The witching hour

There was a full page feature on Halloween in today's Missourian. Personally, I think it was a little premature. Why not wait until Sunday? I don't think kids are trick-or-treating tonight. Nonetheless, the feature presented a lot of information--some interesting, some questionable, some just amusing. I was glad to see that they included a very brief history of Halloween, although they didn't give specifics. That's okay; it was about Halloween today, not what it's been. I thought the graphic of the haunted house at the top of the page was cute. I really liked the layout of the top half, except that a sidebar was out of alignment with the text next to it. That's a little annoying. I had a small issue with the text, too. One sentence was, "Students say they still see ghostly shadows through the windows (Of the MU Chancellor's house on the quad)." That's a claim, and you're not supposed to make those without a quote to support it. I've never heard a student say that. The bottom half was too busy for my taste, but the most interesting info was there. A short story on vandalism included how to clean up after pranks. Apparently, if you're egged, you should "mix one teaspoon of laundry detergent and baking soda with one cup of water." Then apply the mixture with a scrub brush, cover the area with plastic wrap, wait an hour and hose the area off. Interesting...I had no idea. Without a doubt, though, my favorite part of the entire page was at the very bottom, where there were graphics used to illustrate last-minute costume ideas. One was a ninja, and the tease (?) for it was this:

"Are you extra stealthy? Do you have REAL ultimate power?"

I want to know who wrote that. It cracked me up.