Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 138 of 142)

Superstitions for Halloween Night Beyond Black Cats

October 31, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

I have a firefighter, the Joker, and Uniqua (from the Backyardigans) coming to visit me tonight! In honor of this haunted evening, I have compiled a list a superstitions that go beyond black cats and broken mirrors:

To keep evil spirits away on Halloween night you can ring a bell, tie a knot in a handkerchief, or burn a candle in a jack-o-lantern.
Beware, though, if the candle suddenly blows out of its own accord or if it turns blue (or if a bat flies into your house) because any of those things mean a ghost is visiting.
Oh, and only burn new candles on Halloween…unless you want strange things to happen (to each his own, right?).
No need to fear seeing a spider on Halloween night, though, because it’s only the spirit of a dead loved one watching over you.
Do fear if a bat flies around your house three times, or if you and a group of people just happen to light a bonfire, let it burn out, then make a circle with its ashes, and have each family who helped with the fire put a pebble in the ashes, and one of those pebbles is disturbed by the next morning as both of these occurrences are death omens.
Also do not under any circumstances sit beside a Hawthorn tree on Halloween night because a fairy may enchant you or spirit you away.
However, if you would like to find out about your future, simply go to a crossroads on Halloween night and listen to the wind (Is that what happens when you put your ear up to seashell?).
Other ways to learn about your future include tossing apple peals over your shoulder so they will fall in the shape of you future lover’s initials and putting cornmeal on the side of your bed so a ghost can spell out your future sweetheart’s name.
Or maybe you want to help someone else in love. On Halloween night, bury a ring in the mashed potatoes and whoever gets the ring will find his or her true love (or maybe he or she will just choke to death); or host a chestnut hunt, and the first person to find a burr will be the first to marry; or even have your friends bob for apples because the first one to bite into an apple will be the first to marry.
For all you witch hunters (or maybe all you fans of Kris Kross), put your clothes on inside out (or backwards) and walk around backwards on Halloween night so you can meet a witch. To find out if she really is a witch, just tie her up and toss her in the water. If she floats, she’s a witch; if she sinks, she wasn’t a witch (and you didn’t want to know her anyway!).
Two final things to beware of on Halloween night are feeling a chill up your spine or hearing footsteps behind you (probably while you’re on your way to the crossroads); the former means someone is walking on your future grave, and the latter means the Grim Reaper is following you (don’t look back…meet the Grim Reaper’s eyes and you die!).

I can’t wait to see what other ghoulies and ghosties show up for treats…or maybe they’ll all just get tricks!

Ruining My Love of Fall Foliage in New England with Science

October 24, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

One of the highlights of living in New England is the fall foliage. Last year I felt like I missed the best part of autumn because I was in Tahiti for two weeks in October (oh, the sacrifice!), so this year I made an effort to really enjoy and observe the fall colors. I had grown accustomed to the yellow and gold tones that had dominated the past few years. This year, however, the bolder red and orange hues graced the trees. These colors were particularly ascetic, but I couldn’t help but wonder why they were so bright.

I am familiar with the basic science of why trees turn color (see “Chlorophyll? More like borophyll!” for more—a gold star goes to whoever can name that movie!), but I wasn’t quite satisfied with what I found. Mostly I came across explanations of the processes that take place within the tree and how an extra chemical has to be present for the red hues to appear. There was some mention of how dryer, cooler (but not freezing), and sunnier autumns are more likely to cause these red leaves. Great! I still wasn’t satisfied.

As I see it, things don’t just arbitrarily happen in nature. We may not be able to scientifically explain why certain things happen, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason; maybe we just haven’t found it yet. Why would a tree expend extra energy to produce red leaves if it didn’t benefit the tree in some way?

Then I came across another article that suggested that the red leaves may actually mean the tree is in distress and that leaf color may be indicative of tree health. To further this point, Emily Habinck came across an interesting correlation between soil and foliage color while working on an undergraduate research project.

Her research shows that the extra chemical found in red leaves, which acts like a sunscreen, helps the trees absorb more food in preparation for winter, and that a tree in soil with fewer nutrients is more likely to produce this chemical. (Now we’re getting somewhere.) It makes sense that a tree that gets fewer nutrients from the soil needs more nutrients from photosynthesis. So that means the trees in my area may not be as healthy as they were in previous years.

