The Goblins Will Get You If You Don't Have Candy  We foresee your future…in a few days, you will be visited by strange apparitions. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, plus the ever-terrifying Fairy Princesses. None will be much over a meter in height. They will demand that you feed their insatiable craving for….er, sweets. Be sure to have plenty of candy on hand. No fair doling out apples or nutritional bars. Halloween is an amnesty day: no fussing about empty calories or references to the dentist allowed. Let the games begin!
At Walmart, I asked Elektra, 'Do you want a full-sized skeleton?' I thought they were a bargain at only $9.99.
'No,' she said, in way that was rather definitive. I guess she didn't want a skeleton. I doubt Lola the Doglet would want one, either. The cats would probably have played with it, though. Oh, well. At least we have the giant light-up jack-o-lantern to be festive with. I bought a $1 plastic bucket with bats on to put the candy in, and I can always play spooky music on the organ. Mwahaha.
While you're waiting for unholy visitations demanding sucrose fixes, you can read this issue of the Post. It's a h2g2 first: there are 23 never-before-seen items! I had to get the page stretchers out for this one. People have knocked themselves out for this one, some literally. Reminder: the camera goes in front of eye, not in it.
Here are some highlights, not that they aren't all highlights this week:
- On the wildlife front: Admire Willem's colourful waxbill. Then help us identify the avian photos in Suzie Q Ferguson's Bird Book. As usual, Suzie Q has no useful information.
- Halloween time is here! Learn how to witch a walnut tree. See the Dia de los Muertos balloon. Marvel at the Ghostess with the Mostest, and other seasonal pics. Take the spooky quiz.
- There's spooky fiction, too! Freewayriding brings you a scary tale from the morgue, while Paigetheoracle continues his mad saga. Meanwhile, the fiction goes video and animated: SashaQ has filmed a Brony tale – we're so hip we can't stand ourselves – and I'm all retro-chic with an annotated cartoon from the Roaring Twenties.
- Suzie Q rounds off her Madrid trip with a visit to a sick escalator. There are cartoons. There are many, many invitations to snark, including two caption challenges. Lots to read, do, and sound off about. Queen fans, note Awix's film review.
PS: For the three people who actually read the 'Writing Right' column: In response to the discussion of evil we've been having – who knew this was such a topic? – this week's column continues with thoughts on that subject. Hope you aren't evilled out.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
As you will see from the revised link today, November is once again NaJoPoMo, the month where people keep a journal for every day of the month. We wish to remind our participants and readers of the following important points:
- PLEASE READ THE CREATE DIRECTIONS AT THE LINK BELOW. These instructions are the ones we're going to go by. Don't come back to the Editor with 'I didn't know that was there,' or 'well, if you're going to make it complicated…' We've been doing it this way for years, people. If you don't make an A-space, we can't link to it. You have been told.
- The h2g2 Post reserves the right to kidnap journal posts for future issues. But we won't publish your entire month's output for you, even if you're writing a novella. Especially if you're writing a novella. If you'd like to offer us an excerpt, and we didn't ask you, please feel free to do so on condition that you GuideML it yourself, and it's not more than 2000 words.
- The Post NaJo will be found here. It will consist of photos and videos from contributors. If you have a photo or video to contribute, send it to us. The usual rules apply: no kids under 16, nothing illegal, must be your own work, or your significant other must have given permission.
Dmitri Gheorgheni
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