Better an hour or so past deadline than two hours or so past deadline.  It's Saturday, I know, but let's consider this as Friday's Halloween Countdown entry, for organization's sake.  It's a short, meandering ditty about Halloween's frequent team-ups with beer.  I don't know.

Wow, I can't believe we're up to fifteen Countdown articles already.  Time to go start preparing next week's batch of goodies.  Be good, you.

I don't think I've ever actually eaten a proper "honey bun," nor have I ever had any huge desire to start.  But it's tough to resist when they start dressing foxy.

From Cloverhill, it's the official "Halloween Honey Bun."  Sold at the pretty incredible price of 2.99 for a big box of six huge buns, I couldn't believe my good fortune.  Honey buns, in orange bags, with pictures of spiders and bats on said bags.  I was really hoping that the buns themselves would be shaped like something spooky, but dog shit ain't spooky.  I'm still in love, though.  They're so genericky and wholesomeish.  The kind of thing you'd find for sale on an elementary school hot lunch line in October.  If I thought kids would find it more "cool" than "insane," I'd totally give these out to trick-or-treaters and make sure their scarves were nearly tucked before sending them off.

I found these last night, along with a recipe booklet detailing how to turn Hormel pepperoni slices into Halloween heaven.  That was a bigger issue, and I've written about it in the latest Countdown entry.

Boo.

When I started the Countdown, obviously a bit on the early side, I had this nagging sense that it wasn't really feeling like the Halloween season.  Even today, I had a similar conversation with a friend, and we just chalked it up to us both being loser 9-5'ers, unable to partake in the season's wealth of spooky spirits.  But, as I drove home tonight, I couldn't help noticing house after house after house decked with orange lights, spooky inflatables, carved pumpkins and mass mayhem.  Like, more so than usual for this neighborhood.  People like us, you and me, we'll "live" Halloween no matter what.  We'll force it into our life, kicking and screaming.  Still, it's nice to know that we've finally hit that point in the year where I can fill my grocery store wagon with all three General Mills monster cereals and not catch a glance.

Know what else is nice?  Knowing that the best is yet to come.  Enjoy tonight's Halloween Countdown article — a review of an old Halloween-themed episode of Perfect Strangers.

"Thriller" is one of the songs of the season, and to celebrate, here's a look back at the Graveyard Gang, a line of cheap bendy zombies from 1984 that quite obviously intended to capitalize on Michael Jackson's popularity without paying him a cent.  For bottom of the barrel toys, these are actually pretty cool, and they came blister-packed with coffin-shaped plastic bubbles.  For those around the same age as me, I hope the article doesn't resurface any memories of how freakyscared you were of the music video when you were a kid.

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Bet you thought I was skipping today's Halloween Countdown entry.  Joke's on you.  I usually don't start skipping entries until it's close enough to Halloween for people to actually be into Halloween articles.  Joke's on me.  Joining the club today is the Scary Flying Ghost, from a series of cool ass Halloween decorations that skidaddle along a big wire making loud noises.  I hope the article inspires a few purchases, because this thing is worth the money.

In good conscience, I can't give what's seen above its own Halloween Countdown entry this year, because they're the same Hostess Scary Cakes that've been out for the past few years, albeit it in a new box.  I wrote about 'em way back in a 2003 entry, and you'll be happy to learn that the cupcakes — swapping out the usual icing layer format for a color palette more down with the devil — are back to kick some more ass.

I love the Vampire Cupcake mascot pictured on the box, who seems to be doing the classic "vampire cape self-shielding thing," not to deflect sunlight or garlic or a cross, but because he knows he looks ridiculous.

Really though, they could've done more to "Halloweenify" the things.  Orange icing and brown sprinkles work well enough to make the snacks seem seasonal, but they could've at least arranged the sprinkles to make the cupcake tops look like jack o' lanterns.  I don't think the extra step would've broke the bank, Hostess.