celebrities HALLOWEEN

Lily Allen + Bump

Christina + Max

Nicole, Joel + Sparrow

Liam + Stella

Jennifer Garner

Don't Look Now, But The Ghost Of Countess Bathory Is Right Behind You

 Once again, Hallowe'en has come upon the land. That magical time of year of tricking, treating, ghost stories, and when our darkest parts of our imagination get to run free for the night. It's also the time of year when endless reruns of Hallowe'en gets replayed over and over again on cable channels, and Donald Pleasance keeps trying to kill Michael Myers. Michael does, of course, have it coming....

Lots of jack o'lanterns get carved, of course, and some people put a lot of particular effort into decorating their homes for the festivities.

"Gentlemen, Operation World Domination begins this Monday. The odd decorations the humans put out are central to our plans. Let me explain..."

One pumpkin to rule them all....

"Now, witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational jack o'lantern."

Here in Ottawa, we have many a ghost haunting some of the public and less public places scattered throughout. Like other cities, there's a touring company that runs several Haunted Walks, telling the ghost stories of the city. I thought I'd touch briefly on three of them.

The luxurious Chateau Laurier hotel was commissioned a century ago by railroad baron Charles Melville Hays. In 1912, it was finished, and Hays was coming from Europe with a large shipment of furniture for the grand opening of the hotel, but unfortunately he took passage aboard a certain ship you may have heard of. Hays and his furniture went down aboard the Titanic. Since then, there have been sightings of the great man in the hotel, among other ghosts...

The Carleton County Gaol (or Jail, depending on your nationality) is now used as a youth hostel and small museum, but in its day it was a prison downtown, where hangings took place of condemned men, including the convicted assassin of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of our Fathers of Confederation. The place is haunted of course, and having had been in there, I can say that you can feel the coldness of it, the sensation that you're being watched. It's a creepy, creepy kind of place to even briefly visit.

Watson's Mill is on the shore of the Rideau River in the village of Manotick, a short drive away from the city. Indeed, I was just there myself this weekend. The 19th century era grist mill is still in operation today, producing flour and selling bread. The building is open for visits, the equipment remains in place, and there's a spectral presence too. A young wife of an owner paid a visit to the mill one day a century and a half ago, and was killed in a tragic accident. Her ghost is still said to be seen in the mill and the grounds. Having had been on my own in the attic space during my last visit... I did have the distinct feeling of someone else there with me....

At this time of year, cartoonists get busy with the theme of the supernatural, of course, so I thought I'd  collect a few of them from the last few weeks for you. Plenty of ghosts, witches, monsters, and such to go around for everyone. And no, don't worry, just because there are the odd vampires in the mix doesn't mean it involves any glittery ones....

If you're drinking coffee, you might want to put it down before clicking on this. Just saying.

Even editorial cartoonists get into the act this time of year....

One might, if one is a fan of the genre, feel the need to participate in a Zombie walk, such as these fine folk did recently here in Ottawa. It was a bit strange to keep passing people with blood on their faces through the streets... and then realize there was a point to it.....

Coming for Hallowe'en 2012... Barbie: Malibu Serial Killer...

And so I bid you a Happy Hallowe'en. Mind the ghosts and goblins. And if you see any sparkly vampires, take out the stake. You'll be doing the vamp a favour by putting them out of their misery.

Age of discontent

From The Pregnant Widow, by Martin Amis:

As the fiftieth birthday approaches, you get the sense that your life is thinning out, and will continue to thin out, until it thins out into nothing. And you sometimes say to yourself: That went a bit quick. That went a bit quick. In certain moods, you may want to put it rather more forcefully. As in: OY!! THAT went a BIT FUCKING QUICK!!!... Then fifty comes and goes, and fifty-one, and fifty-two. And life thickens out again. Because there is now an enormous and unsuspected presence within your being, like an undiscovered continent. This is the past. 

