Famous First Words: The apparition of these faces in the crowd... --Ezra Pound In a Station of the Metro
Happy All Hallow's Eve Eve! I'll try to stay grounded, but my broom may have other plans. 🎃 My cauldron and I can brew some really amazing..uh...tea. 🎃 Did the Petrified Forest get that way because ghosts scared the trees?
..........On a misbegotten, moonless night..........Don Henley …..Miss Ghost
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. --Anne Frank
It is a cloudy Friday morning. There is a light breeze from the south encouraging the willow branches to dance and the mulberry leaves to fly. The foliage is slowly moving from greens to yellows and even reds. There are trees around wearing lush fall colors, but my backyard is still mostly green. The tall plants – hollyhocks, pokeweed – have been mowed and the baby mulberry trees along the fence have been trimmed to the ground. The world smells dry and dusty – not at all like pumpkin spice. The sun is only now lighting up the sky which seems to be a solid bank of clouds without much texture. Birds are up and active in the 60°F air, chirping and cawing and peeping. Puck and Veronica have both been out and returned. Puck is napping under my desk and Veronica has gone to other parts of the house to do cat business – whatever that is. I am sipping decaf and writing to you; can't ask for more than that.
May your weekend be filled with unexpected magic moments, my little goblins.
First Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: After weeks of rioting in Paris no one has been killed. Which technically means your child is safer attending a riot in France than school in America. --martinldart --Submitted by cjj of ks
The Leaky Cauldron Inn is known for its great broom service. 🎃 Don't be afraid, the spider is much smaller than you are. Yeah, so is a grenade. 🎃
..........His candle just at twelve o'clock began to burn quite palely..........Kingston Trio …..Unfortunate Miss Bailey
Trivia Questions: Blessed Samhain!
What percentage of people in the US claim that Halloween is their favorite holiday?
What is the heaviest pumpkin ever recorded?
How much do we spend on Halloween costumes for our pets?
What word or phrase did children use on Halloween before “Trick or Treat” became fashionable?
What happened to trick-or-treating during WWII?
Big Hello: nuqneH – Klingon https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hello.htm
Second Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Have a panic attack. You've earned it. --Dave Tarnowski
Image of the Week:
First Get Out and Vote Item of the Week: Willie Nelson Vote 'Em Out (2:20) ~~Submitted by sw of ks
My secret to successful potions is using only organically grown children. 🎃 When I was a kid I was afraid of the dark. Now that I pay my own electricity bill, I'm afraid of the light. 🎃
..........Tryin' to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies.........Marty Robbins ….Ghost Riders In The Sky
Moonbeam: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. --John Adams
Blasphemy of the Week: Hell is probably just a group chat that you can't leave.--Submitted by Blasphemy Memes
Coffee Joke of the Week: Some people call 5 cups of coffee a problem. I call it a start. https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoffeeMemes4Life
More Get Out and Vote Item of the Week: Bette Midler: All You Fascists Bound To Lose “We're gonna win the midterms, we're coming for his ass”
Next Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Transylvania Wireless is offering their latest new phone. It comes with unlimited hex messaging. --Lennon Cartoons
The fish at Martha's Vineyard are all afraid of Giovanni Godfather, he's such a notorious Lobster 🎃 Winnie Witch had twin girls. The problem is one never knows which witch is which. 🎃
..........walk, walk, walk, walk.........Roky Erickson …..I Walked With A Zombie
1) 23% of people in the US say that Halloween is their favorite holiday.
Almanac: It is Friday, October 30, 2026. The moon enters its first quarter on Sunday (11/1) and is in Cancer. Today is Checklist Day, Create A Great Funeral Day, Devil's Night aka Mischief Night, National Candy Corn Day, National Publicist Day, National Uplift Someone Day, National WICKED Day, Speak Up For Service Day, World Audio Drama Day, and Haunted Refrigerator Night. Because it is the last Friday it is also Frankenstein Friday, International Bandanna Day, National Breadstix (Bread Sticks) Day, and National Pharmacy Buyer Day.
Among those born on this day were Christopher Columbus (1451), John Adams (1735), Richard Sheridan (1751), Feodor Dostoevsky (1821), Ezra Pound (1885), Ruth Gordon (1896), Louis Malle (1932), Grace Slick (1939), Henry Winkler (1945), Harry Hamlin (1951), Charles Martin Smith (1953), Ben Bailey (1970), and Ivanka Trump (1981).
