HALLOWEEN MONSTER TRIVIA, 13 FACTS ABOUT VAMPIRES

   Almost every culture in the world has its own vampire legend, and some date back thousands of years.  Today, we are most familiar with Count Dracula and other folklore from Eastern Europe.  Do you want to learn more?  Here is a list of 13 juicy trivia facts to get your blood pumping with Halloween just about a day away.

1.  Was the first vampire a woman?  The oldest known vampire legends come from Babylonian and Sumerian mythology.  Female demons called the Lilu were said to hunt women and children at night, and drink their blood.
2. Vlad III Tepes, also known as Vlad Dracul, was known for his incredible cruelty, he was alleged to have killed up to 30,000 people at one time!  His blood thirsty reputation inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.
3. The National Retail Federation listed "Vampire" as the second most popular adult Halloween costume in 2005.  Vampires were the sixteenth most popular children's costume for the same year.
4. While modern pop culture usually portrays vampires as sensual and romantic, other countries don't see them that way, the Ghanan Asasabonsam vampire has iron teeth and hooks for feet-which they use to  drop from treetops onto unsuspecting victims.
5. Some believe that Cain was the first vampire, cursed by God for slaying his brother, Abel.  This theory is frequently found in popular films and games.
6. In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" movie won seven awards, including three Oscars.
7. Stakes, fire and sunlight aren't the only ways to kill a vampire.  Other cultures recommend beheading a vampire, boiling it in vinegar, pounding a nail through its navel, or scattering birdseed on its tomb.
8. In Latin American folklore, El Chupacabras is a supernatural creature that drinks the blood of animals-usually chickens and goats.
9. According to popular tradition, vampires can shape-shift into wolves, bats, or clouds of mist. (sometimes they can even change into a blood orange also!)
10. In March 2007, self-proclaimed vampire hunters entered the tomb of Siobodan Milosevic and staked his body through the heart.
11. The medical conditions porphyria,  has been blamed for may reports of vampirism, its victims develop pale skin, sensitivity to sunlight, receding gums which make their teeth appear larger, and sever anemia-the cure for which, in ages past, might have included drinking animals' blood.
12. In the 17th Century, Countess Bathory of Hungary was said to bathe in human blood in order to preserve her beauty.  Some even accused her of vampirism.
13. Vampire bats were named after vampires, not vice-versa.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HAUNTINGS, WHAT GHOSTS HAUNT YOU?

   The term ghost is widely used to refer to any paranormal activity that occurs in the home, but it is really a misnomer.  Ghosts or the spirits of those who have passed on may cause a paranormal disturbance in your home, but they are not the only cause of a haunting.  To determine the type of haunting, an understanding of different types of entities is necessary.

• Residual Ghosts-Residual ghosts are probably the most common type of haunting.  It is believed that when a traumatic or emotionally charged event occurs in the lives of the living that it can be imprinted on the environment.  Certain geological features like the presence of water, limestone and other stone features seem to hold images of past events.  The residual ghost is seen performing the same tasks, walking the same path or singing the same song at regular intervals.  The characteristic person searching for a lost love or walking passively through the area they inhabited when alive is almost certainly a residual ghost.  They repeat the same pattern whether you are present or not.  You can't interact with a residual ghost because it is not aware of your presence.  In fact the residual ghost is not really present at all and is simply an image of a past event.

• Intelligent Spirits-Intelligent spirits, sometimes referred to as earthbound spirits, can interact with you.  No one knows for sure why the spirit of some people remain on earth, but paranormal investigators and researchers believed that the person has unfinished business to complete or is unaware that he has died.  In some cases it appears the spirit lingers simply because it chooses not to pass on to the next realm.  Intelligent ghost may attempt to communicate with you by making sounds or moving objects.  It may appear as an apparition that resembles the human form or appear as a mist.  This ghost may react to your activities or respond to requests.  Direct questioning during an EVP session may elicit direct responses.

