THE Net and Hallowe鈥檈n have a lot in common. Both involve adopting
disguises and wandering around looking for treats. It鈥檚 just that one
involves knocking on doors, while the other opens Windows.
The Net has lots of sites dedicated to the Hallowe鈥檈n holiday. A great
place to start is http://aztec.lib.utk.edu/~michie/hallorig.html,
which details the history behind the hype. All the documents are written
by a witch.
Another great resource for things that go bump on the Web is at
http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable, which has an online
version of Brewer鈥檚 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, a book that was
described as a browser鈥檚 delight before Netscape or Mosaic were invented.
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If you fancy scaring yourself, they don鈥檛 come much spookier than The
Cabinet of Dr Casey (http://www.cat.pdx.edu/~caseyh/horror/index.html),
which includes a wonderful archive of movie posters from The Abominable
Snowman to Zombies in the Stratosphere. The site also contains
comprehensive links around the Web and a list of newsgroups of the
alt.horror and alt.cult-movies variety. Aspiring writers can even submit
their own blood-spattered prose for publication.
More lists reside at http://www.neosoft.com/~samhain/, which also
hosts a game called Click or Treat. Clicking on one of the images takes
you to a Hallowe鈥檈n-related site or tries to scare you.
If it鈥檚 ghosts you鈥檙e after, try http://www.flyvision.org/sitelite/
Houston/GhostWatcher/index.html. The site has images from five cameras,
set up by an artist who claims she is being pursued by ghosts and wants
Net-heads to do the watching for her. From the safety of the Web site
you can e-mail her if you spot unearthly goings-on.
But for the definitive list of Hallowe鈥檈n links, the Dark Side of the
Web鈥檚 Yaboo search page fits the bill at http://www.cascade.net/yaboo.html.
It includes a list of lighthearted sites by and for kids, along with a
host of Hallowe鈥檈n food and games.
How about sending some totally genuine postcards from Hell? At
http://www.666hell.com/hell/post_card.html you can order cards to be
forwarded on your behalf with the real Hell postmark. Incidentally, an
acquaintance of Netropolitan鈥檚 who had the misfortune to spend a weekend
in Hell (which is actually a small town in Norway), found the really
terrifying thing about the place was how boring it is.
