The Touch of a Vanished Hand

"...And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!..."
(From "Break, Break, Break," Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Similarly-cheerful posts:

• "New Owners, Old Tenant"
  (October 23, 2015)
• "Insomnia at the Wizard's Tower"
  (August 21, 2015)
• "Remember the Paths"
  (July 24, 2015)
• "Smile, Wave, and Hope They Understand"
  (July 10, 2015)
• " 'We Saved You a Piece' "
  (January 30, 2015)

New Owners, Old Tenant

"It's not a closet, it's my office. That's what I should have said."

Not-entirely-different posts:

• "Insomnia at the Wizard's Tower"
  (August 21, 2015)
• " 'We Saved You a Piece' "
  (January 30, 2015)
• "Remember the Paths"
  (July 24, 2015)
• "Christmas with the Lemming"
  (December 24, 2014)
• " 'Anchovies and Peanut Butter?!' "
  (October 30, 2013)

"Anchovies and Peanut Butter?!"

Or: you want it, you pay for it.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Taiyaki and Wagashi: Genuine Imitation Food Substitutes"
  (October 25, 2013)
• "Killer Tomatoes and a Ranting Lemming"
  (August 6, 2013)
• "July 19, 2013 Filberts, Fardels, and a Rambling Lemming "
  (July 19, 2013)
• "December 23, 2011 Gingerbread, Fruitcake, and Eggnog Nightmare #2 "
  (October 31, 2012)
• "Happy Halloween!"
  (October 31, 2011)

Happy Halloween

Related posts:

• "Happy Halloween!"
  (October 31, 2011)
• "Halloween Candy: What to Do With It"
  (November 3, 2009)
• "Bats in Space! Cassini Team Sends 'Bats Wishes' "
  (October 31, 2009)
• "Lemming Tracks: Autumn Holiday Graphics"
  (August 27, 2009)
• "Idea for Next Halloween: Chicken-Wire Ghost"
  (February 3, 2008)

Happy Halloween!

Digital Halloween? Neat Idea: So-So Execution

"Carve A Pumpkin? Pffff! Use LEDs"
Tracy Staedter, Analysis, Tech News, Discovery News (October 27, 2010)

"Carving pumpkins for Halloween is so 20th Century. Here in the age of Google Street View, nanotechnology, botnets and 3D film, we use LEDs. The guys at Hack A Day have a great project for the do-it-yourselfer not content with homemade costumes: a marquee made from matrix of 70 light emitting diodes, or LEDs. It's a little too involved for me, but I'll bet plenty of you could tackle this baby and perhaps even come up with a new twist...."

Looks like a neat idea - there's a photo and an embedded YouTube video in the article.

The Lemming's no Luddite, but somehow the LED Halloween pumpkin doesn't lend quite the same ambiance. Maybe I've seen too many signs like it near the grocery checkout.

Halloween Candy: What to Do With It

"What to Do with All That Candy"
Midwest Moms (November 3, 2009)

"I've been wracking my brain for the past couple of days, trying to find inventive ideas for what to do with this sudden glut of willpower-bending carbohydrate on our dining room table.

We are not a family that has candy in the house a lot. It's a special treat. Most often, I keep some in reserve to buoy my children's spirits on a long hike or a marathon drive...."

The blogger gives several pretty-good ideas, along with their 'up' and 'down' sides:

• Give a Free-Candy Day
• Dad and I eat It
• Set Treats aside for the Future
• Donate It
• Turn it into Cash
• Experiment with it
• Use Candy as an Art Supply

If you think you have a better idea, follow that link: "Midwest Mom" is looking for more ideas.

I liked the combination of smooth, conversational writing and practical ideas in this post: and as an advice piece on what to do after Halloween, it's pretty good.

About a half-century ago, when I went trick-or-treating, my parents let me finish off the entire supply of candy. But then, they'd realized that I would make it last a long time, eating one piece a day - maybe two, if I was really enthusiastic.

---

A tip of the hat to MidwestMoms, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this.

Bats in Space! Cassini Team Sends 'Bats Wishes'

"Happy Halloween"
NASA (October 31, 2009)

"The Cassini team sends 'bats wishes' for a happy, healthy and fun Halloween.

"The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C."

That image is 400 x 300 pixels, half the dimensions of the smallest copy on the NASA website. They've got the picture at Full Size (3600 x 2400), 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, and 800 x 600. It'd make pretty good wallpaper - and the NASA website gives instructions for using the image that way, for most sizes of the image.

Enjoy.

Halloween Costumes, Elementary School, Common Sense and (Daft?) New Rules

"Drop the Halloween Mask! It Might Scare Someone"
U.S., The New York Times (October 29, 2009)

"Little Bo Peep would make the cut at the Halloween parade at Riverside Drive Elementary School here on Friday, but the staff she used to menace her sheep would probably have to go...."

"...In a school district in Illinois, students are being encouraged to dress up as historical characters or delicious food items rather than vampires or zombies...."

