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In today’s New York Times, a fabulous piece gives the account of Steven Kurutz and his friend Chris’ slow, musical meanderings through Kentucky’s bourbon heaven and should not be missed.

While I don’t drink much, I’m a big fan of Woodford Reserve, which is very close to Lexington and the only bourbon distillery I’ve visited. But after reading this I find myself tempted to head out of the city and do a little poking around myself.

Happy Halloween Everyone.

If you really want spooked out, check out my list of Haunted Places from around the world, including some ghost videos and so forth. I’ll expand it as I find ‘em. Wait… what was that noise?

Ashmore Estates - A haunted building has for the last 20 years been off-limits to the general public. Many have visited the site illegally and experienced the haunt first hand.

Ghosts and Stories - Pretty Extensive Site, with videos.

Library Ghost - Willard Library in Evansville Indiana is the oldest public library building in the state of Indiana at over 110 years old.

GhostsOfAmerica - Ghost Sightings

Haunted Vending Machine - very cool.

ForgottenUS.com - a directory of haunted, abandoned, and the just plain weird places in the United States.

GhostGuides.com - Jim Graczyk has produced a series of books of alleged hauntings that included directions to get the reader to the location.

Ghost Research - Photographs of Ghosts

Ghost Videos - From YouTube

Weird Chicago Tours - A tour of Chicago’s Ghosts, Gangsters & Ghouls.

Haunted Louisville - Louisville, Kentucky has long been regarded as one of the most haunted cities in America with dark tales of haunted theaters, hospitals, hotels and crumbling mansions.

History and Hauntings Book Co - Historical books with plenty about hauntings.

Ghosts and Critters - Washington and Oregon Area Ghosts

Haunted Travels - A Guide to Haunted Houses and Places (by State.)

The Moonlit Road - Haunted Tales from the American South

Strange USA - Haunted Buildings, places, Urban Legends, and more.

Finding a Good Haunted House - Tips from the Denver Post

13 Haunted Houses that will make you Wet Your Pants - from, er, inventors spot. Definitely need to hit the Newport, KY boat thing.

Haunted House Stuff - from NCSU

Funny story about how ghosts make things hard for homeowners.

(ps: someone asked me where the photos came from. I took these at Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in Gatlinburg TN. )

Hi Scott, good evening. My name is (??) calling from company called (??) Worldwide (??). Actually called regarding a partnership program companies that I’m investing (??) to people like you all across US. Reason for as association (??) bigger projects for some reason handle on your own since we have strong (??) for us in the development center (??) India. We’re providing outsourcing services to our customers (??) very very (??) prices. I was just wondering if I can (??) program because I still (??).

(??) inserted by my voice mail transcription service

Reminds me of mad libs.

I guess I better actually listen to this voicemail. Or not.

I’m not making this up. But since my kids have a dog, it caught my eye. straight from 3 Dendy Road in South Devon - probably attached to one of the cleanest patches of turf in the whole of England, if this pans out - a talented industrial designer has created The Poop Swoop . Roughly a canine version of the Diaper Genie (an absolutely genius product, I’ll say from experience) the thing is meant to keep you from using your hands (through a bag, surely) to remove the waste. Very civilized.

From the Poop Swoop site:

“Yuk! We all hate dog poo! But we love our dogs!!!!! That’s why we went away, dreamt up, and patented - The SWOOP. The SWOOP really is your second best friend. It’s patented design GRABS and BAGS your pooch’s poop in a single action, concealing it away, leaving you free to dispose of it in a hygienic and responsible manner. ”

I’d like something more passive or at least entertaining. Where you push a button and a light blue glow and fresh pine scent marks the end of terds. Or perhaps a second button on this thing that would hurl the payload at cars driving too fast in the neighborhood. But I digress.

Surely NASA could provide a little insight since they’re spending tax dollars to extract electricity from crap already. Wouldn’t it be short leap to turn fido into a cell phone charger for my Blackberry? Short of that, like many, I’m sorely tempted to let natural biodegration take it’s course.

But Poop Swoop’s site lays on the guilt:

Do you walk down the street risking the paparazzi catching you, swinging your plastic bag above your head like a medieval weapon. Or do you do the unthinkable, something that only the Late Great Barbara Woodhouse would do and the hardiest of abattoir workers, that is: pocket it!

Perhaps I’ll not go to Paignton on holiday after all.

All of these inventions are based on a vertical tying business model, where the costs of production and marketing are made up later in costs of bags. The bags for the Swoop run about $0.25-0.28 each. Similar human versions of these bags are about $0.12-$0.15 as long as some blogger doesn’t ruin it for them they stand to make a shitload.

Postscript: Then there are people more creative who figured out how to entertain kids and take care of the problem, too.