DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

Vampire Reunion! <p>[Javascript required to view Flash movie, please turn it on and refresh this page]</p> This video comes from   College Humor , and  brings us a fun vampire reunion, filled with familiar faces from all sorts of TV shows and movies. I love how the different vampire mythology clashes – do vampires burn in sunlight, or sparkle? LOL. And the ending with the group of slayers is a great finishing touch. Well done!

   The throbbing beat of traditional drums will be heard across Okinawa beginning tomorrow, a dance celebration of Obon that fills the air with excitement and happiness amidst prayers for good health and a good harvest.    Okinawa City is hosting what many bill as the largest Eisa festival on the island, the 53rd Island-wide Eisa Festival on a three-day run beginning tomorrow. The festival takes place at Koza Athletic Park and Track and Field Stadium, starting with a parade Friday at 7 p.m. The parade winds its way through Mutsumiga Oka Park, Koza Music Town and along Gate 2 Street.    Eisa, an Okinawan ceremonial dance using drums, was originally performed to welcome and console the souls of one’s ancestors during the Summer ‘Bon’ season, but has evolved into community celebrations. Eisa festivals are a photographer’s dream, with the steady beat of various drums leading dances to multiple dynamic moves, while the colorful and exotic costumes g...

      In 1935, Omak Stampede Publicity Chairman, Claire Pentz searched for an exciting event to add to the young rodeo. He heard about a wild and dangerous mountain race that the local Indians (Colvilles) had been running for many years in the Keller area. It was about that time that Grand Coulee Dam was structured, which flooded the Keller Salmon Days area and race course. After discussing it with local Tribal leaders, and the rodeo board, Pentz originated the Suicide Race. The first race was held in 1935, the second year of the rodeo.    Except for safety measures that have been added, the race is run today as it was in 1935 – no holds barred – on a course that starts 50 feet from a sandy bluff across the Okanogan River from the Stampede arena. Horses and riders race 225 feet down the bluff to the river, swim or wade across and dash 500 yards to the finish line in the center of the Stampede are...

   Candy corn is many things. It’s one of the most well known symbols of Halloween and also a best selling candy every year. Despite its large sales and popularity, it’s often out shined by other candies, especially chocolates.    Enough of that! Here, candy corn is in the spotlight. Learn its history and some fun facts! The Beginning    The corn looking tri-colored confection was invented in the 1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company which was based in Philadelphia. When first invented, the candy was made by hand and had a slightly more difficult process than it does today.    It was not available all year long like it is today. Instead, it was made for only 8 months out of the year and was available seasonally – in the fall when farmers harvested their real corn, and of course, around Halloween.    When first sold to customers, the corn lookalike was quite popular among farmers as it actually resembles a ...

   It took a forklift and a cargo net to remove the massive vegetable from Jim Beauchemin's Goffstown, New Hampshire, pumpkin patch.    But from a padded perch at the Topsfield Fair in Massachusetts, the gourd placed Beauchemin on top of New England's giant pumpkin world.    His pumpkin became the New England champion when it tipped the scales at a hefty 1,314.8 pounds.    "The Topsfield Fair is the elite weigh-off in the country," Beauchemin said. "To win it—I call it the pinnacle of my growing years. That's why we do it, the hope of someday winning a title." How to "Go Heavy"    Beauchemin is part of a growing group of giant-pumpkin aficionados who thrill at watching a well-tended pumpkin swell to massive proportions. "You plant a seed the size of your fingernail and end up with a thousand-pound {450-kilogram] pumpkin," said George Hoomis, director of the New England Giant Pumpkin Growers Association. "That's i...

  Killorglin    For communities like Killorglin to survive against the often overpowering commercial pressures imposed by their larger, urbanised neighbours it takes an inherent, deep seated tenacity. To say that the industrial and economic success of the town came about as a result of being ably represented politically, at the right time - is true - but only part of the overall picture. This train of thought displays an ignorance of how these market towns, strategically set down at cross-roads, not only survive against fierce odds but indeed thrive. A cursory glance at the history of any such town will reveal the growing pains and battle scars endured by generations to get us to where we are today.    Rivers played a huge role in the establishment of trade centres and in Killorglin's case the Laune with its link and proximity to the well sheltered Castlemaine Harbour must have presented a very attractive location to the first travellers - commercial or ...

   One thing that most people who love Halloween and scary things  have in common is a love of good books and a love of monsters, mysteries and the bizarre. This list combines the lot by selecting the most horrifying of all monsters from literature through the ages. Be sure to use the comments to tell us your own favorites. 10.  The Giant Squid/20,000 Leagues under the Sea, by Jules Verne    Captain Nemo’s underwater ship, Nautilus, is equipped with the world’s most adanced weaponry for the 1800s, including electrified bullets. But near the end of the novel, Nautilus is swarmed by a school of “poulpes,” which is the French word for “octopi.” It is almost always translated as “giant squid” because one pouple in particular becomes entangled in Nautilus’s propellers, and the crew has to go topside and battle it with axes, harpoons and knives.    Verne never gives the squid’s size, but implies it, “one of these animals, onl...