It’s time for another whimsical Tuesday Turnip Google search wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting factoids “turn-up.”

In honor of Halloween, today I typed in “haunted + new york city” taking me to a bunch of scary urls, where I learned a lot about the following buildings and their respective ghosts:
Algonquin Hotel
59 W 44th St
Many guests at the Algonquin Hotel have claimed to spot members of The Round Table.

Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue
Various sightings have been reported of suicide victims who jumped from the Empire State Building’s observatory.

“The House of Death”
14 West 10th Street (near Fifth Avenue)
This classic brownstone was constructed in the 19th century and is believed to be haunted by the 22 people who have died in the house, as well as Mark Twain. Twain, who lived there from 1900-1901, is rumored to haunt the stairwell of the house.

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We saw this amazing gallery of Aurora Borealis shots on Dumptrumpet and had to pass it on. Photographer Bjorn Jorgensen also shoots other surreally gorgeous things, like winter sunrises, and also surreally hideous things (scroll down).

But in the meantime, don’t forget to send us your best ideas and pictures — the winner will be announced tomorrow as the Grand Marshal of our Halloween parade! In the meantime, here’s a tidbit about a much bigger parade, New York’s West Village extravaganza:

In Celtic times, the last night of Autumn was celebrated by gathering around a communal fire. Villagers would then carry home embers from the communal fire to rekindle their own hearths. The glowing embers were carried in hollowed gourds adorned with decorations in homage to Brigid, the goddess of the Hearth. The Jack-O-Lantern, the most famous symbol of Halloween today, originiated with this tradition.

To honor the Celtic tradition, the 2006 Village Halloween Parade procession will be led by a troupe of dancing Jack-O-Lantern and Squash Blossom puppets bearing the communal fire within a great pumpkin lantern.

It will also apparently be led by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS, who of course don’t need the excuse to dress up.

You can see photos of last year’s NYC parade here. Last year’s grand prize winner was a guy covered in feathers and whizzing around on Rollerblades, scaring people — can you guess what he was supposed to be?

Dock Ellis was a pretty eccentric baseball player, which befits a man who now claims he never played a major league game sober. On May 1, 1974, for instance, Ellis attempted to hit every batter in the Cincinnati Reds’ lineup. In the first inning alone, he pelted Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Dan Dreisen. After Johnny Bench was nearly beaned twice, Ellis was removed from the game. But by far, Ellis’ oddest accomplishment came on June 12, 1970, when (per his autobiography) he became the only major league player ever to pitch a complete game no-hitter while tripping on acid. Luckily, Ellis sobered up after his retirement and now works as a drug treatment counselor.

This is today’s peek at a bit from our 5th anniversary issue and is just one of the bizarre accomplishments highlighted in the “Masters of Their Domain” article on page 18.

My 5th grade summer was probably the palest I’ve ever been thanks to one little word: Tetris. (Just typing the word makes me grin!) It just so happens that 5th grade was the summer I got my first Gameboy, and while my overall athleticism quickly dwindled, my thumbs went through the sort of rigorous conditioning you only expect from Russian gymnasts, Kentucky-bred racehorses, and moderate steroid users. In any case, all that’s to say, I loved me some Tetris, so you can imagine my giddiness over seeing this over at ProductDose– Tetris-shaped shelves! Of course, with each individual shelf costing $600, you’ll have plenty of time to figure out how to line up the next block on your wall. Click here to learn more.

Just like Justin Timberlake, funeral director Ken McKenzie is bringing sexy back … to the death business. Inspired by sexy calendars featuring Chippendale’s dancers and firefighters, McKenzie scoured the country for musclebound morticians for a calendar of his own — the first of its kind. That was hard enough, he says, but an even bigger challenge was getting them to smile. “Our industry is so scared of what people will think,” he said. “They say this is a serious business, and people expect funeral directors to be serious.” Several of his models froze up when it came time to flash their pearly whites — not to mention their rock-solid pecs — and had to be digitally removed from the cover photo (pictured). McKenzie’s graphic designer also “added a few abs and got rid of some flab,” he admits. To order, go to www.menofmortuaries.com. $2 of each sale goes to benefit breast cancer patients who are in a financial pinch, in honor of McKenzie’s sister, a survivor who found herself in just such a situation a few years back.

The New Scientist Tech blog is reporting that researchers at Carnegie Mellon are developing an exciting new translation device. The gadget uses electrode sensors on your face and neck to essentially lip read your words before relaying them in another language, meaning you don’t even need to whisper to make it work?! The phenomenon is unique because today’s translation devices try to “listen” to your words that you speak out loud, before translating them– you say something, the computer interprets it, then relays it to the other person, making a conversation anything but normal. Instead, the new device tries to fix those gaps in conversation by deciphering and translating the words as you’re mouthing them. The freaky part is that in the future you could have a conversation with someone speaking a different language, and neither of you might ever hear the others’ actual voice! Read more at New Scientist.

Uh-oh. According to a just-completed study from researchers at Stanford’s School of Medicine, one in eight people show signs of “problematic internet use.” (The fact that upon learning this I immediately thought, “That would be a good blog” is probably a sign that I am among the eight. Crap.) Results from the telephone-based survey of more than 2,000 people found that:

• 13.7 percent found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time
• 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often
• 12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point
• 8.7 percent attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers
• 8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood
• 5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use

Based on the research, the average internet addict was a college-educated white male (guilty) in his 30s (not quite) who logged about 30 hours of nonessential internet use per week (define “nonessential”) and visited pornography and gambling sites as well as chat rooms and shopping sites (uh … no comment). But here’s the best part: “the research showed similarities between alcoholism and internet addiction in that users often hide their web surfing and use it to self-medicate.” Hmm, I’ll bet there’s a support group out there somewhere for recovering internet addicts. Wonder if they’ve got a website …

As a prelude to the scariest night of the year, my husband suggested that we watch Freddy Vs. Jason this weekend — perhaps forgetting that, having been allowed by an idiotic babysitter to watch the original Nightmare on Elm Street at age 11, I am terrified of teen slasher flicks. As a result, I did not sleep at all this weekend, which meant I spent lots of time drinking coffee and surfing Wikipedia at 3 a.m., where I encountered a wonderful list of other movies that pit famous stars against each other. These include:

• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
• Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
• Alien vs. Predator (2004)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein (1999)
• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
• The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)
• and my personal favorite, Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969), the entirety of which you can watch below.

If you know of other great mash-up matchups, alert us in the comments!

Our friends over at Treehugger.com are into Yo-Yos (and no, I don’t mean of the cello-playing variety). Check out the interesting variety they’ve got going on with stories on yo-yos made from sustainable wood, another that powers an ice-cream maker, and my personal favorite (hint, hint, as the holiday’s approach): a wireless yo-yo powered MP3 player, which they say takes only a dozen or so tosses to charge the thing up for continuous music play! Yes, yo-yos have come a long way.

Largely considered the second oldest toy in history (the first being a doll, of course), the yo-yo is thought to have originated in China. The first historical mention, however, dates from the year 500 B.C. where Greek children are said to have offered them up to the Gods for good luck.

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