I’m closer to fifty than I am to thirty-five, so I think I know what old Mart’s talking about. But then I’ve felt that way since I was about eight or nine.

(Flood update: the worst is behind us. Although that depends on which way we’re facing.)

celebrity mumma VICTORIA BECKHAM

Victoria with her precious little bundle Harper.

Polly got in one good peck before that cat killed her. Good for Polly!

So I was listening to the 7/19/11 All Songs Considered podcast Cry, Baby, Cry: Songs That Make You Weep. Apparently they got over 8,000 entries. It's a 49 minute show but I think they said they were going to try to compile a blog with their favorites.



Apparently Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton did this installment in Bob's living room with tissues and wine. (They didn't want people to see them crying at work.) And fucking Robin told the most goddamn depressing story about the cat he'd had for fifteen years getting hit by a car right before he had to go into work (at NPR). I mean the cat even fucking died in his arms, it was heartwrenching. And so this song makes him think of his cat (it's a song from a cat's perspective) but in all honesty it's a fun song, too.

I switched back over to my regular itunes library after that since I was trying to finish my legal memo... :(

Oh terrific, I've got three choices: Watch the kid sleep, listen to Lynda screw around or talk to you!

Welcome to the Adult Corrections Institution in Cranston, Rhode Island!



It's nicer than the UNT campus. Seriously. Also, we were driving around the perimeter trying to figure out how to get in and my friend KD and I nearly simultaneously said, "Dammit! I wish I'd brought my camera!" Fairly inappropriate sentiment, all things considered, but it was really impressive!



We weren't the only ones. After walking out of the interview, we were walking between buildings and another girl I like said, "This is kind of awkward, but the grounds are really well maintained!"

I'm really enjoying writing this motion, but it's just a draft at the moment and I'm not sure I'm doing it right. But I'm certainly investing a lot in it, so hopefully it will be useful.

Ok, so the long way around is this: the defense clinic I have been working in has been really great because it involves (quite obviously) real clients and forces you to learn the courtroom culture (of your city/town). The lawyers here all refer to each other as "my sister" or "my brother," which I fucking refuse to do because not only is it a really local thing to do (and hence a habit I do no wish to pick up and have to unlearn) but it can also confuse my clients. They already think the system is against them and it's all one team, and they often tend to take language like that quite literally. But my point is that the clinic is really one of the very few things in law school that get you out of the theoretical sphere.

On Friday I went to the ACI in Cranston, RI to meet our client from the IP. As I'm writing my motion, I'm realizing all the guys from these cases were ALSO sentenced to prison terms at the ACI, so I guess most of them were there, too. Weird.

I say "weird" because so much of law school revolves around bullshit hypotheticals. We have spent the better part of the semester reading (2000+ pages of testimony and statements) and while I GET IT that it involves real people, it's very, very easy to see it as more of a problem on paper. Well, we met him on Friday and not that I expected anything different, but he's incredibly nice with a wicked RI accent. It doesn't surprise me that I like him, but it happens in the clinic more often than I expected as well. It's hard, though, because you already think this guy (the one in for life) is innocent, so meeting him can potentially weigh you down in unexpected ways. This process is, frustratingly, still in its infancy, after all.

Four of us were driving home and talking about our weekend plans. My friend BA said, "I was on the fence about going to a Halloween party tonight, but I think I'd feel like a total asshole going to a party instead of working on my draft after that." I had the exact same problem in my head and couldn't agree more. (Plus I have two other papers of 30 pages each to write, so there's that.)

The girl who commented on the groundskeeping and I also found out that all the old newspaper articles from [small town] are not within the materials we received but are in fact preserved in microfilm at the city library. I totally want to go and look them all up, I think it sounds exciting. So if nothing else, I guess I'm not in the wrong field! ;)

diy PAINT CHIP WALL ART

With all the colour blocking around today this paint chip wall art is a great way to 

add a touch of colour to your home. I would love to give this a go.

More details can be found at How About Orange

loving CORAL

I am so in love with coral this season.