"There's something incredibly liberating about a holiday that encourages children to take candy from strangers," Almond writes of Halloween in his book. Indeed. For some reason, Almond asked that we make clear that he is a "professional candyfreak, not a therapist."

Three Musketeers: Does well in groups but is somewhat pompous. Prone to fancy costumes and arcane weapons. Wears hats in public that are ill-advised.

Almond Joy: I'm going to put aside my aversion to coconut in praising these folks as happy-go-lucky.

Bit-O-Honey: They have contradictory personalities, hoping to express generosity but also having the passive-aggressive desire to damage the fillings of trick-or-treaters.

Butterfinger: Evasive, slippery, not necessarily to be trusted.

Candy Corn: Purely deluded people. They don't get that candy shouldn't attempt to imitate other food groups, particularly corn.

Good & Plenty: Optimistic, perhaps overly so. A little bit of Weimar energy. Strong advocate of gay rights; acquainted with the bitterness at the center of most lives.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: Generous souls. Those who understand the salty in life, as well as the sweet.

Snickers: Just going with the crowd, the safe candy choice, guaranteed to please the masses. Not ambitious, but dependable.

1. hannah montana costume
2. master chief costume
3. pirate costume
4. wonder woman costume
5. little red riding hood costume
6. hannah montana halloween costume
7. tinkerbell costume
8. pippi longstocking costume
9. flapper costume
10. raggedy ann costume

The websites receiving the most traffic from the term "hannah montana costume" were Costumzee.com, PriceGrabber.com, Celebrate Express, Target.com and Shopzilla. Other popular costume searches included Halo 3's Master Chief, pirates, Wonder Woman, Little Red Riding Hood, and Tinkerbell. The top descriptive search terms used for Halloween costumes include perennial favorites such as sexy, funny, homemade and cool. Also among the popular descriptive searches were "cheap halloween costume ideas" which increased 305 percent and the term "adult halloween costume" which increased 336 percent versus last year.

1. BuyCostumes.com
2. Halloween Express
3. Spirit Halloween
4. Costume Super Center
5. AnniesCostumes.com
6. Costume Hub
7. Costume Craze
8. Zoogster Costumes
9. Halloweenmart.com
10. anytimecostumes.com

The Victorian 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa in Eureka Springs, Ark., hosts a wide variety of spirits. It is said that after the skeleton frame of hotel had been constructed in the 1880s that one of the Irish stone masons plunged to his death in what is now room 218. This room proves to be the most spiritually active room in the hotel and has attracted television film crews for decades because of the quantity and quality of the sightings reported. Throughout the history of the hotel, employees have referred to this entity at "Michael," a classified poltergeist due to the nature of the unexplained activity. Guests have witnessed hands coming out of the bathroom mirror, cries of a falling man in the ceiling, the door opening then slamming shut, unable to be opened again. The intrigue of this activity had drawn guests to specifically request room 218 for the chance of experiencing something.

According to the National Retail Federation's 2007 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, an estimated one in ten celebrants (11.0%), or 7.4 million households, plan on donning their beloved pet in some sort of costume this year.

Devils (12.0%) and pumpkins (9.2%) top the list of pet costumes, with witches (4.5%), princesses (3.8%) and angels (3.3%) rounding out the top five.

"Many consumers who own pets think of them as family members," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. "Pet owners will go all out to include dogs, cats and other critters in Halloween festivities, including trick-or-treating, handing out candy or even celebrating at a friend or family members' house."

Halloween party-goers are bobbing for more than just apples. They'll also be on the lookout for candy, costumes and decorations. The average person will spend $23.33 on Halloween costumes (including children's and pet's costumes), though young adults will spend far more. In fact, according to the survey, 18-24 year-olds plan to be the most festive, spending $34.06 on costumes, nearly twice as much as they plan to spend on candy ($19.65). According to the survey, average spending will rise in all categories, including candy ($19.84, decorations ($17.73) and greeting cards ($3.92).

The most popular activity on Halloween this year will be handing out candy, with nearly three-fourths (72.9%) of consumers planning to stay home to hand out treats. Other popular activities will include pumpkin carving (43.3%), decorating a home and/or yard (47.8%), and throwing or attending a Halloween party (28.3%).

As with WowWee's Robosapien, the infrared sensors play a crucial role: they help the robot avoid obstacles and detect motion, so the robot jumps back if you wave your hand in front of its face.

You can use the remote control (which takes three of the seven batteries) to change the Roboquad's walking direction or choose combinations of 72 possible motions. Or you can simply set the robot's mood and let it react to events in the room.

As with other robotic toys, the Roboquad's novelty factor is high, but there is the risk that a child's interest will drain about as fast as the batteries. Of course, you never know when you might need to tease your dog.

1	Witch	17.5%
2	Pirate	3.7%
3	Vampire	3.7%
4	Cat	2.6%
5	Clown	1.8%
6	Fairy	1.6%
7	Gypsy	1.6%
8	Superhero	1.6%
9	Ghost/Ghoul	1.4%
10	Dracula	1.3%
11	Devil	1.2%
12	Woman of the Night	1.1%
13	Nurse	1.1%
14	Pumpkin	1.1%
15	Athlete	1.0%
16	Princess	1.0%
17	Zombie	1.0%
18	Angel	0.8%
19	French Maid	0.8%
20	Cowboy/Cowgirl	0.7%

Salacious costumes — the most visible reminder that Halloween is no longer the sole domain of children — have been around longer than plastic Grim Reaper scythes. But there has been an emergence of "ultrasexy" costumes in the last couple of years, according to Christa Getz, the purchasing director for BuyCostumes.com, which sells outfits with names like Little Bo "Peep Show" and Miss Foul Play.

