Halloween Safety Is Always A Concern

Halloween candy

Since the 1970s, there have been horrifying Halloween stories of children poisoned by chemicals in Halloween candy or injured by pins, needles and razor blades. Children were duly instructed by their parents to check each and every piece of candy before eating, yet in most cases, the worried parents checked for themselves. But all fears aside, are there any documented cases of Halloween horror? Also, why is the very real fear of children being struck by cars largely ignored?

Since the 1970s, Halloween safety has focused on the fear of contaminated candy. In 1970, 5-year-old Kevin Toson died from a heroin overdose. A few days later, officials found that the boy hadn't eaten heroin-laced candy, as originally believed. Rather, he had accidentally gotten into his uncle's heroin stash and the family had sprinkled heroin in the boy's candy afterwards to protect the uncle. Similarly, in 1974, 8-year-old Timothy Mark O'Bryan died from cyanide poisoned Pixie Stix in Houston, Texas. However, upon closer inspection, detectives found that the boy had in fact been poisoned by his own father. Even though these poisonings were far from random, parents still feared for their kids' safety amid the Halloween fun.

Another Halloween safety fear is that razor blades, pins or needles may appear in children's Halloween candy. However, this fear is largely unsubstantiated. Professor Joel Best reports that he's tracked at least 80 cases of sharp objects inserted into food since 1959 and all of them were hoaxes. Only ten cases resulted in injury that required a trip to the hospital or stitches, he added. Follow ups indicated that nearly all the cases were actually just pranks from the children or the parents. Even so, harsh prison terms were imposed in Canada, New Jersey and New York following razor blade laced apples in the 1960s, and many airports went so far as to suggest parents bring their kids' candy to their x-ray machines for safety's sake.

While the real danger of Halloween has been largely exaggerated, the urban legends and myths should not diminish the very real fears. From 1996-1998, there were 15,500 fires from October 30th - November 1st, causing 45 deaths, 175 injuries and $92 million in losses, reports the National Fire Protection Association. They say that arson activity is 10% higher around Halloween, and there is the additional danger from unwatched jack-o-lanterns. To stay safe, parents should make sure their Halloween decorations (like dry corn stalks) are away from electrical outlets or live flames, with pumpkins illuminated by flashlights or bulbs rather than candles. Additionally, all kids costumes should be made of flame retardant materials.

5 Great Poker Game Cigars

Being an avid cigar smoker and a poker player as well, I’d like to offer my advice on the best cigars to have on hand when throwing a poker game for the boys. You can get some high quality cheap cigars that vary enough in strength to make sure you’ve got everyone’s taste covered. If these are old friends of yours, you likely already know what their cigar tastes are if any. This article better suits people who have no idea what to buy.

Most casual cigar smokers prefer ones that are on the lighter side. You really don't acquire the taste for a heavy robusto style cigar until you've been a smoker for a while. Along those lines, a lot of people prefer a natural cigar wrapper or Connecticut wrapper instead of the dark Maduro. There are lots of choices out there for excellent cigars that will pleasantly surprise experienced smokers as well as new ones.

The Arturo Fuente Curly Head is the first cigar I would recommend. This cigar is priced just above the cheap Swisher Sweets you see at every gas station. These are really the best of class among the very cheap cigar category. They use the filler from the fine first rate higher end Arturo Fuente cigars. These tend to smoke very mild and are one of the easier ones for inexperienced smokers.

The next cigar I recommend is the bigger, more expensive Arturo Fuente. I highly recommend an Arturo Fuente Chateau cigar in a natural wrapper. These are among the best short smokes. Its older brother, the Double Chateau is a much larger version of the same cigar. It is another cigar I would recommend. The smoke has an excellent falvor for how light it is. You really get great taste out of these boys when you smoke them down about half way.

Once the gang has had a few whiskeys and the game has been going for a while, its time to step up to the more full flavored cigars. Three other excellent choices for this event would be the Padron series of cigars. The 3000 through 7000 are all quite nice. These cigars are full of flavor leaving you with hints of cocoa and coffee. I have yet to meet another exprienced cigar man who doesn't praise these cigars. If the guys are experienced smokers, they’ll probably mention how impressed they are at your ability to select a great cigar. If you get a new guy to smoke one of these, he might get enough of a buzz for you to get him on tilt for a hand or two.

Transform your Christmas Tree with John Lewis

The Christmas season is a terrific time of the year and each and every one of us it to end up being as grand as it can be – a notable part of the X-mas tradition is proudly displaying a festively decorated home to tip your hat to the holiday season. Often rooms are afflicted with tacky baubles and X-mas lights draped around a lacklustre tree. Log on and have a browse through the John Lewis website and put the shine back into Xmas.

At 2 time the most dominant of most living rooms is the X-mas tree – lovingly decorated with Christmas lights, adornments and sweets, looming above the numerous brightly coloured gifts below; it’s the most obvious thing most 2 identify when they come in to the house therefore, you will assuredly like it to end up turning out to be perfect. Selecting your Xmas tree lights from the great things on display at the John Lewis web site couldn’t be any simpler – uncomplicated navigation at the left hand side and at the top of every web-page makes the whole task of navigating to the range you like no effort at all. You wont find a better selection of Christmas tree lights than those at the John Lewis website.

It doesn't need saying that when you have chosen your ideal tree – and also the specific X-mas decorations to accompany it – you will defiantly like to pick some tasteful Christmas decorations for the remainder of the residence. These decorations could possibly come in the specific form of lights, hanging ornaments or baubles to name but a small fraction. Fighting through the festive crowds to pick these things up could end up being an unwanted hassle and the extra expense of delivery tacked on by some other websites could modify that awesome price you observe into a thing more similar something you might happen upon on your high street.

Don’t fret – with John Lewis you’ll not simply avoid the busyness of the Christmas season crowds by browsing for gifts from the privacy of your own abode, but you will also get free normal delivery on all orders – with next day delivery available if you are in a rush. Not just that but absolutely free product returns are also available, so you can really shop online in total confidence. So why not let John Lewis help make this Xmas season a really special one.