 A Happy “Boo!” to You Halloween is coming up next weekend. I admit to dreading—in fact, hating—this particular “holiday.” I must be one of the few because everywhere people are planning costumes, buying candy and pumpkins, putting out decorations of ghosts and other menacing creatures. It’s all in great fun, I know, but there is also a darker side—a genuinely and terrible darker side. And that is the suffering that cats, especially black cats, go through. If you own a cat or cats—whether they are black or not—please keep them inside beginning this week until November 2. There are very sick and idiotic people who will capture them, ask for them, try to “adopt” them or otherwise obtain them in order to fulfill their sick thoughts. You must do all you can to protect the cats you have or know. Even if you cannot get your cat inside your house, at the very least lock her up in the garage with a warm bed every night. But try your best to keep all of them inside. You know the dangers, you must protect them. Please do so. And so now, not to end this letter on a bummer, I wanted to share what BiblioBuffet’s Australian contributor, Gillian Polack, told me—that that Halloween is not really celebrated there yet. They do, however, have something else: Alas, Halloween as a public festival is very new in Australia and all our traditions are lifted straight from US toy catalogues. It’s growing, however; Woolworths sells the proper pumpkins for $24 each, which makes me laugh—it’s Spring here. I wrote Narrelle Harris (an Australian fiction writer) a little something for a Halloween competition she’s got going (she writes vampire stories—and two of her characters review books and films from a mixed vampire/librarian perspective, so of *course* she’s going to have a competition and I’m her friend, so of *course* I had to write her something for it) and I’m pasting it below in case. It’s very much in case, though. The big holiday at this time of year in Australia is the Race that Stops a Nation ie Melbourne Cup Day. First Tuesday in November. Very, very important to us. Although this year there may not be a public holiday for it in Canberra, there will certainly be one in Melbourne. Four million people getting a full day off work for a four minute horse race… and most of the rest of Australia with their glasses of champagne watching the race at work. This is what makes Australia what Australia is. If we could only work out what precisely we are, then maybe we’d understand the importance of sweeps and hats and champagne and skipping work on a nice Spring afternoon. Bits of Phar Lap (a dead horse) are preserved in several museums, one of which is near me. I bet you don’t want pictures… Gee, you think? I’ll pass, Gillian, but I bet many people here would love to have one of those museum . . . uh, displays for their party. They can contact you directly, right? But just in case the postage is too high, at least we can all enjoy the story you wrote for Narelle Harris: Surely everyone knows the origin of Halloween? Old English halls were the centre of life in the manor, the house, the village in the 15th century. In the happy town of West Midsomer in 1485, the town crier went around announcing there was something afoot in a hall by crying “Hall!” Someone complained (someone always complains) and said “How do we know what time of day to turn up?” “It’s in the evening, you fool,” said the town crier. “Then say so.” The town crier started calling “Hall O E’en!” Everyone turned up to East Midsomer that night. The people of East Midsomer were not happy, so from that night on (the 31 October 1485, to be precise) the town crier clarified things. For East Midsomer he still called out “Hall O Ee’n!” but if the event were in West Midsomer, then he cried “Hall O W Ee’n!” Under Cromwell, the order came that only one night of fun and frivolity and waste of candles would be allowed a year, so naturally the people of West Midsomer decided on 31 October for their single night of Halloween. Then the whole town all migrated to the colonies and took their tradition of Hall O W Ee’n to South Carolina. Well, my tradition for this time of year is to plan my annual reading of War of the Worlds. First, I read the original story, then with all lights out so as to get the full effect I listen to the 1938 broadcast on CD, the cats sprawled on my feet and lap, the window shade up to take in the dark mountains and bright stars or the blackness of a stormy night, if I am lucky. This tradition began on Halloween night, 1981, when I was living on the thirty-fourth floor of a forty-story apartment building in Hawaii. There was a storm. Not just any storm but one so violent that the wind and rain actually pushed and pulled the sliding glass doors into alternating concave and convex shapes. The power of it was frightening, and I had no idea whether it was better to keep the doors closed (and avoid soaking the carpet and furniture) or to open them an inch to try and take some pressure off. I eventually opened them only to be met with the roars of the storm in full force—the perfect if alarming background for the story of an invasion of Earth by Martians. Though I have never been able to replicate that exact experience, I never miss the opportunity to enjoy both stories. So this “holiday”—whatever else I dislike about it—is one of my fun reading ones. I tumble into a world of fantasy that feeds both my love of astronomy and of astronomical possibilities, however improbable: No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment. If you would like to join me, tune into the Mercury Theatre’s broadcast of War of the Worlds (it’s fourth from the bottom under Mercury Theatre). Wikipedia, in addition to a page of (decent if not altogether reliable) information about the story and the show, also lists numerous excellent suggested readings, links, and references about the book and the radio show. Happy Halloween, everyone. Keep all your loved ones safe! Upcoming Book Festivals: Beginning on Thursday, October 28 and running through Saturday, October 30 Missoula will host the Montana Festival of the Book. This is the opportunity to share in the “incredible richness of Montana’s literary landscape” with more than one hundred regional writers. Other events include the Missoula Writing Collaborative Bookfest Pre-Fest, a opportunity to “meet the MWC writers, buy their books, drink some wine, read some kids’ poems, eat some cheese, carry on . . .” the Cutbank Literary Journal Fundraiser with music, readings, performances, and door prizes; the Festival Author Reception with a Gala Reading and Poetry Slam; and A Shiver Runs Through It: A Ghost Gala at the Wilma Theatre. Panels and presentations begin at 11:00 am on Friday and run all day Saturday beginning at 9:30 am at several venues On Saturday, October 30, the Children's Literature Festival will take place in Keene, New Hampshire on the state college grounds. Five authors including Susan Cooper will talk about and share their experiences in one-hour presentations throughout the day. There will be breaks where books can be bought and signed, and a special luncheon (cost is on the attendee) as well as a closing reception. Registration will take place between 7:30 and 8:45 am; the program will start at 9:00 am. The Pub House: Arcadia has other series too, among them Postcards of America (594 books), Then and Now (203 books), Images of Rail (151 books), Images of Sports (128 books) and Images of Baseball (103 books). I’ve seen a few of them and they are lovely, making great gifts for anyone who loves local history books. Imaging Books & Reading: Of Interest: Until next week, read well, read often and read on!
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