Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Collection - BOO!

Sadly, Edward Gorey images are not available for (legal!) reuse.
Image: Google image search, labeled for reuse


Jeff Sypeck on how easy it is to make an eerie little sentinel. Hooray for seasonal ghoul-ery! I have not felt NEARLY enough in the Hallowe'en spirit this year.

To get in the spirit, it is a good time for ghost stories. How about River City Secrets, an anthology including quite a few talented and charming authors I happen to know?

If you prefer Old World scares, or happen to be on the UK side of the Pond, Nottingham's Monster anthology may be your taste. The cover is a nicely evocative piece of art.

Diwali Ragnoli decoration with lamps
Image: Wikipedia


If Hallowe'en and All Saints are not your thing, how about an enjoyable look into the preparations for Diwali, where an entire town cleans house and welcomes the goddess and the holiday in beautiful style? Instilling "the spirit of ownership for the city" sounds like a wonderful celebration.

However you celebrate - or if you do not - be careful out there. There are flour and egg crackdowns, and souls going around ticking the Devil off enough to get kicked out of Hell.

Have fun! And, if you can't be good, be good at it!

4 comments:

Jeff said...

Thanks for the link! I've gone a little nuts with Halloween this year. Last year, we had one decoration, a plastic light-up ghost from around 1970, plus the three turnip-o'-lanterns. This year...well, I just keep sneaking things into the house. Strings of lights that look like ghosts and bats, for example. We live 750 feet off a state road, so we won't see a single trick-or-treater, but it's fun to have junky little smiling, glowing ghosts all over the house for a couple weeks.

Last night, I asked the lady of the house: "If I were to make a giant pumpkin-headed snake monster next year and coil it around the lamppost by the street, what material would I use?" I love her, in part, because she only spent a split second giving me That Look before she offered the benefit of her ten years in the art-supply biz and shared her thoughts on waterproof fabrics and rust-proof armatures. My building project right now is owl nesting boxes, but maybe next summer...

DLM said...

A little nuts, or a little turnips? :)

I COULD decorate like that and it'd be seen by trick-or-treaters (how I love my neighborhood!), but I have a hard time with anything inside, because that will never be seen by anyone but me and the resident Poobahs. Decorations that aren't seen seem sad, because it's what they're for. Hopefully, if the family situation changes, my mom will become more mobile, I may become more social, and my house may see other faces from time to time.

Jeff said...

Oh, I agree about unseen decorations. Fortunately, we had some company today. All in all, though, I just see myself as accumulating seasonal deco for when we do live closer to a road. (I can't imagine we'll live farther from a road. If that happens, it means we're fending off mutants with shotguns.)

DLM said...

You didn't just get a LOL out of me, you got a CHORTLE.