On October thirtieth King Charles I gave Robert Heath the Bahamas (1692), Jane Austen's first novel was published (Sense & Sensibility, 1811), Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth debuted (1873), Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast panicked the nation (1938), Anne Frank was transferred from Auschwitz to Belsen (1944), shoe rationing ended in the US (1945), the US military desegregated (1954), Stalin's body was removed from Red Square (1961), Dolly Parton released her debut single (The Last Thing On My Mind, 1967), and former Trump campaign chairman & associate Rick Gates indicted on fraud charged (2017).
Night Sky, 10/30: The Orion Nebula (M42) is visible late night & predawn sky. Also the moon approaches Dwarf planet Ceres.
Fraternal Picture of the Week: Halloween in Bremerton...
This Week: Saturday, October 31 – Samhain & All Hallows Eve & Magic Day & National UNICEF Day
Sunday, November 1 – All Saints Day & Cinnamon Day & Extra Mile Day & National Family Literacy Day & Plan Your Epitaph Day
Night Sky, 11/1: Daylight Savings Time Ends at 2 am. Set your clock back one hour. ~~We'll be turning our clocks back soon. Gaining an extra hour in 2026 is like getting a bonus track on a Yoko Ono album. --Submitted by cjj of ks Jupiter shines in the morning sky. Mars is moving through Cancer toward the Beehive Cluster. Saturn will be visible into the evening hours.
Monday, November 2 – All Souls Day & Color the World Orange Day & Job Action Day
Tuesday, November 3 – Election Day & Cliché Day & Public Television Day & World Jellyfish Day
Night Sky, 11/3: The Square of Pegasus, the Double Cluster in Perseus, & the Andromeda Galaxy grace the night sky.
Wednesday, November 4 – International Stress Awareness Day & Use Your Common Sense Day
Thursday, November 5 – Firewood Day & National Medical Cannabis Day & Play Monopoly Day
Night Sky, 11/5: Sunrise: 6:52 am Sunset: 5:16 pm 10 hours and 24 minutes of daylight. Moonrise: 3:11 am Moonset 3:14 pm
If the broom fits, ride it. 🎃 Don't be frightened but Halloween 2026 is on Friday the 13 for the first time in 666 years. 🎃
..........I'll show you my dark secret.........The Toadies …..Possum Kingdom
2) This very month (10/26) a pumpkin weighing 3,156 pounds was grown by Ron Wallace. It is the first pumpkin to weigh in over 3,000 pounds since they started keeping track.
Preantepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Any stairway can be a stairway to heaven if you're clumsy enough. --Submitted by cp of ks
Moonbeam: Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves to pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing: to be able to dare! --Fyodor Dostoevsky
More II Get Out the Vote Item of the Week: Jon Stewart 10/27/26 For God's sake get out and vote.
Fun Fact of the Week: People with very young babies or very old dogs spend half their time worrying about the strange breathing noises they make and the other half worrying because they aren't making the strange breathing noises.
Video of the Week: Disney's first Silly Symphony: The Skeleton Dance (5:53)
In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit. --Anne Frank
At Dracula's Used Furniture there are 3 wall mirrors with “Never Used” written on the price tag. 🎃 When you called and asked me to “check the children”, I thought it was a crank call, then I remembered … the oven. 🎃
..........You look like Boris Karloff and you don't even care.........Tom Petty …..Zombie Zoo
3) According to the National Retail Federation, Americans are projected to spend $92 billion on pet costumes in 2026 .
Antepenultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Satan gets blamed for an impressive amount of stuff people clearly thought up all by themselves. --Submitted by Blasphemy Memes
Weird Word of the Week: Callipygian: Having beautifully shaped buttocks. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/callipygian ~~Teach it to Trump; it will class up his rambles about asses.
