Author: Cortlyn McCarthy

10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago: Oct 26-Nov 1

Halloween crime, the Starbucks Frappula, and “a small loan of $1 million.” Here’s what was in the news 10 years ago this week.

Stormtrooper was a hot Halloween costume

A Fandango poll found it was the most popular costume inspired by a 2015 movie. Everyone was amped for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” to hit theaters that December – the first new “Star Wars” flick in a decade. (“Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” came out in 2005.) The second most popular costume was Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.”

A zombie and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle helped Beetlejuice cover up a hit-and-run

A woman dressed in a full Beetlejuice costume was driving in Atlanta and slammed into a Mercedes parked on the street. She did some serious damage, and her car was stuck on top of it. So she called some friends, and two guys dressed as a zombie and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle showed up a few minutes later. They helped push her car off the Mercedes, and they all took off. They didn’t realize someone’s security cam got it all on video.

*Indiana Jones also got into a high-speed chase that same week, but it wasn’t a Halloween costume. It was just a guy in Upstate New York named Indiana Jones.

A Fort Bragg soldier’s ill-advised Halloween costume

A bomb squad at Fort Bragg in North Carolina scrambled when a soldier showed up at a security gate dressed as a suicide bomber. The costume included a fake explosive vest.

The five fears we google most

A study by “Time“ magazine found the most-googled fear is a big one: death. The top three (at least in 2015) were: “fear of death”, “afraid of love,” and “fear of people.”

Starbucks debuted the “Frappula”

A play on the words “frappuccino” and “Dracula,” most fans loved the new spooky drink… while a few thought it tasted like crappula.

2015’s most influential teenagers included…

“Time” put out a list of the year’s “30 Most Influential Teens.” They included Kylie Jenner (18), Kendall Jenner (19), Zendaya (19), Malia Obama (17), Maisie Williams (18), Bindi Irwin (17), Jaden Smith (17), an up-and-coming Vine star named Shawn Mendes (17), and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai (18).

Taylor Swift’s “1989” album spend a full year in the Top 10

It went its first 52 weeks without dropping out of the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Only four other albums had done it before that. The last was Adele’s “21” that came out a few years earlier in 2011.

“A small loan of $1 million”

Then-candidate Donald Trump riled people up when he went on the “Today” show and said, “It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.”

A Black Friday shopper camped out over a month in advance

A Florida man named Kevin Sutton camped out in front of his local Best Buy 33 days before the big day. He was hoping to land a deal on a new TV – and also used the stunt to raise money for charity. 10 years later, most of the Black Friday deals have moved online.

The Kansas City Royals won their first World Series in 30 years

They tacked on five runs in the top of the 12th inning to beat the Mets 7-2 in Game 5 and bring home their first championship since 1985.

The World’s Favorite Crayon Color Is…

In the most pressing news your inner child (or actual child) will care about, Crayola just released results from a massive global poll to find the world’s favorite crayon color.

After surveying people in 183 countries, we finally have an answer – and yes, it’s incredibly specific.

Our Favorite Crayon Color? Cerulean

Yup, that soft, sophisticated shade of blue that Meryl Streep’s character famously lectures Anne Hathaway about in The Devil Wears Prada. You might remember the monologue where a simple sweater becomes a masterclass in fashion history. Turns out it’s also a global favorite when it comes to coloring outside the lines.

The top three crayon colors in the world are Cerulean, Robin’s Egg blue, and Wisteria purple.

Each generation’s favorite color?

Crayola also broke it down by age, and the blue obsession crosses generational lines. Boomers are the only generation that didn’t have blue at the top of their list.

Blue has been a top pick for decades

This isn’t the first time blue has dominated the crayon world. In fact, it’s kind of a long-standing monarch. Back in 1993, Crayola polled Americans and blue won then too. Then in a 2000 poll, six different shades of blue made the Top 10. So if you’re wondering why your kid’s coloring books all look like the ocean, now you know.

Smart Beds Got Dumb: Internet Outage Left People Sleeping Like Pretzels

File this under “2025 problems”: The internet went down, and it broke people’s… beds? The increasingly connected world we all live in is getting weirder by the day.

Thanks to a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage this week, a bunch of tech-savvy households discovered that their “smart homes” don’t function so well without, you know, the internet. And the standout meltdown came from a company called Eight Sleep.

Smart beds are great… until they’re not

Eight Sleep makes high-end bed frames and mattress covers that do all sorts of fancy things like heating, cooling, and adjusting to different positions – you know, like a hospital bed, but luxury.