• Inhuman Spirits-Inhuman spirits are not the spirit of someone who has passed away.  These spirits were never human and may be referred to by some as evil spirits or demons.  The goal of negative inhuman spirits appears to be to break the will of the individual in order to possess them.  These spirits may manifest in a semi-human form, often half man and half beast.  A horrific stench may accompany a haunting by an inhuman spirit.  Angry growls emanating from the walls or appearing to come from all directions may be audible at all hours of the day or night.  These spirits reportedly have great power and can hurl people and heavy objects across the room and have even been reported to cause occupants of the home to levitate.

• Poltergeists-Poltergeists earn their name from the German for noisy ghost, but most paranormal investigators agree that a poltergeist really is not a ghost at all.  The theory is that a person, usually an adolescent female, subconsciously causes objects to move, creates loud bangs and crashes with no known cause and other physical disturbances due to repressed rage or emotional upheaval.  The telltale sign of poltergeist activity is that it begins with a sudden onset and generally disappears just as suddenly.  It should be noted that not all poltergeist activity centers around an adolescent girl and that this theory has never been proven by scientific evidence.

• Shadow People-Shadow people are shadowy figures that resemble a human.  These beings often appear in corners or in dark hallways, but may be seen peering in doors or standing by the bed.  The characteristic sign of a shadow person is fedora or top hat and what appears to be a dark cape.  Shadow people have been reported across cultures by those who have no knowledge of prior descriptions, yet the descriptions remain largely the same.  No one knows for sure what shadow people are but some believe they may be either alien or creatures from another dimension.  Although shadow people appear to be harmless, extreme fear and a feeling of overwhelming dread often accompany a sighting.

   If you experience paranormal activity in your home and don't know what to do, the first step is to determine the type of haunting you are experiencing.  Once you know whether you are dealing with the spirit of someone who has died or some other entity, you will be better able to make decisions about what action to take ( if you haven't had the life scared out of you!). 

THE HISTORY OF HAUNTED POVEGLIA ISLAND

Poveglia Island

   Poveglia Island is a very small island that is located in Italy's Venetian Lagoon.  The island itself is rather "run of the mill".  It is covered with a smattering of foliage, as well as some run down buildings, a water tower and a bell tower that appears to be receding back into the foliage that surrounds it.  Poveglia Island is split in two by a small canal that runs straight through it.  The canal has walkways over it.  On one side, there are the deteriorating parts of the different buildings, on the other, nothing but greenery and grass.  However, there is a more interesting aspect of the island that one wouldn't suspect by looking at it, though some say, you can tell when you are there, and that is the island's supposedly sinister history.

   Poveglia Island was once inhabited by a small community.  However the island was abandoned around 1380, during the War of Chioggia.  Later, as the Bubonic Plague spread through Europe and inevitably into Venice, Poveglia Island was reportedly used as a dump for bodies and as a lazaretto.  Even worse, there are rumors that live victims of the Bubonic Plague were also brought to the island and left there.  Some of the rumors say that the live victims were burned with the dead or left in mass graves full of dead bodies.  There seems to be no official  records of this, though.  If it were true, the best fate for the live victims may very well have been fire.  Bubonic Plague is a horrible bacterial infection that affects the lymph nodes.  Without modern treatment, a painful death is nearly inevitable.  If the victims didn't die, they would surely have starved to death on the island.




Inside the buildings on Poveglia Island


   The next phase of Poveglia Island's history supposedly began in the early 1920's.  At this time, either a menacing insane asylum or a harmless retirement community was built there.  The story behind this supposed asylum makes the retirement community seem to be the more likely of the two.  Lovers of the paranormal claim that evil experiments were conducted on patients of the asylum by a crazed doctor.  The patients were also supposedly haunted by the plague victims who were buried on Poveglia Island.  The doctor himself reportedly fell victim to these haunting's and threw himself out of the island's bell tower.  The legend goes on to say that his suicide was witnessed  by an asylum worker, who said that the doctor survived the fall and was then suffocated by a mysterious mist.  The asylum or retirement community on Poveglia Island was closed sometime in the 1960's.

Poveglia Island buildings

   Whether you believe any of the stories surrounding Poveglia Island or not, there is certainly something mysterious about the place.  Many people have claimed to sense a presence or worse, while they were visiting the island.  Today, it is owned by the government and closed to the public.  It is currently being used for vineyards.  Whether or not the grapes that are grown there are fertilized by the bodies of the more than 150,000 people who have reportedly died there is a matter of speculation.  Nonetheless, you may want to check the label of your next bottle of wine that comes from this Italian region.

