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Body Parts and Body Farms: Where Science and Spookiness Meet

3 Nov 2023

Seeing Halloween decorations has been a highlight of an otherwise hectic month. While spider webs and ghosts send shivers down my spine, skeletons and the occasional amputated limb don’t rank high...

A Houdini Low Point

27 Oct 2023

National Magic Day is celebrated annually on October 31st in memory of Harry Houdini who passed away on that day in 1926.

Remembering Houdini

26 Oct 2022

For many years members of the American Society of Magicians gathered on October 31 at Machpelah Cemetery in New York to break a magic wand over the grave of the man whose name is synonymous with...

Chemical Witchcraft in Salem

28 Oct 2021

Could there be a more interesting place to visit on Halloween than Salem, Massachusetts?  The town's stores are filled with witch memorabilia, witches are ready to tell fortunes and a sound and...

Bewitched by Witchcraft

29 Oct 2020

It is part of human nature to try to rationalize illness and misfortune. Today, many point accusing fingers at pesticides, food additives, or electromagnetic radiation as possible culprits in...

Fantastic Creatures and Where to Find Them in a London Museum

31 Oct 2018

Halloween is breathing down our necks, and with the holiday come frightful creatures. Horror literature is replete with fantastical hybrids and gargantuan beasts, but the real world itself may just...

Happy National Magic Day

31 Oct 2017

Halloween is a time when witches fly, black cats prowl and zombies rise from the grave.  But it is also a time for magic.  No, not supernatural charms, spells or incantations but the time honoured...

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