That is, until the cloud broke. Then each one became a $2,000 paperweight with a mattress on top.

People couldn’t make their bed flat

Because Eight Sleep’s beds rely entirely on cloud computing hosted by AWS, the outage left users completely stuck. If your bed was tilted upright for reading or Netflixing when the servers went kaput, that’s just how you were sleeping that night.

One user posted, “It would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position,” while someone else helpfully quipped, “It’s all fun and games until a hacker folds you into a taco.”

Mattresses also overheated

Some users also reported their mattresses overheating, since the smart temperature system went haywire during the blackout. One guy said his bed was stuck at 9 degrees above room temp and compared it to “sleeping in a sauna.”

Thankfully, the problems were only temporary

The beds eventually came back to life once Amazon sorted things out, and Eight Sleep scrambled to let customers know they were aware it was unacceptable. The company’s CEO promised an “offline mode” was in the works, so if there’s ever another outage (100% chance of that), your bed won’t trap you like it’s auditioning for Saw 12: Sleep Edition.

Or auditioning for a remake of 2013’s “Bad Grandpa”…

46% of All Pumpkin-Related Knife Injuries Will Happen This Week

Halloween is already the scariest month of the year – now add the very real possibility of stabbing a knife through your own hand!

Nearly half of all pumpkin-related knife injuries will happen in the coming days. So, if you’re breaking out the carving kit, consider this your official safety PSA.

According to a recent study in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, the U.S. sees about 2,000 E.R. visits per year related to pumpkin-carving accidents, and they’re pretty much all in the month of October. That number only includes the people who actually go to the hospital – so the total tally of pumpkin-carving injuries is much higher.

84% of pumpkin-related knife injuries happen in October

It makes sense… because who’s carving pumpkins in July? Sure, there are a handful of cooks incorporating pumpkins into meals in other months. (Looking at you, November.) But according to the stats, more than 4 in 5 pumpkin/knife injuries (84%) happen in October.

The majority of those injuries are in the second half of the month… because if you’re carving your pumpkin more than a week out, you’re looking at a pile of orange mush on your porch by the 31st. So yeah, it’s just volume. If you carve a pumpkin this year, chances are you’re doing it this week.

Nearly half (46%) happen in the final week leading up to the big day, with the final three days seeing the most injuries. So if you show up to the E.R. with a hand covered in pumpkin innards and blood this week, you might have company.

Your thumb and index finger are at the highest risk

The study found those two digits are the prime targets. Roughly 60% of carving-related cuts involve one of them – or if you’re a real overachiever, both. Taking a pumpkin-carving knife to the thigh may happen, but it’s rare. 88% of pumpkin-carving cuts are hand injuries.

Kids are the most likely to get hurt

Kids between 10 and 19 make up 32% of pumpkin carving injuries. Another 20% happen to kids under 10. So while it may feel like a safe holiday activity, it can get bloody real quick.

Even grown-ups should probably use those orange safety knives

Adults aren’t immune to those same injuries, which is why many experts suggest ditching real knives altogether. Blades that are too sharp can easily slice through more than just your pumpkin. And knives with a sharp point run the risk of blasting through the whole gourd and straight into your hand on the other side.

Those flimsy orange pumpkin carving tools that come in kids’ kits? They’re designed to be dull enough to not slice through fingers, but strong enough to saw through pumpkin skin. Unless you’re planning some real high-level pumpkin carving, anything more than that is probably overkill.

Young kids should skip the carving altogether

If you’ve got little ones helping out, experts recommend skipping the carving entirely for kids under 10. Let them paint their pumpkins or slap some stickers on instead. Bonus: zero cleanup, and that jack-o-lantern they’re so proud of won’t shrivel up into a pile of goo in two days.

NYC Mayor Candidates: Ever Bought Weed?

The end of the first NYC mayoral debate featured a question with wildly different answers from all three candidates.

Zohran Mamdani (Bernie Sanders 2.0) vs. Andrew Cuomo (career politician) vs. Curtis Sliwa (Guardian Angels founder).

The contrast is stark, and social media is here for it.

10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago: Oct 19-25

Cake cleanses, peanut allergies, “Baby Hitler,” and Back to the Future Day. Here’s what was in the news 10 years ago this week.

Back to the Future Day: Oct 21, 2015

October 21, 2015 was the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to in “Back to the Future Part II.” We were promised flying cars, needlessly shiny clothes, and hoverboards. Instead, we got those self-balancing scooters… so, your fun-loving grandma broke a hip, then the battery exploded and torched her house.

