Newspaper Page Text
Page 4B
The Braselton News
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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Chatter Box
Tm a horror-movie fen: ‘Halloween,’
‘Nightmare on Kim Street,’ ’Friday the 13th,’
I freak my sell out sometimes when Pm home alone
— Carrie Underwood,
in Saif inagazina
Wacky Facts
Money often features portraits of queens or
presidents or other femous people. But you also may 1
a rhinoceros, tiger or elephant (India), a sea turtlej
(Brazil), cows and fruit (Nigeria) or even school
children (Taiwan) on a nation’s currency L
— World Ahtxinaefor Kids
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Cats, bats, wolves
— — how did these creatures
come to symbolize Halloween?
By Emil ie Le Beau
Chicago Tribune
Cals don't eat candy. Bats
never trick-or-trcat and wolves
don’t carve pumpkins. Animals
don’t cam about Halloween. So
why am some creatures, such as
black cats, so closely associated
with the holiday?
Superstition and folklore have
helped connect certain animals
with Halloween. Some of those
supcistitions arc centuries old.
Most arc mydts that make the
animals sound spooky and evil.
In real life, the animals of
Halloween are just normal crea
tures with a bad rep,
BATS AND THEIR
BAD REP
I .ittlc rubber hats strung on
Shrubs. Paper bats taped to the
window. Hanging bats grazing
yoiu" head at parties. How did
these flying creatures become
tied to Ilallowccti?
"They arc seen as evil because
they are nocturnal. They come
out at night, and that’s when
people think monsters and the
boogeyman come out," says
Mike Brown, lead mammal
depaiimcnt keeper at Brookfield
Zoo in Bmokfield, 111.
Bats have gotten “a bad rap ,"
anti Brown says they are no tiling
like their reputation. In movies
and books, vampires turn into
bats and suck the blood of
their victims. But real hats
aren’t bloodsuckers.
There are more than
1,00ft species of bats and
only three dine on blood.
And no offense — but
human blood just isn’t
l to their taste. Brown
~ ^ says these blood
sucking bals live in
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South America and lake blood
from animals such as livestock.
Only a few teaspoons are needed,
so the host animal isn’t killed.
Other kinds of hats cat bugs,
nectar, fruit and even fish.
A FAMILIAR SIGHT:
WITCHES, FELINES
We’ve seen it dozens of times
in movies and books. A witch
hops on a broomstick and her
black cat rides along.
“Historically, black cals were
called a Tamili:ir’ tor witches,”
says Peggy Broil Asseo of PAWS
Chicago, a no-kill animal shelter.
A familiar is an animal or crea
ture that has a special relationship
with a witch. A familiar obeys its
master and sometimes spies on its
enemies. It usually has a special
power, such as a talking black cat.
Familiars are an old belief,
and even mentioned as being evil
in the King James version Bible,
fust published in 1611, Black
cats were thought to be tarniliars
because their dark color enables
them to hide in shadows.
WOLVES:
THE BIG, HAIRY DEAL
It was a scary moment in
“Harry Potter.” Professor Lupin
sees the moon and transforms
into a killer wolf.
Werewolves may be entertain
ment now, but they seemed very
real to Europeans in the Middle
Ages. In the late I5l)0s in
Prance, there were several
murder trials where the
defendant admitted to
being a werewolf. These
defendants claimed to have
used a magic ointment Modem
scholars now say the defendants
were more likely serial killers,
not werewolves.
In real life, wolves aren’t like
ly to attack people. And
that spine-tingling howl
coming from the
woods isn’t a message for
humans' Wolves howl when sep
arated from their pack. They also
howl to warn other packs to stay
I off their turf.
j RAVENS HAVE A LOT
TO CROW ABOUT
A raven is a large black bird
that is extremely smart, says Judy
Pollack, director of bird conserva
tion for Audnlwn Chicago Region.
Ravens have long been associ
ated with the spiritual world.
Pollack says Native Americans
of the Northwest regarded ravens
as the creator of the earth, moon,
sun and stars. Ravens also were
considered tricksters and cheats.
You might spot anodxcr bird
that looks a lot like the raven.
