DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

    From pumpkin farmers to confectioners to costume shops and beyond, Halloween is big business in the U.S.--generating nearly $6 billion annually in retail sector alone.  We dig into the numbers to show where the big money is spent, on everything from national charities to neighborhood dentists. 36 million -Number of trick-or-treat aged kids 5 to 13 in the U.S. 93% -Percentage of children who get to dress up and go door to door. $5.77 billion -Total spent in 2008 on Halloween, including candy, parties and witches' brew. $140 million -Money Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has raised since 1950. 51.8 million-Number of adults who don their sexy nurse, pimp or pirate outfits on Halloween. 73.4% -Percentage of households that say they will dish out treats on Halloween (26.6%: Number of households just asking for a nasty trick) 28% -Number of children, aged 2 to 5, who will get cavities. 1.1 billion -Pounds of pumpkins decorated, turned into pie and smashed in the...

Jaws is still the Number 1 horror movie ever, with a worldwide gross of $470 million. 37 Stephen King scary stories have been made into feature films. Jamie Lee Curtis starred in 6 horror movies between 1978 and 1981, earning the nickname "THE SCREAM QUEEN." 189 horror movies were released in 1972, the most prolific year in Hollywood for the genre. The nightly wage for a zombie in 1978 was $1 ($3.55 adjusted for inflation), according to an extra who played one in that years Dawn of the Dead . 4267 Roxbury St., the house in Simi Valley, Ca., where POLTERGEIST was filmed, was last sold in 1979, for $143,500 ($431,247 in todays money).  Zillow estimates the home's current value at $573,500. The real-life Wisconsin grave robber and killer Ed Gein, who disembodied and skinned his victims in the 1950s, inspired three villians: Psycho's Norman Bates, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre's Leatherface, and The Silence of the Lamb's Buffalo Bill.  One 1 h...

Number 5, Catacombs, Paris, France When Paris as a city was starting to grow, they needed more room for the settlers to live in, which meant that they needed to remove the Parisians who would not resist to move, in this case the dead.  They removed all dead corpses, millions to be exact and took them and placed them along the dark passageways underneath the city where they lie till this day and have been given the name The Empire of the Dead.  The Paris Catacombs attract over a million visitors a year who walk along the skeletons and remains that are left.  Many of the visitors and guides who have visited the place have encountered many ghostly inhabitants that still roam and follow the visitors as they walk along the Catacombs.  There have been many visitors who can't handle the tour and become very overwhelmed that the tour is cut short.  It is also said that if you were to take pictures within the Catacombs they will reveal orbs and ghostly apparitions....

   You have seen it on television, a group of men and women sneaking around dark and mysterious buildings with high tech gadgets seeking out the things that go bump in the night.  The popularity of shows like Ghost Hunters , Scariest Places on Earth , and Paranormal State have sparked new interest in haunted places.    Not only is ghost-hunting fun, but also your results could be worth a million dollars.  The James Randi Educational Foundation  offers a one million dollar prize to any one who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.  If you are planning a midnight trip to the abandoned cemetery, you have better be prepared.  For under a hundred dollars you can get the same equipment used by the professional ghost hunters.  This reasonably priced equipment can be found at local stores and low-cost online retailers and should include a digital camera, an Ir Thermomet...

  Chocolate is one of the few foods known to man about which people are actually passionate.  We're talking about a wild, burning compassion; one that continues to grow with each delicious bite. For some of us, chocolate s considered to be a necessity of life.    Eating chocolate feels good.  Some physicians claim that chocolate has something to do with the hormonal imbalance that happens within the body from time to time.  Psychiatrists go so far as to say that chocolate could be a substitute for sex ( especially after you've been married for a while!), particularly when sex isn't available or just not very good (like I said before, after you've been married for a while!!!).  There are lots of theories as to why we want or need chocolate, none of which are proven but all of which are interesting to explore.  Particularly, if that exploration involved more chocolate.    Most people believe that the Aztec Indians should be credited for ...

   There is a point in some people's lives that it becomes obvious that there's something in the world besides the physical, everyday world that we all experience.  This is almost always in the form of first-hand experience, and the experiences range from touching, good experiences, to terrifying, almost dangerous ones.    For those that are plagued, not blessed, by paranormal entities, it's stressful and frightening, and people almost always look for ways to make it stop.  Unfortunately, when people look for ways to make the bad things go away, they only hurt themselves most of the time.  This is because of scam artists who promise that all problems will cease if a large sum of money is handed over to them, but all that happens is that those people are left with less in their pockets and left to live off of and things that still go booo! and aaarrrr! in the night.    If people don't go the route of lining the pockets of snake oil salesmen,...

   In Irish folklore, the Banshees are known as the ancestral spirits of the Fairy world.  Their history extends way back into the dim and mysterious past.    Banshees are among the oldest Fairy folk of Ireland, associated as strongly as shamrocks and potatoes.  Banshees, also known as Bean-Sidhe, were appointed to forewarn members of Irish families of impending death.  Her prescence alone brings no harm or evil, but to hear a Banshee in the act of keening is to have witnessed the announcement of the death of a loved one.  The Banshee's wail pierces the night and its notes rise and fall like waves over the countryside.    It is said that Banshees never appear to the one who is to die but to their loved ones.  In times gone by she was seen washing human heads, limbs or bloody clothing until the water was dyed with blood.  Over the centuries this image changed.  The Banshee now paces the land, wringing her hands and cryi...