Be Prepared! for a good Halloween season...

When Mr. Swirly Patterns came for a visit last week, I was struck once again with cult classic fever. There is not one person who can better help you catch the "Ed-Wood" bug than my brother. It's a good thing that he came in time for Halloween season.

For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year; but I have found that in order to experience the depth that Halloween has to offer, eating Abba Zabbas and Bottle Caps is just not enough. Lets be honest here, in addition to the candy and a costume, there needs to be some other things in order to assure a complete Halloween season. I have found that I need substantial time spent in drugstore aisles looking at bad makeup and rayon costumes. I also have found that including something pumkiny helps a great deal too. This can be applied in many ways (ie pie, cookies, bread, carving, seeds, gourds, etc). And of course, viewing at least one terrible (or very dated works too) Halloween flick is a necessity. I'll play viewer's advisory media librarian a moment here and recommend a handful:

- Shaun of the Dead
- The Fearless Vampire Killers
- Ed Wood
- Ghostbusters
- Teen Wolf (but not Teen Wolf Too - unless you are going for terrible and dated)
- Lost Boys
- Sleeper
- Revenge of the Body Snatchers
- Plan Nine From Outer Space (I don't have to have seen this one to know it should be on the list)

I have no doubt that you all would have some good suggestions to add to that list too. Feel free to fill in the gaps I have left. I think I have my main monsters covered here, except for trolls. Okay, I suppose I will throw in Troll 2 just to keep my bases covered.


And for good measure, I thought I would share some key insights we public library folk are trying to share with our community about how to survive a zombie attack. The teen users are particularly receptive to this information at our various "ZombieFest" events. Still, I thought all you "adults" out there might be interested in getting some tips about this too. I mean, you just never know when this information will come in handy...

1. Organize before they rise.
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don't need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto a bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert.
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone but the threat lives on.