With Halloween arriving in a couple days, many of us savor the opportunity to turn out the lights late at night, grab a bag of popcorn, and immerse ourselves in some classic horror films. For some, it’s the early-20th-century versions of Frankenstein or Dracula. Others will enjoy mid-century fright fare like The Blob or Creature from the Black Lagoon. Finally, many of us will watch scary movies from the latter part of the century, like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. It’s the last of these that’s the focus of today’s lunchtime quiz.

Take the Quiz: Friday the 13th

We’re back with another 5-day trivia hunt!

To remind you of the rules: Every day this week, I’ll be presenting a specific challenge. Your job: come up with the answers and hold onto them! Why? Because on Friday, you’ll need them to solve a short puzzle. The first person to email in the correct answers and successfully show how you arrived at them (thus the title: How Did You Know?) wins a choice of any t-shirt and book from our store.

As with last month, we’re also adding some special prizes this time around for those who come really close, but don’t get all the answers in time. We’ve previously awarded some shirts and books to a couple contestants who impressed us with charts, diagrams, and other complex methods of recording and organizing the clues/answers. So we’ll be on the lookout for the creative among you, as well. This is all to say: it pays to play whether you nab the grand prize or not. And remember, we’re also giving away a really big, sa-weeet prize to any winning contestant who can defend the title three months in a row. Details on that as they develop, if they develop. (Avery Dale, Ken Laskowski and Colin Utley are our current champions. You can read about them here.)

As with previous How Did You Know? posts, comments have been turned off, but I definitely encourage you to work in teams like our present champions did. Write your friends, send around each daily challenge, conspire, work together, whatever it takes to make sure you’re armed with the right answers going into Friday’s puzzle. If you missed Day 1, check that out here. Day 2 can be found right over here.

Today we’re playing Name That Famous Recording Artist. On each of the following pages, you’ll find a video with a famous singer in it. Your job: I.D. each artist and name the movie or TV show.

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Here’s a number as it might appear on an LCD readout, but the last digit is missing. What IS the final digit in this number? And why?

HERE is the solution.

Don’t miss the Halloween Sky Show, October 31st through November 3rd, starring the moon, Venus, and Jupiter, with special guest Earthshine! NASA has details on what to look for while you munch trick-or-treat candy.
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6 MORE Creepy Urban Legends (That Happen to be True). The first installment, in case you missed it last year, is here.
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It turns out that if you’ve seen one presidential debate, you really have seen them all. And now you can see them all at once!
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A Mac Virus is discovered, and it’s much worse than we ever imagined! This makes taking over your address book look like child’s play.
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The largest Thriller dance ever happened in Austin over the weekend, with over 800 dancers participating. That’s a lot of undead.
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Scientists are turning to nature to rebuild coastlines devastated by hurricanes. Man made bulkheads and seawalls are being replaced with tons of oyster shells to attract sea creatures and encourage them to hold back the ocean.
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What’s Your Halloween Giveaway Strategy? Read the comments for tons of suggestions and stories.

To mark the start of a new NBA season, let’s revisit Ethan Trex’s review of the definitive basketball rap album. Good luck getting these rhymes out of your head.

While cruising Amazon one day, I found something curious: a 1994 hip-hop album from Immortal Records called Basketball’s Best-Kept Secret featuring the flows of ten of the day’s brightest NBA stars. Needless to say, this seemed like a good way to spend four dollars.

I was wrong, though. Buying this record was an outstanding way to spend four dollars. In the Pantheon of Hilariously Bad Athlete Rap, it’s the missing link between “The Super Bowl Shuffle” and Kobe Bryant’s abysmal “Thug Poet.” Is there anything musically redeeming about it? Not at all. Is it worth listening to if you’re an NBA fan? Absolutely.

The record is so riveting that I combed through it track-by-track in an attempt to find out what basketball’s best-kept secret really is.