Candy-colored Deneuve | Spooky Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

This bittersweet movie has been on my mind lately. (Have you seen?) It's not to everyone's taste - every word is sung - but there's a famous candy-colored set (the clothes and wallpaper match!)...

The opening credits (here) are so beautifully choreographed...

And the movie of course made Catherine Deneuve a star.

And since it's Halloween! Something from the spooky end of the Deneuve spectrum...

Deneuve plays a *very* unhinged woman in Repulsion, and it does a good job putting you in her shoes. Too good...

Cracking up, Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion

Because I seriously felt unhinged too! As I fell asleep, I could've sworn I heard my walls cracking (like the movie) & thumps in the flat, even though I was home alone (like the movie).

{Luckily: The next morning, I saw the plaster in the hall had cracked (the cracking noise) and fallen to the floor (the thumps). I was NOT crazy, yippee!}

~ Have a candy-colored and spooky Halloween! ~

(Images via Musicals in Vancouver, Flow TV, heavensabove, Film Forager, Movie Mail, Criterion Forum, Seattle Times, Somewhere in the Depths of Cinema, and "Repulsion" film stills via heavensabove.)

I want candy

{Pile of British candy}

I can't help it, it's all this Halloween talk! And if, like me, you've a thing for British candy, but find yourself Stateside of the pond, all is not lost! Where to find candyliciousness in 3 major East Coast towns...

Cardullo's in winter, Cambridge

Boston & Cambridge: Cardullo's not only has piles o' British candy, but the most expensive sandwich - over $100 for a caviar sandwich!

Rodman's, Washington, DC

DC: Rodman's, the "Weirdest Little Drugstore in Washington," is a savior for Brit-candy hunters in the wilds of DC.





Tea & Sympathy in the Village

Manhattan, NYC:  Tea & Sympathy has carried British candy since the last monarch (it seems!)

Humble London Tube candy machine

Confession: My candy sources in London aren't as fancy as the above. We just buy from the nearby petrol (gas) station or the candy machines in the Tube (subway). :)



(Images via Muffin Top, Eric Rolph at panoramio, DC Beer, Chris J Russell and just some photos.)

5 GAMES TO PLAY AT HOME DURING HALLOWEEN

   Scary games to play at home are perfect for Halloween.  Some games are scarier than others, but for an adult Halloween party, the scarier the better. Try one of these games to play at home at your adult Halloween Party.



Ouija Board


   Of the scary games to play at home, the Ouija Board is by far one of the scariest, if no the scariest.  A Ouija Board is used to talk to spirits. Ouija Boards make alot of people squeemish.  There are experts who believe that the Ouija Board is dangerous.  Some psychiatric experts believe Ouija Boards are portals that free demons from other dimensions to prey on humans.  For brave souls that want some truly scary fun, the Ouija Board is it.




Fury of Dracula


   Fury of Dracula is one of the scary games to play at home, designed by Stephen Hand.  In this board game, one player is Dracula and the rest are vampire hunters.  The goal is to destroy Dracula before he can succeed.

Atmosfear

   This a board game that also incorporates a DVD.  The aim of Atmosfear is to collect a key from each of the six regions of the board before heading to the "Well of Fears", in the center and attempting to draw you fear from among those of your opponents in order to win the game.  "The scary game to play at home is not recommended for people under the age of 18".  The DVD acts as a timer and there is a Gatekeeper who appears on screen, causing problems for the players.  These appearances are random, so you never know when the Gatekeeper will show up.




Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game


   Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game, is a scary game to play at home that is a survival horror board game.  As a player, you can choose to either play on the Hero team or be one of the zombies.  The game comes with a CD of scary music and the art for the game includes photographs of scary zombie images.




Betrayal at House on the Hill

   This scary game has players exploring a house of terror.  All the players begin as allies, but when an Omen is revealed, a player will change into a traitor and could turn into a zombie, a cannibal, a vampire and more.  Scenarios change and those who can deal with the change will be victorious.  Traitor's goal is to kill the hero's.  Hero's goal is to survive.



