The blog of author Dennis Cooper

DC’s Scary Candy News Outlet & Sales Emporium, 2026 Edition

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In 1964, Long Island housewife Helen Pfiel was arrested for handing out goody bags containing dog biscuits, steel wool pads, and arsenic laced ant traps to teenagers who she felt were too old to be trick-or-treating. Concerned parents contacted police and Phiel was arrested, taken in for psychiatric evaluation, and charged with child endangerment.

 

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Secondhand Swabs: These gross little Halloween treats are made with Q-Tips, mini marshmallows, and melted caramel. DIY

 

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‘If you have this candy at home, or your kids picked it up on Halloween, throw it out, as it’s been linked to at least three Canadian children killing themselves minutes after eating it.’

 

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Chocolate Deviled Eggs: White chocolate w/rice krispies & red sanding sugar, individually wrapped. $18.50

 

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Gravy Candy is here! Gravy is one of those things that improves just about everything it touches and that includes candy. This brown and white striped candy looks just like candy that grandma would keep in a bowl and tastes just like the herb-infused gravy she’d make for holiday meals. $5.95

 

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Authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. Severely dehydrated, the girl had a seizure and died days later.

 

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Despite their inherent messiness, everyone loves Cheetos. While fake cheesy goodness is something everyone can get behind, the Japanese have apparently taken this game day classic and enhanced it to, well, not make any sense. Introducing strawberry-dipped cheetos. Nothing more than the corn puffs sans the cheese and dipped in what appears to be a gooey strawberry-chocolate mixture, these recently released in Japan only morsels of contradictory goodness are reported to be “very good.”

 

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Teens Find Razor Blades In Halloween Candy

 

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What looks like forensic microscope slides with drops of blood-like specimen, is actually made from sugar, corn syrup and red food dye. It’s cheap and easy to make and will stand out from other ghoulish candies.

 

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Just before 10 p.m. on June 12, Adam Budge, 18, and Elijah Stai, 17, were hanging out at Budge’s East Grand Forks home when they mixed a white power — 2C-I — with melted chocolate and ate the drug-laced candy. They then went to a McDonald’s. An hour later, Stai began “freaking out” and acting as if he were “possessed,” foaming at the mouth, hyperventilating, and smashing his head against the ground. By 1:30 in the morning, Stai was dead.

 

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Gourmet Foie Gras Bubble Gum: For those evenings when you’re craving goose liver but don’t want to get off the couch we offer these Foie Gras Gumballs. Each 3-1/4″ x 2-1/2″ x 3/4″ (8.3 cm x 6.4 cm x 1.9 cm) tin contains about twenty-two gumballs that taste vaguely like the decadent french delicacy. £3.90

 

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A woman with special needs who was thought to have died from natural causes was found with candy wrappers stuffed down her throat when her body was being embalmed. When 70-year-old Kathleen Mcewan’s body was found at her apartment in Roxborough, Philadelphia, there were not thought to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. However, when undertakers attempted to embalm her body the next day they discovered up to 10 inches of candy wrappers stuck in her throat.

 

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Polar Poo Bear Candy Dispenser! Pop open it’s head, fill it with candy, such as nerds, jelly beans, or anything small and round, white or brown color candy works best for effect. Then push on it’s legs and it poops it out the back! $4

 

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As much as everyone would love to see a bunch of stoned little kids running around dressed like baby Groot, or whatever, it’s probably a good thing that Colorado police are trying to make sure trick-or-treaters don’t accidentally eat any weed candy this year. The video intends to show parents how to identify an edible. The trouble, though, is that pot-infused candy is often visually indistinguishable from its non-paralysis-inducing counterpart—sometimes it’s literally just ordinary candy that’s been sprayed with cannabis oil—and if you munch on it as you would any other sweets, ignorant of its dark power, you might end up alone and afraid, taking shelter under your bedspread, begging for it to end.