Track 02: Dana Barros – “Check It”

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• According to an extensive article on the History of Pasta from the The Atlantic, “the first clear Western reference to boiled noodles is in the Jerusalem Talmud of the fifth century A.D., written in Aramaic. Although, no one disputes that the Chinese have made pasta from many more kinds of flour than Europeans have, since at least 1100 B.C.” Of course, spaghetti enjoys such strong ties to Italy that some exported films from the ’60s were even called Spaghetti Westerns. Spaghetti has evolved into many things, such as SpaghettiO’s, as well as other incarnations …

• Spaghetti can be tricky to get from plate to mouth, so now there’s an invention (which seems to work like an electric toothbrush for spaghetti) to help with twirling the noodles on your fork. But isn’t the real trick getting the noodles to stay on?
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Since today would be Bob Ross’ 66th birthday, today’s “Feel Art Again” will feature the happy painter himself, at the request of reader hannah. After studying up on Ross’ life, try our Bob Ross quiz from our ‘80s Week back in April.

1. Bob Ross’ landscapes were influenced by his years spent in Alaska working for the U.S. Air Force. Ross spoke of the beauty of Alaska, saying, “Ooh, if you have never been to Alaska, go there while it is still wild. My favorite uncle asked me if I wanted to go there—Uncle Sam. He said if you don’t go, you’re going to jail. That is how Uncle Sam asks you.”

2. Teaching a quick-study technique on his 30-minute public television segments, Ross believed everyone possesses artistic talent and can become accomplished artists, given time, practice, and encouragement. He often told viewers, “We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents.”

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As of today, The Mental Floss History of the World is available in bookstores everywhere. Judging from the Amazon stats, many of you have already ordered your copies. (Thanks!!) Mine arrived this afternoon.

Once you get your hands on the book, we want you to show it a good time. So, let’s hold a History of the World Photo Contest. Here’s how to enter:

1) Get a copy of The Mental Floss History of the World.
2) Do something fun and bring the book with you. Be creative—visit an obscure historical site, grab some food, coordinate your outfits, involve animals. Whatever you want.
3) Take a picture.
4) Send it to flossypics@gmail.com (with the subject “History”).

We’ll award several prizes for particularly clever photos, including one $50 gift card to the mental_floss store, and two $25 gift cards. We’ll post some of our favorites here on the blog.

The deadline is Monday, November 3rd, at 11:59pm.

As a bonus, if you go to your local bookstore and pose with a copy of History of the World while there, you’ll be entered in a separate drawing to win one of three free t-shirts. Send your photo to that same flossypics@gmail.com address.

If there are no questions, I’ll let you start planning your entries. Can’t wait to see what you come up with.

In a stunning move, MTV has returned to its roots: actual music videos. But don’t look for the videos on TV — now they’re online. MTV announced today that they’ve posted over 16,000 videos, “Unplugged” sessions, and concerts to their new MTV Music site. The videos are nicely presented, with an easy search feature and video quality that rivals YouTube’s “Higher Quality.” The catalog is deep. Not ultra deep (this ain’t MTV2), but there’s a lot of back catalog content. For example, they have Yo La Tengo’s famous “Sugarcube” video in which the band goes to Rock School:

More favorites after the jump.

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With campaign attire in the spotlight, what apparel choices are candidates and their spouses making? Whether they buy the with their own money or campaign funds, here are some of the fashion trends among the political elite.

1. Kawasaki, the Japanese company that makes Sarah Palin’s iconic eyeglasses, received as many orders in 10 days for the frame as it does in a year.
2. Minnesota’s Pacificier baby boutique is also cashing in on the publicity about Trig Palin’s romper.
3. Sarah Palin debuted as the VP candidate in an Italian designer Valentino top, but her beaded earrings were handmade in Alaska by her mother-in-law.
4. Palin likes Patagonia outerwear, but the brand was quick to distance itself from the VP candidate. (more…)