Winds of Halloween

Awoke early to a beautiful blue-and-gold Halloween morning, windy and cool...and utterly perfect for the time of year. Ran the first special of the day while eating Pumpkin Spice Life and the last of the grapes for breakfast. "Spook-a-Nanny" was the only original cartoon made for the 60's Woody Woodpecker Show. Most of the episode has Woody blowing up balloons for his boss Walter Lanz' Halloween party. By the time he finishes, other Lanz creations like Chilly Willy and Andy Panda have arrived. They play tricks to keep him out of the party. Woody tries to get in with the Beatles-esque ghost band, but he can't walk through the walls like they can.

Did two more Lanz shorts as I cleaned up from breakfast. As Universal's earliest animated star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit had a few go-arounds with their beloved horror icons. "Spooks" is Lanz' take on The Phantom of the Opera. Oswald's girlfriend Kitty is the chorus girl who is groomed to be a star by a deformed ghoul. He has to go after her when the spurned "Phantom" spirits her away to the caves below the theater.

"Wax Works" is slightly less spooky. A baby dropped on Oswald's doorstep finds himself wandering through the annoyed bunny's wax museum. He has fun when the figures start to move...at least until he finds himself in the horror room, and Universal's finest attempt to cover him in wax!

Spent the rest of the morning working on my story. The ladies spot something brown and slimy in the bushes. It turns out to be an enormous half-toad, half-man. His upper half looks like a toad that plays football, but he walks on two legs like a man and talks like a normal human. He tells Jessika to take the horses to his brother, who is in charge of the stables, then leads the others to their room. He explains that his Master wants them to be comfortable. Leia tries to ask him who his Master is and how they came to look like monsters, but Finn insists he can't answer those questions.

Broke at noon to have leftover chili for lunch. Ran Garfield's Halloween Adventure while I ate. Garfield and Odie dress as pirates to go trick-or-treating for some candy booty. Garfield snares a boat to take them further downriver and find more houses, but they end up stranded on an abandoned island instead. Turns out that pirates buried their treasure there a hundred years before on Halloween night. Now Garfield and Odie have to avoid the pirates and get home, or they may not live to enjoy their candy haul!

Did a Three Stooges short while getting my costume together. They also have an encounter with "Spooks" when they have to rescue a beautiful young girl from a haunted mansion. A mad doctor wants to put her mind into that of a gorilla. The guys now have to avoid both in order to save the maiden and their own brains!

Headed out around quarter after 1 to hit the Oaklyn Library really quickly. Wanted to do this week's volunteering there and show off my costume. I was a cowgirl this year. Tied on my red foam hat from Dollar Tree with yellow yarn. Crocheted a yarn belt and a lariat. Used the white bands Jen Waters sent me to hold the cuffs on my jeans for bike riding to hold on the plastic spurs on my Bearclaw boots. (Which didn't work very well. They kept sticking out. I had to mess with them all day to make them lay flat.) Stuck the plastic star on my yellow button-down shirt and blue vest. (I lost the star later at work.) Put on blusher, lip gloss, and a little neutral eye shadow, all the makeup a cowgirl really needs.

There wasn't much going on there. The librarian on duty was dressed as a witch. She and one older woman were chatting about the political blather on CNN. I think I saw one other person working on the computers. I organized the DVDs, ignored them, and moved on.

Did the reverse of my normal habits and took the long way down Nicholson Road to work. It was closer to the library than the Black Horse Pike. Nicholson is only open to traffic going one way, making it much easier to cross than usual. By 2 PM, most people were probably just starting to take their children trick-or-treating.

The Acme was even quieter. Pardon the pun, but it was dead all day. It never even got close to steady. We're never busy on Halloween unless the weather's terrible, Halloween is on a weekend, or the Phillies are in the playoffs. Today was none of the above. The weather was gorgeous, blustery but sunny and cool, it was Tuesday, and the Phils got nowhere near the playoffs. I briefly went outside for carts around 5, did what little trash there was, gathered baskets, and mopped the floors of the men's bathroom. Otherwise, I mostly wandered around and tried to look like I was returning things. They had no less than four baggers around by the end of the night, too. Way too much help for a night when we don't traditionally have much going on.