 

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Give someone the gift of a Krabby Patty Coal Shaped Slider this year. Ingredients: Glucose syrup, sugar, gelatin, sorbitol, modified corn starch, citric acid, pectin, malic acid, artificial flavors, glazing agent (palm oil, carnauba wax), sodium citrate, artificial colors (caramel colors, titanium dioxide, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40 , blue 1). $3.95

 

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Four days after Halloween 1970, Kevin Toston, a native of Detroit, died of a drug overdose. A drug analysis initially showed Kevin’s candy to be laced with heroin and quinine in powder form, but investigators later discovered that Kevin had stumbled upon his uncle’s drug stash and had accidentally poisoned himself. The family, fearful of charges of child neglect, sprinkled Kevin’s candy with the drugs in order to protect the uncle. No charges were filed.

 

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Have you visited IKEA lately? I could not believe yesterday in their food hall they have packets of marshmallow sheep with the title of GODIS SKUM. I have written a complaint and advised it should be rebranded. 99 kr

 

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Spirits were high for Rakesh alias Guddu and his three cronies. They were attending a marriage party on the lawns of the Jehangirabad Palace, which adjoins the district magistrate’s residence in Hazratganj. A video clip (now with the police) clearly shows Guddu dancing away on the lawns, whipping out his gun occasionally and firing in the air. It was perhaps for a break or on an impulse that he left for the candy store located on the same premises, some 50 yards away from the lawn. The youth came in the store around 11.30 pm. The candy store had already put up a closed sign outside its door as it usually does at 10.30 pm, though it does entertain families who might drop by after that hour. When they asked for a cassata candy attandant informed them it wasn’t available. At which, Rakesh stepped ahead, took out his pistol, placed it on the 20-year-old Raghuraj’s temple and shot him dead.

 

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The Barfo Family Candy was unleashed by the Topps bubblegum company in 1990. The armless & legless torsos featuring an unhappy, nauseated, white bread family, with their heads mounted on accordion-like shaped bodies containing a delightful glop- like gel/”candy” (ingredients: sugar, water, glycerin, gelatin, citric acid, potassium sorbate, artificial flavors, artificial colors). $99.00

 

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Weird Japanese candy

 

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A Denver man accused of shooting his wife while she was on the phone with 911 dispatchers had eaten marijuana-infused candy before the incident, authorities say. Investigators reportedly found receipts for “Karma Kandy Orange Ginger” and said he appeared under the influence of drugs during an interview. Kristine Kirk, 44, was shot in the head Monday almost 13 minutes into her call with 911 dispatchers. Police had not yet arrived at the time of her shooting. Throughout the call, the AP reports, Kirk said her husband, who was reportedly hallucinating and asking her to shoot him, had frightened her and her children.

 

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Cricket Crunch Bar: “Cricket protein is similar to beef and salmon when it comes to quality protein,” he said “It has all of the essential amino acids and is packed with B vitamins with a perfect balance of an Omega 6:3 ratio of 3:1. In addition, crickets have more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach.” $3.95 $1.25

 

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In 1974, 8-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died as a result of eating cyanide-laced Pixy Stix given to him by his own father, who likely wanted to collect on a large insurance policy. The dad had poisoned 4 other children’s Pixy Stix as well to make the act appear “random,” but none of the other children ate the poisoned candy.

 

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Taste testing odd Halloween candy. I forgot to rate the last candy, but you could easily tell what the rating was.

 

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Peppermint Broken Glass Candy: When my dad got home, he actually thought I had bought some weird glass sculpture and freaked out. Then, to make it even better, I smashed the whole ‘glass sculpture’ with the rolling pin right in front of him. Recipe

 

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One of the killers of a father-of-three has boasted about the cowardly murder on Facebook from prison – saying ‘I kill people for candy’. Curtis Delima, 22, was convicted of murdering 47-year-old Mark Witherall in April 2008, along with his smirking and sniggering teenage accomplices Mark Elliott and Gerry Cusden. The trio who were accused of behaving like a pack of hyenas as they kicked the builder to death after he refused to give them Halloween candy at his home in Whitstable, Kent, in October 2007.

 

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The Candy Bar is an item used for the Homeless sidequest in Silent Hill: Downpour. It can be found in three different locations depending on the puzzle difficulty. The candy bar must be given to Homer, the homeless man in the Pearl Creek underground entrance, to complete the sidequest.

