Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween Happenings

First of all, I would like to note that today is John Keats's* birthday. Some facts: he was from a lower class (and therefore lots of people got irritated about his awesome poetry), he was a surgeon (thus crossing class lines, further irritating everyone except the Romantics--they love class hopping), died of tuberculosis (awww). He was 25 when he died, which made the Romantics love him all the more, since he was a gifted poet AND died young. If you have not had the pleasure of enjoying Keats, please go read at least "Ode on a Grecian Urn". It's lovely.

Another interesting tidbit: I subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary word of the day, and today the word is "zombie". How appropriate. The first documented use of "zombie" occurred in 1816 by R. Southey, and it originally meant "In the West Indies and southern states of America, a soulless corpse said to have been revived by witchcraft; formerly the snake-deity in voodoo cults of or deriving from West Africa and Haiti." There are many more uses, but how neat is it that I get to learn all about words everyday! (Yes, I'm a word-nerd).

I made a giant cupcake for work today--pumpkin. I took the recipe from the Cupcake Bakeshop, who got it from Martha Stewart. I highly recommend this recipe--it's moist and pumpkiny, and delicious. It doesn't even need the icing!

Last Halloween thing of note: ghosty meringues!

Have a safe and happy Keats's Birthday/Halloween!!

*If you have never heard of John Keats, you are dead to me.

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