That was a pretty cool Halloween. We took Allie to a party with some other toddlers, and then walked around the neighborhood with them so they could experience Trick or Treat for the first time. Allie didn't seem to get the point of the candy since we don't let her eat it yet, but she thought going and meeting people at their doors was pretty neat. Then we went to another friend's house and watched The Ring since I was the only person left on the planet who hadn't seen it. I thought it was well shot and creepy, though Jill kept attesting how scary it wasn't, a little too much to be convincing, I think. The first time she saw it was on a seven inch screen on an airplane, and I don't think even The Exorcist would be scary on a flight with attendants waiting on me. The story (Ringu) must have grown out of the savage practice of sending chain letters, something I still get in my email to this day, from people you would otherwise think of as logical and sane. As I always write to those friends, thanks for giving me the chance to receive happiness/windfall of money, etc., but don't you think the option where I meet an untimely death after not passing it on makes it something you shouldn't give me? Do you also live by fortune cookies, Tarot cards and pennies you find heads up? Now I'm listening to the annual ghost story show of Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell, but I'll probably turn it off soon. Some good calls are coming in, but most aren't and there are few things as unrewarding as a redneck recounting a ghost story and all the crap details they drop in thinking it makes the story more solid. Someone a few minutes ago even ended one with "and we found out the house was on an Indian burial ground." I hope it folded up and got sucked into space like the house in that deeply chitty movie Poltergeist. When I was a kid, Village of the Damned scared me more than anything. And comparing notes with Mark Schultz at the Minnesota show, we both associated the movie with those bug-eyed paintings of kids in the 60's that I can't find any trace of now. Let's face it, as all these movies mentioned prove (except for Poltergeist), kids are scary. Except for my daughter dressed up as a bee.