The Cubs also didn’t win the World Series that year, but did a year later in 2016 for the first time since 1908. (Not too shabby, Zemeckis!)

To be fair, “Back to the Future Part II” did get a lot of things right: flatscreens, tablets, smart homes, VR goggles, fingerprint scanners, mobile payments, and drones. But even in 2025, flying cars still look like what would happen if your Tesla banged a Cessna.

Teal pumpkins took off

The folks at Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) had started pushing for them a year earlier. But 2015 was their breakout year. The Teal Pumpkin Project encourages people to offer non-food treats on Halloween for kids with allergies.

“YouTube Red”

For $10 a month, you could watch all your favorite YouTube content without those annoying ads playing mid-sentence. Unboxing videos suddenly became almost enjoyable. The name “YouTube Red” – which everyone agreed was stupid – would eventually be changed to “YouTube Premium” in 2018.

“Politically correct” was no longer politically correct

The Inclusive Excellence Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee deemed the term “politically correct” to be offensive, because it had become a way for the un-politically correct to shut people down.

“Over time, PC has become a way to deflect, say that people are being too ‘sensitive,’ and police language.”

“Baby Hitler” was trending worldwide

The “NY Times” shared a poll that asked readers, “Could You Kill a Baby Hitler?” 42% said yes, 30% said no, and 28% weren’t sure. For a few weird days in 2015, “Baby Hitler” was a trending topic on social media.

The Cake Cleanse Diet

It went viral in mid-October, offering a way to lose weight while eating cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The catch? The recipes were for “healthy” cakes packed with fiber and protein – think oats, nuts, and coconut flour. The “diet” sounded too good to be true… and tasted as such.

The most addictive food is…

A viral study released earlier that year found the most addictive food in the world is… yep, pizza.

10 Most Addictive Foods: pizza, chocolate, chips, cookies, ice cream, fries, cheeseburgers, soda, cake, and cheese

10 Least Addictive Foods: cucumbers, carrots, beans, apples, brown rice, broccoli, bananas, salmon, corn, and strawberries

The 10 highest-paid comedians included no women

Amy Schumer was rising in the ranks but literally zero women made the “Forbes“ Top 10 that year. The top three were Jerry Seinfeld ($36 million), Kevin Hart ($28.5 million), and – shockingly –Vegas ventriloquist Terry Fator ($21.5 million).

The “last” “Paranormal Activity” movie hit theaters

“Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” was billed as the final installment to wrap up the series. But Paramount eventually opted to sully the franchise a little more with a seventh movie in 2021. “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin” would skip theaters and bomb on a new streaming service called Paramount+ instead.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” was declared a Halloween movie

Director Henry Selick finally weighed in on the “Christmas or Halloween” debate and said it’s a Halloween movie. It was based on a poem Tim Burton wrote in 1982. (Yeah, I thought Tim Burton directed it too. He co-wrote and produced.)

Halloween Candy Odds: What Kids Are Most (and Least) Likely to Get

You send your kid out in a $40 costume with a $3 plastic pumpkin, hoping they return with enough sugar to last through Thanksgiving. But what exactly are they bringing home? Here are their Halloween candy odds.

The stats nerds at the online gambling site The Action Network crunched numbers from DoorDash, Instacart, and other candy sources, and came up with Vegas-style odds on what will be landing in that bucket.

So, when your kid walks through the door with a pillowcase full of sugar, you’ll know the odds of finding what you’re looking for. Here’s what your little monster is most (and least) likely to drag home.

10 Candies with the Highest Odds

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – 67%

Practically a Halloween guarantee. If your kid doesn’t come back with at least one, did they even go out?

Peanut M&M’s – 65%

Solid choice. Somehow feel healthier even though they’re not.

M&M’s – 62%

The peanut-free classic ranks first in most likely to break open and be found loose in the bottom of the bag.

Kit Kat – 60%

Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar and toss it directly into my face.

Snickers – 58%

When your neighbors go full-size, it’s usually this. Respect.

Sour Patch Kids – 55%

First they’re sour, then they’re gone. Kids trade for these like they’re currency.

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate – 50%

The bar that started it all. Still holding strong.

Milky Way – 45%

Like a Snickers without the crunch. The soft-spoken cousin.

Twix – 33%

Whether you’re Left Twix or Right Twix, you’re still only getting one.

Gummy Bears – 33%

Classic, chewy, and just the second non-chocolate candy on the list.

Tricks in the Treats: The Low-Probability Oddballs

  • Candy Corn – 23%: You either love it or hate it. There is no in between.
  • Raisins – 4%: Someone out there still thinks this counts as a treat. It doesn’t.
  • Toothbrush – 2%: There’s always one house, usually owned by a dentist with a guilt complex.