Crows also are black birds and
are in the same family as the
raven. Pollack says ravens are
bigger than crows and can be as
large as some hawks.
THIS IS NO TIME
TO GET CATTY
it’s just fur, but the color of its
coat can make a big difference in
a cat’s life. Black cats often are
the last to be adopted from an
animal shelter, says Asseo of
PAWS Chicago,
Some, superstitious pet owners
still think a black cat means bad
luck. Asseo says black cats do
not bring bad luck and arc attrac
tive animals.
No matter the color of a
kitty’s coat, Asseo says an
animal should be treated
with respect. To keep them
safe, she recommends keep
ing cats indoors.
Some, shelters, such as tile
Red Door Animal Shelter in
Chicago, even take safety a step
further and do not allow black
cat adoptions during the month
of October. The Red Door is
concerned that a black Cat could
be used as a prop for a
Halloween party and abandoned
after the bash.
JULIE NQIARIANNI/MCCIATQHY NEWSPAPER'S
In The News |
The $5 bill gets a
brand-new look
Officials from the U.S. Treasury Depaiimcnt
recently unveiled a colorful new $5 bill with
advanced security features.
The most noticeable difference
between the new bill and the old
one is a large purple “5” on the bottom right of the
back of the bill and an are of purple stars around
Abraham Lincoln’s image on the front. Splashes of
gray and purple have also been added and the bill’s
security strip has been moved to the right Side.
Treasury officials hope the changes will make $5
bills more difficult to counterfeit.
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NO MORE FAKES!
Counterfeiters had been bleaching $5 bills to cre
ate phony S100 bills because the security features on
both bills were very similar. But the revamped live
will look nothing like a $100 bill.
“We wanted this redesign to scream, Tm a five.
I’m a five,”’ says Larry Felix, die director of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. “Wc wanted to
eliminate any similar ity or confusion on the pail of
ihe public between the $5 and the $100 bill”
It’s not a total makeover for the fiver; some of the
old features were kept, Lincoln will remain on the
front and the Lincoln Memorial will still grace the
back. The new changes are similar to those that appear
on redosigjtcd $10, $20 and $50 bills. Those denomi
nations were recently revamped with modern security
features to curb counterfeiting. Last year, police made
more than 4,000 arrests related to forged bills adding
up to more than $6ft million worth of fake money.
NEXT IN LINE FOR A MAKEOVER
The Treasury Department will begin printing the
new $5 bills in Fort Worth, Texas, this month. The
currency will be in circulation next spring.
Next up for a high-tech makeover is the $100 bill.
It will be embedded with a new security thread. It
will feature 650,000 tiny lenses that will make
images on the bill appear to move in the opposite
direction of where it is moving. The new $100 bills
will roll out next year. — Claudia Atticot
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Try This |
Make your bathroom
festive for fall
Give your extra toilet tissue a festive look this
Halloween. $et each roli in the center of a 22- by 1$-
inch piece of orange fabric, gather the fabric around
it, and tuck the edges into the top hole.
For a stem, roll a strip of brewn
paper hag and glue the edge.
For a vine, glue one end of a
12-inch green pipe cleaner to a
green fell leaf, then curl the
pipe cleaner around the stem.
Insert the stem in the hole.
— FamityFm magazine
Fold a flock of spooky origami bats
Haunt your halls
with a colony of these
denizens of the dark. They
can just hang around, or they
can take wing as a hat mobile
— tape several to pieces of
monofilament and string them from
a small branch,
1. Fold an 8- by 8-inch square
of black papei" into a triangle
(oonslruction or scrapbook paper works best).
2. Fold down the top 2 inches of the triangle,
3. Fold each side flap in along the inner
lines shown in the photo, then back out along
the outer lines, to torm dimensional wings.
4. To create ears, use
scissors to cut a notch along
the top, between the wings
5. Flip the bat over and add
eyes with glow- in-the - dark paint.
To give the body dimension, make a
vertical crease down tire center.
AMAZING BAT FACTS
• As mammals, hats nurse their
babies .
• Hundreds of plant species rely on bats to pol
linate them.
Like cats, bats spend lots of time grooming
their fur. — FamilyFun magazine