Happy Halloween!
Why we like scary things: The science of recreational fear
From peek-a-boo to Halloween haunted houses, research shows that recreational fear can teach us to face scary situations
Addendum
As a bit of a Halloween greeting I sent the complete shadow person tome to a few friends. One of them replied:
Very good read. My youngest has seen hat man crossing my hallway towards the wall and out the apt. She told me a few times and was scared. She also gets sleep paralysis til this day. A shadow man has sat on her chest and she would wake up screaming and gasping for air.
I wish I hadnât read her email before I went to bed last night.
Her âyoungest,â by the way, is an adult. In her mid-20s, I think.
I had sleep paralysis once. Thought I saw a hooded creature of some kind. It was awful.
Iâve also had the reverse, where while dreaming Iâve thrashed about. That one is called REM sleep behavior disorder.
They are opposites â normally there is a paralysis while dreaming. The first one is when the paralysis continues after waking. The other is where the paralysis fails while dreaming.
Reading your messages about this, I wonder if pareidolia plays into it? Iâve noticed that a lot, e.g., looking for faces in faux marble linoleum for fun. But it also scared me once when I woke up and sneezed, and thought Iâd sneezed out a spider. But it was just a pattern on the kleenex. 
Halloween turned out a little sad this year. Weâre in a new place thatâs a nice walkable neighborhood where tons of kids walk by every day on their way to/from school. So my wife and daughter decided to break out the yard decorations and put a lot of work into setting up, including fog machine, lights, speakers, and a new projector, got dressed up, bought tons of candy to give out.
We got a grand total of 5 trick-or-treaters.
None of our neighbors decorated or anything. From what I hear, the kids all went to âtrunk-or-treatâ in a parking lot somewhere, a downtown thing, and/or had their parents drive them to a richer neighborhood a few blocks away. I guess if theyâre doing that, it kinda makes sense that the neighbors didnât bother.
But we decided weâre going to keep doing it anyway, and maybe if they see us doing it, some of the neighbors will too, and the kids will know to come by and itâll catch on in a few years.
pareidolia would be more fun if it didnât come with anxiety and paranoia 
Saw these outside my local grocery store at the end of July!
And picked up a pumpkin spice creamer on Friday!
It takes time and a careful amount of consideration to prep for the objectively best holiday.
Photo postcard of Bob and Jo Liggett - the 2014 Circleville, Ohio Pumpkin Show winners - with their champion 1,964 pound absolute unit. The annual festival starts the third Wednesday in October.
Photo by Nancy Radcliff of the Circleville Herald.
âTilli the aardvark has her amazing sniffer going while she inspects keeper Brynnâs homegrown, 53-pound Cinderella pumpkin! 
Tilliâs care team punctured holes in the giant pumpkin and filled it with yogurt for a special treat.â
I have to ask, 1964 pounds - is that from a single growing season, or do they somehow keep it alive and growing for several years to get to that size?
I think itâs a single growing season. The climate theyâre usually grown at is too freezing throughout the winter to sustain above-ground fruit.
At least, Iâve never seen pumpkins grown in tropical areas. AFAIK, they need the first frost to get sweeter, like kale.