Literary Halloween
Author Anne Rice sure has a good-looking resume, featuring this series which reinvented the mythos popularized by books like Dracula.
Interview with the Vampire
The practice of dressing up in these originates with the Celtic tradition of warding away evil spirits, who were known to walk the earth on Halloween.
costumes
This Back to Black singer and London babe is the only member of the club (listed here) to have died in my lifetime (2011).
Amy Winehouse
This airy, sugar-strand candy is recommended by at least one out of ten dentists - the one who invented it!
cotton candy
Easily frightened.
scaredy-cat
Some say this Stevenson novel, which explores the frightening duality of man, was a predecessor to the werewolf genre of horror.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Before pumpkins became popular, people carved Jack O'Lanterns from these root vegetables - through no small effort!
turnips
Though Kris Kristofferson wrote it, her rocking rendition of Me and Bobby McGee continues to be one of this psychedelic sister's greatest hits.
Janis Joplin
It's no laughing matter - Franklin Mars named this classic candy bar after his recently departed favorite racehorse.
Snickers
Just resting your eyes for a second.
cat nap
Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein while cooped up with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron during 1816, a year often called this, due to the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption.
"Year Without a Summer"
Before Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), Mexican celebrants observe Día de Todos Los Santos, or this, which especially honors children who have passed (and other innocent souls) on Nov 1.
All Saints' Day
Of this pioneering rock guitarist who covered Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, songwriter Dylan said, "It's his song now."
Jimi Hendrix
Some "pieces" of trivia: this candy inventor named two creations -- the Johnny Bar and the Lizzie Bar, after his children, but for his smash hit, he used his last name, which is this.
Reese
Something outstanding or excellent.
cat's meow/pajamas
Forget about The Shining; this novel about a paranormal dwelling place was so good the author had a genre award named after her.
The Haunting of Hill House
(Shirley Jackson)
Columbus who? This alternative holiday for the second Monday in October was celebrated as early as the 1990s , championed by those who were critical of celebrating colonialism.
Indigenous Peoples' Day
Sometimes prophesied to be "the John Lennon of his generation", this Nirvana frontman left Generation X in 1994.
Kurt Cobain
Swiss chocolate manufacturer Toblerone is so proud of its heritage, they fashioned their iconic candy bar's triangles after this Alpine peak.
the Matterhorn
Someone who is fidgety, nervous, or agitated (also a Taylor/Newman movie).
cat on a hot tin roof
This 1967 novel about a pregnancy, along with the Polanski movie adaptation, is cited with sparking a revival in the horror genre.
Rosemary's Baby
(Ira Levin)In this country, partiers go from door to door in search of treats, brandishing a horse's skull on a pole, not on Halloween but Christmas! The wassailing tradition is called the Mari Lwyd (or Y Fari Lwyd in the local language).
Wales
One of the earliest initiates of the "27 Club", this blues singer hinted in songs like Crossroads, Me and the Devil Blues, and Hellhound On My Trail that he had sold his soul. The cause of his 1938 death remains unknown.
Robert Johnson
These businessmen developed a candy to "melt in your mouth, not in your hand," and stamped their shared initial on each one.
(Forrest) Mars and (Bruce) Murrie
With its origins in mouse-centric fable, this refers to completing a task thought to be impossible.
"to bell the cat"