Famous First Words: Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as Witches... Malleus Maleficarum
Happy Halloween! I threw a boomerang at a ghost but it came back to haunt me. / Be that thing in the woods that scares the townspeople. --Submitted by MM
..........Keep the need-fires burning til dawn.........Damh the Bard …..Samhain Eve
...the time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in America... National Organization For Women Statement of Purpose
It is a windy (20 mph) Friday morning. The willow trees are dancing in triple time, urging the other trees to join them in a Samhain tribute to autumn weather. 48°F with such wind is cold and foreboding. It causes the mind to think of frost warnings and snow. Trees have finally begun to dress in their fall finery, reds and yellows, browns and greens. The sky itself is a slate gray without texture or movement; and the earth is soaked and smells of 2 days of rain. No birds have ventured out into the morning and the only sounds are motors and wind which whistles and hums and roars. I watch from my window while Puck sleeps on my feet – keeping them warm and giving me a sense of usefulness. Ah, wait, a small patch of actual blue sky peeks out of the cloud cover. My coffee is warm; it smells good in the kitchen and in the cup that I bring to my face inhaling the steam. It clears my sinuses, warms my heart, and tastes so good. And now I get to share the morning with you. What a day!
May your weekend be free of goblins, ePistliers
Halloween Horror Story: Remember that time you confused a life lesson for a soul mate. --Submitted by MMS
I'm confused. Do we celebrate Halloween because Jesus defeated the Great Pumpkin? / Just figured it out; hosts are people who died trying to fold a fitted sheet.
..........Dancing til the next sunrise..........Loreena McKennit …..All Souls Night
Trivia Questions: Happy Birthday to the Ballpoint Pen!
^ How many words does the average ballpoint pen write?
^^ How many pens per year does the United States' user use?
^^^ What did the very first ballpoint pen cost?
^^^^ What is the usual thing a person writes with a new pen?
^^^^^ How many ballpoints are sold per minute?
Big Hello: Aluu – Greenlandic https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm
Second Halloween Horror Story: Exactly how many kids are in a kids meal?
Max Picture of the Week: Max and the Great Pumpkin Patch
Fake Library Statistics of the Week: It's getting to be every librarian's favorite time of year, double cardigan season. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts
Witch Hazel and her broommate Witch Hilda had a great hex life. / Halloween Pick Up Lines: If I were a zombie, I'd eat you first.
..........Who you gonna call.........Ray Parker Jr ….......Ghostbusters Theme
Third Halloween Horror Story: Soon as you say “my child would never...” here they come nevering like they never nevered before. --Submitted by RHOZ
Moonbeam: He who provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. --James Boswell
Meditation Seed of the Week: How did we get from bonfires and dead saints to plastic masks and candy corn?
Fourth Halloween Horror Story: If we ever travel thousands of light years to a planet inhabited by intelligent life, let's just make patterns in their crops and leave. --Submitted by Heinlein Society
Week of the Week: Disarmament Week (23-30) – North Korea wants nuclear weapons so badly, their leader is a nuke, (Little Boy and Fat Man. / For anyone who doesn't know how to make nuclear weapons, this is basically how,.........carefully.
Fifth Halloween Horror Story: Making me laugh so hard that I pee in my pants isn't the accomplishment it once was. --Thoughts from Aisle 4
Vampire bats can't drink coffee. It keeps them awake all day. / "Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, 'Never take candy from strangers.' And then they dressed me up and said, 'Go beg for it.' " --Rita Rudner
.........Saying come join us, sister, come kiss the flame.........Cowboy Junkies …..Witches
^ An average ballpoint pen will write approximately 50,000 words – or about 100 pages of text.
Almanac: It is Friday, October 29, 2021. The moon was in the third quarter yesterday and is in Leo. It is Internet Day, National Cat Day, National Hermit Day, World Psoriasis Day, and World Stroke Day.
Among those born on this month were James Boswell (1740), Charles Ebbets (1859), Jean Giraudoux (1882), Bela Lugosi (1884), Fanny Brice (1891), Ed Kemmer (Buzz Corey, Space Patrol, 1921), William Mauldin (1921), Geraldine Brooks (1925), Richard Dreyfuss (1947), Kate Jackson (1948), Randy Jackson (1951), Steven Sweet (1965), and Winona Ryder (1971).
On October twenty-ninth Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia (539), Don Giovanni debuted (1787), the International Committee of the Red Cross was founded (1863), the Hawaiian Republic held its first election (1894), the Charleston dance was introduced (1923), Turkey proclaimed itself a republic ()1923), the Stock Market crashed (1929), the ball point pen went on sales (1945), the Star of India was stolen (1964), the National Organization of Women was founded (1966), and China announced an herbal male contraceptive (1988).
