Halloweek Day 1 - History and Hounds

After yet another little vacation (up to Boston to see The Mountain Goats, then NH to see the premiere of my new play, "To the Moon"), we're back and ready for some Halloween fun.  We're a week out from that favorite holiday of hooligans and candy companies, so I thought it would be appropriate to spend a few days of reporting covering the topics near and dear to the holiday.  And what's that in the banner?  Could it be?  The Great Pumpkin, rising out of the Pumpkin Patch?!  Stay tuned as we creep closer to Halloween and see what happens!
 
Before we get into costumes and candy and spooky stories, it's important we know what exactly it is we're dealing with here.  What is Halloween?  Where did it come from?  Lucky for us, the History Channel has put together a nice, dry history of the day (the videos are a bit more fun), tracing it back to the Celtic festival of Samhain.  If your mental cogs are working like mine this morning, you'll put the pieces together and know it's no coincidence that this holiday so associated with the color orange started off in Ireland... Gingers.  No wonder it's so scary.
 
But if the history of how Samhain became All Hallow's Eve became Trick or Treat is a bit too boring for you, check out this infographic.  Where do you fit in to these stats?  I know I'm not producing any pumpkins this year.  (Though I did know pumpkins are gourds.  But more on gourds later...)  I have contributed to the 35 million pounds of candy corn sold, and I used to be in the 30% of candy organizers back when I was among the 35 million in that prime Trick or Treating age.  I plan on being one of the 120 million dressing up, though I won't be doing it on the day itself (does that still count) and I will definitely be part of the 72% giving out candy.  As for the 24 pounds of candy I'm supposed to have eaten in the past year as an average American... No comment.
 
Now, what about these 11.5% of Americans who dress their pets for Halloween?  Of all the statistics presented in that graphic, that's the one I want evidence on.  Luckily, the Internet provides.  I'm assuming dogs are the most commonly dressed animal, and certainly the most frequently seen in costume.  Some place called Tompkins Square even has a parade for costumed pups.  I love the dog lobster, and I bet that dog, along with all the others whose costumes involved being carried or carted about, enjoyed himself the most.  Hipster dog and banana dog look like they have a tough time seeing, while Woof With the Wind and Evita (in the comments) probably qualify as mild animal abuse.  Favorite, though?  The moose dog.  Obviously.  But dogs aren't the only ones having fun.  Rats, cats, hedgehogs, and even a camel get in on the action.  (Sorry to report there is a lack of costumed fish.)  The cat in number 9 suggests why cats don't get dressed up much, while dogs continue to dominate the costume competition.  Though horse dog is terrifying, the dog dressed as Fluffy is one of the best costumes I've ever seen on human or animal.
 
And speaking of human costumes... We'll cover that in tomorrow's report.

But first a costume idea from this day in history:  Just wear a barrel and say you're going as Annie Edson Taylor.  She hopped in a barrel 111 years ago today and became the first to survive the trip over Niagara Falls in one.
 
Seven days until the Great Pumpkin!

In Search of Lost Time Travel

Time travel is in vogue right now.  The subject ebbs and flows in pop-culture, but right now the Venn Diagram of popular and nerdy sits with time travel comfortably nestled in the middle.  Consider the recent and rapid rise in popularity of the BBC's Doctor Who in American TV culture.  Sure America is a few years late in joining the party with the space and time hopping time lord and his companions, but Netflix and the growing geekery have seen fit to go so far as to put Matt Smith's bowtied mug on the cover of Entertainment Weekly!
 
And on the big screen, Rian Johnson's time-travel action film Looper is scoring positive reviews and continuing Joseph Gordon-Levitt's year of success.  Now, I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to give anything away.  I went into the movie knowing only the vaguest premise, having forced myself only to see the teaser trailer, and enjoyed it much more having avoided spoilers.  Basically:  JGL works for the mob, whacking targets sent back in time from a future where time travel exists.  This already works for a compelling premise, but the real kicker comes in when JGL's future self is sent back for execution.  And the real kick-ass comes in when JGL's future self is Bruce Willis.  Seriously.  It's awesome.  But don't look it up.  Just go see it.  Today.  Tomorrow.  Yesterday.  Whenever.
 
Looper's release has prompted a flurry of sites cataloging time-travel rules, time-travel movie moments, and top time-travel stories.  But: So many of these sites contain subtle Looper spoilers, so I don't want to link to them.  (Sorry, Wall Street Journal's "Four Rules of Time-Travel," you get no love from me.)  Thankfully, a few pages exist sans-Looper, so we'll include those.  (Other movies will be spoiled.  But they're old.  After five years, no forgiveness needs to be granted for spoilers.  And beyond fifty years, things that are "spoilers" should enter common knowledge.*)  

Discovery put together a nice tidy list of Top 22 Time Travel Movies with vague descriptions and background information.  Better, albeit more spoilery, though, is TotalFilm's list of the 50 Greatest Time Travel Movie Moments.  Some of them are questionable.  (Did George Bailey really time travel?)  Some are surprising.  (Love that Muppet Christmas Carol made the cut!)  One is... Dali.  And, for all the Back to the Future references, one is mysteriously absent.  It's like the list makers said, "Roads?  Where we're going we don't need to mention the fact that where they're going they don't need roads!"  It's your list, TotalFilm!  Something has got to be done about your list!
 