Dragon of the Week: The All Hallows Dragon
Wacky Uses for Common Products: Sepia tone photographs. Place the photographs (color or black and white) in a tray of some Coca-Cola, let soak for two minutes, carefully rinse the photographs in a tray of water, and dry the pictures (pat them with a dry towel and then use a blow-dryer set on high). The photos will turn a nice shade of sepia, the color that makes old photos look so warm. https://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/cocacola4.html
Retro Get Out the Vote Item of the Week: 2020 with the muppets and others Amusing (2:03)
When Walter Witch's broom broke, he had to witch hike. 🎃 My toddler was scared of the thunder so I told her it was just the sky farting. Now she giggles when she hears it. Sometimes all you need is a rebrand. 🎃
...........I'm a black bat, baby, bangin' on your window pane.........Neil Young …..Vampire Blues
4) Trick or Treat was not the original phrase children would shout to receive candy. Instead they yelled, “Belsnickel” The first recorded use of “Trick or Treat” was 1927 in Blackie, Alberta.
Penultimate Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: I just realized that the reason ghosts say Boo is because it's a Latin verb. They're literally saying I alarm/I am alarming/I do alarm!! If it comes from the latin word, they're actually saying I'M YELLING which is even cuter. Do ghosts speak Latin because it's a dead language?
Science Fiction Convention of the Week: VillainsCon 2026 (31-1, Beaufort, SC) Get ready for an action-packed weekend... https://www.villainsconbeaufort.org/
Question of the Week: If poison is past its expiry date, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?
Another Get Out the Vote Item of the Week: 2026 Workout video with Jane Fonda. Exercise Your Rights (1:29)
People in Iran are afraid of spiders. But in Iraq, no phobia. 🎃 When Wanda Witch met Dracula she said, “You're a pain in the neck, but I love your coffindence.” 🎃
..........And it vanished in the air..........Grateful Dead …..Friend Of The Devil
5) In 1941 the US government rationed sugar because of the war. Each person was allowed 28 lbs over the course of a year. In 1945 it was reduced first to 20 lbs and then 15 lbs per person per year. For Halloween people handed out fruit, coins, or nothing at all.
Protest Song of the Week: Grifting Along With The Bumbling Trumpleweeds by Roy Zimmerman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNdefi2os7k
Quote of the Week: It's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if it does it long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself. --James Baldwin
Final Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: We were at a Halloween Haunted House last week. I walked into a room and there was a dead body on the floor. YOUR NEXT was written in blood on the wall. I was shivering, but I couldn't help myself, I dipped my finger in the blood and wrote YOU'RE. --Submitted by LanguageNerds
Today's Peace of History: October 30, 1995: Over 80 people were arrested at Sugarloaf Mountain in southern Oregon during a massive direct action to prevent clear-cutting of old-growth forests on public land by private timber companies.
Wesley Witch lives in DC. He has gotten very tired of being picked up by every politician on a witch hunt. 🎃 That mathematician who's scared of negative numbers will stop at nothing to avoid them. 🎃
..........They think it's Red Grange instead of poor Ann Boylen...Kingston Trio …..With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm
Masthead of the Week: Friday ePistle, October 30, 2026: ePistle Boo. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. Lawrence, KS.
Moonbeam: A bumper of good liquor will end a contest quicker than justice, judge, or vicar. --Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Cost of War: Pentagon Spending 10/29/26: $1,099,230,378,727. That's nineteen billion, five hundred and thirty-five million, six hundred and forty thousand, seven hundred and fifty-nine dollars spent this week on fear and hatred.
Pentagon Spending 10/1/26: $1,020,702,251,165
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. --Norman Schwarzkopf
Pentagon Spending in September 2026: $83,835,546,693
Pentagon Spending in August 2026: $89,089,647,361
Pentagon Spending in July 2026: $85,053,017,282
Pentagon Spending in June 2026: $82,621,957,422
Pentagon Spending in May 2026: $87,601,145,719
Pentagon Spending in April 2026: $81,264,897,194
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
Retro
II Get Out and Vote Item of the Week:
I think it's 2018, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately it's still
relevant. Rock
The Vote (3:26)
Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart. --Anne Frank
Famous Last Words: So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. --Orson Welles ...as the radio narrator for War of the Worlds
..........Oh, how the ghost of you clings.........Ella Fitzgerald …..These Foolish Things
When the indigenous Mexican was scared, he hid in Hispanic Room. 🎃 It never fails, my pumpkins don't just get drunk they get smashed 🎃 Turns out, I'm 100% That witch.
May Peace haunt your days
And Joy frequent your nights
prairie mama
christine
Last Laugh:
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