Happy Samhain to all!!

    Tis the reason for the season!

Ignatius J. Reilly

    We are committed to posting any comic strip that has a Halloween theme and a reference to "A Confederacy of Dunces".

Let the Pumpkin Memes Begin!

    It's not too early, is it?

Best Halloween Comic - 2017

    Today's mainstream daily newspaper comics had three different ones use the same banal "You're too old to be trick-or-treating."  "I'll sue you for ageism." shtick.  Jeez.  Where's the creativity, guys?!

Halloween Warning

   Really.  You can't be too careful nowadays.

Happy Samhain!

    Tis the reason for the season.

Official Notice

    Gawd, as we sit here in monsoon storms and 116°F weather, is Halloween really creeping towards us on the horizon?

Halloween Costume

    I do believe I've found (our Jack Russell terrier) Mr. Jynx's Halloween costume.

Happy Halloween

    And to all my Druid brothers and sisters, Sensational Samhain!

Leftover Halloween Candy

    The results are in.  The least-favorite leftover Halloween Candy where I work is something called Laffy Taffy.

    I've never heard of Laffy Taffy, so I don't have a taste opinion, but my fillings and crowns were cringing just looking at the wrapper.  Taffy is not something for geezers.

    Someone brought in a humongous bowl of candy last Friday, and by this afternoon, it was down to about 10 pieces, most of which were Laffy Taffy.  FWIW, the favorites (the candy that disappeared the quickest) were Nestlé's Crunch and Reese's anything.

    Another giant bowl of candy appeared today, and it was significantly different in content.  It is heavy on sugar - Sweet-Tarts, Lollipops, Jolly Ranchers, etc.  It's only about a quarter gone so far;  We shall see what the dregs of it are in a couple days.

Happy Literary Halloween

 

    My company holds the usual Halloween corporate fanfare - a potluck lunch, and various contests with token prizes - pumpkin carving, decorate your office/cubicle, dress up in a costume.

    I rarely take part in the frivolity, except for the eats, of course.  And for that matter, participation as a whole within the Tech Services Department is always dismal.  We're geeks, not freaks.

    But I like the idea of a Franz Kafka cockroach costume.  Not sure where I'd find one, but if I did, I think I'd wear it next year, just to see how many of my co-workers are Literary Literates.

Halloween Ideas

    Something quick tonight, as we're heading out shortly to go see Vince Gill in concert.  More about that this weekend.

Happy Samhain !!

    It's Samhain for us Druids; Halloween for the rest of yooze.  We'll be doing the usual routine tonight.  Liz will be answering the door and handing out candy.  I'll be in the computer room, conquering a world, with the three rude, yapping dogs shut in the room with me.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Happy Halloween!

We'll be handing out candies to the Trick-or-Treaters tonight. At least Liz will be. My job usually is to stay pent up in the computer room with our three rude, bark-&-growl-at-everyone-that-rings-the-doorbell mutts.

Happy Druid's Sacred E'en !!

Here are four of the better costumes I've seen this year... . Cute, although Colonel Sanders may not think so. .

Even better, combinng the KFC motif with the salient scene from Aliens. .

Ah yes. The headless dogman. We'd never get any of our three mutts to sit still for this. I particularly like the ersatz horse hooves on the dog's feet.

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KISS costumes have been done to death. So if you're going to use this theme, at least put some effort into it. Like they did for this one.

Arch Oboler - Drop Dead!

Artist : Arch Oboler (1909-1987)

Album : Drop Dead! (1962)

Genre : Spoken Word, Comedic Horror

Rating : ***** ** (out of 10*)

This Week I Converted...
    Arch Oboler was old, even when I was young. He was a writer, producer, and director in the 1930's-60's, working in TV, movies, and radio. He is best-known for his performances on early radio. ANAICT, he only ever put out one LP album - Drop Dead! in 1962. I became acquainted with it in 1969, when a friend at college occasionally played it while we sat around and ...erm... drank and partook.

    It has eight tracks, each a different type of horror story. You have a psychopathic cannibal ("I'm not psychotic, I'm just hungry!!"); a car stuck on the railroad tracks as a train's a-coming; a creeping darkness that turns humans inside-out ("organs hanging"); and a proto-Crichtonesque science-gone-awry tale (a piece of chicken-heart that doubles in size every hour). You won't find Drop Dead! on CD; and you will probably never find it at a Used Record store.

    I was pleasantly surprised to find out my friend still had the vinyl, and I coaxed him into letting me convert it to CD. For a 45-year-old record, it's in excellent condition, which is not surprising, given that its owner is an audiophile. There were no skips or warps; just a bunch of small scratches that are inevitable on any used-LP. I edited most of them out when converting it.

What's To Like...
    DD! is a glimpse into old-time radio. You have a team of people doing the voices; and a whole slew of innovative sound-effects to add to the story. Think of it as a trip to Universal Studios, but in audio format only. The stories are not particularly scary, but there is a subtle humor underpinning the whole album. The sound-effects are amazing. One of the "team" on this album was Bea Benadaret, who shortly after this was to star as the mom on the TV series Petticoat Junction. You say you never heard of that show?! (Heavy sigh, look of nostalgia). Whippersnapper!

What's Not To Like...
    At 37 minutes in length, the whole album is short, even by 1960's LP standards. If you don't have an active imagination, you might find DD! to be a trifle tedious. And as with any spoken album (even when it's hilarious satire, such as Firesign Theatre), it may grow boring after a few listens.

Why should I care about an old fart like Arch Oboler?
    For starters, radio shows are a lost art-form. You can get an aftertaste of it in modern stand-up comedy, particuarly if the comic makes use of sound-effects. But that's a pale shadow of radio shows in their heyday. More importantly, Arch Oboler was one of the first to tweak the noses of the establishment. His plays and films were downright weird. Read, for instance, Wikipedia's recap of his 1956 play, Night Of The Auk.

    Wiki also relates an anecdote about a radio skit that he wrote in 1937 for the Chase & Sanborn Hour. Performed by Don Ameche and Mae West, it was a take-off on the Garden of Eden story, with Ms. West supplying a plethora of double-entendres. The sketch created an uproar, resulting in West being banished from further radio performances, and NBC even blacklisting the mention of her name. Oddly, it wasn't the content of the skit that infuriated the Fundies way back then; it was the fact that C&SH had the audacity to broadcast it on a Sunday afternoon.

    But I digress. Arch Oboler is a forgotten artist, in a forgotten medium. Drop Dead! is great, clean, tame-by-today's-standards fun; good for a listen every so often, especially around Halloween. Long before Lenny Bruce and Norman Lear were breaking out of the stale confines of mainstream comedy and Puritan morality, Oboler was there blazing the path. If you run across it at the used record store, buy it (price is usually around $5). If you don't have a turntable anymore (what's a turntable?), come by my place and we'll share a glass of wine and listen to it on CD.