"... A memo about costume appropriateness sent home recently by Riverside Drive's principal made the following points:

"¶They should not depict gangs or horror characters, or be scary.

"¶Masks are allowed only during the parade.

"¶Costumes may not demean any race, religion, nationality, handicapped condition or gender.

"¶No fake fingernails.

"¶No weapons, even fake ones.

"¶Shoes must be worn.

"Joel Bishoff's children will make the cut at Riverside Drive. His second grader will be Dorothy (not the witch!) from 'The Wizard of Oz,' while his fifth-grade son will wear a costume depicting a box of Wheaties.

" 'I'm not sure what is driving this memo,' Mr. Bishoff said. 'But perhaps it is reaction to years past. Sometimes kids will have those "Scream" masks, but usually not too blood and gutsy. I mean, can't parents have discretion? The fact is, if parents are too stupid to not send kids to school with hockey masks as Jason, they are probably too stupid to read this memo.' ..."

I'm with Mr. Bishoff on this.

I'm also (slightly) sympathetic with the folks who write up those occasionally-daft rules. Some Halloween costumes are downright scary, and I don't think that the producers of 'slasher' films did American culture any favors.

Besides, in today's lawsuit-crazed climate: who could reasonably blame a principal for banning, for example, forks in the cafeteria: on the off chance that Johnny or Janie's parents would sue because their kids were (allegedly) scared of the sharp points?

Actually, the current bans may not go far enough. Coming to a party as a box of Wheaties might be seen as advocating cannibalism. Scary!

---

A tip of the hat to johnpmack, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this article.

Want More Halloween Candy? Here's How

"Video: How To Get the Most Halloween Candy"
Serious Eats (October 26, 2009)

"Halloween is serious business for kids. They want candy. Lots of candy. And with a few sleazy and not-so-sleazy tactics, they can get enough candy to last until next Halloween. Some simple tips include wearing a great costume and being an enthusiastic trick-or-treater; mildly more complicated is emptying your pail into a larger sack, changing costumes, and going back for seconds to the houses giving out the best candy."

The Howcast video is two minutes, two seconds long, a quite professional production with (very simple) cartoonish animation. Pretty good advice. And, in the case of Step 3, somewhat unscrupulous.

Plus, there's an explanation of the origins of collecting treats on All Hallows' Eve.

---

A tip of the hat to williamcooks, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

Lemming Tracks: Autumn Holiday Graphics

Cinderella: Halloween Edition


I created this as the Halloween, 2007, graphic for my Sauk Centre Journal, where I write about what's happening in this small town, here in the heart of darkest Minnesota.

And, no: we don't have fairy godmothers and very strange limo services here. Just a variety of blood-sucking invertebrates on the prowl during those months when the lakes and marshes aren't frozen solid.

Turkeys of the World, Unite!


Again, from 2007: The idea of turkeys reacting in a human way to Thanksgiving isn't anything new. However, as I explained that year:

"...I read that Seattle is teaching kids that Thanksgiving is a day of mourning: something about American Indians.

"Inspired by this alternative view of a traditional holiday, I created a relevant view of Thanksgiving that could be introduced next year..."

For the less militant at heart, I created this for the 2008 holiday.

Free the Thanksgiving Forty-Six Million


The turkey images were created by classyladytwo, on Renderosity. The graphic is a collage from her work, plus the signs and their artwork.

Schedule permitting, I make an effort to create something new for at least a few holidays each year: the ones that are a big deal in American culture, anyway.

---

Back to "Lemming Tracks: Digital Artwork Dredged from My Computer" (August 27, 2009)

Idea for Next Halloween: Chicken-Wire Ghost

"Easy, Do-It-Yourself Ghost"

A series of photos, showing how to make a quite spooky figure from "fence." I think it's what we call chicken wire, here in Minnesota.

My guess is that this 'ghost' would be most effective if at a location where viewers could not approach within about a hundred feet.

"Pumpkin Gutter" is updated once a year, around Halloween. If you didn't see enough exquisitely carved Jack o' lanterns this year, this is a site for you.

"Pumpkin Gutter" is where Scott Cummins showcases his pumpkin sculptures. Last year, he carved 33: Jack o' lanterns?

Happy Halloween!

Hope you have fun.

Towards that end, here are:

• "Free Halloween ScreenSavers"
  from MyCorkBoard
• "Halloween Spider Font"
  (for those who want to print spidery characters. Or make graphics for the Web.)
• "Have a Scarily Fun Halloween"
  from Kerrygold Halloween
• "Freeware: Halloween Coloring e-book."
• "Halloween Recipes"
  from Razzle Dazzle Recipes
• "The History of Halloween"
  from History.com (good media show, a little resource-intensive)

Dutiful Dogs on Halloween

"It appears that Halloween may have gone to the Dogs" - Photos of dogs in Halloween costumes.

This is a mixture of cute and bizarre.

My favorite of the lot isn't even of a dog: It's the last photo, "Don't Drink and Fly."