If you live in Mississippi, your kid has a 46% chance of getting candy corn. But kids in Hawaii can breathe easy, just an 11% chance.

Happy Halloween! May the Reese’s odds be ever in your favor.

“Adultoween” Is the New Holiday Every Parent Wants

Kids might have trick-or-treating, but adults are out here trying to claim Halloween for themselves as well – and honestly, they’ve got a pretty good case.

If you haven’t heard of “Adultoween” yet, here’s what all those grown-ups (especially parents) are getting on board with.

Ferrero (the candy folks) just dropped a new batch of stats showing that adults are fully on board with spooky season, and not just to supervise their kids or sneak one measly Reese’s from their pumpkin buckets.

The company is pushing the concept of “Adultoween” – basically, a night of Halloween celebrations sans kids. And according to their polling results, it’s got some traction.

“Adultoween” is a surprisingly popular idea

Over half of adults – 54%, to be exact – say they wish Halloween included an official night just for grown-ups. No kids. Just costumes, candy, and possibly cocktails.

Here’s a breakdown of the most fun (and petty) takeaways from their Halloween survey.

Halloween is not just for the little goblins.

62% of Americans say the holiday is just as much for adults as it is for kids. And if you’re a parent, you’re even more likely to agree – 71% say adults deserve equal rights to the spooky fun.

Candy taxes are real, and parents are enforcing them.

Two-thirds of parents say they have the “right” to dip into their kid’s leftover candy stash. 58% aren’t even waiting that long – they’ll happily sneak a treat or two during trick-or-treating. It’s called a parenting perk, look it up.

No kids? No problem. Adults are still hoarding candy.

64% of adults say they’ll buy candy in October even if no one’s trick-or-treating at their door. And 71% of parents admit to buying “extra” candy for themselves just in case.

Full-size candy bars reign supreme.

76% of adults say full-size bars are the best kind to steal. But we’re also nostalgic: 67% say they still prefer the same candy they loved as kids, and 72% stick to the classics over newfangled flavors. Why mess with a good thing?

Men take Halloween candy weirdly seriously.

52% of men buy premium candy to make sure their house gets that coveted “good candy” reputation, compared to 41% of women. And 21% of men will absolutely judge you if your candy game is weak. (15% of women admit they will too.)

It’s all about the nostalgia.

For 60% of people, the reason they love Halloween is pure nostalgia, and among parents it jumps to 68%. There’s just something about the smell of plastic masks and the sight of toilet paper on trees that brings us all back.

Is Halloween America’s favorite holiday?

47% of people said Halloween is the holiday they look forward to most. Sorry, Santa.

So should adults get their own official Halloween night? If it means fewer tantrums, more candy, and finally getting to wear a costume that doesn’t involve Disney characters, we say absolutely yes.

The Best Halloween Song You’ve Never Heard Is by… Ryan Gosling?

If you’re tired of playing those spooky classics like “Monster Mash” and the “Ghostbusters” theme on loop, here’s the best Halloween song you’ve never heard – and it’s by Hollywood royalty.

Finding success with a holiday-specific song is exceedingly rare these days. Novelty songs like “Monster Mash” may have found their lane in the ’60s and ’70s. But in 2025? Yeah, that whole highway has pretty much been shut down.

The good news, though, is there’s no need to hope and pray for a new Halloween banger when there’s already one that’s locked and loaded and ready for your eardrums.

Hang on a second… that Ryan Gosling?

Yes, the same guy with three Oscar nods is also a pretty talented musician, often performing under the pseudonym “Baby Goose.”

You might remember his piano chops from “La La Land.” He actually learned to play for the movie… kinda. You’d be hard pressed to find any former Mouseketeer who hasn’t tickled the ivories at least a little. But when the movie was in pre-production, he was still wholly unqualified to play a jazz aficionado.

Most actors would have just used stand-in hands for the piano parts, but he made it happen on his own – with some help from a piano teacher. She worked with him for several months ahead of shooting, calling him a “very musical guy.”

But before he was pretending to be an accomplished jazz pianist or singing “I’m Just Ken” in “Barbie,” he’d already tested out his chops on a full album of Halloween-centric material.

Dead Man’s Bones

Ryan and Hollywood producer Zach Shields had bonded in the mid-2000s over their shared love of all things spooky, including Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride. So in 2009, they formed a band together called Dead Man’s Bones that would go on to release a grand total of one album.