Night Sky, 10/29: Look for bright Capella sparkling low in the northeast these evenings. Look for the Pleiades cluster about three fists at arm's length to Capella's right. These harbingers of the cold months rise higher as evening grows late—and watch for Aldebaran coming up below the Pleiades. Upper right of Capella, and upper left of the Pleiades, the stars of Perseus lie astride the Milky Way. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/sky-at-a-glance/
Image of the Week: Extreme Jack-o-lantern
Sixth Halloween Horror Story: Fox News on Halloween: Expect a menacing caravan invading your neighborhood making demands and planning reprisals against those who refuse.... --Submitted by SDS
This Week: Saturday, October 30 – Checklist Day & Devil's Night aka Mischief Night & Visit A Cemetery Day
Sunday, October 31 - Magic Day & All Hallows Eve & Samhain & World Cities Day
Night Sky, 10/31: Venus, brilliant at magnitude –4.4, shines in the southwest during twilight, crossing the feet of Ophiuchus between Antares at its lower right and the Sagittarius Teapot at its upper left. Venus now stays up about 45 minutes after twilight's end. It will continue to get higher and brighter into early December.
Monday, November 1 – Author's Day & Extra Mile Day & Forgiveness and Happiness Day
Tuesday, November 2 – All Souls Day & Cookie Monster's Birthday
Wednesday, November 3 – Cliché Day & Public Television Day & Sandwich Day
Thursday, November 4 – Fountain Pen Day & National Candy Day & Love Your Lawyer Day
Night Sky, 11/4: The Southern Taurids are a long-lasting shower that peaks during its activity period. The shower is active for more than two months but rarely produces more than five shower members per hour, even at maximum activity. The moon is new today (in Scorpio) so viewing should be good. https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." --J K Rowling / "This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else." --Wednesday Addams
..........You can say anything you want.........Ghost …..If You Have Ghosts
^^ 4.3 pens are used, on average, by each person in the United States each year.
Seventh Halloween Horror Story: My heart goes out to any aspiring dystopian fiction authors who keep having their ideas stolen by the conservative party.
Moonbeam: Only the mediocre are always at their best. --Jean Giraudoux
Video of the Week: Lewis Black on Candy Corn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jklghkb8XNA
Ollie's Very Own Picture of the Week: Ollie – the little, not-so-bad witch
Not So Late Night Snacks of the Week: Over the pandemic people took all that money that we saved by not going out and spent it on stuff and we have not stopped doing that. So finally we overwhelmed the stuff pipeline. What's worse there is one boat stuck in the Suez Canal carrying the world's only copy of "How to make the supply chain work" --Peter Sagal Wait Wait Don't Tell Me 10/23/21
...bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men. --N.O.W. Statement of Purpose
What do you do when you meet the devil. Remember he is the prince of lies. Knock on something solid and say, “Nice illusion, dude”. / Does Pumpkinhead drink human spiced lattes?
..........Future uncertain but certainly slight.........INXS …..Devil Inside
^^^ The first ballpoint pens sold in New York (1945) cost $12 each – or about a day’s wages.
Eighth Halloween Horror Story: The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions for Everyday Use by Dawn Rae Downton ~~This is a real book. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-book-of-curses-and-maledictions-for-everyday-use-dawn-rae-downton/1101008400
Daughter of Video of the Week: Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUDw409UMT0&list=PLynm9jm2Z9AIGPycHzwkN_FvWTUPU7ivt ~~in 1951 when Brice died, I was seven. We listened to Baby Snooks every Sunday night on the radio (we didn't have a television yet). One day my mother said to me, “Baby Snooks died”. I was shocked, of course, and asked how she died and my mother said “of old age”. It was the first mind-blow that I remember.
Collective Nouns of the Week: A babble of Linguists and a Babel of words
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Unclog a drain: Clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water. Alka-Seltzer®: Wacky Uses ~~After visiting this site weekly for years and years, this week it told me the site was unsafe. I had to defy my operating system to view it. Travel at your own risk.
Puzzle of the Week: Name a famous actress (8,6). Change the next-to-last letter of her first name to an S. Then reverse the order of the last three letters, and you'll name a famous ruler (7,1). The actress's last name is an anagram of where you would find this ruler. Who is the actress and the ruler? NPR Sunday Puzzle 10/24/21
Those ghosts in the sheets are people who died and their souls got caught in the dubet. / The Union of Ghosts has a lobbyist in congress to promote transparency.
