Jake Kelly is launching what is perhaps the most wonderful Halloween book I have ever seen. This pre-order is called Haunted House: American Haunted House Advertisements of the 1970s and 1980s . I found his book on Instagram and I thank God I did. I would have been heartbroken if I had missed it. This is so right up my alley that it's a wonder I didn't produce it myself. Seriously, this is the stuff that keeps me up on the internet well past the midnight hour, just looking for cool local Halloween stuff from across this great nation... As a kid in the '80s, when we would eat at McDonald's in October they would have these tray sheets, and I would just stare at all of the black and white Halloween ads there. I was captivated. One of my favorites was the Gray Charles Haunted House directly across the street from our McDs. It was such a cool ad with just a skeleton on it. But it kept my attention. Preordered! And it should arrive before Halloween 2026! Get your copy here . ...

I finally found, in the wild no less, the vinyl I've once and future owned, the Halloween sounds album from my childhood. I listened to Sounds to Make You Shiver (1974) quite a bit in Octobers of yore. Yore being the equivalent of approximately 36, 37 Octobers. Yeah, 10-year-old me would sit beside the stereo late at night when my parents were asleep and I would spin this up, fantasizing I was a vampire. These were the nights of the Gray Charles Haunted House at the old North Point Police Precinct 12. The police had the north side of the building while the Recreation Center had the south side. I looked forward to that Haunted House every year. And before and after going to the Haunted House I would play this record on our Kenwood turntable to get psyched! I also had to grab this all-Halloween episodes Roseanne DVD. I have the complete show on DVD from Mill Creek, but to have all of the Halloween eps on one disc was just too good to pass up! This was something I've ...