We hope you've been enjoying this October/Halloween issue of The Little Egypt Gazette.

Again, we should open with a quick administrative note. If yet another new layout has confused you, and you've made it this far without encountering the book review (Haunted Illusions), the card tricks ("Oil and Water" et al), the Mac King interview, the Obituary page, or the new Haunted Links (our regular Links page is also available), then please turn back to The Cemetery Times and check the options under "Map of the Graveyard." There you will find links to all the sections of the magazine. Also, if you have trouble printing (or reading) this "Stirring the Tana Leaves" page you may jump to a black text on white background version by clicking Easyreader.

Under the pall of yet another power outage at the warehouse that serves as our headquarters, our most recent Little Egypt Gazette staff meeting transpired by candle light, the three of us well dispersed around one of those bowling-alley length tables you see in English country homes or Wall Street board rooms. I sat at one end while Golem, our increasingly moody sysop, sat at the other. Golem, I've noticed, imbibes a prodigious quantity of coffee, accentuating what I perceive as a congenital jumpiness, and causing him, when seated, to rock back and forth unconsciously. On this night he was seated in a Tom Palmer "Satan's Seat" that I once paid $100 to have built by my old high school industrial arts teacher. This rocking action of Golem's kept him vanishing into the damn thing and reappearing, adding a disconcerting visual effect to our already strained discussions. Columbine, the dark-haired waif who tends to our paperwork and beverage needs, strategically positioned herself equidistantly between us, a wise move given Golem's habit of leaping at her from the shadows and her prior experience with supervisors in magic journalism. Columbine opened the session by reading mail from our subscribers. The new look of the Back to School issue caused no little degree of confusion. Several readers were convinced we had started a university, and two young men from Louisiana forwarded their football resumes and inquired if we offered athletic scholarships. The familiar "Eight Kings" stack used in the password clue proved to be not so familiar. One reader was convinced that the next word in the sequence was "sell" and had a magic book open to prove it. Unfamiliar with this variation on the stack, I asked him what "sell" rhymed with. The answer was "knave." The largest batch of negative mail came from those who encountered a dead black screen. The September issue opens with an animated gif file easily viewed by users of Netscape 3.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0. Less robust browsers, such as the default aol browser, see only the first frame of the animation, hence the unfriendly black image. A few readers congratulated us on this brilliant existentialist touch. On an up note, the luscious Miss Farnsworth, our former chief assistant, sent a congratulatory telegram from Aruba: LOVED SEPTEMBER ISSUE STOP IS DUVIVIER MARRRIED? STOP YOU OWE ME MONEY STOP. Golem, in his professional role in our organization, reiterated his frustrations at our publishing a first-rate electronic magic journal on pre-Pentium hardware. He sank further into despondency when I vetoed his request for a $100 software package that would allow a secure link to offshore gambling web sites. Next on the table were the Little Egypt Gazette Halloween Party plans. I proposed a "Celebrity Magician" theme for the costumes, a fine idea voted down because the others felt I had the advantage in winning this year's Costume Trophy. (I am frequently mistaken for Lance Burton, especially in a sleeveless undershirt.) I was similarly rebuffed when I modestly offered to present a few of my classic card routines for the entertainment. Golem held out for strippers, and I reluctantly sided with Columbine, who insisted on a band. Although virtually any band I could think of would outnumber our meager staff, even if we brought guests, I leap at any morale-boosting opportunity that will take the staff's mind off the lack of regular paychecks. November looks shaky. Golem has a long-standing appointment to do some public restitution, and Columbine's boyfriend, J.R., plans to abduct her to Oklahoma for his family's big Thanksgiving fete, made more significant this year by his brother's release from a maximum security institution in California. For the more literal minded, this rambling is a way of saying that I need to catch up on a few things here in Indiana, such as passing a few quality hours with The Family. I'm also striving to get us back on a 15th-of-the-month publishing schedule. November will see a Little Egypt Gazette-Lite issue, and then we hope to return in December for a full-scale Christmas issue.

The Obituaries page in The Cemetery Times exists for a more substantial reason than to amuse you with 26 lines of verse. (And if you are amused by lines as bad as "Q (as in Dr.) was slain by his nieces," then you are indeed easily amused. By the way, for those of you who have been questioning my drifts into poesy all along, there is no truth to the rumor that I occasionally put on a dress and do Dell O'Dell's act.) Well-read readers will recognize the page as a ripoff of Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book that chronicles the demises of 26 children in genuinely amusing verse and drawings. This entire book, with illustrations, is currently on line at The Gashlycrumb Tinies. You can employ it as a kid show magic trick by bringing out a newspaper and reading out the "obituaries," substituting where appropriate the names of children at the party for those in the book. We've done this in the past for children's Halloween parties and have found that the children love to have their names read out in this context. Then tear up and restore the paper via the Gene Anderson paper tear. As a finale you leaf through the paper and ask them if they might not recognize "an obituary or two." (Note: We originally published this idea in the June, 1989 issue of Genii.) Lovers of both magic and Disneyana can take in three spectacular combinations of magic and horror at Walt Disney World Orlando. The new George Lucas "ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter" ride produces genuine thrills as an alien breaks out of its glass tube and dashes into the audience just as the lights go out. Seance workers can learn a lot from this ride. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror features numerous special effects, the price you pay to see them being a 13-story elevator drop, which now transpires multiple times. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Finally, the Disney Haunted Mansion remains the ultimate ride for employing standard illusion principles (such as the Blue Room) to create a ghostly ambience. These effects were nicely chronicled in Stan Allen's article in MAGIC ( October ,1991). You can take a virtual tour of the Anaheim Haunted Mansion or the Disneyland Paris house (Phantom Manor, which is quite different from its U.S. counterparts) from this month's Haunted Links page.

A big thanks to Lee Jacobs for allowing us to reprint Danny Dew's "Oil and Water" this month. As the saying goes, magicians really are nicer than people. If you want to show your appreciation to Lee and do yourself a favor, consider buying the Ross Bertram books from him. Also thanks to Mac King for sitting through our "in-depth" Mac King interview. Despite the tongue- in-cheek questions, I really am a Melinda fan, and some of my happiest moments in magic have transpired in shows put on by her and her mother.

One of my favorite Halloween CDs is Chiller by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Tune in to PBS on Wednesday October 30 for Cincinnati Pops Holiday: Halloween featuring Jonathan and Charlotte Pendragon and other guests for what TV Guide calls "a fun-filled evening of scary visual effects and atmospheric music."

October has been a good month for magic in Indiana. Mac King was here in Bloomington for two shows on the seventh. Doc Eason lectured in Indianapolis on October 17, to a large crowd and brisk sales. More on Doc and his hot merchandise in the next regular issue. The Doc Eason lecture also gave me the opportunity to meet Harry Riser for the first time. Harry's new book from Richard Kaufman, The Feints and Temps of Harry Riser, is due out before Christmas. Stash $45 away for same. Finally, Kreskin is in Indianapolis today, October 22, for a performance at Beef & Boards, and I caught him on a radio talk show this morning. My favorite caller offered, "I'll buy you lunch if you can find me, dude." Check our September issue for a piece on Kreskin's new book.