...........He's the hairy handed gent who ran amuck in Kent.........Warren Zevon …..Werewolves of London
^^^^ 95% of the time, when a person receives a new pen, the first word they write is their name.
Ninth Halloween Horror Story: Halloween Reminder: Teenagers who seem too old to trick-or-treat chose childhood over partying. Be happy and hand over the snickers. --sb of kc
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: All-Con 2021 (29-31, Dallas) Emerging from the storm... https://www.all-con.org/
Name That Poet of the Week: ...They was two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side, An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ’fore she knowed what she’s about! An’ the gobble-uns ’ll git you ef You Don't Watch Out...
Actual Science Conference of the Week: International Conference on Intelligent Control of Robotic Systems (28-29, Los Angeles) ...encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference... https://waset.org/intelligent-control-of-robotic-systems-conference-in-october-2021-in-los-angeles
Answer to Puzzle of the Week: Charlize Theron --> Charles I, throne
Self care isn't always chocolate and NetFlix. Sometimes, it's getting out of bed and doing more difficult tasks like summoning a demon to help with the dishes or finding the right number of chicken bones to appease the thing that lives in the attic. / The nerds at KU crossed a vampire bat with a computer. It was love at first byte.
..........Don't miss a chance for a midnight dance.........The Singing Walrus …..Pumpkin Jack
^^^^^ Each second of every day, more than 125 ballpoint pens are sold. That works out to 7,500+ per minute.
My Own Writing of the Week: The strangest thing I found was in the middle of a list of spells that had been translated from tablets found in the ancient city of Ur in Sumeria. There was a series of spells to make your man more potent - Religious Viagra, of sorts. One of them required stationing various livestock (goats and bulls, primarily) about the bedroom and intoning "Fuck me 50 times like the Ram fucks the ewe!! Fuck me 50 times like the Bull fucks the cow!! etc. over and over. Yikes, no wonder the poor guys couldn't perform. And livestock in the bedroom, seriously? Could you use paintings or was the smell part of the magic?
I must admit I have never in one night approached 50 times in the style of just one animalistic rut, much less several. Obviously, this relegates me to the rank of light weight. It also gives me great respect for the women of Ur. --From Adoration
Thank God, It's The Last Halloween Horror Story: Whatever you do, give 100%...unless you're donating blood. --Submitted by RHOZ
Poet of the Week: James Whitcomb Riley The Elf Child
Today's Peace of History:, October 29, 1983: Because the U.S. planned to site 48 nuclear-tipped cruise missiles in their country, over 500,000 Dutch took part in a rally in the Netherlands’ capital city, The Hague. The numbers at the protest were swelled by anger over the U.S. invasion of Grenada, a small Caribbean island, earlier in the week.
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. --Shakespeare / I met a ghost at a Halloween party last year. I tried to chat him up but he said he was only there for the boos.
..........We give thanks to what was before.........Cernunnos Rising …..For Those Who Brought Us Here
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle, 10/29/21, Need-Fire ePistle, Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS 66047
Moonbeam: I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am. --James Boswell
Cost of War:
As of 10/28/21 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,928,137,021,076.
As of 10/21/21 Military Costs of War since 2001: $2,926,941,008,523.
As of 10/28/21 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $1,087,875,029,694.
As of 10/21/21 Homeland Security Costs since 2001: $1,087,262,944,299.
As of 10/28/21 State Department War on Terror Costs since 2001: $162,186,600,706.
As of 10/21/21 State Department War on Terror Costs since 2001: $161,623,120,298.
As of 10/28/21 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,012,107,090,895.
As of 10/21/21 Interest on War Debt since 2001: $1,010,533,462,405.
As of 10/28/21 Veterans Care since 2001: 2,097,292,625,207.
As of 10/21/21 Veterans Care since 2001: 2,085,362,692,519.
As of 10/28/21 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $7,287,602,671,976.
As of 10/21/21 Total Cost of Wars since 2001: $7,271,727,150,844.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
...women will develop confidence in their own ability to determine actively, in partnership with men, the conditions of their life, their choices, their future, and their society. NOW Statement of Purpose
Famous Last Words: ...always receive their just deserts! --Don Giovanni
..........I'll be a moon-breathe by your side.........Loreena McKennitt …..Samhain Night
Have you come to sing pumpkin carols? -Linus Van Pelt / I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color. --Wednesday Addams
May Peace play your trick
And Joy be your treat
prairie mama
christine
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