Apparently the key to creating "brain tissue" is to mix acidic lime juice with the vodka. Then when you add the Bailey's Irish Cream via a straw, it curdles into cortical gyri. A splash of grenadine provides the blood. The ingredient list and instructions are at Folkinz. Via Found Here. You will need a couple of these if you plan to eat any of Jill's brain cake...
Did you ever have one of those Halloweens where your costume fell way short of awesome? I sure did. I was going to be a killer robot. I had two boxes, a large one for my body, and a smaller one for my head. I cut armholes in the big one and a hole in the top, where the other box went. I painted the whole thing orange, and cut out eye holes. About fifteen minutes after leaving the house, I realized the total and devastating failure of my endeavor, and returned home a sad, orange robot disgrace. I know there are other stories out there that beg sharing, like Susan's as told to Lemondrop, among other confessions:
My brother and I dressed up as George and Martha Washington one year. (My Dad was a big history buff.) Yup, it was incredibly nerdy. And also kind of funny that I was about a foot taller than "George Washington." (pictured, above).
More terrible costume stories at their site, but since I confessed, it's your turn! What costume idea of yours turned out to be less than you'd hoped for? Link
Halloween is coming up fast and to get you in the spirit, here are a few stories of some of the most haunted places around. While there are always unverified stories when it comes to haunted places, I’ve tried to cut out any that have been sufficiently proven to be untrue –like the little girl killed by a clothes line at the Whaley House, and to highlight the local legends from the historical facts. So, even if you don’t believe in ghosts, at least you’ll hopefully enjoy reading about the history and folklore of these creepy locales.
Easily the most famous haunted place on Earth, the White House is said to be haunted by the ghosts of William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, Dolley Madison, Willie Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln. Harrison has been spotted digging around in the attic, Jackson hangs around the Rose Room, which is the bedroom that he occupied during his presidency and Mrs. Adams has been seen frequently in the East Room, which is where she hung her laundry.
Mary Todd Lincoln reported seeing the ghosts of both Jefferson and Tyler in the Yellow Oval Room. When Ellen Wilson asked for the rose garden, originally planted by Dolley Madison, to be dug up, workers reported spotting the ghost of Mrs. Madison, protecting her beloved rose garden. Periodically, areas of the White House are reported to smell like roses, something frequently attributed to the ghost of Mrs. Madison. Abraham Lincoln’s son, who died in the White House at only 11 years-old, has also been spotted in the building.
The most frequently seen and most famous ghost spotted in the house though is Abraham Lincoln. Among those who reported seeing or feeling the presence of The Great Emancipator include Eleanor Roosevelt; President Truman; Jacqueline Kennedy; President Truman’s Daughter, Margaret; Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands; President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty; Liz Carpenter, press secretary to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson; Grace Coolidge; Winston Churchill; Theodore Roosevelt; Tony Savoy, White House operations foreman; Mary Eben, Eleanor Roosevelt's secretary; Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Maureen Reagan, and her husband.
Sources: Listverse, Finding the World and Wikipedia
I’ve actually been to the Whaley House and even if you don’t believe in hauntings, it’s hard to deny that the luxurious, beautiful home still has an eerie, uncomfortable vibe to it. Even before the Whaley House was built, there was reason to be wary of the property –it was where early hangings took place in San Diego.
Image via Alik Griffin [Flickr]
The most famous story occurred in 1852, when a man named “Yankee” Jim Robinson was caught after stealing a rowboat. While his two accomplices were sentenced to only a year in prison, Yankee Jim was charged with grand larceny and sentenced to execution by hanging. If you think that sounds like an extreme punishment, you’re right. In fact, records of the event say that Jim was laughing all the way up until he died, apparently believing that the whole thing was an elaborate joke. When he finally started choking, he certainly started to believe it was real –unfortunately, it was a slow, painful realization as Jim was so tall that his feet were still scraping on the dirt.
One of the bestsellers of 1538 was a book of woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger called The Dance of Death. Later editions were also popular (more illustrations were added), and at least six copies were actually bound in human skin. Two of those are now at the John Hay Library in Providence, Rhode Island.
The woodcuts portray Death as an entity in the form of a skeleton or a corpse. The theme is that death comes for us all, whether rich or poor, young or old, deserving or undeserving. Sometimes death is waiting in the wings; other images show him surprising the one he comes for.
If you'd like to see more, there are 27 illustrations from The Dance of Death at Atlas Obscura. It's part of their 31 Days of Halloween series.
Good news, everyone! We're starting a new weekly series featuring all kinds of great pictures that might not warrant a full post on the site but are still worth sharing with you readers. In anticipation of Halloween, this first one will focus solely on fun pictures to get you pumped for our favorite holiday of the year.
We've seen Sharknado cosplay before, but never anything this epic.
Via The Meta Pic (Original Source unknown)
No one wants to discover they've been in costume all year and just didn't know it. This happened to Redditor LiarInGlass' uncle.
Via Mental Floss
Stop thinking happy thoughts and start painting happy trees like the young man in this image by Flickr user StrawberryRicRac.
Personally, I think you're gonna need a bigger boat.
Via Cheezburger (Original Source unknown)
Scout at Scouting New York knows more about the geography of the city than anyone else I know, so when I saw he wrote The 10 Most Dangerous Places In New York City, my curiosity was piqued. Some of those places have horrible histories! This is just the beginning of the entry on The Bramford.
