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“Spare Parts” Pumpkin Face Kit!

Gotta admit upfront, this could be an "interesting" week. I like to write most of the following week's Countdown articles on the weekend, because there's just no guarantee that I'm going to be lucid enough to write them when I get home from work. This past weekend, I wrote no Halloween Countdown articles. I had a family thing Friday, a friend thing Saturday and a pass out thing Sunday. If you notice any strange asides about death and about wanting death and about pleading for death during this week's run of articles, you'll know why.

Today's feature came out okay, though. "Spare Parts" is a silly kit that lets people make jack o' lanterns without actually carving them, Mr. Potato Head style. I wasn't impressed, but I wrote about it anyway.

Oh, I have more to say.


I've already told you about Target's Mountain Dew Pitch Black Freezes, but at the time, I didn't know about these. They have official cups! Why is this important? I've held onto empty (and full) cans of the first two Pitch Black incarnations, and now, I'll have a memento of the third. You should have that, too. I recommend buying an extra just for the cup. Don't fill it, because it'll be sticky forever no matter how many times you wash it. Keep one empty -- that'd be your trophy piece. Your mantle's gonna be freakin' awesome.

Posted by Matt on 10/02/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 86 comments

“making faces as if they were trying to pass iron maidens out there asses”
It is quotes like these that keep my coming back to X-E day after day. Have you considered a top 10 or “best of” X-E witticisms? If so, I place my vote for:
“[Man-at-Arms'] one redeemable quality is that his fiery old bastard loins paved the way for that piece of ass Teela.” Matt-7/7/00

Chestnuts roasted by John @ 10/03/2006 11:07 AM

The Sculpture Professor is making us crave pumpkins for haloween as a “for-grade” project.

Chestnuts roasted by Jon Shipman @ 10/03/2006 11:08 AM

I live in the absolute sticks of Tennessee, and even grow pumpkins from time to time, but I have always gotten Jack-o-lantern material from the grocery store. Are you Yankees just ate up with pumpkin patches or something?

Chestnuts roasted by klatuaradanikto @ 10/03/2006 11:10 AM

I stopped doing the whole pumpkin and decorations thing a while ago as I’m never home during “operation hours” of Halloween, and pumpkins have a bad habit of ending up smashed. Damn commute. Though I think I might leave a plastic bowl of candy out for the kids to keep in good standing. They’ve been keeping an eye on the house and cars since my sister is running for township council.

I admit to owning one of those fake light-up pumpkins because the previous town I lived in didn’t allow for real ones lit by candles. That’s what happens when you live in a victorian section where all the houses are of the wood frame variety and three feet away from one another. We weren’t allowed to have real Christmas trees either. And it was always interesting to watch people grill in the middle of the sidewalk. Almost as funny as the people who melted the vinyl siding when they put the grill too close to the house.

Chestnuts roasted by LemurCat @ 10/03/2006 11:21 AM

How does he make you crave them Jon? That should be some kind of psychology class or something.

Chestnuts roasted by Klatubaradanikto @ 10/03/2006 11:24 AM

I don’t know, Matt. Any pumpkin that doesn’t glow from the heat of 2.2 million oversized candles beaming out the triangular eyes, round nose and over-bite mouth isn’t really a jack-o-lantern in my books. Watch for the first teenagers of the night to huck this fake-o-lantern into your neighbour’s yard after stuffing their pillowcase with your assortment of wax teeth, lifesaver 3-packs, and peanut butter cups. You’ve been warned!

Chestnuts roasted by Nizz @ 10/03/2006 11:35 AM

So I picked up three pumpkins at a patch, do I have to crave all three to stay alive, cause we are thinking about painting one of them. Also I need to admit we bought a value size bag of candy corn last week, it’s almost gone. mmm candy corn. it’s not the only candy in the house either. so I live on a dead end street with maybe one or two kids, is it wrong to take my kid to a different neighborhood to go trick or treating?

