Halloween

Read the latest Halloween stories and other news reports on Newser.com

Stories 181 - 200 | << Prev   Next >>

How Skulls Took Over Fashion

 How Skulls 
 Took Over 
 Fashion 
SLIDESHOW

How Skulls Took Over Fashion

Once scary, now stylish, skulls are trendy—and not just at Halloween

(Newser) - Skulls, once seen as sinister symbols, are now used on everything from children's shirts to underwear. Sara Dickerman of Slate takes a look at how the trend developed:
  • In the 16th century, artists like Albrecht Dürer were still using skulls to remind people of their mortality.
  • French pirate Emanuel
...

Octomom for Halloween: Preggo Nun
Octomom for 
Halloween: 
Preggo Nun 
HAR, HAR, HAR

Octomom for Halloween: Preggo Nun

And clever Suleman dressed octuplets as little devils

(Newser) - Even if you're one of those people that never gets scared, this Halloween costume should do the trick: Octomom Nadya Suleman dressed herself as a pregnant (scary) nun (scarier) and turned her babies into accessories—tiny devils (horrifying). View the truly disturbing photos by Splash in the Daily Mail —...

Couric's Halloween Costume: Aaden Gosselin

Jon & Kate Plus 8 kids are so used to spotlight, mom doesn't even mind

(Newser) - Kate Gosselin inspired this year's hottest Halloween wig, but Katie Couric is taking a different Gosselin-themed route for her costume: dressing up as sextuplet Aaden. "I met Kate and she seems very nice," Couric tells Extra . "And I told her I was gonna be Aaden, and she...

Scariest Albums Ever Made
 Scariest Albums 
 Ever Made 
LISTEN (IF YOU DARE)

Scariest Albums Ever Made

Celebrate Halloween with these psychologically creepy albums

(Newser) - James Montgomery, tasked with listing the scariest albums ever made for MTV in honor of Halloween, resisted the temptation to include Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing. Instead, he went for the "dense, raw, positively horrifying albums, guaranteed to turn your Halloween into a total fright-fest." Check them...

Be Balloon Boy for Halloween
 Be Balloon Boy for Halloween 

Be Balloon Boy for Halloween

Canadian company hawks costume

(Newser) - It was inevitable: a Canadian model airplane company is selling “Balloon Boy” Halloween costumes on its website. For $19.99, you get a 38-inch mylar balloon with a small gondola. Supply your own helium, cardboard box, and string, notes ABC Denver. "Now you, too, can enjoy all the...

Target Blasted Over 'Illegal Alien' Costume

(Newser) - Target has apologized for an "illegal alien" Halloween costume that comes complete with green card and orange jail suit. The company is removing the costume from its website after Hispanic groups complained. "It's very disturbing," an official with the League of United Latin American Citizens tells...

Parents Track Sex Offender Homes for Halloween

But critics warn that friends, family members are responsible for most kid assaults

(Newser) - Parents are preparing for their kids' trick or treating this year with a costume, candy bag—and a map of all the sex offenders in the neighborhood. Concerned families are turning to an iPhone application locating sex offender addresses to plan routes on the spooky night. "With Halloween, I'm...

Jon & Kate Weirdness Back on Air

Kate Major is also back

(Newser) - Jon & Kate Plus 8 may no longer be an appropriate title, but the TLC reality show returned last night—as did yet more tabloid coverage of the divorcing couple. Highlights:
  • On a solo camping trip with the kids, Kate had a hard time with the tent, leading the kids
...

'Pumpkin Streaker' Cops a Plea in Colo.

Student, one of 12, will do community service, avoid sex-offender status

(Newser) - A University of Colorado student who ran through a pedestrian mall naked except for a pumpkin on her head on Halloween agreed yesterday to a plea deal, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. The 20-year-old will do 6 months of probation and 8 hours of community service, and will not have...

What Are You Doing Here, Fat Man?!

Strategies for coping with the too-early holiday season

(Newser) - Halloween is over, and you know what that means: It’s Christmas. The annoyingly early holiday cheer is already descending upon us. Jezebel provides some tips for surviving the X-mas blitzkrieg:
  • Be a Halloween extender: If your neighbors can keep Christmas lights up until February, why can’t you do
...