 

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John P Roberts, 55, a thief out on bail, strangled girl, six, to death and hid her body under his bed after luring her to his motel room with Halloween candy.

 

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After many long years, the hugely popular candy ramen set has returned and it’s much improved! Form the candy dough into the dumpling press, add the stuffing and squeeze! Next come the ramen noodles that magically solidify as they hit the soup! $2.99

 

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On Tuesday, WSB-TV in Atlanta reported that the Waka Flocka Flame affiliate and Brick Squad Monopoly member Slim Dunkin was shot in an altercation that began over a stolen piece of candy. “The information we’re getting, it’s unconfirmed, but witnesses are saying this whole thing started over a piece of candy,” homicide detective David Quinn told “Action News” on camera. According to witnesses, Dunkin, born Mario Hamilton, grabbed a piece of candy from another man while inside an Atlanta recording studio, which led to an argument and then a fistfight. The scuffle ended with Slim being shot once in the chest. He was then transported to Grady Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

 

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Hose Nose: You strap it onto your face, uncork the nose and let the candy drip onto your tongue. $1.69

 

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Murder, Inc. as they were dubbed by the sensationalist press of the day were a loose coalition of gangsters based out of Brownsville, Brooklyn in the 1930s and early 1940s. Though its members were involved in a variety of illicit activities including loan sharking, prostitution, gambling, bootlegging and labor racketeering, they became infamous for their role as the New York syndicate’s so-called “execution squad.” However, their reach extended far beyond the East Coast, they were implicated or suspected in numerous killings across the United States, as far away as Florida, Los Angeles and Detroit. Based out of a 24 hour candy store called Midnight Roses at Saratoga and Livonia Ave in Brownsville, its members were always on call at a moment’s notice to go to an assignment once the directive was handed down. The candy store was located under the elevated train that brought many people too and from Manhattan.

 

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The Red Tent Coffee Shop in the Aomori Prefecture of Japan offers anatomically correct gummy candies in the shape of insect larvae. The candies are filled with a blueberry-flavored jam to stand in for the larval guts. 1,000円

 

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Happy Halloween+ My Halloween Candy! YUM!

 

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In 2000 James Joseph Smith, 49, of Minneapolis had handed out candy bars that he had put needles in. He was later charged with one count of adulterating a substance with intent to cause death, harm, or illness.

 

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Penis Shape Dispenses Liquid Marshmallow Foam: $7.37

 

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A man who killed his daughter by attacking her with a baseball bat as she was eating her Halloween candy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Wednesday. Robert Kelly, who told police he was “a little too in the Halloween spirit”, went into the bedroom of his 20-year-old daughter Megan at their home in Oxford, Michigan and beat her to death in May last year. A police dispatcher testified: ‘I asked him if he knew who did it. And he stated, “Yes, I did.”

 

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Pimp your teeth with the off the hook Grillz Candy. Most people can’t afford a diamond-encrusted platinum grill. We know we can’t. Fortunately, most people can afford this tasty candy one. Simply place the lollypop like end into your mouth and suck away (it works like a pacifier). The flavor of the Grillz you receive will be a surprise as they come in sour apple, peach, watermelon and strawberry. $2.99

 

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Heaven Sutton murder 6/27/2012 Chicago, IL: Shot to death while selling candy in front of her house.

 

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Chocolate Scrabble: 32 individually wrapped chocolates, a candy “paper” playing board and a gold caramel trophy. Exclusive licensee for Candyland in a chocolate edition. Kosher certified. $29.50

 

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Prosecutors believe they have a CRUCIAL piece of evidence that proves Aaron Hernandez murdered Odin Lloyd. Prosecutors say they can prove Hernandez stopped at a gas station hours before the murder and purchased gas, cigarettes and BLUE COTTON CANDY FLAVORED BUBBLICIOUS BUBBLE GUM. After Odin was murdered, investigators say they found a shell casing in his rental car that matched the caliber of the bullet used to kill the 27-year-old … and next to the casing — A CHEWED PIECE OF BLUE COTTON CANDY FLAVORED BUBBLICIOUS BUBBLE GUM.

