This Week... Main Page: Check out the hottest haunted houses in Houston! Health Watch: The American Journal of Medicine reports junk food & TV driving kids to obesity. Better Living: Go Green with five natural products that get many of your most common jobs done! Around The House: How to cheat at cleaning your home. For Your Pet: Halloween safety tips for your pets. In The Kitchen: We flush out hidden dangers in your kitchen. The Scoop on: this year's Boo on the Boardwalk schedule of events. Dinner & A Movie: We review Fuddruckers. "The Seeker" now showing in theaters this week. "Evan Almighty" now on DVD this week. The Arts: Bay Area Chorus presents "Sing", a Bay Area Youth Singers concert. Bay Area Harbour Playhouse presents "God's Favorite". Bay Area Houston Ballet presents "Edward Scissorhands." Clear Creek Country Theatre presents "Daddy's Dyin', Who's Got The Will?" Space Center Houston presents "CIRCUS! Science Under the Big Top." UofH Clear Lake presents "Art Exhibit of Katherine Brimberry." Party Buzz: Check the schedule of Halloween parties at Bojangles, Scout Bar, Ronnie's Ice House, and more.

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You reach out into the near total black, slowly inching each step cautiously forward as inhuman shadows scurry about. Shrieks resonate in the distance and find their way to the innermost closets of your soul, where you secretly hide like a terrified child inside. The dark, damp air fills with the pungent aromas of smoke, sweat, panic and death. Your heart bangs inside your ribs as the sounds of predators come from every direction. And in an instant, great claws strike the air in front of you as the darkness lights up with the echos of your scream.

And to think you actually paid admission for this taste of terror.

But don’t feel jilted. You aren't the only one dishing out the cash to enjoy the thrill of being scared. Haunted houses have become a multi-million dollar business that generates these profits for only one month out of the year. And Houston is full of frightful oppertunities. Check out this Top Eight list of Harrowing Houston Haunts...if you're not too scared!

Aside from these hair-raising thrills, there are countless community haunts sponsored by local groups and organizations. Many of which are kid-friendly. It's time to scare up some fun this Halloween season! 

by Jennie Bryant

"OOOhhh...Hannah Montana! Dad, I wanna be Hanna Montana! OOOhhh...no, no! I wanna be a witch, Dad! I wanna be a witch instead! (runs down the aisle) Wait! Corpse Bride! Dad...I wanna be Corpse Bride!" My daughter was in a Halloween frenzy as we made our way through Spirit Halloween Superstore. Every year, Spencer Gifts (yes, the same stores you find in nearly every mall), opens hundreds of Spirit Halloween stores across America just for the Halloween season. But as we walk down the aisles of our Webster store, it is obvious that Halloween has evolved into a holiday that is targeting adults more so than kids.

Keeping the family element alive during Halloween is up to us parents. I have fond memories of going to the county fair to pick out our carving pumpkin. I remember neighborhood Jack-o-lantern parties out by the back porch, where our neighbors brought their kids over and we all carved our spooky sculptures into the meaty orange orbs. I remember going to a neighborhood haunted house in the basement of my friend's house and seeing his dad's silhouette behind a hanging bed sheet as he pulled spaghetti out of a mannequin's belly and laughed a ridiculously macabre laugh. I have fond memories of neighborhood trick-or-treaters migrating from door to door in groups wearing the cheesy plastic costumes and holding little flashlights with a Jack-o-lantern head cupping the lens. I remember, in my teenage years, rigging a white sheet over a clothes hanger so it rode a kite string from our driveway basketball hoop to our front door to spook approaching trick-or-treaters. All of these fun times aren't dead and gone. They just have to compete with the new celebrations that Halloween has to offer.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, Halloween was very much a children's holiday. Throughout the 1990s, adults joined in on the fun. As a result, Halloween has become the second largest holiday in commercial sales, trailing Christmas. The simple plastic costumes that lined Wal-Mart and K-Mart holiday aisles years ago now share space with lavish adult costumes that can easily run up to $100 and more. The wildly popular air-blown lawn decor trend has made its way into the Halloween market. And nearly every bar and club will host its own costume contest sometime during the month of October. But in recent years, Halloween has been reclaimed as a family event, offering something for all ages.

On next Monday, October 1st, the crown jewel of Bay Area family entertainment, the Kemah Boardwalk, will transform into an eerie world of ghosts, goblins, and haunted houses as Boo on the Boardwalk scares up some family fun. For several years, the Kemah Boardwalk has been hosting this event, which gets bigger and better every season. Throughout the entire month, the 'catacombs' beneath the Boardwalk Inn groan to life as the Dungeon of Doom, Kemah's very own haunted house, dares patrons to enter. Every October weekend will feature loads of Halloween fun. Get your hands on some freaky fun with pumpkin decorating. Learn how to make your own Halloween mask. Visit the "Great Pumpkin" and see if you can guess his weight. Celebrate with 'spook'-tacular musical entertainment on the Boardwalk Plaza stage. And bring your little ones, in costume, for trick-or-treating fun at all of the Boardwalk shops. Then, on October 20th and 27th, dress your scariest for Boo on the Boardwalk's Kid's Halloween Costume Contests.

The Kemah Boardwalk's Halloween celebrations are guaranteed fun for all ages. Best of all, many of the attractions and events they have to offer are free to the public. It is one of the best places where adults and children, alike, can enjoy Halloween the way it was meant to be. For more information, be sure to visit the Kemah Boardwalk website at www.kemahboardwalk.com. They will be posting October events details as information becomes available.

by Keith Bryant

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