” and “What types of locks are best for keeping zombies from entering my home?”
There’s also a social media component, with the company’s Facebook page offering tools to “zombie-proof” your page and Twitter feed reminding users to be mindful of the undead.
The zombies also have a platform. They initially staged a protest over Westlake’s one-sided zombie defense advertising:
Once Westlake relented and started offering zombie-friendly merchandise, the zombies followed up with a Website, Facebook page and Twitter feed (spokeszombie: Ricky Braneberger) aimed at promoting cross-cultural understanding between the living and the undead.
Halloween Crafts – A few easy craft ideas. I like the simple “spiderweb” doily project.
Pumpkin Smuggler – Where was this maternity shirt when I was pregnant?!?
Night at Karloff’s – Amusing “Nighthawks” riff, available as prints. I rather like the artist’s Dagger, too.
Don’t Forget to Eat Your Spiders – I’m somewhat torn about this; on the one hand, the plastic spiders embedded in this Jello mold look uh-ma-zing, but on the other hand I’m not sure how I feel about sticking inedible objects in food. (Update: An intrepid reader suggests gummi spiders as a subsitute. That oughta work.)
Chet Zar – Artist whose tagline is, “I like to paint monsters.” Yes, yes he does.
Friendship is Magic – A short My Little Pony Flash game. As Rob over at BoingBoing put it, “At a certain point, I concluded that it is an unofficial My Little Pony flash game.”
The 13 Greatest Ghosts of Geekdom – A geeky roundup at Topless Robot, which gets bonus points for making me think of the Funky Phantom for the first time in about 30 years.
Women Fighters in Reasonable Armor – Single-serving site dedicated to just what it says on the tin: Female warriors who will neither be hacked to pieces nor frozen to death due to lack of appropriate attire.
I’ve been sort of peripherally aware of the idea of making “witch hats” by sticking a chocolate kiss on top of a chocolate-covered cookie, but I hadn’t given them much thought until the fantabulous Jessica sent me this photo of cookies with teensy icing buckles. That upped the Cuteness Factor by about 1000%, so I decided to monkey with the concept a little further.
You will need:
Cookies with at least one flat, chocolate-covered side; I used Keebler “Fudge Stripes” turned upside-down.
Chocolate kisses; I used plain Hershey’s kisses, but the striped “Hugs” would also be cute.
Frosting. You can make this from scratch, but that kind of defeats the whole “easy, no-bake” thing. Individual decorating tubes can be expensive; I just used white canned cake frosting and colored it with some gel food coloring I had on hand.
M&Ms or other little round chocolate candies, if you want to add spiders.
To make the hats, pipe a little frosting in the center of each cookie (if the cookie has a hole in the center, pipe around the hole). Stick a kiss in the middle; I like to use enough frosting that a little bit gooshes out around the edges to make a “hat band.” In its simplest form, you are now done.
If you want to get fancier, pipe two thin oval-ish shapes on the kiss and two lines on the hat to make a decorative bow. I found that the frosting tended to warm up after a while, making it thinner and harder to control, so I periodically stuck the piping bag in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it back up.
For extra decoration, add a spider by sticking an M&M to the hat brim with a little frosting and then piping on legs. Here’s where a very thin round tip would come in handy; I didn’t have one on hand, and just snipping the end off a disposable icing bag resulted in–depending on the size of the hole–legs that were either a bit too big or a bit too thin and ribbony for my taste. (Fortunately, even the mistakes taste just fine.)
These are super-easy to make, so they’re not only a quick and attractive addition to a Halloween party, they’re a great project for kids.
Guys, read the fine print before selling your soul to the devil. There’s no way to opt out of his email newsletters.
— badbanana
Probably 98% of human history would have never happened if showing off for girls wasn’t a thing.
— shawnries
Blood is definitely thicker than water. This Kool-Aid is disgusting.
— _TomBrady
Wong is looking for the 12 coins of Confucius. Legend say he who bring all coins together have great power. Legends are always saying things like that. No legend ever says “Man who reunites the coins of Buddha will have the power to make songbirds feel as though they have just eaten.” It’s always power over the world.
— 100 Mysteries
My grandpa’s deaf. Phone calls are 20 minutes of me screaming, “I’m fine!” The neighbors must think I’m a black lab short of a Berkowitz.
— AinsleyofAttack
I think a fun way to either make or break a friendship is to show up with a horse costume built for two.
— SheBanggs
My son thought he was finally going through puberty. But nope. Werewolf.
— shariv67
You guys! Big news…let’s just say I’m eating for two now (Myself and the dead Victorian ghost girl who lives inside the wall).
— gordonshumway
Truth be told, I sort of wanted Carol Ann, in the movie Poltergeist, to tell her parents, “Up yours!” and refuse to go into the light.
— MistookMistake
When Harry was 17 he defeated the most powerful dark wizard of all time. When Luke was 17 he was farming moisture. #perspective
— SithSarcasm
Last October, Neil Gaiman posted a suggestion that everyone inaugurate the tradition of giving scary books to one another on Halloween.
I propose that, on Hallowe’en or during the week of Hallowe’en, we give each other scary books. Give children scary books they’ll like and can handle. Give adults scary books they’ll enjoy.