Boss Pens Halloween Screamer
 Boss Pens Halloween Screamer 

Boss Pens Halloween Screamer

(Newser) - Just in time for Halloween, Bruce Springsteen has released a song chronicling the life of the infamous Jersey Devil, the Star-Ledger reports. It's a free download on his website. In the accompanying video, Springsteen plays the part of the cloven-hoofed denizen of the Jersey Pine Barrens. “Sixteen witches cast...

Scariest Flicks for Halloween
 Scariest Flicks for Halloween 

Scariest Flicks for Halloween

Critics counts down Hollywood's best-liked and most-feared horrors

(Newser) - It's Halloween, so grab the popcorn and scare yourself silly. Salon counts down ghoulish classics guaranteed to do the trick.
  • The Exorcist (1973): Despite the years and the hype, this tale of diabolical possession is still Hollywood's most ominous venture into the supernatural.
  • Halloween (1978): The movie that spawned countless
...

It's Not Too Late: Make a Costume

There's plenty of Halloween fodder lying around your house, really

(Newser) - Trick-or-treaters hit the streets in less than a day, but the costume-less need not despair. With an assist from a local mom and the Costume Idea Zone website, the Baltimore Sun has come up with dozens of cheap, easy ways to disguise yourself:
  • Gum stuck to a shoe: "
...

Palin Effigy Sparks Uproar
 Palin Effigy Sparks Uproar 

Palin Effigy Sparks Uproar

Complaints over Halloween display

(Newser) - An effigy of Sarah Palin hanging from a noose outside a West Hollywood house has triggered a community furor, reports the Los Angeles Times. The effigy is part of a grim Halloween display which also shows a John McCain mannequin surrounded by flames and skeletons. Complaints calling the display a...

Turning Tricks, or 'Trick or Treat'?

Parents unable to counter sexy costume trend: expert

(Newser) - No, your eyesight isn't hexed: Young girls really are dressing like French maids and prostitutes every Halloween. And their skirts will only get higher, because pop culture has drowned out any last echo of parental advice, author Diane E. Levin tells the Los Angeles Times. The co-author of So ...

Author Offers Creepy Look at Critters With Taste for Blood

Bats, bedbugs, leeches, and mosquitoes have a common thirst

(Newser) - With Halloween nearly upon us, the author of new book on bloodsucking creatures—vampire bats, bedbugs, leeches, and the like—leads the New York Times on a sanguivore safari. The world's bloodthirsty creatures vary enormously, as Bill Schutt details in Dark Banquet, and some are mere dabblers, but many specialists...

LiLo's Halloween Costume? Sarah Palin

Girlfriend Ronson may dress up as First Dude Todd

(Newser) - Lindsay Lohan will strike out at Sarah Palin, whom she has described as a “media-obsessed homophobe,” by pretending to be her for Halloween, the New York Daily News reports. The actress promises the glasses, red suit and cleavage. The icing on the cake: Lohan’s lover Samantha Ronson...

Both Campaigns Walk the Plank
Both Campaigns Walk the Plank

Both Campaigns Walk the Plank

McCain, Obama agree on one thing: favorite childhood Halloween costume

(Newser) - Beware, trick or treaters: John McCain and Barack Obama may be hiding behind that bandanna and eyepatch. Asked about their favorite childhood Halloween costumes in separate interviews for Nickelodeon, both candidates answered "pirate," the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Obama called his getup "the best costume of all time....

Trick-or-Treaters Vote for Palin

Mask retailers scramble to stock likeness ahead of Halloween

(Newser) - Costume shops are scrambling to stock enough masks of Sarah Palin, who looks to be a popular choice this Halloween, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Trick-or-treaters who want to transform into either of the presidential candidates—or most of their early competitors—are in luck, but heavy demand for Palin's likeness...

New England Pumpkin Crop Patchy After Summer Deluge

Heavy rains cut some yields by half due to bloating, rot and wash-outs

(Newser) - An unseasonably wet growing season has devastated the New England pumpkin crop, the Boston Globe reports. The rain has multiple effects, almost all bad: some overwatered gourds swell so much they burst, while beds are washed out and depleted of fertilizer, leading to undersized specimens. And “pumpkins are pollinated...

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