Considering the atrocities that have occurred at this building over the years, its nickname, the “Black Bramford,” is well-earned. Once home to the Trench sisters (two proper Victorian ladies who cooked and ate several young children, including a niece), later residents Pearl Ames and Keith Kennedy, with his obscene parties, continued to bring infamy to the place. In 1959, a dead infant was found wrapped in newspaper in the basement.
Another thing you should know, Scout makes a living as a location scout for movies and TV shows that are planning to film in New York City. Not only does he know a lot about city geography, he knows all there is to know about movies that are filmed there. -via Metafilter
Sometime in the late '80s, Neatoramanaut Billy P. became a unicorn for Halloween!
I had a big brushed Tail you can see hanging down. Long ass pony tail/mane down the back. I gave away chocolate covered strawberries and Champagne all night.(I was the sound mixer for the bands that night) That is an Original Johnny Carson suit from the early '70's.
And a good time was had by all. Thanks, Billy!
When you bite open these little brains, you'll find they are filled with delicious but frighteningly red raspberry sauce! If you serve a full platter of them, be sure to cut one open to show your guests what they are in for. The presentation makes all the difference!
The gelatin is flavored with hazelnut and raspberry liqueur in addition to vodka, which both lend a bit of authentic coloring to the condensed milk-colored gelatin. The raspberry filling can be homemade, as the recipe is included, or you can take the shortcut of using raspberry pie filling.
A little raspberry syrup drizzled over the top completes the look. Just pretend you are a zombie, for which brain-eating comes natural. These will work for your premiere party for The Walking Dead next weekend, or for any Halloween party. The complete instructions are at WikiHow. -via Buzzfeed
Looking for a little inspiration for your Halloween costume? If you love TV shows, this list by UProxx is a great place to start planning for this year. There are even plenty of great costumes for kiddos and a few puns for fans of terrible wordplay.
For example, this Sean Connery Celebrity Jeopardy costume from that SNL sketch, put together by Redditor r2002, is a hilarious homemade costume that any fan of the show will appreciate.
Adam Galloway sent in this picture of a tasty childhood costume. If you look really closely, you can see two eye holes.
The year was 1991, I was 8 years old and all I wanted to be for Halloween was a Butterfinger candy bar.
My mom was able to dig up the polaroid for me. Enjoy!
Comic Book Girl 19 (along with Tyson and CBG19) made an entire Robocop costume out of cardboard, but you'd never know it because of the boss color job, created with a printer. She won Best in Show at Dragon Con! Bonus: we also get a glimpse of the other contestants, too. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Psycho - Shower Scene (may not be suitable for younger audience) [YouTube
Link]
Motion picture decency standards in the 1960 didn't allow for things like nude women being stabbed to death in showers. Consequently, Hitchcock was forced to create the impression of nudity and violence without actually showing a breast, a buttock, or a knife puncturing skin. The result is a terrifying masterpiece of a montage. And even though it's probably the most analyzed (and parodied) 45 seconds in film history, we're willing to bet the following tidbits slipped past you.
Forget the bloody corpse in the bathtub: what really got "Psycho" censors worked up was the toilet. Just before stepping into that fateful shower, Marion tears up an incriminating note and flushes it. Hitchcock's close-up of the swirling commode water was the first ever allowed in an American film.
What looks like blood funneling down the drain is actually Bosco chocolate syrup. Hitchcock thought it looked more real in black-and-white than the fake stuff. Tastier, too.
The scene is composed of more than 90 shots seen in 70 different camera angles. It took Hitchcock and his crew an entire week to film it. To put that into perspective: The entire film took only six weeks.
The woman who played Janet Leigh's body double in about half of the shower-scene shots was named Myra Jones. In a sad case of life imitating art, Jones was stabbed to death in 1988. Her killer? A mentally disturbed handyman who targeted older women. He'd murdered at least one other before her - that police know about.
After the release of "Psycho," Hitchcock received an irate letter from a man whose daughter had refused to take baths after seeing the French thriller "Les Diaboliques" (in which a man is drowned in a tub). After seeing "Psycho," she refused to take showers as well. Hitchcock's reply? "Send her to the dry cleaners."
Although popular with most audiences, "Psycho" was reviled by ophthalmologists. Eye doctors everywhere pointed out that a corpse's pupil dilate, yet - in a stark close-up of her face after her supposedly deadly shower - Janet Leigh's eyes remain contracted. Ever the obsessed technician, Hitchcock listened, using dilating eyedrops for stiffs in all future films.
The article above was written by Ransom Riggs, as part of a longer article Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in the Nov-Dec 2006 issue of mental_floss, published here with permission. Visit mental_floss for more fun stuff everyday!
Mike Szczys went all out this Halloween and installed a matrix of 70 LEDs in a pumpkin! The result is a way to scroll messages in the dark for visitors and trick-or-treaters. See a video of the Jack-o-Lantern in action, and the complete process of building it at Hack a Day. Link -Thanks, Mike!
Misery Bear encounters zombie teddy bears in this Halloween offering from Chris Hayward and Nat Saunders for BBC Comedy. Not recommended for young children. -Thanks, Nat!
You don't have to do any artwork yourself with this zombie generator -just upload your picture and it will turn you into a zombie! Well, at least your picture. This one is me, zombified. Link -via the Presurfer
