THIS IS THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

I still remember the snow.....I just don't miss it!

"All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day."
- Mammas and Pappas, California Dreamin'

It is just about here. The season that just happens to be my favorite: Winter.  Not so much for all the things that people do in the winter such as:  skiing the slopes, hitting snowmobile trails, blazing cross-country ski trails, doing a Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation slide down a massive hill in one of those little snow saucers.  Don't get me wrong, I find nothing wrong with all of the outdoor cold and snow activity, being from the Chicago, Illinois area, I have indulged in most of it.  I even owned a toboggan when my kids were small and took them tobogganing until one of my sons decided to go down the chute with his hands on the outside of the sled - OUCH.  The burn scars are still evident on the back of his hand.  Well, I don't have to have the snow and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, I have plenty of cold nose memories.  (see photo) 

I would love to see some of your favorite snow photos too...don't be shy, I did it....

I am faring very well in my new adopted home of Tucson, Arizona...without the snow and cold, that's just how some parts of the country celebrate the season.  As a matter of fact, my plants in my yard are still in bloom right now.  I am really talking about entire fall and winter season with the holidays starting with October and Halloween, November and Thanksgiving, now December and Christmas.  This time of year is just marvelous!  Everyone is just a little bit different this time of year.  People who are usually Scrooge-like through the rest of the year, have a little more spring in their step, a little more twinkle in their eyes, and possibly a little more tolerance in their attitudes.  You find yourself striking up conversations in lines at stores with perfect strangers (at least I do). 

I'm sure one of the reasons winter is it is my favorite time of year is because I don't have to make excuses for wanting to curl up with a good book and read.  After all, outside activities have slowed down because the of the shortened daylight hours.  

I love reading nonsensical things in the winter.  A favorite of mine is trivia.  I was in a movie theater recently and was upset when they finished the little trivia challenges before the previews - I wanted more.  As a result of my love of trivia, I am very good at games like Trivia Pursuit or Jeopardy and I sometimes feel like Rosie Perez as Gloria in the movie White Men Can’t Jump...I should go on Jeopardy because my head is full of useless trivia information.  Anyway, I thought we could have fun in this blog…not that I haven’t been having fun all along.  I am going to throw trivia at you guys and hopefully you will comment back with some of the answers.  Just enter the number of the question, and your answer.  I’ll be changing the trivia questions weekly, so make sure you come back.  Maybe we could think of some type of prizes…..

1.     Who is the composer of the music used for “The Nutcracker”, a Christmas ballet favorite? 

2.    What is the busiest shopping day of the year?

3.    What is the third-largest occasion for Americans to consume food?

4.    What do the items in The "Twelve Days of Christmas" represent?

5.    What are the four ghosts in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol"

6.    Where do cows have their sweat glands in their body?

7.    How much does our Earth weigh?

8.    Which man-made place on Earth appears the brightest from space?

9.    What was the famous Walt Disney, afraid of?

10.  Which entertainer passed away on April Fool’s Day in 1984?

SCARE ME TO DEATH......

Okay, so in our previous blogs we have talked about fall colors around the country and about fall reading material and how it can be a little heavier - in more ways than one. Well, I think it's only fair we talk about what the end of October makes you really want.....SCARE ME TO DEATH.

 
It's everywhere!  Stroll through your neighborhood.  Walk down the aisles of your local Walmart, Kmart, Walgreen's, Lowes, Target, Halloween store, etc., etc., everywhere, anywhere ...you can't miss it.  There is just something about having your hair stand on end or your heart race out of control, or a sensation of lacking oxygen to the point you feel you may faint. How about the feeling you get riding on the Demon or one of the other roller coaster at Great America amusement park (not very amusing for me).  It's a feeling that you can't explain that starts with a tingling in your toes and works it's way up to the trembling and quaking in your stomach, up to the tightening in your chest, to the knot in your throat until it emanates in a blood curdling scream you didn't even know you had inside you.   People want to be scared. 

Let us start with the way we are decorating our homes.  We are decorating in ways never dreamed of 10 or 15 years ago.  I have learned that Halloween decorations are outselling Christmas decorations now.  There are elaborate graveyards complete with headstones, massive skeletons swinging from trees, monsters that come up out of the ground (thank goodness in Tucson the ground is so hard, I haven't seen any of those around my neighborhood yet), witches hanging from rooftops, doorway hangings that absolutely terrify toddlers.  There are orange and purple light sets that decorate trees, rooftops, windows, bushes and fences.   And don't forget the old stand-by haunted houses, haunted mazes, haunted amusement parks...well I think you get the idea.  We want our senses challenged in macabre ways.

Take a walk with me down memory lane of the horror movies and how popular they have always been.  My husband still remembers and talks about his older sister taking him when he was very, very young (too young to be viewing a movie like that one) to the movie theater to see Wolfman with Lon Chaney. Can you say Frankenstein or The Mummy with Boris Karloff or Dracula with Bela Lugosi?  I think these were the original 'scare me to death' movies that helped spawn many of the ones that are enjoyed by many people today. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t begrudge anybody their titillations, but I personally have sworn off of most of the horror movies of today and the past maybe 15 years or so.  The special effects that started with the Friday the 13^th and Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies just made them a little too realistic for me.  I just cannot  do any of the slasher movies, believe me I tried for the sake of my marriage and my children.   Everyone loved the slashers except me.  Don't even mention Candyman!!! OMG!  I would totally freak out if I saw one of my kids standing in front of a mirror repeating the "Candyman, Candyman, Candyman" phrase that supposedly brought him out of the glass.  I can't even tell you how that movie terrified me.  I prefer suspense thrillers like: Se7en with Brad Pitt, Silence of the Lambs (trilogy), Inception and Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio, the Indiana Jones series….those types of movies.  Suspense and thrills without so much of the blood that comes along with slashers. 

All the above leads me to – you guessed it – wonderful ‘scare me to death’ - 'thrill me and chill me' novels.  How about a little hair-raising with Stephen King?  Too many to count!  The Stand, It, Salem’s Lot, Cycle of the Werewolf, The Shining, and the one that had me looking under my bed in the middle of the night…Pet Semetary.  The list is endless.  What about Dean Koontz’s Sole Survivor, Shattered,  Demon Seed, Intensity or Watchers.  Mr. Koontz also has too many to count!  I think you are getting my drift though….there is nothing like using your own imagination when reading a book.  You get to put whatever leading man or woman in the starring role.  You get to make a scene as bloody or suspenseful as you can take.  A good author leads you and guides you but gives you enough leeway to use your imagination. A well written book will have different slants to tantalize every reader.  That is why book discussion groups are here to stay.  You may see something completely different from what another reader sees and the only way this gets brought forward is by discussing the book.

Who’s your favorite horror author?  I’ll lead with a list….I am actually listing them in the order of their popularity along with one of their works of fiction.  You fill in the blanks with others you enjoy and

HAPPY HAUNTING!

 H.P. Lovecraft ……………..The Dunwich Horror

Stephen King …………….….Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Richard Matheson …….….Stir of Echoes

Edgar Allen Poe ……………The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Clive Barker …………………The Hellbound Heart

Robert Bloch ……………….Psycho!

Ramsey Campbell ……….Demons by Daylight

M.R. James ………………….Ghost Stories of an Antiquary

Peter Straub………………..Shadowland

Joe R. Lansdale ……….…The Drive in