 

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DIY set for making Sushi candy, with candy rice, egg, tuna, salmon roe and seaweed, flavour: grape & soda Popin’ Cookin’ is a series of edible DIY candy in funny shapes, that you can easily make yourself by adding water to the ingredients of the package content: 6x bags of powder with different candy ingredients, 1x spoon, 1x pipette, 1x candy material for seaweed 1x mold, size of the box: width: 14.5cm (5.7″), height: 13cm (5.1″), depth: 4.5cm (1.7″), incl. instructions with pictures. $2.43

 

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Robert Durst, the real-estate heir accused of urinating on a Texas CVS cash register and candy rack when he was picking up a prescription, is one of the strangest cases of a rich man gone off the rails. On Tuesday, after arranging for Durst to turn himself in to authorities in connection with the alleged incident at the drug store, Lewis once again defended his client, whom he said suffers from a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome. “He wasn’t arguing with anybody and he didn’t seem agitated,” Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva told The New York Post, adding that she did not know what the prescription was for. “He just peed on the candy. Skittles, I think.”

 

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Have you ever wanted to try haggis, but you just can’t seem to make it to Scotland for some of that entrails-y goodness? Archie McPhee has the answer! For a scant $4.95 a piece, you can treat yourself to these gastronomical delights. While in Scotland, I managed to avoid sampling this traditional Scottish dish of sheep’s entrails and spices, boiled inside a sheep’s stomach. McPhee’s Angry Scotsman’s version is made of butterscotch gummy and crafted to look like actual haggis. $4.95

 

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Eric Morse, who was 5 in 1994, was asked by some older boys in his Chicago neighborhood to steal candy for them. He said no. He didn’t want to steal. The older boys, who were 10 and 11 at the time, determined that Eric, who was growing up in a home marked by frequent parental absence, must be punished for his honesty. The older boys led Eric to an abandoned apartment on the 14th floor of the Ida B. Wells housing project, a high-rise building that had the reputation of being a home base for drug dealers. They led Eric into the empty apartment. It is where they would execute Eric. The older boys then picked the 5-year-old up and threw him out a window. Eric’s body dropped 14 stories.

