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| Halloween pics |
Author:
faceless ::
Posted:
Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:13 pm
Pumpkin record? Boston wants to smash it
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | October 21, 2006
It will take 900 volunteers wielding plastic spoons and serrated knives, riding golf carts to speed around, and brandishing barbecue lighters for the final moment of truth. It will require the services of an accounting firm to certify the results. And it will require the help of hundreds of Bostonians, who have tried and failed for the last two years to make their mark in history, to break the world record for the most pumpkins lit in one place at one time.
The record of 28,952 glowing jack-o'-lanterns has been held since 2003 by the city's bucolic neighbor to the north, Keene, N.H. Today , Boston will try to smash that record by lighting 30,000 pumpkins at 5:45 p.m. on the Boston Common. If organizers succeed, the city's historic green will be transformed into a sea of glowing orange gourds, and bragging rights will be Boston's. But Keene, scrappy champion and self-professed underdog, will be trying to hold onto its record today by lighting 30,000 pumpkins along its Main Street.
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| A scary story: UK spends ?120m on Halloween |
Author:
faceless ::
Posted:
Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:04 pm
A scary story: we spend ?120m on Halloween
Amelia Hill, culture and society correspondent
Sunday October 22, 2006
The Observer
Not so long ago Halloween was a simple night of homemade horror which included making witches' hats from egg boxes and scaring siblings by telling ghost stories. It is now a multimillion-pound industry: Britons' spending on Halloween paraphernalia has risen from ?12 million five years ago to an expected ?120m this year. 'It's no longer a matter of a few plastic fangs,' said Francesca Colling, from Woolworths. 'People want expensive gimmicks. They want a wide range of themed food and drink. They want extravagant decorations for their houses. They even want fancy-dress outfits for their pets.'
Analysts say Britain is catching up with the US, where an average family spends ?65 on Halloween decorations, sweets and costumes in a nationwide industry worth ?4.7 billion. In Britain, Halloween is the third most profitable event for retailers after Christmas and Easter; way ahead of Guy Fawkes Day and Valentine's Day. 'The seven days before 31 October, 2006, are expected to be the second busiest shopping week of the year,' said Michelle Harrison, director...
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| Jon Ronson writes about "Deal Or No Deal" |
Author:
faceless ::
Posted:
Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:54 pm
Usually Ronson spends his time exposing conspiracy type stories (The Men Who Stared At Goats being worth a read if you ever get the chance), but in this feature he takes a look at the daytime tv phenomenon that is "Deal Or No Deal"...
https://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1926143,00.html
I was gonna post the whole story, but it's quite long. 
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| Riches to rags |
Author:
faceless ::
Posted:
Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:50 pm
After wife swapping and celebrity sex, new reality TV phenomenon is ... philanthropy
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian
It's a pitch from broadcasters so familiar it barely registers - a reality show with a twist. But Secret Millionaire, a new Channel 4 show from the makers of Wife Swap, is genuinely different. For a start there are no prizes and it costs contestants up to ?50,000 each to take part. Not for them the promise of tabloid infamy or the lure of profitable spin-offs and book deals ? la Jade Goody or Chantelle Houghton. Instead, they are forced to live on the breadline and give their own money away.
"It's the first show in the world where you have to guarantee to give ?40,000 or ?50,000 away to get on it," promises Stephen Lambert, executive producer of the programme for RDF.
But Secret Millionaire could match the fury provoked by its Bafta-winning predecessor Wife Swap when it first aired in 2003 and newspapers called it "an abuse of TV's Godlike power". Some charities will complain that the show is exploitative and an inefficient means of redistributing wealth among...
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| Themed taxis cow would-be bandits |
Author:
maycm ::
Posted:
Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:06 am
Indeed. Keep the crap jokes in the udder threads.
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| Vicar's knicker run rescues town |
Author:
janbo1960 ::
Posted:
Sat Oct 21, 2006 10:41 pm
A vicar has come to the rescue of a small New Zealand town that has run out of women's underwear.
A group of women at the local Anglican church revealed the crisis caused by the only clothing shop in the small town of Inglewood, about 280 kilometres north-west of the capital Wellington, no longer stocking women's underwear.
"Someone came up with the point that it was a bit difficult that ladies essentials were not able to be bought in Inglewood," Reverend Gary Husband told National Radio.
"So we're going to have what's been called a knickers run."
Reverend Husband, who came up with the solution to the less-than-spiritual problem, said volunteers would now take anyone without transport to the nearby city of New Plymouth, about 20 kilometres away, to buy their essentials.
Men's underwear is readily available in the town of around 3,000, but it also has no shoe shop and no bus service.
Reverend Husband said a trial run would be made before Christmas and if successful it would probably become a monthly event and open to all, regardless of faith.
"This is for the...
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| Flowers in memoriam |
Author:
IRiSHMaFIA ::
Posted:
Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:15 pm
| faceless wrote: | | it's the "legally entitled" bit that annoyed me most - what did legalities ever have to do with raping the planet beyond actually encouraging it? The government in Kenya will be stuck between wanting to bring in more money and giving up their resources, so they shouldn't be held to blame particularly though - it's the international buyers who are basically buying something from someone who is skint at a cut price because they know they're desperate. |
You can't blame the government of Kenya because they are in dire need of funds, and when international buyers wave dollars infront of them it has to be hard to resist.
This is where 'what goes around, comes around' fits in perfectly. By destroying parts of the planet as they are here, there are always repercussion. By damaging earth in this way, it will throw off the balance of nature as I mentioned in my first post, and that effects us all in the long run. It's not exactly a conundrum as it's been talked about for years now.
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| Detroit Man Again Busted for Mannequin Fetish |
Author:
pirtybirdy ::
Posted:
Sat Oct 21, 2006 8:29 am
Detroit Man Again Busted for Mannequin Fetish
Friday, October 20, 2006
E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
FERNDALE, Mich. ? A Detroit man with a history of smashing store windows to grab female mannequins has been accused of indulging his fetish again.
Ronald A. Dotson, 39, was arrested and jailed Oct. 9 after breaking a window at a cleaning-supply company to get at a mannequin in a black and white French maid's uniform, police said.
A judge Thursday ordered him to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he is competent to stand trial on charges of attempted breaking and entering.
"Mr. Dotson went to prison and they haven't helped him," said his lawyer, Edward Cohn. "He got out of prison and he was right back out there. It's pretty bizarre."
Dotson had been out of prison for less than a week when he was caught. His erotic pursuit of mannequins over the past 13 years has led to at least six convictions for breaking and entering and a stint in prison, police said.
"He told his parole officer he was going to buy a mannequin so he didn't have to do...
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| Scary stories |
Author:
Skylace ::
Posted:
Sat Oct 14, 2006 11:51 pm
Got to read through the ones you posted Irish. I might need to sleep with the lights on! 
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