Chestnuts roasted by RAS @ 10/03/2006 11:59 AM

Matt,

You’re absolutely right. Logo-emblazoned items are keepsakes and let’s all face the truth right here, right now — while one is enjoying a delicious meal or a tasty beverage from a container that has the foodstuff’s native logo on it — it *TASTES BETTER*. It’s just common knowledge.

Chestnuts roasted by Jason @ 10/03/2006 12:19 PM

Hey everyone…my stupid work has kept me too busy to keep up with the Halloween Countdown. I have some severe catching up to do.

Anyway, I’m going out to pick pumpkins this weekend with the whole family. There’s something so enjoyable about watching a little kid walking through rows and rows of pumpkins that are half his size or larger, and seeing him try to pick one of them up…hilarious!

Plus, we’ll all be trekking through the Great Corn Maze. Click my name to check it out. It’s a Pirate theme this year….PIRATES!!! So much Halloweeny fun!

Also, I wanted to point out Mystie‘s not one, but TWO (however thinly veiled or just plain blatant) references to genitalia.

:)

Chestnuts roasted by bad karma @ 10/03/2006 12:27 PM

Ok, it’s groovy to take the kids to other nearby neighorhoods. I recommend the squabs talk to their friends at school to recon the best places to T-or-T. Some spots have good candy, while some have good decorations. Most of all, Have Fun! I can never stress that enough.

I always carve my own Jacks. Doing the lid, carve on a slight bevel, and add a notch on one side, it will always fit right, and look spiff. Freehand is usually my style, but i might download a couple of Homestar Runner stencils this year. My carving kit is made of three different ones from past years, and has “safety” knives with the blunt sawteeth. they work surprisingly well for the big cuts, and I have the smaller, sharper saws for detail work. For our Lord and Master, Mighty Matt, I suggest carving a good face on a pumpkin, then use the pig nose. The eyes that came with you kit makes Jack O’Lanterns look like “VeggieTales” refugees.

Now I gots a hankerin’ for some gourd hackin’!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 10/03/2006 12:41 PM

I live in a large apartment building this year, so I don’t have a front door…I don’t think putting a Jack o Lantern in the hall would be acceptable (its a ‘smoke free’ building). Sigh. Still I NEED to carve me a pumpkin! I guess it could just sit on the kitchen table, in everyone’s way for a month….

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 10/03/2006 1:22 PM

I just remembered that I have a “Snoopy as Red Baron” stencil left over from a couple of years ago. I’m going to a cornfield maze this weekend also (see my name for link) so I am prefiguring that I will be partaking of the pumpkin piercing and puncturing.

Chestnuts roasted by freudguy @ 10/03/2006 2:00 PM

Well, I got my Pitch Black ICEE. I don’t even like ICEEs or Slurpies. I don’t like Ice period. The Colonel will take this opportunity to make fun of me for it, like he always does.

But it was just plain delightful. I’m contemplating getting another one. The woman just had to tell me how she got an email saying that it was their Halloween promotion this year. And then I had to explain to her why it was so special, cause apparently she didn’t know why everyone was coming through and acting like it was the cure for cancer. I almost asked for another cup because it looked like they only had the LiveWire cups, but I was like forget it, I found the damn thing, that’s enough. Then I turned it over. Yes, it is the same cup. On the back of Matt’s there is a LiveWire Freeze logo.

So, I have officially completed 100% of the Halloween Mini-games I have set forth for myself. Our Jones party is set to start at 3.

Good times.

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 10/03/2006 2:08 PM

An interesting Halloween article from the local rag, The Seattle P.I.:

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Halloween is back from the dead

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

Michelle “Max” Maxwell knows most adults secretly want to dress up for Halloween — the trick is figuring out whether the average Jane wants to be a witch, a pirate or the classic sexy maid.
photo
Zoom Mike Urban / P-I
Heather Morgan and Tony Diepenbroch, who are shopping early for Halloween, try on police uniform costumes at Champion Party Supply in Seattle.

As manager of Champion Party Supply, an edgy downtown Seattle costume and decor store, Halloween is her Christmas.

