October Stats

Let's check out some stats for the month of October, shall we?

Favorite Monster Cereal Poll Results

And the winner is.........Count Chocula!

It was a close race between The Count and Boo Berry. The other monsters never stood a chance.

65 votes were cast with the following breakdown.

Count Chocula  23 votes
Boo Berry  20 votes
Franken Berry  9 votes
Fruity Yummy Mummy  8 votes
Frute Brute  5 votes

Workin' It!

Here's some photos from the Halloween Costume Contest we had at work today. I broke out my "Skipper" costume that I last wore 10 years ago. Unfortunately I didn't win. :(  I even shaved my beard off! The winners were all gender-benders. A guy dressed as an old lady and two gals dressed as Sherlock Holmes and Captain Morgan.

Happy Halloween!

Today's the day! HALLOWEEN!!!

What's your plans for today? Unfortunately I'm working. But, we are allowed to wear costumes, as long as they don't have a mask. I'll be back later today with some pictures of my costume from work.

In the meantime, here's some test photos of my son in his Wolverine costume that he's wearing to his work.

Reminder: Vote For Your Favorite Monster Cereal

Voting ends tomorrow! Boo Berry and Count Chocula are way out in the lead and poor Frute Brute is dead last.

Imagineering "Wrinkles"

This is a thrift store find from a few weeks ago. It's an unopened box of Imagineering Party Makeup "Wrinkles" from 1988. I paid $2.00 for it and the original price sticker of $7.95 is still on the box. I'm glad I waited 25 years to get this bargain. :)

Deck The Halls With Bowels And Gory...

Here's a few photos of some of my decorations inside our house plus my wife's Halloween finger nails.

Halloween With Barry

Fan of Wonderful Wonderblog, Barry Rubin, sent me a few of his old Halloween photos. Thanks Barry!

Here's a couple of pics of Barry from 1976 wearing the classic Ben Cooper Spider-Man costume.

To quote Barry, "me as Groucho from 1982...when kids could wear masks to their Halloween school parade!"

What Happened To Trick-Or-Treating?

Last night was trick-or-treat here in Akron, OH from 5 PM until 7 PM. I made 40 treat bags to give out to the little beggars. I had 26 of them left at the end of the night. Last year I gave out 56 bags, two years ago around 60 and three years ago 32. The temperature was in the low 40s and shortly after 5:30 we had some freezing rain for about a minute. Was it too cold out? Do kids not trick-or-treat anymore? Or do they just not come down my street. I don't know. I hope for a better turn out next year.

Marcia Wallace, R.I.P.

From Variety --

Marcia Wallace, the feisty redhead who starred as receptionist Carol Kester on “The Bob Newhart Show” and voiced teacher Edna Krabappel on “The Simpsons,” died Friday. She would have turned 71 on Nov. 1.

TMZ reported the actress died at her home in Los Angeles but other details remained unclear.

Wallace won an Emmy for outstanding voiceover performance on “The Simpsons” in 1992.

Born in Creston, Iowa, she moved to New York after graduating college and worked in off-Broadway productions. The role of the receptionist on “The Bob Newhart Show” was written specifically for her after she had appeared numerous times on “The Merv Griffin Show.”

After “Bob Newhart,” she went on to appear on several game shows and on “ALF,” “Full House” and “Bewitched” as well as “Murphy Brown,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Taxi” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

She appeared in more than 100 episodes of “The Simpsons” as Bart Simpson’s teacher, who eventually marries Ned Flanders.

She also appeared in films such as “My Mother the Werewolf,” “Teen Witch” and “Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College.” Wallace appeared onstage in productions including “The Vagina Monologues.” She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 and published a memoir “Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way!”

She is survived by a son.

The 46 Scariest TV Show Themes Of All Time

 

Well, I finally finished putting together a Halloween music compilation before Halloween! lol

This mix features the theme songs to scary TV shows from this online story The 50 Scariest TV Shows Of All Time.

The article is two years old and I could only find 46 of the 50 themes. But, I still think it's pretty cool. The tracks are in alphabetical order, not in numerical order like the original list. Plus, the quality may vary on some of the tracks. Hopefully it sounds OK. I haven't actually listened to it all the way through.

Click below to download. I hope the link will stay active until at least Halloween!

The 46 Scariest TV Show Themes Of All Time

Hal Needham, R.I.P.

From USA Today --

Heaven just gained a guy who could jump out of a plane or onto a stagecoach like nobody's business.

Hal Needham, a former military paratrooper who later became one of Hollywood's top stuntmen and a film director, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82 after a short bout with cancer, according to Variety.

The Tennessee native was first a stunt double for Richard Boone on the 1950s Western TV show Have Gun, Will Travel, and parlayed that into big-screen work on How the West Was Won, Little Big Man, Blazing Saddles, Chinatown and other films in the 1960s and '70s.

After enduring countless injuries — in his career, he broke 56 bones, including his back twice — Needham moved into filmmaking. He wrote the screenplay for Smokey and the Bandit, and his friend Burt Reynolds offered him a chance to direct it as a 1977 comedy starring the actor and Sally Field.

Needham directed the 1980 Bandit sequel and the Reynolds movies Hooper (1978), Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983), plus the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Western vehicle The Villain (1979), Megaforce (1982) and Rad (1986).

The former stuntman penned a 2011 memoir about his time in the movies, Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life.

In 2012, Needham was honored with a Governors Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and was introduced by Quentin Tarantino. "You know, you're looking at the luckiest man alive," Needham said during his acceptance speech. "And lucky to be alive."

Schwarzenegger paid tribute to him on Twitter Friday: "Hal Needham was a great stunt coordinator, director, and an icon. I'm still grateful he took a chance with me in The Villain. I'll miss him."

Count Morbida's Monthly Puzzle Pages

Here's the last of the Count Morbida's Monthly Puzzle Pages that I have scanned. From Dynamite Magazine #63 (August 1979).

New Halloween T-Shirt #3

This counts a s a Halloween shirt, right? It has Beetlejuice on it. :)

Earlier this year Cult Film Club had a contest to win a shirt from RIPT Apparel. I won and this is the shirt I chose.

New Halloween T-Shirt #2

Ghostbusters! I bought this shirt on clearance back in the summer from Walmart (maybe it was Target. I'm not sure).

Who you gonna call?

Wow! 1984. That's the year I graduated from high school. I'm old. :(

New Halloween T-Shirt #1

If you were here last year, you'll remember that I posted pictures of me wearing a different Halloween/monster t-shirt every day in October. You can see last year's Countdown posts here. Since then I've only bought three new Halloween related shirts.

Here's the first one. Jason! I got this at Five Below. They have a bunch of cool Halloween shirts for five bucks each. This was the only one I saw in my size.

GWAR

This isn't really Halloween, but we are wearing costumes.

GWAR was at the 2000 Pittsburgh Comicon and my son and I had our pictures taken wearing some of their stage-worn costumes. They smelled bad.

Monster Carving Patterns

I originally scanned and posted these back in 2007. I put them in a zip file, but of course that download is no longer available. So, here they are again. This time they're not in a zip file. If anyone carves one of these classic monsters, I'd love to see a photo of it.

(click on each picture to make them bigger)