Rushed straight home after work, this time taking the White Horse Pike. Had barely enough time for soup and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown when I got in. Linus Van Pelt intends to spend his Halloween waiting in a "sincere" pumpkin patch for his idol, the Great Pumpkin, to arrive and bring him treats. Sally joins him, against her better judgement. Charlie Brown is having his own problems with trick-or-treating. Snoopy spends his Halloween as a World War I flying ace fighting the Red Baron.

Grabbed the green and sage poncho my mother knitted for me years ago (I figured it looked vaguely Clint Eastwood-ish) and the plastic gun that came with the cowboy set, then headed out to West Clinton Avenue for this year's Oaklyn Halloween Parade. As usual, despite it being 7 when I arrived, they were nowhere near ready. Kids chased each other across the empty lot next to Tonewood Brewery, while their parents chatted in clusters by the sidewalk. Lights flashed from the two fire trucks leading the group.

I love how creative people get with costumes around here. I saw a pretty Cleopatra in lots of gold beads, a toddler chicken, a bunny in a fluffy tutu, several ghouls, a 70's hipster with a huge Afro, a Denver Broncos player, Princess Leia, two Snow Whites (a toddler and an adult), Belle, a mom rock star, a boy in a milk carton sandwich board, a Transformer, bikers (including a girl), Pikachu and dragon body suits, Mal from Descendants, Pennywise from It, Captain America, a police officer, Clark Kent ready to become Superman, a teenager in a teddy bear costume, a cute little badger, a "baby" in a giant diaper, Jason Voorhees, a mini-Chuckie from the Child's Play horror series, a wolf man, a teen sorceress, a dead harlequin, a vampire, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Batman, Rapunzel, and a princess in a pink velvet gown. One family had a Star Wars theme, with a mom Leia, a stormtrooper, and a tiny Rey. Another was all Ghostbusters, with a newborn Slimer in a stroller with Ecto-1 sides.

With such stiff competition, I was surprised to win third place in the 15 and over division this year. Clark Kent deservedly got first. (I forget who got second. Might have been the mom rock star.) I appreciate the five dollars. I might be able to celebrate with a decent lunch later this week.

Put on a spooky episode of Remember WENN while I was putting away my costume accessories and wiping off my makeup. In "The Ghost of WENN," Betty announces that they'll be doing a spooky horror tale during a stormy night. Diva actress Hilary Booth is only upset that she doesn't appear until later...until it becomes clear that something is stalking her through the station halls. Meanwhile, cowardly announcer and actor Mackie Bloom is spooked by an urban legend that the last actor who worked on the script died of a heart attack mid-way through the show.

Finished the night with Arsenic and Old Lace, which is actually set during Halloween. Stage critic Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) has just gotten married to the pastor's daughter (Priscilla Lane) who lives next-door to his kindly maiden aunts in Brooklyn. He's all ready to celebrate his nuptials with the family...until he finds out that his aunts have been poisoning lonely old men with no family. Their crazy brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander) buries the bodies in the basement, thinking he's digging the Panama Canal. Even as Mortimer tries to figure that out, his gruesome criminal brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) comes home, with his dubious facial surgeon (Peter Lorre) in tow. He's got his own bodies to hide...and he's not happy to see the brother he spent years tormenting. Mortimer has to try to get his aunts and uncle committed to a decent sanitarium, get his brother out of the house, and let the dim beat cop (Jack Carson) in on the madness, not to mention keep his new bride from figuring out what's going on.

Pitch-black comedy benefits from Grant's expert timing and Massey and Lorre as a pair of especially ghoulish criminals...but Alexander's totally hilarious turn as the delusional "Teddy" charges off with the picture.

If you're looking for a Halloween movie that's spooky but not bloody or gross, this hilarious dark farce is highly recommended.

And here's hoping that all of you had just as much fun as I did this Halloween!