That's all for today.  Be sure to thank the management... It's Boss's Day!

Google In Slumberland

Following a brief vacation and a week of intense and focused panel work, the Report returns.  (Though as one reader rightfully pointed out, "Report" is a generous term for something with such scheduling irregularity.  But it's too late to rename it now!)  Hopefully we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming for a while now, especially given the promise of Halloween report tricks and treats...
 
And speaking of treats, have you been to Google today, dear readers?  The doodle team has really outdone themselves this time, creating a brilliant tribute to celebrated cartoonist Winsor McCay  Of course, I don't expect Mr. McCay's name comes up in conversation often.  Today is likely the first time a lot of people have even heard of him, as his Wikipedia page and YouTube videos get soaring hits thanks to Google.  But it doesn't take much digging to find that Google has just about perfectly captured the style and substance of McCay's most famous creation, "Little Nemo In Slumberland."
 
Little Nemo, first published 107 years ago today, was a weekly comic strip printed in the New York Herald for six years and the New York American for three.  Where comic strip today carries the connotation of a three or four panel quick set-up and punchline, McCay's weekly strip existed on a much grander scale.  In 10 to 15 colorful panels, the pajama-clad Nemo would continue on his dream-quest to meet the Princess, daughter of King Morpheus.  Each strip would begin with Nemo going to bed, and his bed would often serve as a means of conveyance in the dream world.  Inevitably, each strip would end in the same manner, with Nemo being woken up and falling out of bed, often at an inopportune, cliff-hanger moment.
 
The brilliant colors, sprawling panels, walking bed, and total whimsy are all captured in the Google doodle, but Google is not the first to animate Nemo.  McCay himself created an animated version of his character in 1911, inspired to animation by one of his children's flipbooks.  The adaptation that I know, the one that introduced me to Little Nemo in the first place, was the 1992 film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, with a screenplay helmed by Christopher Columbus, now famous for directing the first two Harry Potter films.
 
Hopefully Google's doodle will inspire the webworld to seek out McCay's original work, available in a complete collection on Amazon. (Though it's apparently out of print and mega-expensive now. I say now because I own a copy that I snagged for like twenty bucks in a discount bin at a Barnes and Noble a while back.)  Even more hopefully, this will trigger the interest of comics artists to create Sunday strips that capture the imagination like McCay's did.
 
Non-comic strip fans have reason to celebrate the day, as they can kick it up a notch to wish a happy birthday to Emeril Lagasse.  Bam!

Punctuation Day. Period.

After this weekend, autumn is officially upon us (it began on Saturday), so prepare for lots of Fall-related Reports.  Decorative Gourd's are already popping-up in grocery stores, so it can only be a matter of time...

But first, a disgruntled and impatient reader sent me an e-mail earlier this morning alerting me that today is National Punctuation Day.  This reader had some choice uses for punctuation marks, which I won't repeat here for the sake of decency.  But (and I'm sure this won't be good for keeping his ego at a reasonable level) he has influenced the Report for the day.  I am, after all, a Technical Editor by trade.  My missing Punctuation Day would be like an elf not celebrating Christmas.

To celebrate this glorious grammarian day, here are some useful and comical pointers on punctuation use.  First up, some classics from The Oatmeal on "How To Use an Apostrophe" and "How To Use a Semicolon."  The grammar lessons of middle school would have been so much more interesting with these examples.  These, of course, are two mysterious pieces of punctuation that are often the subject of question, self-doubt, and second guessing.  Another piece of punctuation, used in the last sentence, is a subject of much debate:  The Oxford Comma (also known as the serial comma).

The Oxford Comma, most famous for its title role in a Vampire Weekend song, is a contentious piece of punctuation.  In fact, the first question of my interview for my current position asked how I felt about the Oxford Comma.  If it is unclear by my consistent use of it in the Report, I'm for it, just as the sandwich club is for frilly toothpicks.  Others are opposed.  The New York Times, for instance, doesn't use them.  Some argue that maintaining use of the Oxford Comma is simply being a slave to historic grammatical convention, just like the type-writer imposed two spaces after a period that is not relevant in a computer-font world.  This, as NPR's blogger Linda Holmes observes, is not the case.  As you can see from this comic, the Oxford Comma is fundamentally important in reducing ambiguity.  Please embrace it.  Or respond with a compelling argument for the opposition.

Along with celebrating the Oxford Comma and other pieces of punctuation, there are numerous options for birthday celebrations of note.  Readers could...

• Have a Coke and a Smile for Mean Joe Greene;
• Play the music and light the lights for Jim Henson; or
• Believe in the green light for F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Peace, love, and Oxford Commas

Travel By Balloon!