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Alice, Hi, Alice. I seem to be getting by, thanks. Late happy b’day. B’days are never not confusing. They only get more so. I know a fair number of people who tutor to get by. They mostly seem to think it’s a solid choice. Great that you’re coming to the screening! The struggle you’re going through with your novel seems like part and parcel of getting it right and yours. The worst way is settling on something and going on automatic pilot, which I suspect is the usual way novel-making mostly goes. I don’t know ‘Senritsu Kaiki’, but I will try to find it, obviously. Thanks a lot. All the best to you too, and, yes, it’ll be happy to see you on Halloween. ** _Black_Acrylic, I’ve never owned a pair of dark glasses — weird, I know — but from wearing clear glasses it’s hard to imagine having a long life with them. They were cool, man. ** Tosh Berman, ‘Trawl’ is most excellent. That little doc about him is worth a gander if you can find it. I’ll angle towards ‘Digger’ in a theater then. It’s not as hated over here in France, probably no surprise. Thanks, Tosh. ** Carsten, I have friends who are really into Asia Argento, and it’s true that when I quiz them as to why, it always boils down to them thinking she’s hot. I think Anne Carson is great and deserved the Nobel Prize. I was surprised by the news and quite happy. Huh, then I guess your car looks really good or at least comforting from an aerial view? ** laura w., There are new rock bands I like, but the ones I like never seem to quite fit comfortably in the rock category maybe. I’m a pretty big fan of Tom Verlaine’s solo albums. Especially ‘Dreamtime’. That’s a great album. I was surprised that Anne Carson got it too. Surprised in a very good way. I’ve never watched ‘Rocky Horror’, not even the movie. I think when I found out about it, it was already at the point of having fanatics who saw it a hundred times and wore costumes and danced and sang along, which kind of warded me off. Let me know about the experience. Still no real exciting Halloween stuff to look forward to locally other than the ones you mentioned and kind of this ‘haunted park’ thing they’re doing here which will probably be overly family friendly. ** Adem Berbic, Not to toot my own horn, but I don’t think there’s been any novel that does what ‘TMS’ does. Where’s my Nobel Prize, haha? It’s true that you have to figure out very precisely what the characters’ function within the overall system is, and that’s a tricky thing to negotiate. But possible. I kind of do that with everything I write, they’re just not usually immersed in something so dense. Test Dept. are still working the concert venues? Still banging on the drums and shouting and everything? ** HaRpEr //, When I think about it, I guess I think of myself as a very American writer. Mostly due to my heavy use of particularly American sentence structure and slang and linguistic mess. And the spacial locationing of the settings I use owes a lot to my growing up in LA. I think. I haven’t gotten the new Charlie Fox book yet, but it’s #1 on my list, and I’m going to After8 tonight for a reading where they might just have it. ** Steve, Iñárritu’s films have always annoyed me, so it’s hard to imagine ‘Digger’ will be any different, but cynicism is self-defeating, so … who knows. I hope your today has arrived with improvement in store. I think, if I’m remembering, Rollin knew of my work but hadn’t read it. ** Nicholas., Gaming is a good reason to pay the physical price, I reckon. I think you’re right about resonance. Hm, I’ll dwell there. Me? The usual stuff, dominated by film-related activities and trying on a Halloween-inflected outlook as best I can. Meet the immediate future with your characteristic lustre. ** Uday, Sleep deprivation for me has no positives. My body and brain stubbornly refuse to give me anything of value if I’m worn out. One time I could barely sleep for three days and fell/walked off a metro station platform and crashed down onto the tracks and had to be rescued by a bunch of strangers. For instance. Um, Jennifer? is so lovely. The new Kim Petras … no. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks, pal. ** Okay. Halloween comes roaring back today. See you tomorrow.

6 Comments

  1. Carsten

    Equal parts fucked up & funny this lineup today.

    Well in my defense the spell Asia Argento casts on me is not just about her looks. Yes I think she’s hot, but so are numerous other actresses. She has a vibe to her that burns off the screen, a weird aura that transcends the films she’s in. That’s what I think Hoberman meant with her being a genre unto herself. It’s not about her acting chops or lack thereof, but rather about bringing a certain volatility into the mix. Vincent Gallo has a similar quality as a man.

    OK I think some clarification is needed for my Nobel beef. I don’t have a problem with Anne Carson per se. I mean I’m not into her work but I don’t think she’s terrible or anything. What bothers me is that the mainstream is still not broadening its frame of cultural reference. Carson is one of those writers whose culture map does not extend beyond “the Western tradition” (Greco-Roman & biblical). I always use quotation marks on that one because the concept has been proven to be a crock of shit. And yet it sticks—in a dumbed down presentation that erases the complex ties between “the West” & the Middle-East, Africa & so on. Of course Carson is free to engage with whatever tradition she’s into, but the “tastemakers” (what a horrible term), by consistently highlighting artists like her, hide a grander, more international cultural heritage from the public. Even the Asian or African laureates of recent years have been very Eurocentric. I guess it’s the one-two punch this year of first Nolan’s “Odyssey” & now this that is pissing me off. All this talk of diversification & cultural inclusivity & (to my eyes) not enough evidence. OK rant over.

  2. Sam F

    Hello Dennis!

    So in Baltimore my block is really going for the Halloween block. We have two houses that are Halloween-decorated all year round, will send you some photos because they get pretty clever with the skeleton mise en scene.

    It’s my favorite time of year because we get literally hundreds and hundreds of trick or treaters to our neighborhood from all over Baltimore (because we have an abundance of candy, of course). I make a point to comment on EVERY single costume (perhaps it allays some childhood cruelties. Probably not). I also take note of the trends. Lots of Chucky dolls last year for some reason, Black Panther, K Pop Demon Hunters. This year I will be MF Doom, the other year I was an IKEA bag. I am so sick of “Thriller” and ghostbusters theme and “Monster Mash” so I will be djing this year playing spooky stuff and just fire dancey songs. All suggestions are welcome!

