(Photo by Thomas Frederick) The pressure cooker known as the Holiday Season is coming on -- fast! For many people, this time of year features a set of hopes, fears, expectations, and obligations that flares up like an itchy winter rash. If you're already dreading the high stakes associated with the "Season of Cheer," be warned: it all starts with Halloween. Oh, Halloween, you tease! For some, it’s a favorite holiday, full of mischief and fun; for others, All Hallows Eve holds huge potential to ruin someone's day; be it yourself, a fellow partygoer, your child, or even someone else's child. Here are some crimes to avoid, so you can make Halloween all treat and no trick: The offense: You go to a party with no costume or a very lame costume. Honestly, this just makes everyone feel awkward, doesn’t it? C’mon, get into the spirit! You think costumes look silly? You look sillier without one at a costume party. The offense: You dress your kid in a ridiculous costume. Maybe as a kid you just had to have that store-bought costume, but your mom or dad insisted on going home-made. Or perhaps it's the opposite; that you longed for your parents to put in some crafty effort, but all they did was go to the drugstore and get you a cheap plastic sheet and mask at the last minute. Hmmm -- maybe this one is a no-win situation. The offense: You pass out bad treats. Nice idea, but face it; you're not going to save the world from cavities by passing out pencils, stickers, raisins, or toothbrushes. But you will probably wake up to toilet paper streamers in your yard. The classic Charlie Brown TV special makes us give thanks each year if we manage to do better than getting nothing but a bag of rocks. So think about it; it takes just a little effort to make Halloween the best day of the year. Suggested Sites... Halloween Fun & Activities for Kids - lots of ideas for costumes, crafts, games, and snacks for happy haunting. Last Minute Costumes - don't go to the party without one! Candy Alternatives from Planet Green - instead of toothbrushes, pass out some organic treats with no trans fats. Yahoo! Celebrates Halloween 2008 - speaking of Halloween, check out the Yahoo! Halloween site.

Directory categories: Halloween, Homemade Costumes, Costume Retailers, Holiday Stress Management, Candy

Archived under: Children, Costumes, Halloween, Holidays, Junk Food, Kids, Parties

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(Photo by Jelene Morris) If there's one treat that virtually screams Halloween, it's candy corn. The tri-colored confection has been sticking to the molars of trick-or-treaters since its invention in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company. Its labor-intensive, three-color design was considered revolutionary, and its moniker-earning, kernel-like appearance proved to be a huge hit with the agrarian population of the time -- even inspiring other vegetable-themed sweets. Over 100 years later, candy corn is still a perennial favorite, with sugar fiends consuming around 35 million pounds of the sweet stuff every year. Its associations have traditionally revolved around Halloween, though in recent years its bounty has spread. Never ones to rest on their sucrose-coated laurels (and perhaps fueled by a continual surge of sugar and corn syrup), candy makers across the land have declared that candy corn is no longer just for Halloween. These days, no holiday is without a corn mascot -- reindeer corn festively donned in red, green, and white for Christmas; pastel-hued bunny corn for Easter; and cupid corn for your valentine, lovingly rendered in shades of red and pink. Still, for most of us, October is the only true candy corn season, and when better to enjoy a handful than today, National Candy Corn Day? That is, unless you're one of those rarified sorts who prefer their corn on the stale side. Much like opening your Peeps on Easter in order to enjoy them on the Fourth of July, there are those who swear their Halloween candy corn isn't "ripe" until at least Thanksgiving or, better yet, Christmas. Those folks are the hardcore candy corn faction, and today of all days, we salute you -- as does, no doubt, your family dentist. Suggested Sites... 123Greetings Candy Corn Day Ecards - don't forget to remember your loved ones on National Candy Corn Day. Homemade Vegan Candy Corn Recipe - thanks to The Urban Housewife, even vegans can enjoy candy corn. Uncyclopedia: Candy Corn - an amusing, though entirely apocryphal, history of candy corn. Nine Things You Didn't Know About Candy Corn - Sabah Karimi shares factoids about everyone's favorite Halloween treat. eHow: How to Make a Candy Corn Costume - still unsure what to be for Halloween? Look no further.

Directory categories: Candy, Candy Makers and Retailers, Halloween, Halloween Recipes, Candy Recipes

Archived under: Candy, Candy Corn, Corn, Food and Drink, Halloween, Junk Food, Nutrition, Snacks

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(Photo by Andres Moreno) As Halloween approaches like some Lovecraftian horror, lurking within the ken of our puny consciousnesses, vomit-inducing amounts of blood engorge our television screens, costume shops, and even the corpse that's suddenly appeared on our neighbor's front porch. It's all fake, of course -- or so we hope. You can buy fake blood at your local Halloween shop, or you can be adventurous and make your own out of simple household items like water, milk, chocolate, food coloring, corn starch, paint, laundry detergent, or syrup. There's a full spectrum of blood recipes out there, and each one produces a slightly different end-product. For instance, adding syrup will make your blood stickier (and is great for getting it to cling to your victims); chocolate will give it a good congealed-blood effect when it sets; and water will make your blood runny, which is great if you want it to be of the gruesome, dripping variety. The professionals (meaning those movie people) like blood with a Karo corn syrup base. Karo has the perfect sticky consistency and realistically changes color depending on the surface it's covering, the lighting, and its consistency. Fake blood and movies have a long history together. In the days when black and white movies dominated theatres, simple chocolate syrup did the job: not only was it cheap, but, being brown, it showed up well. Once films migrated to color, chocolate would just no longer do. The first few decades of color film saw a variety of blood that was bright and opaque, not unlike ketchup. The color and consistency of movie blood has varied wildly since then: sometimes runny, sometimes gooey; sometimes muted, sometimes bright and shiny. The general trend, though, has been towards darker, stickier, and more transparent blood. Most of what we see in contemporary movies is stylistically dark, sometimes even as dark as... well, as chocolate syrup. Suggested Sites... Sick Individual Blood Recipes - more blood recipes than you can shake a severed finger at. Hammer Film Productions - the British film studio renowned for its copious amounts of blood and schlock. Bloody-Disgusting - bloody good horror site. Official Site for Tom Savini - make-up effects master Tom Savini's official site. Blood Recipes - make foods using real -- not manufactured -- blood.