And here I was thinking that this fall was more spectacular because of the brighter colors, but it really wasn’t spectacular at all! The red leaves were a natural warning sign. Warning colors (called aposematic coloration) are actually quite common in nature. The poison dart frog and black widow spider use bright colors to warn predators that they are dangerous (i.e. don’t eat me!). While red-hued trees aren’t poisonous, their demise would have a devastating impact on the earth.

Nothing like having a little curiosity and knowledge complicate something that appeared so simplistically beautiful. Why couldn’t I have just admired the pretty colors?

The Lunar Effect: Real or Fake?

October 14, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

As the full moon approaches, I can’t help but wonder about the old myth of the Lunar Effect. Does the full moon really cause erratic behavior in humans? A scientist would probably say no (see articles here and here for more). The logical side of me (and yes, there is a logical side of me…I was a logic puzzle editor!) certainly believes there’s no proof of the Lunar Effect, but the creative side of me thinks maybe there is some truth to the myth.

After all, the word “lunar,” which means pertaining to the moon, (stick with me here; I’ll try not to get too wordy on you), is derived from the word “luna,” which when capitalized is the name of the Roman Goddess of the moon and when lower-cased is the Latin word for moon. (Okay, take a breath!) Now, the Latin word “luna” gives us the Late Latin word “lunaticus,” which means moonstruck. In the romantic sense, moonstruck means dreamily bemused, but a more literal interpretation gives us the meaning of struck crazy by the moon. (I swear we’re almost done!) So the word “lunaticus,” i.e. moonstruck, brings us to the word “lunatic,” which in a not-so-politically-correct definition is a crazy person. (Are you still with me?)

Beyond the simple (!!!) word associations, I have my own empirical evidence to suggest a connection between erratic behavior and the full moon. Just spend a few minutes on the road and you’ll see how crazy drivers get during the full moon…oh wait, people drive like lunatics everyday. Well, there was this one time I saw Professor Lupin turn into a werewolf when he caught sight of the full moon…oh wait, I only read about that in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Okay, so maybe I don’t really have any empirical evidence.

Still, scientifically the moon does affect the tides, which in turn affects climate. And in literature, the English Romantic poets were inspired (and possibly driven crazy) by the magic of the moon. When in doubt, I often find it helpful to look to children for the simple answer. My little niece and nephew are always excited to spot the moon, especially during the daytime, so there must be something special about it. Maybe we just can’t scientifically observe its impact on us, much like we can’t verify the existence of the soul in a quantifiable way; we can only feel it.

NFL’s Virtual Playbook Hilarity

October 10, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always interested in emerging technologies. I recently encountered a gem in the Virtual Playbook, courtesy of EA Sports and ESPN. Previously, analysts on ESPN’s NFL pre-game shows simply acted out plays on a demo field. Sadly I wasn’t able to find a clip to show you (if anyone does, please post a link in the comments section!).

Now, I’ve always found this segment a bit amusing. Picture out-of-shape football analysts and former NFL players on a studio field (at least they had a real football) demonstrating NFL plays with the skills and speed typical of, well, out-of-shape analysts and former football players.

With the Virtual Playbook, this once technologically defunct segment has been upgraded to include analysts interacing in reality-based game scenarios involving video-game images of real football players. (See more details in this article…again, sorry about the lack of a real video.)

This technology may be able to answer such burning questions as: What if (insert name of favorite NFL quarterback) had completed that pass to (insert name of favorite NFL receiver), resulting in a touchdown for (insert name of favorite NFL team)? I know, something we were all dying to know about!

Let’s hope the world of sports will continue to create technologies that allow viewers to vicariously judge the actions of professional athletes for years to come!

SCBWI L.A. 2008 Conference Gems: Part 3

September 29, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

Okay, so here are the last few bits of wisdom I’ll share from the LA Conference:

The perfect ending is a surprise and is inevitable
Art is in the details
Fiction has a higher standard of believability than real life
Male energy is action, adventure, fun, and blowing stuff up; female energy is relationships, interaction, beauty of language, and character
Use male energy to make things happen and female energy to make people care

Bruce Coville (from his session “Plotting: The Architecture of Story”)