"Probably over 90 to 95 percent of our female costumes have a flirty edge to them," Ms. Getz said, adding that sexy costumes are so popular the company had to break its "sexy" category into three subdivisions this year.

Heather Siegel, the vice president of HalloweenMart.com, said her company’s sexy category is among its most popular. (The two best-selling women's costumes are a low-cut skin-tight referee uniform and a pinup-girl-inspired prisoner outfit called Jail Bait.)

"Almost everybody gets dressed up really, really sexy for it," said Carrie Jean Bodner, a senior at Cornell University in Ithaca who wrote about the abundance of skimpy Halloween garb for The Cornell Daily Sun last year. "Even the girls who wouldn't dream of going to class without their pearls and pullovers."

No need to count hanging chads, president George W. Bush was the clear cut winner among men in the vote for most popular choice of costumes with 47% choosing the Commander-in-Chief over two other newsworthy subjects, Mel Gibson (36%) and Tom Cruise (18%).

Females would rather dress as domestic diva Martha Stewart (54%) than heiress Paris Hilton (27%) or television personality Star Jones (19%).

"Pirates is one category that really has been genderless and ageless," reports Deborah Radman, public relations manager for national chain Party City. "It has a lot to do with the popularity of the movie. Kids think it's cool, and adults can dress up fairly easily."

In a pinch, a procrastinator could throw on a white shirt, grab a bandanna, eye patch and plastic sword - all easy to find this time of year - and be ready to go, she suggests.

Susan Fussell, director of communications with the National Confectioners Association, said that when people think of Halloween, they naturally think of Trick or Treating and the purchase of all varieties of candy.

"The Halloween season has been No. 1 in candy sales for a number of years now," Fussell said. "It's pretty safe to say that sales have increased between 1 and 3 percent each year. Themed candies are a large part of the sales. Would you believe that more than nine billion pieces of candy corn are made each year. And the candies that are most popular at Halloween are usually popular year 'round with candy bars, gum and licorice.

"Novelty candies are also popular - candies that include toys that spin, cackle and make any kind of noise. Baby Bottle Pops, for example, are popular again this Halloween. The bottle pop is orange with black sugar powder, which dyes your tongue black. The more gruesome, the better. Kids are crazy about gross out candies because their parents don't like them."

"When it comes to dressing for Halloween, traditional costumes never go out of style," said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO. "In order to please consumers of all ages, retailers have begun stocking their shelves with a wide variety of costumes, from classic favorites to pop-culture icons."

According to the survey, 59.9 percent of consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, up from 53.3 percent in 2005, with the average person spending $21.57 on that purchase. This year an estimated $4.96 billion will be spent on the holiday, making it the sixth largest spending holiday of the year.

The albinos are called ghost pumpkins, snowballs, luminas or Caspers -- presumably a reference to the friendly ghost. And the ones about the size of a baseball? Baby Boos.

White pumpkins are slightly more expensive than their orange cousins, but parents and party planners say they're more ghoulish and offer a better canvas for drawing or painting jack-o'-lantern faces.

White pumpkins -- simply another variety of the autumn favorite -- have been around for a while, but what was once a curiosity at farmers markets is now making the scene at larger groceries and pumpkin patches.

Gensler Gardens, a family farm near Rockford, grew 6,000 white pumpkins this year because the 1,000 it cultivated last year were such a hit. But more than a week before Halloween, all 6,000 had been sold, and the Genslers will probably grow 20,000 next year, Scott Gensler said.

2005 Top Kids' Costumes
			# of Children
1	Princess	11.8%	3,778,217
2	Witch	5.2%	1,664,215
3	Spiderman	4.5%	1,439,321
4	Monster	4.1%	1,304,385
5	Darth Vader	3.9%	1,259,406
6	Superhero	3.9%	1,259,406
7	Star Wars Character	2.5%	809,618
8	Batman	2.4%	764,639
9	Ninja	2.3%	719,660
10	Clown	2.3%	719,660
11	Pirate	2.1%	674,682
12	Angel	2.0%	629,703
13	Pumpkin	2.0%	629,703
14	Power Rangers	1.8%	584,724
15	Cinderella	1.7%	539,745
16	Vampire	1.5%	494,767
17	Cheerleader	1.5%	494,767
18	Cat	1.5%	494,767
19	Ghost/Ghoul	1.4%	449,788
20	Soldier/Sailor	1.4%	449,788
2005 Top Adults' Costumes
			# of Adults
1	Witch	16.4%	3,923,124
2	Vampire	6.0%	1,448,538
3	Actor/Famous Person	3.3%	784,625
4	Monster	3.0%	724,269
5	Pirate	2.4%	573,380
6	Angel	2.3%	543,202
7	Clown	2.3%	543,202
8	Ghost/Ghoul	2.1%	513,024
9	Zombie	2.1%	513,024
10	Renaissance Costume	2.0%	482,846
11	Princess	1.9%	452,668
12	Devil	1.8%	422,490
13	Grim Reaper	1.5%	362,135
14	Soldier/Sailor	1.4%	331,957
15	Superhero	1.4%	331,957
16	Nurse	1.4%	331,957
17	Gypsy	1.4%	331,957
18	Pumpkin	1.3%	301,779
19	Pimp	1.1%	271,601
20	Wizard	1.0%	241,423