ABC Well hello there, boys and girls but especially you boys! Autumn is at its height, the leaves, they are a-fallin’, and as the darkness swallows the light, a sniggering laugh whispers on the wind.  Who can it be? Why, it’s everyone’s favourite force of nature and (barely)  closeted druncle, Paul Lynde, with his fabulously exotic entourage! The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), Witchipoo (Billie Hayes), and, of course, KISS, were all bit players in a show that was really all Paul.   ABC “Marrying Paul to Halloween seemed like a good idea, because there was something essentially witchy about Paul Lynde.” Bruce Vilanch The Paul Lynde Halloween Special  from 1976 is something I was never allowed to watch as a child for reasons that escaped me at the time, but now that I’m in my crone era there’s nobody to stop me. Shall we watch together?  Wouldn't that just be lovely?   What are you watching this spooky season?

They rise again when the air turns metallic and the moon glows over exhausted towns. You can sense them at the beginning of October, a discordant hum behind the noise, a racing pulse beneath the grind. Circe walks the shoreline once again, her hair smelling of salt, her breath exhaling defiance. Tituba laughs a melody in the wind that weaves through the pines. La Voisin stirs her cauldron in a Parisian graveyard, cologne, herbs, and poison mixing in the heavy air. Morticia sharpens her rapier wit. Stevie tunes her chords to longing and heartache. The witches wake, not from breathless slumber, but from airlessness and patience. They never go, only watch, waiting for the universe to honor power when it is whispering, prodding, and certain. Many called them monsters, sirens, sinners, sluts, whores, vixens, crones, anything to keep from admitting their survival. But they were resilient and kept the fire smoldering in kitchens and back bedrooms, in girls who refused to shrink. Through the c...