“I prepare almost every day of my life for this season,” said Maxwell, a savvy businesswoman with an MBA who wears combat boots to work.

Halloween for adults saw a surge in popularity in 2000, but tapered off after Sept. 11, 2001, because people lost their appetites for gore, Maxwell said.

Now, Halloween is making a comeback.

“We are off to a very strong start,” Maxwell said. “We saw that in this weekend’s sales.”

Consumer spending on the holiday could leap 51 percent to $4.96 billion from $3.29 billion a year ago, according to predictions by the National Retail Federation.

“There’s just a lot more people celebrating Halloween this year than last year,” said Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the Washington industry group.

Champion Party Supply, which outgrew its Pike Place Market location a dozen years ago, begins packing its walls with bloody body parts, hideous masks and hundreds of spider webs just after July 4, Maxwell said.

advertising
She hires 30 extra people to her normal staff of 10 to accommodate the holiday rush. In terms of sales, St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo also top the charts — but nothing compares with Halloween, she said.

“If you can drink and get ripped, we do really good,” Maxwell said. But Halloween sells better because it appeals to children, adults and pets.

This year, people are thinking about Halloween earlier and willing to spend more — an average of $59 compared with $48 last year, according to the survey conducted for the retail federation by BIGresearch. About 8,000 people were polled in early September.

Kirkland-based Celebrate Express Inc., which sells themed-party products online and by catalog, is seeing the trend, said Kevin Green, the company’s chief executive. His average customer spends about $75 on costumes, or up to $200 including party decorations and candy.

Halloween sales revenue will grow more than 40 percent this year, he said. Some of that is because of increased marketing, but the rest is because the holiday is becoming more popular among teens and young adults.

“This is one of the top commercial holidays,” Green said. “In terms of decor, it ranks only after Christmas.”

For Celebrate Express, “Star Wars” costumes are selling the fastest, Green said.

“Apparently it’s still highly popular; maybe it’s the absence of another character,” he said.

Merchants start trying to pinpoint popular costumes up to 12 months in advance, Green said.

Last October, dorky, frizzy-haired Napoleon Dynamite was hot. So far this year, it’s hard to see if there is a clear winner, Maxwell said. Superman costumes aren’t turning out to be a hit as predicted. Rather, Johnny Depp-inspired pirate costumes are flying off the shelves.

“Anything movie-driven, that’s always what people want to be,” she said.

For women, costumes that reveal lots of leg and bosom always rule the day.

“If you want to dress sexy and slutty, you can get away with it for a day,” she said. “The pirate chicks are really popular for sexy this year.”

Costumes for pooches are another growing trend.

More than 3.5 million Americans will buy Halloween products for their pets this year, up from 1 million four years ago, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

People can even match their own costumes to their pet’s, which Seattleites eat up.

“Who doesn’t have a dog in Seattle?” Maxwell said, showing off a “Pimp Doggie” costume, with purple velvet cape, gold chain and leopard trim.

Other types of merchants are getting in on the Halloween sales action as well. Rite Aid stores, which began putting Halloween items out Sept. 15, have noticed a change in what shoppers want, said Ashley Flower, a spokeswoman for the Camp Hill, Pa., drugstore chain. Increasingly, the main customers are teenagers and adults, which may explain why new items this year include a doorknob scream and an animated crystal ball with a witch inside.

Giant inflatable snow globes with bats and witches sit just inside the front doors at The Home Depot on Aurora Avenue, which sells the 6-foot-tall outdoor decorations for $80.

“Part of it is to create a fun environment as associates and customers are coming in,” said Victoria Eldridge, human resource manager.

The store will have a Halloween costume contest for sales associates Oct. 31, she said.

“You can’t help but smile when you are coming in the door,” she said.