TOP HAUNTED PLACES IN CANADA

   Like many other places in the world, Canada has its fair share of ghost tales and haunted buildings. 



Gibraltar Point Lighthouse

  
   Gibraltar Point Lighthouse on Toronto Islands was first constructed in 1803 and was totally finished and operational by 1809.  Local legend states it is haunted by the first lighthouse keeper, JP Radan Muller.  Muller had been murdered one misty night by drunken soldiers from Fort York, looking for bootleg beer.  The soldiers had cut Muller up and buried his body somewhere on the beach.  The soldiers were charged, but later acquitted.  In 1893, a cofin was found buried on the beach with a jaw bone still inside it, but it has never been known if it ever belonged to Muller.  The lighthouse, since time is no longer on the shore line and  the sand has built up,  it now lies 100 meters inland.  It's not being used and is boarded up, but people say on misty nights you can hear a mans voice moaning and even some people have reported ghostly figures roaming the grounds.




The Screaming Tunnel

   The "Screaming Tunnel" was built by Grand Trunk Railroad in the early 1900's and is located near Niagara Falls.  The tunnel was meant for railroad cars but shortly after finishing the structure, World War I had begun and Grand Trunk Railroad went bankrupt, never finishing laying the track in the tunnel.  Now there's 2 different legends, but both basically have the same story line.  First, is said that a little girls parents were separating and her father took her down by the tunnel and buried her alive. The second, involves the little girls parents were fighting over her and somehow the house that they lived in caught fire.  The little girl ends up getting set on fire and ends up running down into the tunnel.  She runs through the tunnel screaming,  and eventually ends up dying in the tunnel from the excessive burns.  The legend has it if you enter the tunnel and stand in the middle and light a match, something will blow it out and you will hear the little girls screams in the distance.




Bytown Museum


   The Bytown Museum was built in 1827 in Ottawa, Ontario.  The building was used as a storage and treasury facility during construction of the Rideau Canal.  The building is located at the entrance locks of the Rideau Canal and is the oldest surviving stone building in Ottawa with the walls being 2 feet thick of stone.  It officially became the Bytown Museum in 1951.  There is said to be a few different ghost hauntings in this museum.  One of the people that are supposed to be haunting the museum is the builder of the Canal, Colonel John By, and the other is his assistant, General Dunan McNab.  Staff at the museum, over the years, have reported strange events like TVs turning on and off, lights staying on after being turned off, strange messages appear on computer screens when no one's in the room, voices of men yelling and even some angry voices saying, "Get Out".  Some visitors, mostly women, to the museum have reported being pushed hard but no one's around, while others have heard children crying in the doll exhibit and have seen the dolls wink and move.  Even to this date, this is supposed to be one of the most active haunts in Canada.




Peterborough Lift Lock

  
   Known at one time as one of the largest lift locks in the world, Peterborough Lift Lock has its ghost tails.  The lift locks construction began in 1896 and finished in 1904 and officially opened to boating on July 9, 1904.  Many died while building the pylons that supported the locks, many are said to have died from suicides by jumping off  the locks.  It is said that many ghosts roam the labyrinth of underground tunnels within the lock.  Even Creepy Canada has done a TV show on it.  There are visitors tours of the inside of the lock.  Legend has it, that one of  the deaths surrounding the lock was due to an innocent woman who was burnt as a witch in the early 1840's in Peterborough.  The lift lock is still fully functional today and is still known to be extremely haunted.

McBurney Park aka Skeleton Park

   In 1813 to 1865, this park was known as Kingston's Upper Cemetery.  It was a mass cemetery/grave site containing more than 100,000 bodies which had died from some kind of a contagious epidemic.  In 1894 Municipal government tried to remove the remains but many locals objected, due to the  fear that contagious diseases might start again if everything were to be dug up.  The cemetery was transformed into Frontenac Park in 1895 and then became what is known as McBurney Park today, in 1965.  Over the years many different remains have surfaced throughout the park thus giving it the nickname of "Skeleton Park".