I propose that stories by authors like John Bellairs and Stephen King and Arthur Machen and Ramsey Campbell and M R James and Lisa Tuttle and Peter Straub and Daphne Du Maurier and Clive Barker and a hundred hundred others change hands — new books or old or second-hand, beloved books or unknown. Give someone a scary book for Hallowe’en. Make their flesh creep…
It was an idea that quickly gained steam, with fans enthusiastically gifting books to each other, and it also spawned a Website with an amusing FAQ and a nice list of book recommendations.
Now it’s time to gear up for the second year (which will actually make it a tradition instead of, “that good idea somebody had that one year”). Think about gifting a book to a friend, or hand one to the clerk at your favorite coffee shop. Arrange a book-swap party, where everyone arrives with a favorite spooky book and leaves with a different one. Read from a book of spooky stories at a child’s Halloween party and send the guests home with copies.
To my unending dismay, I live in a location which never ever gets trick-or-treaters, or else I’d also keep a small selection of books on hand to give as treats. Not to everyone, mind you…just to the kids proudly wearing their homemade Halloween costumes, or the ones who greet me with monster roars, or anyone else, regardless of age, who makes it clear that they know Halloween is about more than free candy.
Bonus: Here’s Neil Gaiman himself explaining the concept behind the tradition.
I got this in my email and thought I’d pass it along to anyone who might be interested. I don’t want to post her phone number publicly, but you can drop me a line and I’ll supply it upon request. Her email address is Melissa.Ruiz@mtvnmix.com (Note the caveat that one member of the couple should be Hispanic.)
Hello there,
I’m in the casting department at MTV Tr3s and were looking for alternative weddings for our 4^th season of our show and I wanted to extend this casting to you and your clients I thought you might have some interesting weddings coming up. We are looking for some Gothic, Pagan, Wiccan, Same sex, hand fasting Themed & Halloween weddings for our show Quiero Mi Boda on Tr3s which takes an inside look at cross-cultural weddings and the hustle and bustle surrounding them. However, I would like to review all weddings happening from October until next year. Honey moon money involved for the couples that make it on the season let me know if you know of any cool couples getting married this year or next year? Keep in mind one of them should be Hispanic, we can set up a meeting today to discuss any questions you might have for me just let me know or you can reach me at the number below!
*Melissa Ruiz*
*Casting Coordinator*
Tr3s Quiero Mis Quinces/Boda
Om Nom Nom Welcome – This is a brilliantly easy Halloween porch decoration.
Anatomical Skull Makeup – Tutorial for a great-looking “Dia de los Muertos”-style skull face.
Cave Spider Hiding Itself – The arachnid equivalent of an ostrich is sort of adorable. (Hat tip to Beans)
12 Gorgeous Gourds – Lovely dried gourds cut and made into lamps. Something similar (but much simpler) might be accomplished with dried Halloween-type gourds and a Dremel tool.
Skull Ornaments – These pretty chromed-glass skulls would look great on a Christmas tree.
Halloween Vampire Nails – Video tutorial on creating a great-looking “blood-dripping nails” manicure. The same channel has lots of other nice tutorials, like Toxic Nails and Black Gold Lips. (Hat tip to Sisifo)
Brave New Pattern – The Prodigal Sock is looking for “beta knitters” to test a cute little skull-patterned baby hat.
X-ray Laptop Skin – FunFuzion makes a line of “fool the eye” laptop skins. This one is nicely skeletal.
Gabriel von Max Exhibit – An exhibition entitled “Be-tailed Cousins and Phantasms of the Soul” is going on this month at the Frye Museum in Washington. (Hat tip to xJane)
Frozen Ghost Vodka – It probably tastes like lighter fluid, but the label is magnificent.
I’m a fan of the old LucasArts point-and-click adventure games like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, so I was most pleased to discover Mockery’s Trick or Treat Adventure Quest. It’s a free Web-based Flash game, but quite a large and intricate one, and both the graphics and the gameplay hark back to LucasArts-style videogames.
You are Little Johnny, a kid in dire need of a Halloween costume who has to make do with what he can put together using household supplies. Once you have your costume pieced together, out into the real world you go for some Trick-or-Treating! But this isn’t your average night in suburbia… many strange things are afoot and it’s up to you to solve the puzzles if you want to enjoy all the delicious Halloween candies!
Sounds like the perfect way to help pass the time until the 31st.
Vincent Price was one of Tim Burton’s lifelong idols, and Burton’s first short film was created in his honor. Vincent is based on a poem written by Burton, and Price himself provided the narration.
The film has never been widely released (it’s included as an extra on a couple of DVDs), but the intrepid xJane alerted me that it’s available on YouTube.
I’d like to shake the hands of the marketing team who convinced a mainstream hardware chain to launch a major promotion around zombies.
I’ve been sort of peripherally aware of the idea of making “witch hats” by sticking a chocolate kiss on top of a chocolate-covered cookie, but I hadn’t given them much thought until the fantabulous Jessica sent me 
I’m a fan of the old LucasArts point-and-click adventure games like 
