halloween flowers

tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLGBoW2L0kk


Joshua: What do you get if you cross Bambi with a ghost?
Belia: What?
Joshua: Bamboo.

Eddie: What do you call a vampire that lives in a kitchen?
Red: What?
Eddie: Count Spatula.

Only In America Series

A toilet themed restaurant is about to open in LA.  With toilets for seating, bathroom tiles everywhere, and food served in urinals. Can it get any better than this?  And we wonder why the world thinks there might be something wrong with us.

facts halloween haunted house

not for children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_baC-UkYk1k

The concept of the haunted house was capitalized on and commercial haunted houses sprung up all over the country. An estimated 3,500 to 5,000 professional haunted attractions operate in the United States.The typical haunted attraction averages around 8,000 paid guests. Some attractions mega haunted events attract over 40,000 to 60,000 guests .Today some haunted houses charge as much as $25.00 while most average around $15.00 per event. Major amusement park haunts charge as much as $65.00 for entry into their events.

jpr: I took my family on a horse drawn wagon (haunted hay ride) through a haunted park. We never saw the mother/wife so scared!  The kids loved it! I'd do it again in a heart beat.

HALLOWS EVEN

The origins of Halloween are subject to considerable scholarly debate.  Clearly, it has roots in Celtic Christianity as Hallows Eve (‘even’ in Scots), the night before All Hallows Day (‘hallows’ mean’s saints).  All Saints Day marks a period in the liturgical year (hallowmas) dedicated to the memory of saints and the dearly departed.  Some scholars argue that, like many holy days, its a Christianization of pagan Celtic harvest festivals marking the beginning of winter and festivals of the dead, particularly the Gaelic Samhain.

The name itself comes from Scots Gaelic.  It came into use in the early 1500’’s.

The tradition of costumes  or ‘guising’ (from disguising) was common in Ireland and Scotland from pagan times.  People would disguise themselves and go from house to house singing songs in exchange for food.  (called 'souling' in early Christianity).  The costumes protected the singer’s identity from the fairies, who find it easier to enter the world during the winter months.  Giving food protected the home owners from them as well.  The Reformation condemned all such activities and there is no reference to Halloween in early American almanacs.   Mass Irish and Scottish immigration in the late 19th century brought the celebration to America.  The ‘pumpkin’ lantern replaced the traditional Celtic carved turnip.

haloween witch

          Margaret Hamilton was the best

The Hag

The Hag is astride,
    This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
    Through thick, and through thin,
    Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

    A Thorn or a Burr
    She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
    Through Brakes and through Bryars,
    O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now....

by Robert Herrick (1648)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft36uRYyRt4

Lowest Increase in Years

Good think I'm not planning on living forever or I'd be mad.

Early Pittsburgh

The history of the South Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, begins with a grant of land in 1763. Here the area located at the confluence of the Monongahela (foreground) and Allegheny (background) Rivers is depicted in 1871, with what was then known as Birmingham in the right foreground and Allegheny in the distance on the left. The following year four boroughs (South Pittsburgh, Birmingham, East Birmingham, and Ormsby) were annexed into the City of Pittsburgh, and are now known collectively as the South Side.