Play with your food

What better time than pumpkin-carving season for food art? :)

by Saxton Freymann, from Play With Your Food

I'd love an Anna the Red bento box!

Carl Warner's foodscapes

Kevin Van Aelst

And pumpkins of course!

P.S. Many apologies to anyone I've been trying to follow (or trying to follow me) - I've had major problems with Blogger for ages! I have a new appointment with the computer doctor & hope everything works OK soon.

(Images via 1; 2; 3; 4; pumpkins - 5a/5b/5c/5d.)

London love

Thank you everyone for being so sweet about our job news - though I'm feeling guilty for calling London winters "un-fun"! There's so much to love in London...let us count thy ways...

{Berkeley Square}
The sweet pockets of green

"I've got nasty habits. I take tea at 3." -- Mick Jagger

Afternoon tea!

Karen Millen dresses

View from Waterloo Bridge

Seeing this when you step out the front door

Those street styles

{Chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall}
These guys

{Recent Grace Kelly fashion exhibit}

The amazing V&A, always

(Images via 1; 2; 3; Millen - 4a/4b/4c/4d; 5; 6; street styles - 7a/7b/7c, 8a/8b/8c; chefs - 9a/9b; 10.)

SON OF HOLLYWOOD MOVIE TRIVA, TAKE 2!!

• In his recent autobiography, Ernest Borgnine reveals that his friend George Lindsay, Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show", turned down the part of "Mr. Spock" on TV's "Star Trek".  Lindsay, by the way, started out as a science teacher.
• James Whale said his Frankenstein (1931 star, Boris Karloff.  "His face fascinated me.  I made drawings of his head, adding sharp bony ridges where I imagined the skull might have joined".
• The U.S. Air Force refused to help in the filming of Howard Hawks' The Thing (1951), because the theme of the movie was counter to the Air Force's claim that flying saucers don't exist.  In fact, one crew member (Dewey Martin) reads a quote from Air Force regulations denying flying saucers to the others as they are flying near the UFO crash site.
• In George Pal's War of the Worlds (1953), the unique Flying Wing aircraft that drops the atom bomb on the advancing Martians was a prototype and remains, to this day, the only aircraft of its model in existence.
• The title character in King Kong (1933), was actually an aluminum skeleton, covered by molded sponge rubber covered with rabbit fur.  In New York scenes, the Long model was 24 inches tall.  He was smaller at a one inch- to one foot ratio in the earlier jungle sequences.  Certain body parts were constructed on a massive scale when actors were featured in the scene, as when Fay Wray is nestled in the 8 foot cranelike structure that was Kong's paw.  Three men were inside Kong's head to operate it.
• John Candy was originally supposed to be the young lawyer in Ghostbusters (1984), but Rick Moranis was ultimately hired to play the character, which he helped develop.
• Bela Lugosi only made $700 dollars for his seven week role in Dracula (1930).  Of course, star making roles such as Lugosi's turn as the blood thirsty count routinely make little for the then unknown actors who make them.  They make their bundle on subsequent movies.
• The director of Vincent Price's excellent House of Wax (1953), had one eye.  What's ironic is that Andre de Toth produced one of the best known 3D movies of the period, which he was unable to enjoy.
• The Bates mansion in Psycho (1960), was built to 2/3's scale to heighten the dramatic impact.  It appeared in sequels as well as TV episodes, as on CBS's Murder She Wrote.

Change is in the air

Hope everyone had a wonderful fall weekend! Thank you for all your sweet comments Friday - I've been off the grid, but can't wait to catch up on your blogs. :)

I'm excited. For 4 years, I've been living a nomadic life in London, Cambridge, DC (with stints in Hawaii, of course :))... All for work and love. But as of this fall, our jobs are going to let my significant other and I spend more months together in the States each year!

We still have to go between the East Coast and London sometimes, but I'm psyched to not face another London winter (3pm sunsets are un-fun!) and to be less footloose.

The first side effect? We took a trip out on the lovely East Coast to celebrate and soak in fall color. I could get used to this. :)

~ Wishing you a lovely fall week ahead! ~

{Photographs of changing fall foliage taken in Hudson Valley, NY.}