The United States of Scary Things

Halloween is creeping up! In honor of the scariest of all holidays, here’s a map that shows you’ve got something to be scared about no matter which state you live in.

I got Zombie Lincoln, w00t!

The Walking Dead: Andrew Lincoln on Rick’s Growing Darkness

“I think his humanity is pretty intact but his ruthlessness, his decision making, has moved into a Shane point of view. There is an uncompromising nature that I think has happened over time to Rick. The other thing to bear in mind is that he is the most isolated, both in his group and in his relationship. I don’t think he is in the most stable—certainly when I was playing it, I wanted it to be this instantaneous, almost Pavlovian reaction to the situation. Certainly, in season one and season two, I don’t think he would have been so quick to make that judgment call.”

“That’s one of the joys of playing Rick. The moral ambiguity of the show is the most interesting part for me—certainly as an actor—because in any other world, any other situation that wasn’t Hell you wouldn’t make these kinds of calls. You wouldn’t be pushed into this corner to make these calls. The thing that dignifies him and helps to justify the situation is the fact that he always has their safety as a priority, so it becomes this sort of selfless act even though it’s incredibly evil. His humanity is never fully taken away from him, although as we go through this season it diminishes and diminishes and that’s all I will say.”

I’d wager it won’t be long before he turns on others in the group, just to keep them in line and ultimately protect that baby that isn’t his.

What’s the Big Idea? “People, Zombies, and the Blurry Line Between Them”

Some zombie movies make the line between the living and the dead seem pretty easy to draw. When a family member returns from the grave and tries to eat us, it’s not hard to imagine having an itchy trigger finger. But at the heart of these terrifying texts lays a question that humankind has been asking for centuries: What does it mean to be a person?

Join Brendan Riley, Associate Professor in the Department of English, for the inaugural “What’s the Big Idea?” Honors talk, which brings students together to discuss new ideas, rethink old ones, and share the interdisciplinary spirit of the Honors community at Columbia College Chicago. This semester, our discussion will center on how tales of the dead can provide insight to the living.

This is tonight at 5:30pm. Why is all the cool zombie shit on weeknights? More from Bredan Riley at his blog, good book reviews and the like to boot.

• Online review of the presentation: Lecture highlights reality, legend of zombies.

McFarlane Toys Releases New The Walking Dead Action Figures This Halloween

Like the first series, humans include multiple interchangeable accessories and several points of articulation for limitless possibility and customization. Each zombie figure features unique, gory play action.

The 13 Greatest Zombie Movies Ever Made

Here are the 13 greatest zombie movies of all time. And yes, this includes a lot of different types of zombies — whether they’re bitten by Sumatran rat-monkey, turned undead by a magical elixir or infected by the T-Virus, as long as they rot and move at the same time, they’re still zombies to us. Here they are, in no particular order.

io9 has more zombie articles to geek on.

Parenting - you’re doing it right.

I <3 the machine gun with the chain strapped to the barrel. If I could dress up like this with M. for Halloween, I totally would. Alas, I don’t think she’d go for it.

Television series

His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981. There were 686 30-minute episodes taped; the first 104 (1960–66) in black-and-white and the remainder (1966–81) in color. At its peak, his show was featured in over 100 markets, with an average viewership of over thirty trillion on Planet Earth alone. (citation needed)