Why, here's Mr Dark now. Perhaps he'll weigh in.

Mog the Dog here.

According to recent statistics, pet dog attacks kill 31 people per year in the United States, and black widow/brown recluse spiders kill 7.

I am, irrefutably, too large to squish with a gloved finger. Shall I, then, anticipate my potential demise by booted foot by any of you at this Saturday's birthday shin-dig?

No, you're good with my boot.

Cute doggy.

Shindig is a good word.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
No, you're good with my boot.

Glad to know it!
Even so, I'll let it be known that I can pack a boot as well as anyone.


Viktoria - My corn field is not quite as green today. It's another sign that Halloween is on its way.

quote:

Originally posted by MogtheDog:

Better mind that boot - it looks like a good hiding place for some of Geraldine's kith.

(shudder)

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
This spider is most active at night when it comes out in search of food consisting of cockroaches and other small insects...

...and Grant Williams...

Mog, that's great news about your corn! I remember that,when I was a kid, we would drive out into the countryside in autumn and there would be fields of CORNSHOCKS! What a wonderful, old-fashioned sight that was! You almost never see cornshocks any more, but once, a few years ago, we were driving through Amish country and--there they were! Haystacks, too!

Viktoria, you are so correct. Now with corn stalks being grounded into fodder and stored in silos as feed the next year for cattle, the delightful stacked stalks no longer dot the countryside. I remember seeing them once in a great while when living in Iowa and Minnesota, but alas, none here in Florida, only continuing rain from Tropical Storm Fay.

quote:

Originally posted by Viktoria:
Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree" and his Reader's Digest article, "Tricks! Treats! Gangway!" are always part of my Hallowe'en ritual...

Viktoria - I was at an estate sale yesterday and found a whole box of Reader's Digest magazines from the 1970s in the "free" pile (a.k.a. Mr. Jonas' wagon). Of course, the first thing I did was to make sure the October 1975 copy was present and accounted for. It was.

Finding anything Ray Bradbury at local estate sales has always been challenging but it seems to be getting more so with each passing year.

MTD

Yeah, the winds are starting to turn offshore here, and sure sign of Fall...I'm lining up my B-horror movie schedule already.

Here on the coast, it's been fall-like all summer. Seventy-two degree Fahrenheit days and sixty-two nights. Windows open all the time (except the occasional evening when it gets a bit coolish).

Let the east coast have the heat and humidity - I'm fine right here.

B movies, eh? I love 'em. In October, I usually do a classic horror once per night, tho.

Doug, I do that, too! The whole month of Oktober is set aside, for me, for running classic old horrors from TV and film. I always begin the month the same way, with the same teleplays. First comes two episodes of the old "Alcoa Presents/One Step Beyond" series, which scared the knickers off me many, many times. One is "Night of decision," where George Washington is drowning in despair, trying the keep his starving army together at Valley Forge. An ancient Indian, Otumkas, shows up and tells the praying General, "Your God has come to your aid before, and he will do so again." Of course, we know by that superbly creepy theme music that all is not what it seems--Otumkas had been killed in battle several years previous. The next is my all time favorite, "The Reunion," about the group of young Germans on a picnic and gliding outing just before the war begins. One starts to go up in the glider, but is stabbed and killed in the cockpit by a jealous rival. The glider goes up but does not crash and flys away. The group agrees to meet again in that very place after the war is over. Some of them, the ones who survived the war, do come back--but so does the glider, with a skeleton at the controls! My gods, that one scared me half to death way back when! It still does! After these are viewed, then I start on the old Boris Karloff "Thriller" series, starting with my all-time favorite, "The Grim Reaper." Then "The Hollow Watcher," and on and on. (Dear Boris--) Labor Day is over, and "That Time" is coming!

Viktoria, you bring up many interesting points. First, you're one of those rare persons who knows that One Step Beyond was originally called Alcoa Presents, not to be confused with Alcoa Premiere, which was directed by Norman Lloyd of Alfred Hitchcock fame, and who was in attendance at one of Ray's recent plays.

Thriller, "The Grim Reaper"! Wonderful. Some months ago, noticing that it was screenplayed by Ray's friend Robert Bloch, I took my copy over and asked Ray if he remembered this. He said he did, but hadn't seen it in awhile, so I told him I would lend it to him to see if he would like. He would.

Last time I was over, he still hadn't watched it yet, bless him. He's a busy gentleman, no?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

Doug, under whatever title, it frequently scared the bejaysus out of me! And, considering "The Grim Reaper," I met William Shatner (in that) long before he was Captain Kirk! (And he was quite a ham even then!)

Viktoria, speaking of William Shatner, isn't he something else? The guy is 70+ and looks 55, acts really good in a TV series, and oh yeah, the priceline.com commercials. Wow!