Saturday 9

 Saturday 9: Spooky Scary Skeletons (1996)

Unfamiliar with this week's featured song? Hear it here.

 

1) In this song, Andrew Gold sings that these skeletons send shivers down his spine. Do you often involuntarily shudder or shiver? Yep. I think it's probably tied to the cold beverage I'm drinking and has nothing to do with frights.

 

2) While they appear frightening, these skeletons are harmless and only want to socialize with us mortals. Can you think of something -- or someone -- that intimidated you at first but that you were more comfortable with as you became more familiar? Betty from movie group. She didn't intimidate but she did really, really annoy me. But she seems to be improbably fond of me, so I experimented with dialing back my inner snark and find that, while we'll never really be friends, I appreciate her more.

3) The video for this song was originally created in 1929. Skeleton Dance was a short movie produced and directed by Walt Disney himself. In 2006, Disney Studios paired Gold's song with this animation for a Halloween DVD. Do you have any DVDs that you watch seasonally (every Halloween, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, etc.)? I try to find this on cable, but if I can't, I'll dust off my DVD. I love it so.

 

4) You may not realize it, but you likely already know one of Andrew Gold's songs. He wrote "Thank You for Being a Friend," the theme to TV's Golden Girls. Blanche, Dorothy, Rose or Sophia: Which is your favorite? Sophia. "Picture it. Sicily. 1922 ..."

These questions will help us get into the Halloween spirit ....

5) Introduced in the 1880s, candy corn was originally called Chicken Feed. It was developed by a candy manufacturer who gave it the orange/white color and special name to differentiate it from jelly beans. Do you like candy corn (a) all year around or (b) at Halloween only or (c) never? C

6) What candy will trick-or-treaters get when they show up at your front door? I'm not really expecting any trick-or-treaters, but any that show up with get a handful of individually-wrapped Life Savers. Then, on November 1, I'll start slipping them into my purse.

 
7) Halloween was a 1978 movie by John Carpenter about Michael Myers, who kills while wearing a ghostly mask. In the original movie, the mask used was a $2 Captain Kirk mask, painted white. Both Halloween and Star Trek are successful franchises of more than a dozen movies. Have you seen more of Michael Myers or Captain Kirk? I suppose Kirk. I don't really care for Star Trek, but my oldest friend is obsessed so I watched several episodes with her.

8) In 2022, a survey of California schoolchildren revealed that Buzz Lightyear was the top pick of Halloween costume. When you were little, did you prefer to dress up for Halloween as a hero, like Buzz, or a scary monster? My mom picked my costumes, and she never would have chosen monster.

 

9) Some long-time White House employees claim they have seen Abraham Lincoln's ghost wandering the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Have you ever seen a ghost? Nope.