Whether you've got kids, an itch to waltz or just need an excuse to drink in costume, we've got the event for you.  

Halloween is, at its heart, a children’s holiday. Despite the hugely popular and profitable businesses of haunted houses and adult costumes, it’s kids who get more out of October than anyone else. It does not memorialize a war and has little religious significance. Its the playful, secular traditions that have risen above its Christian and Gaelic ones.  

Chainsaws-a-go-go! If the USS Nightmare and the Dent Schoolhouse are the Hollywood haunts in town, this is surely the low-budget slasher flick. Costumes and props are spartan, but Angel of Death is hellishly, demonically scary.   

President Eisenhower said that farming looks easy “when your plow is a pencil and you’re 1,000 miles from the cornfield.” Many would-be gardeners enjoy plowing through seed catalogs, but others in Greater Cincinnati have moved from the “easy” part to tilling, planting and tending to new urban farms in lots and backyards across the city.   

Halfway through the storm, it occurred to us that there was nowhere we’d rather wait it out than Wildflower Café. Maybe it was the warm yellow light, the wind blowing through windows no one had bothered to shut or the clanging and clinking of glasses and silverware from the 20-some diners next to us, all nestled together in one room.  

For art-museum lovers, one of the best things about hot summers in Cincinnati is the proximity to nearby cities whose museums and public galleries have exhibitions. This makes shows in Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington and Indianapolis easily reachable. But before we set off on a two-hour drive to see another city’s work, let’s look at the shows local institutions have planned for the summer. Then we’ll hit the road.   

It was mid-afternoon, and before going through a backlog of e-mails I decided to go to my real mail box and check my real mail. This is usually a somber experience. What fun is it to look through bills, advertisements and junk? This time, though, something got my attention. A blue envelope was in the stack of mail, and my address was handwritten on it.   

Kinda dark. Kinda a sweet relief. Perspective is tricky. And for Jason Wells of for algernon, although his sound veers toward soothing, then leans into the moody side, a focused, optimistic, artistic view is key.  

Bailouts, cash infusions and unemployment lines. These are scary words for scary times, and scary times call for … comfort food. We’ve just been through a season of belt-tightening and the new year looks like we might need to take it in another notch, but I had an epiphany over a plate of potato gnocchi and veal and ricotta meatballs.  

Choosing the year's best DVDs is a difficult task. The market has become so large, divergent, inclusive and specialized that comprehensive surveys are Herculean efforts, with the only guarantee being that something of worth is overlooked.