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Oct 30, 2009 11:19 pm US/Central
Good Question: 'Reply All' To Halloween Questions
(WCCO)
Friday, the Good Question team is hitting 'Reply All' to viewers' questions about Halloween.
• Has a stranger ever put a razor blade or poison in Halloween candy? - Becca and Squiddie via Twitter
Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware analyzed the reports of poison and razor blades in Halloween candy, and every single report of tainted candy turned out to be a hoax or an attempt to cover up a crime by blaming strangers.
• Should we be worried about getting H1N1 from trick-or-treating? - April from Andover
Doctors WCCO-TV talked with said the risk is extremely low. Flu droplets enter the body through the mouth, nose, or eyes. You'd have to have the flu, sneeze on the bowl of candy, then have a kid take the candy bar, and then put their hands on the mouth, nose or eye.
The real risk of Halloween comes in car crashes. Children are more than twice as likely to be killed by a car while walking on Halloween night than at any other time of the year, according to a study by Safe Kids USA.
• Why do we carve pumpkins for Halloween? - Dave Hoelzel via Facebook
The story started with carving a turnip. There's an Irish legend about Stingy Jack, a guy who couldn't get into Heaven and couldn't get into Hell. The Devil sent him on his way with a piece of coal, burning in a turnip, and Jack and his lantern supposedly still roam the earth.
The British carved beets. When immigrants came to the U.S., pumpkins were cheap and easy to grow and worked well for carving.
• Why do fog machines smell so bad? - Dyani via Twitter
It's glycol being heated up. Today's fog machines smell better than older machines, which used a compound made of oil. When that overheated, it would smell horrible.
• When did Halloween go from dressing scary to dressing slutty? - Ryan Good via Facebook
It's hard to exactly pinpoint when suggestive costumes caught for Halloween. Some trace it back to the Elvira costume, which according to
Swindle Magazine, launched in 1985 and is the top selling costume in history.
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