The eponymous album “Dead Man’s Bones” came out just in time for Halloween on October 6, 2009, and featured a chorus of singers from the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir. Ryan and Zach also toured, looping in a different kids’ choir in each city they visited. (They found the chorus of children’s voices creepy, because… yeah.)

(One of those touring members was actress/singer Dove Cameron, who was just 13 when Dead Man’s Bones cruised through Seattle and gave her her first paying gig. She talked about the project in an episode of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” calling Ryan incredibly talented and a guy who “can do f*cking everything.”)

“My Body’s a Zombie for You”

The full Dead Man’s Bones album is worth a listen. But if you only give one song a chance, make it Track #5, “My Body’s a Zombie for You.”

It’s 60’s doo-wop meets haunted prom-night rock – like if Tim Burton lived in Motown. Add it to your Halloween playlist and wait for your friends to ask, “Who is this?”

They’ll be just as shocked as you were.

You can check out the full Dead Man’s Bones album on YouTube and Spotify. The band itself may be defunct, but the music lives on. Very zombie-esque. 🧟‍♂️

Bonus: Check out a live performance from their 2009 tour.

10 Things That Happened 10 Years Ago: Oct 12-18

“Playboy” censors itself, Lamar Odom cokes himself into a coma, Larry David channels Bernie Sanders, and a burrito the size of a toddler. Here’s what was in the news 10 years ago this week.

“Playboy” announced no more nudity

CEO Scott Flanders announced the mag was ditching full-frontal and going PG-13. Flanders said there was simply no need for it in 2015. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free,” he said at the time. Hugh Hefner was in on the decision and signed off on the move.

Their first boob-free issue was published four months later in February 2016, but the new policy wouldn’t last long. The move didn’t help sales, Flanders left in 2016 to head up eHealth, and Hugh’s son Cooper Hefner announced they’d be returning to their roots.

He bluntly called the move a “mistake,” and the magazine’s boobless phase lasted only a year. Nudity would return in March 2017.

Lamar Odom almost died during a coke-fueled sex binge

The former Laker was two years removed from his NBA career – and in the middle of divorcing Khloe Kardashian – when he went on a coke binge and was found unconscious at the Love Ranch, a legal brothel in Crystal, Nevada.

He suffered multiple heart attacks, kidney failure, 12 strokes, and was in a coma for several days before he finally regained consciousness. He recovered, got clean, and invested in three drug rehab centers in California in 2023.

Tracy Morgan returned to “SNL”

It was 16 months after he’d nearly lost his life in a car crash that killed friend and fellow comedian James McNair. The episode was also the first to feature Larry David as Bernie Sanders.

David Bowie retired from touring

His promoter announced his touring days were over, saying, “Every time I see him now, before I even speak to him, he goes, ‘I’m not touring,’ and I say, ‘I’m not asking.’ He has decided to retire.” Bowie was secretly battling liver cancer after being diagnosed in 2014. He found out he was terminal in late 2015 and passed away on January 10, 2016, two days after his 69th birthday.

Erin Andrews sued for $75 million after being peeped on

The peeping happened in 2008 when a pervy stalker filmed her through a peephole at a Marriott in Nashville. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail for it. She sued after learning the hotel had told him she was there – even giving him a room next to own. A jury eventually awarded her $55 million.

Craziest sick day excuses

Career Builder asked bosses for the craziest sick day excuses they’d ever heard. Highlights included “stuck under my bed,” “grandmother poisoned me with ham,” and “my cat is stuck in my dashboard.”

We’d officially stopped trying to remember stuff

Half of Americans polled admitted they didn’t try to remember information or facts anymore – they just immediately googled everything. Over half also admitted they didn’t know their significant other’s phone number.

Emilia Clarke was Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive

“Game of Thrones” was gearing up for Season 6, which would feature her character Daenerys Targaryen emerging from a burning Dothraki temple unscathed – and unclothed.

Eat a 30-pound burrito, become a business owner

A Mexican place in Brooklyn called Don Chingon went viral for offering an owner’s stake to anyone who could finish their 30-pound burrito. No one did it, and the publicity stunt didn’t work. The restaurant was out of business two years later.

The 25 most re-watchable movies of all time

FiveThirtyEight crunched the numbers after polling 1,169 people, and determined the most re-watchable movie of all time was the original “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.” Rounding out the top five were “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Lord of the Rings,” and “Gone with the Wind.”

“Gone with the Wind”? Really? A four-hour movie with no Marvel characters?? Good luck getting anyone under 80 to watch that once in 2025!

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