Haunted Meat Locker

An event I regrettably missed out on...

Inflatable Pumpkin

Caufield's Novelty Shop in Louisville has always been good for eye-catching gimmicks, such as their hearse and their giant bat. Now they've put a giant inflatable jack-o-lantern on their roof, joining UnK's hallowed ranks of blow-up goodies such as the Inflatable Cone and the Inflatable Ape.

Cobb's Haunt

Every year around this time, between the Equinox and Samhain, Sunny Acres Farm hosts a Halloween corn maze called "Cobb's Haunt". Cobb's Haunt has no lights, and no flashlights are allowed. Sounds like my kind of place! But what goes on in the darkness? I shudder to think.

Listen to their radio ad on mp3 here.

Cobb's Haunt welcomes you each Friday and Saturday throughout the month of October. It opens at dusk each night, and the last group goes through at Midnight - and that's just the perfect hour to be there, isn't it?

You'll find the Cobb's Haunt corn maze at 6516 Echo Trail in Jeffersontown.

Jack o' the Lantern

At the home of some hippie babysitter I once had, I used to read those Foxfire books as an impressionable youth. No doubt they had some sort of nefarious influence on me, filling my innocent noggin with all sorts of ideas about soapmaking, butter churning, beekeeping, hide tanning, basket weaving, woodcarving and hog butchering.

But in all of that idle leafing through arcane texts of lost homespunnery, I never did really grok what was meant by the name "Foxfire" at the time.

Years later, I learned it referred to bioluminescent fungi, which is related to the concept of the Will O' the Wisp, which in turn is related to the Irish mythos of Stingy Jack, from whence we derive the mythical Jack o'the Lantern - and that is, of course, in whose honor we carve Pumpkinheads around the Halloween season.



Dave Tabler, on his wonderful Appalachian History blog, recently did a piece about the Jack o'Lantern Mushroom:

If you have ever tramped around the woods after dark, you may have noticed an erie glowing substance on the forest floor. This is the light from luminescent fungi---foxfire. One of the most common fungi responsible for foxfire is Clitocybe illudens, also known as the Jack 'o Lantern mushroom. Makes complete sense that it would be named that: it’s orange, it glows in the dark. But did you ever stop to wonder where the phrase "Jack 'o Lantern" came from?

Tabler goes to tell one version of the Stingy Jack legend - there are many - and you can read more on Wikipedia. For our purposes here, I'll just give you my abbreviated Jeff's Notes version:

Basically, a slovenly but lovable alcoholic lout with a mischievious, trickster mentality encounters Satan, and tricks him into turning himself into a coin, which Jack then quickly thrusts into his pocket which also contains a crucifix. This imprisons Satan who, stuck in coin form, cannot re-transmogrify while touching the Holy Cross. Satan tells Jack that in exchange for freedom, he promises to leave Jack alone for ten years. Jack, apparently not being a very good negotiator, agrees to this.

Ten years after, Satan returns with the intent of killing Jack and taking his soul. Jack again tricks Satan by entrapping him up an apple tree surrounded by crucifixes. This time Jack makes a better deal, and insists that in exchanging for releasing Satan from the tree, he will never, ever go to Hell. Satan agrees to this.

Finally, at the end of Jack's natural life, he floats up to Heaven but is turned away because of the wicked and sinful life of drinking, womanizing and carousing. Apparently being a free-agent of a spirit is very painful and unpleasant, because Jack then decides he'd rather be in Hell than to be stuck in the in-between nether world. Satan gets the last laugh on Jack, saying "Sorry, a deal's a deal - you made me promise you could never enter the gates of Hell!"

Jack is forever doomed to wander in limbo and on Earth, unable to ever rest his soul in Heaven or Hell. Some versions of the story have him holding a lantern consisting of a candle inside a hollowed-out turnip; in others, it's a rutabaga, a gourd, or a pumpkin. Somewhere along the way, his actual head became that hollowed-out flaming vegetable lantern.


Meanwhile, back to the mushroom, I should also point out that it is extremely poisonous, but looks very similar to the highly edible Chanterelle mushroom which is equally common in Kentucky. If you aren't 100% percent positive, do not eat. (And of course, the corollary is: make sure you have the right shroom so that you don't sit in the darkness staring at a Chanterelle and waiting eternally to see the bioluminescence.)

Hillcrest Halloween II

More images of the power and the glory of the yard decor on Hillcrest Avenue, Louisville. These people have got it going on. I dare YOU to outdo them - get thee to a Garden Ridge or something.

Hillcrest Halloween

Hillcrest Avenue in Louisville is (in)famous for its wonderfully over-the-top Halloween decorations. This year promises to be the best ever, from what I saw today. Many families were in their yards putting their displays together as I strolled around snapping photos, so there's clearly much more to come between now and October 31.

New KISS Sonic Boom

Hear ye, hear ye - appropriately enough for the Halloween season, Wal-Mart stores around the nation are devoting a "KISS Korner" to sell the exclusive new KISS CD "Sonic Boom", an amazing package which consists of not one, not two, but three discs: the new album, a new live DVD, and a collection of exciting new re-interpretations of older hits.

Furthermore, there's a new launch of KISS Halloween masks, KISS Mr. Potato Heads, and limited-edition KISS M&M candies. It's a great time for KISS fans, and if you're not one already, it's a good time to become one.


(And what does any of this have to do with Kentucky, you may ask? Absolutely nothing! Just go buy the album.)

Bi-Water Farm

Photos of the Halloween decor around Bi-Water Farm, just outside of Georgetown.



There's an interesting teepee on the far edge of the property too. I'm not sure what that's about, or if it's supposed to be part of the farm.

Wickland and Wickland

There are at least two historic estates called Wickland in Kentucky - the first and most famous is the one in Nelson County, on the outskirts of Bardstown.

It was built in 1813 for Charles A. Wickliffe, a Whig member of the Kentucky House of Representatives who later became Governor of Kentucky. The house has also been lived in by Charles' son Robert C. Wickliffe,(who was governor of Louisiana from 1856 to 1860) and by Charles' grandson J. C. W. Beckham. Beckham, who was born at Wickland, also went on to become a Governor of Kentucky (from 1900 to 1907).


The Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels have a barbecue here every summer, and the Wickland Corn Maze Halloween event is held on the grounds every autumn. You never know what sort of horrific entities will jump out at you when you walk the corn maze, and the proceeds go to the local Future Farmers of America chapter.


Wickland is vaguely listed by some as a haunted house, but if anyone's given any specific data about this, I've missed it.

Kentucky's other Wickland is located in Shelby County, and was (rather unimaginatively) named after the first one. Charles Cotesworth Marshall, built it in 1901 and named it in honor of his wife, Elizabeth Wickliffe, who was the daughter of the aforementioned Louisiana Governor, Robert C. Wickliffe and was raised at the original Nelson County Wickland.


Wikipedia says it's in Shelbyville, but the closest major town to it is clearly Simpsonville, and if you want to be perfectly old-school accurate about it, it's in Veechdale. Remind me to drive back out there soon and take a photo.