Chestnuts roasted by Chris Martin @ 10/03/2006 2:09 PM

Ryane – Great idea, thanks for the tip. I did make the holes close to each other, but never thought of using a marker or anything since I have the feeling a lot of the color would end up still on the pumpkin, I’m terrible at following lines perfectly. =D

On the topic of pumpkin smell, I used to hate it as well. When I was young I couldn’t wait to scrub my hands clean after touching the guts. Now I prefer to take my time & freak my mom out with them because they’re ‘disgusting,’ in her words. That’s why I stick her with the job of taking all the seeds out of the gore to bake them, even though they never turn out right. :D

Last time I got a PB freeze, I couldn’t drink all of it, so I put about half in the freezer… I just decided to retrive it and see if it was still edible. It didn’t freeze that hard, it was still scoopable, but now it has the distinct flavor of children’s grape-flavored cough medicine. Yum!

Chestnuts roasted by Christine @ 10/03/2006 2:42 PM

Watercolor markers come off clean, just wipe your pumpkin with a damp rag.

(…sounds like a hygene tip…)

Let’s hear it for leg and bosom!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 10/03/2006 3:10 PM

It’s amazing that I never think of these things, kingslash. I’ve also never heard of them referred to as watercolor markers, but as washable.

Chestnuts roasted by Christine @ 10/03/2006 4:01 PM

Whoo hoo. Matt got a shoutout on msnbc.com yesterday; he was even the very first bullet point (you have to scroll past the damn ad, of course). If this was already posted, I apologize in advance: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4326967/ I wonder how many new readers we’ll get from it…

Chestnuts roasted by purplegirl247 @ 10/03/2006 4:20 PM

Apparently that guy is Matt’s pal. I would be friend with a guy who had a middle name like Fishingbauer too. Only to make fun of him constantly though.

Chestnuts roasted by Old E @ 10/03/2006 5:28 PM

Did I mention how much I miss my spellcheck on this blog. I have becom typing lazy, as Word just fixes everything for me. Except for the one time it corrected a misspelled LOOK to LEAK. My ending sentence of “The Homeowners Insurance has adequate coverage, but the flood may still be worth taking a look.” was obviously changed to something that garnered endless laughs from the office.

Chestnuts roasted by Old E @ 10/03/2006 5:31 PM

New readers? I know some interesting and entertaining people might find this site and not just assbags, but new people in general angry up my blood. Since it’s not even my website, it’s really none of my business, but… grumble grumble… you damn kids get off my lawn!

Chestnuts roasted by Welsh Rabbit @ 10/03/2006 6:34 PM

Caught the Tales from the Darkside Halloween ep on Sci Fi. VERY awesome stuff. “Heh heh heh! It’s Halloween, gentlemen!!”

Chestnuts roasted by Eddie Lightning Frog @ 10/03/2006 7:29 PM

Since I am a pyromaniac, I really wanna try this pumpkin trick: http://www.extremepumpkins.com/kersoaktoilp.html
My neighbours are gonna be pissed, but it will be worth it.

Chestnuts roasted by Phil G. @ 10/03/2006 7:49 PM

My much less funny, fast review of the sodas:

Gruesome Grape–pretty standard, nothing special
Creepy Cranberry–tiny bit better than last year’s holiday offering
Spider Cider–tasted like drinking a banana. Not a banana flavored drink, a banana.
Lemon Drop Dead–aiight.
Berried Alive–tasted like swallowing instead of spitting after brushing your teeth.
Monster Mojito–I can’t recall. it must not have been notable, duh.
Candy Corn–I LOVE CANDY CORN!!!!

The only flavor I will definitely be repurchasing is Candy Corn. Spider Cider is a possibility. The suicide (all flavors mixed together) was tingling to the tongue, but not half bad. Of course by that point we were busy finishing off every bottle left on the table. I guess that’s a compliment over the holiday party last year. Those things sat around for AGES and I would drink from them on random dares.

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 10/03/2006 9:22 PM

Ooh, tough week + a major link. Hope you don’t kill yourself trying to get entries done. :)
To any newbies who’re here from the msnbc link, welcome on in! Make yourselves known, we’re a generally friendly lot :D

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 10/03/2006 10:04 PM

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 9:33 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.