Originally, I had planned for today to involve a movie poster follow-up to yesterday's book cover bonanza.  However, webcomic xkcd intervened with a piece of elaborate brilliance that has detoured the original plans.  xkcd's most recent entry initially appears to simply be one of the comic's more sad, reflective pieces, presenting a big, sad, wonderful world. It's only when you follow the piece's title and mouse-over suggestion that you get a sense for how big the world that the balloonist refers to really is.  The comic is some sort of TARDIS/House of Leaves madness, featuring a panel bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.  Much bigger.  Estimated to be 14 feet bigger.  And while I encourage you to click and drag your way around the world at the original site, I acknowledge that we all have things to accomplish today.  So, consider saving time with this zoomable version of the piece.  Or, if you really want to see what's cool, but really don't want to click around, Mashable has put together a slideshow of the comic's highlights.  The pop-culture references are great, particularly the Pokemon and Oregon Trail shoutouts.  My favorite parts, though, are the whale and the tire swing.
 
Not all balloons are ideal for travel, though.  Some are dangerous and demonic.  Presented without further comment, Don Hertzfeldt's animated short film Billy's Balloon.
Spend some time today considering all the different sounds that result when two "o's" are next to each other.  It's Moon Bloodgood's birthday!

I wonder where I'll float next...

By Its Cover

Ahoy, and happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

In today's Report we venture away from the aww-inspiring world of cute animals to tackle more literary concerns.  Don't worry, though, we're not going to get too deep into books here.  In fact, we won't go any further than the cover.

First up, an entertaining post on a blog run for and by parents (not sure how I ended up there...) features a slideshow in which a mother shares book covers with her six-year-old daughter.  The six-year-old then offers her summary of the contents that the book must contain based on the cover and title.  Some of the quotes read true to the contents in a vague and poetic way.  Gatsby is, indeed, "good and evil and he's trying to get rid of the ghosts."  "It doesn't really have a story" rings true for Catcher.    Others miss the mark entirely.  But how awesome would a prospecting Jane Eyre be?  And "a blob of purple that lives in [a] house"?  Please don't read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to your "kiddies."  I'm also hoping the mother in question corrected her daughter's comment, "I would not read a book about just a tree."
 
It should come as no surprise to readers that book covers hold such an influence on opinion.  If they didn't, where would we get our overused cliché?  Perhaps no one knows this quite as well as cover designer (and novelist) Chip Kidd, seen here giving a humorous TED talk about book cover design.  Kidd is yet another name you may not recognize whose work you definitely know.  (Covers for Jurassic Park, The Road, 1Q84...)  And yet he actually downplays the cliché, having said: "I'm very much against the idea that the cover will sell the book. Marketing departments of publishing houses tend to latch onto this concept and they can't let go. But it's about whether the book itself really connects with the public, and the cover is only a small part of that."  And in a world of online book buying and tiny-covered e-books, he may be onto something.  But I still love my McSweeney's editions of books for the brilliant visual and tactile design of the physical books themselves.
 
Along with talking like pirates, we wish a happy birthday to Jimmy Fallon today.  No doubt whatever song we sing to wish him a happy birthday will be parodied by him shortly thereafter.

A Return to A(www)nimals

So, the report's been back for a week now, and largely in its morning time slot, too, for those of you time-stamp-checkers out there.  But the Report 2.0 (MacKenzie McHale stands by as I write this) has been notably devoid of a traditional Report fixture.  Specifically, there have been no cute animals!  Let's correct this now.

First up, while we've technically harkened in the beginning of Fall, the weather, at least here in DC, is still just perfect for lounging out in the sun.  And these 20 animals know how to lounge.  From ferret to chapeau-ed guinea pigs, there's a whole lot of adorable going on here.  I'm not too keen on Rowlf being listed, as he is technically a muppet and not an animal. Much as I know he must smell, the ferret in 10 is my favorite, although look how smiley that corgi is!

And if that's not enough (and we've been gone for a while, so it's not), BuzzFeed has also put together this incredible compendium of cute.  And they've made it into a test to see how far you can get without squealing.  I must admit, I didn't actually squeal.  I don't know that I'm capable of making such a noise.  Though it was somewhere around 12 or 15 that I took a deep intake of breath and felt my heart warm.  A dog sleeping in food?!  That would be great served up with the cup of ducks in 22.  And I'll be hard pressed to remember that all the chocolate in my house would kill him if 36 shows up at my door on Halloween.

And to wrap things up for the day... A wonderful blend of adorable animal and human interest.  Last Friday we talked about the Internet's ability to educate, not just serve as a place for time wasting.  Today, let's also consider just a single example of the social outreach angle of the Internet.  A whole world wide web of dog treats was available for  Bingo's Lick It List.  And certainly a bitter reader could argue that there are more worthy causes than Bingo, and I would be foolish not to agree with them.  But to Cole, whose life Bingo has saved many times, I don't think that is the case.  And without the Internet, I don't believe that the Bingo Hein Fund would have taken off.  If we can spread charity as we spread knowledge, that's damn good. 

Closing with the animal theme, throw your lion monarch brother off a cliff and then declare to his son, "I KILLED MUFASA," it's Jeremy Irons' birthday!  That's right, classically trained, Academy Award winning actor with an incredible range of live-action roles, I'm calling you out for being an animated lion.