Get out the popcorn. It's November.

The other day, I accidentally contributed to what is known here as the Colbert Bump: I googled something because Stephen Colbert flashed it on his screen during the Late Show. Now, I'm going to do it on purpose. Today's short subject was located by that gentleman's research staff, and they – and I – felt compelled to share.

Today's Short Subject: Colbert says his researchers can find anything, even a video showing a pet psychic who does readings for possums. When I got to the Youtube page, the users were chanting 'Colbert Bump!'. Be that as it may, this lady is worth watching. She's a talented sendup artist, and those possums are cute, even though my sister claims she would shoot them on sight. (They're not possum fans at the farm.)

I'm sure Pearl the Dead Squirrel makes as good an Ascended Master as anybody else, even if she has a short attention span. I'm hoping yours is longer, because I've found a ghost movie I think you'll really enjoy. And it's free on Youtube.

Today's Feature Film: Neil Jordan of The Crying Game directed this goody, whose stellar cast includes Peter O'Toole, Daryl Hannah, Connie Booth, Liz Smith, and a young, dishy Liam Neeson. High Spirits concerns the owner and staff of Plunkett Castle, a gloomy pile somewhere near Limerick. In order to save their beloved masonry from being taken over by a vengeful Irish American tycoon, they pretend the place is haunted. The supernatural stagecraft is so clumsy that the real ghosts become deeply offended.

This film was made in the 80s, and it shows. But when the ghosts get started…you'll get more than your money's worth. This is the most imaginative use of a pedestrian plot I've ever encountered. It's hard to decide which was funnier, the whale, octopus, and steamship showing up on the cardboard stage, or the floating nuns with the eerie eyes… There's romance, 80s-style. Antique vocabulary is severely misused to get past possible censorship. A white horse steals a scene. People fall out of trees, and a bus gets levitated over a lough.

Okay, it isn't highbrow. But do you care? I think you'll get a laugh out of this one. I cannot understand all the bad reviews it got. What did they want, Shakespeare?