DARKNESS FALLS ACROSS THE LAND...

TOP OF THE NEWS:

- What’s the Origin of Jack-O’-Lanterns? (Mental Floss) "The term 'jack-o'-lantern' was first applied to people, not pumpkins. As far back as 1663, the term meant a man with a lantern, or a night watchman. Just a decade or so later, it began to be used to refer to the mysterious lights sometimes seen at night over bogs, swamps, and marshes. When Stingy Jack eventually died, God would not allow him into heaven, and the devil, keeping his word, rejected Jack’s soul at the gates of hell. Instead, the devil gave him a single burning coal to light his way and sent him off into the night to 'find his own hell.' Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has supposedly been roaming the earth with it ever since."

- History of the Jack O’ Lantern (History.com) "The practice of decorating 'jack-o’-lanterns'—the name comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack—originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as an early canvas. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities."

- The Story Behind This Haunted Mansion Will Give You the Creeps (Ozy) "There are nine 'identifiable' spirits in the house, she says, and while they aren’t malevolent, they aren’t exactly benevolent either. Those who tour the house leave with more than a fright. They encounter a key part of St. Louis history, filled with immigrant dreams and unlikely riches, devastating losses and four suicides under the same roof."

- A lot of Americans believe in ghosts. But what do their ghost stories actually tell us? (WaPo) "Linda’s skeptical husband once devised his own test to determine whether there truly was an all-knowing spirit hanging around. 'He left a Powerball ticket out, with a pencil, but the ghost never filled it out for him.'"

BUSINESS:

- World's witnessing a new Gilded Age as billionaires’ wealth swells to $6tn (Guardian) "Billionaires’ fortunes increased by 17% on average last year due to the strong performance of their companies and investments, particularly in technology and commodities. The billionaires’ average return was double that achieved by the world’s stock markets and far more than the average interest rates of just 0.35% offered by UK instant-access high street bank accounts."

- There’s precedent for Amazon competing with so many companies. It doesn’t end well (Quartz) "...the company Jeff Bezos founded in 1994 competes head-to-head with at least 129 major corporations just in major markets. That number grows higher as it adds new business units such as fashion, food, and analytics. The company so far has escaped serious antitrust scrutiny by U.S. regulators... For business historians, Amazon is starting to look like the sprawling conglomerates of the past century. So far Bezos has deftly skirted antitrust laws by trumpeting Amazon’s ability to lower prices. Eventually, however, the company may reach a tipping point. Bezos has always moved his chess pieces well ahead of his competition. No doubt, the looming threat of antitrust scrutiny is already in Amazon’s game plan."

LIFE:

- Should Your Spouse Be Your Best Friend? (NYT) "Whatever the reason, referring to your spouse as your bestie, your bud, or your #BFF has become rampant. Calling the person you’re married to your best friend may be shorthand for saying that you actually like your spouse and that you have shared history, shared lives and shared dreams. But in the end, the expression doesn’t do justice to the full meaning of marriage or to the full meaning of friendship."

- The alt-right is creating its own dialect. Here’s the dictionary (Quartz) "No political movement has created an internet dialect with the speed and scale of the alt-right. Comprised of conspiracy theorists, anti-feminists, white nationalists, Donald Trump supporters, and other disgruntled right-wingers, the loosely connected group has organically formed a shared way of talking that allows different factions to identify with one another. This creates a verbal badge of allegiance, and the terms they have coined can be difficult for outsiders to follow."

- ‘Tiny House Hunters’ and the shrinking American dream (cubed) "I regularly yell at the television during Tiny House Hunters. I have a vivid imagination but it is not so vivid as to let me imagine living in a home with a compost toilet, nor is it so vivid as to make me comfortable with using the kitchen sink also as the bathroom sink. I don’t want to stand up and hit my head on the ceiling of my house. I don’t want the kitchen table to transform into a bed. I don’t want a climbing wall on the side of my tiny house. A cheerful television show about homebuying isn’t going to sully itself with a frank examination of economic realities or the fallout from predatory lending practices that made so many people believe they could afford to live beyond their means."

NEWS:

- What Experts Know About Men Who Rape (NYT) "The most pronounced similarities have little to do with the traditional demographic categories, like race, class and marital status. Rather, other kinds of patterns have emerged: these men begin early, studies find. They may associate with others who also commit sexual violence. They usually deny that they have raped women even as they admit to non-consensual sex. There is a strong chance that this is their primary criminal transgression. ...repeat offenders often tell similar stories of rejection in high school and of looking on as 'jocks and the football players got all the attractive women.'"

- Historians respond to John F. Kelly’s Civil War remarks: ‘Strange,’ ‘sad,’ ‘wrong’ (WaPo) "'What’s so strange about this statement is how closely it tracks or resembles the view of the Civil War that the South had finally got the nation to embrace by the early 20th century,' she said. 'It’s the Jim Crow version of the causes of the Civil War. I mean, it tracks all of the major talking points of this pro-Confederate view of the Civil War.'"

READ THIS:

- Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell) - "...consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future." Don't bother with the movie.

SPORTS:

- In debate over national anthem, black wealth becomes a target (WaPo) "When A. Scott Bolden appeared on Fox News to defend National Football League players who protest racism by kneeling during the national anthem, he instead found himself under attack. 'You’re wearing thousand-dollar cuff links; don’t give me the victim card!' host Tucker Carlson told Bolden, who is black and a partner in an international law firm. 'Those cuff links cost more than my first car!' Joe Walsh, a former GOP congressman and a syndicated radio talk show host who supports Trump, blasted legendary musician Stevie Wonder for kneeling during the anthem at a September concert. 'Another ungrateful black multi millionaire,' he tweeted."

- Why ESPN Could Abandon NFL Football (The Hollywood Reporter) "In a span of less than five years, industry giant ESPN has seen its narrative transformed from that of a mighty colossus into the hard-luck tale of a ragtag warrior. ...With so much of ESPN's universe asunder, it's not outlandish now to entertain a previously unthinkable prospect: Might ESPN elect to go without rights to NFL games after the expiration of its eight-year deal for Monday Night Football in 2021?!"

BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:

- Google challenged the world to agree on its burger emoji’s cheese placement. The world failed (WaPo) "I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top..."

TODAY'S SONG:

- Thriller (Michael Jackson)

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