Directory categories: Special Effects, Horror, Halloween Gifts and Supplies, Blood Types, Homemade Halloween Costumes

Archived under: Blood, Costumes, Crafts, Halloween, Holidays, Horror, Make-Up, Recipes

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(From the cover of the book Kanzi's Primal Language) If there's one thing we pride ourselves on around these parts, it's that we don't ignore the obscure or pass over little-known date factoids. For a change of pace, though, we here at The Spark would like to point out a rather meaningful matter today: October 28th is Kanzi the bonobo's 28th birthday. Kanzi is one of the most-renowned great apes in the world. Under the tutelage of Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Kanzi has a perfect understanding of human speech and a personal vocabulary upwards of 500 words -- comparable to a human toddler's comprehension skills. Since non-human primates lack the physiological components in their throats to make speech, Kanzi cannot speak using vocal sounds himself, but shows his cognitive grasp of the vernacular through the use of visual aids. Primate language consists of sign language, speech comprehension, or the use of lexigrams to represent words, symbols, or objects. Kanzi uses photographs, three-dimensional items, or lexigrams on cards or monitors as his representations for spoken words. Kanzi's gorilla contemporary Koko (who turned 37 in July) uses American Sign Language to communicate to her homo sapiens relatives at the Gorilla Foundation.Thanks to her Internet chat in 1998, or KokoTV, Koko remains the most famous of these many primates learning languages. (Although let us stress that communication isn't limited to primates; Alex the African grey parrot had a vocabulary of 100 words and basic math skills, before dying at the age of 31.) But today on the 28th, we give a hearty salute to you, Kanzi, for staying on-task and giving us further insights into our own human evolution and cognitive development. Suggested Sites... Great Ape Trust of Iowa - home to Kanzi, providing sanctuary and studying intelligence in great apes. The Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute - at Central Washington University. Gorilla Foundation Art Benefit & Silent Auction - November 18, 2008, in San Francisco, California. American Sign Language - from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

Directory categories: Bonobos, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Human Evolution

Archived under: Animals, Apes, Birthdays, Communication, Languages, Nature, Primates, Science

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Jack-O-Tummy (Photo by Jillian) Ever since I outgrew little-kid Halloween costumes 20-something years ago, I've gotten plenty of disapproving comments about my enthusiasm for the holiday -- like, "Halloween is supposed to be for kids." Ironically, this year I'm looking for a kiddie costume for the first time and finding it strangely difficult -- simply because my kid isn't due until a couple days after Halloween. Adorable baby costumes and clever ideas for already-born offspring abound, but the options for moms-to-be just aren't inspiring. Online costumers' maternity offerings are feeble at best: some tired puns (a bun? in the oven? hilarious!), the inevitable pregnant nun (gosh, will that ever stop being funny?), larger versions of store-bought standards (ooh, a pregnant slutty devil!), and sack-shaped, androgynous lumps (and what pregnant woman doesn't love being compared to a sumo wrestler?). The standard DIY suggestions -- shotgun bride, cow with udders, pregnant celeb, guy with a beer belly, pregnant skeleton -- can be really cute, but are overdone, and more original homemade maternity costumes are scarce. Belly-painting offers plenty of creativity, and while the same few designs dominate as costumes -- pumpkins, basketballs, fishbowls, planets -- at least each one is as original as the artistic skills of the painter and the uniqueness of the belly itself. I'm sure many pregnant women are happy with these options, and that's great for them. Maybe I'm too picky, but I have rules: no trendy or common costumes, no repeats, no store-bought outfits, no simple puns, nothing cutesy (it's Halloween, not Easter!), and no trampy versions of regular costumes. This year is no different; I want to introduce my kid to Halloween properly, with a costume that's creative and memorable. The sheer number of message boards and pleas for help online suggest that I'm not alone, but future mamas out there have far more questions than answers. So, I've collected the best threads and suggestions I've found, to help other Halloween-loving moms-to-be enjoy baby's first Halloween in style. Suggested Sites... MamaBlogga: The Ultimate List of Pregnancy and Maternity Costumes - instructions aren't included, but this might be a good place to get ideas. cafemom: Maternity Halloween Costume Ideas - moms-to-be share lots of suggestions on these messageboards. Spooky Halloween Costumes for Moms-to-Be - a few ideas -- not too spooky, collected from maternity messageboards.

Directory categories: Maternity Costume Ideas, Halloween Costumes, Costume Retailers, Special Effects Makeup, Body Painting

Archived under: Body Art, Clothing and Accessories, Cosmetics, Costumes, DIY, Halloween, Holidays, Pregnancy

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