    I also eat all the Butterfingers and Reese’s out of our stash. My favorite Halloween tradition.

    Does France “do” Halloween? Forgive my ignorance!

    Hope all is well and have a great weekend, Dennis! I hope the world throws gifts at your feet and candy in your pockets.

  3. _Black_Acrylic

    Being a former Scotsman I can confirm that haggis is a fine thing, no matter how vegan-unfriendly it may be. As for McPhee’s Angry Scotsman’s version, afraid I cannot comment.

  4. laura w.

    yeah if it wasn’t clear, i was definitely happy about anne carson lol.

    i feel the same way about rocky horror. the dancing and the costumes and the scripted bits don’t seem that fun to me. but i will definitely let you know! i assume rocky horror is international at this point, right? i feel like it’s a big thing in theater kid circles and theater kids are definitely not a solely american phenomenon.

    a haunted park! it does sound like it could be family friendly, but hey, the first time i was scared by something was when i went on a family friendly haunted hay ride and they had a surprisingly graphic cut out of a vampire holding a decapitated head. but hey, even lame halloween is still halloween!

    fun post today! the cotton candy one reminded me of a post i found on a halloween forum once about how create fake cotton candy. someone suggested fiberglass. do you have strong ken russell opinions? the damned is getting a 4k remaster. i think every film in the entire world is getting a 4k remaster. i also saw that new laika movie, wildwood(?) is coming out this month, so that might be a fun halloweenish watch if it makes it to france in time of course. and of course, definitely noted about dreamtime.

    have a wonderful weekend!!

  5. HaRpEr //

    This is wonderful, even if the candy corn pizza made me want to throw up. Fake food on the other hand is always a joy to look at, like a permanent pleasure postponed.

    The only evidence of my Britishness in my writing is probably my sense of humour. I do really like that kind of affected, slightly morbid wit with really sharp sentences that you find in Ivy Compton-Burnett or someone. Oscar Wilde too, obviously. And the sort of tone and quality you find in the lyricism of Ray Davies and a lot of glam rock.
    That is actually noticeably a very British quality, so maybe my writing is very British, I don’t know. The humour is more of a mask than anything else, though. I generally just reject a lot of British social mores and find them impossible to tolerate, but I guess you can’t escape your birth (as much as I’ve tried).

    That’s very interesting to hear about your relationship to the American sentence. With ‘The Marbled Swarm’, the idea was partially to create an effect where the prose resembled an English translation of a French novel, which I think I remember is why you said it couldn’t effectively be translated into French? I think that book maybe has some sort of record of your Americanisms in relation to your French influences and how they come together.

  6. Uday

    Dennis! Re you saying you should get the Nobel for TMS: I agree, obviously. Goes without saying at this point that I think you’re great etc. but I’m selfishly glad that you don’t have a Nobel because I think if they announced you and your work received a kind of generalist attention (I do think it deserves wider attention and I do think that the wider public would benefit from grappling with the ethical and formal problems it poses), people would actually try to kill you. Like actually. And I don’t want that to happen, obviously.
    Cool post! Somewhat surprised you’ve never seen RHPS. I played Frank for three consecutive years and now they sort of see me as synonymous with the role where I played him but I will say that being in it is a lot more fun than watching it.
    Thanks for trusting my opinion enough to listen to the new Kim Petras, but I really am not sure it’d be your style. Maybe Brutalist? I do think that’s a good song objectively, and the trans allegory makes it a gut punch, although it’s sort of a gut punch even if you take it surface-level as being about the demolition of brutalist buildings. Lots of my favourite brutalist buildings in Delhi have been torn down by the current dispensation in favour of their regional, tacky fascist aesthetic. It’s horrible. There’s actually huge protests against them going on as we speak, in a similar vein to the ones this summer. If only I were home! But all my friends are glad I’m not, because I have a propensity to get into trouble…
    Wicked post. Going to show it to my mom so that she can worry more. Ha ha.

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