Ghoulish Friday Five

As suggested by Reverend Mother:

1. Do you enjoy a good fright?
   Only at a safe distance, at the movies or in some other fictional representation. I've been scared a couple of times in real life, and I decidedly did not enjoy it.


2. Scariest movie you've ever seen
   The original version of Thirteen Ghosts kinda weirded me out the first time I saw it. And I didn't even see it in 3-D! I saw it again just a few years ago, and it wasn't nearly as scary or weird.


3. Bobbing for apples: :
   I have no meaningful recollection of bobbing for apples, so I don't feel qualified to respond to this question. I'm not opposed to it, as a concept.


4. Real-life phobia
   Heights. Two years ago, Mary T— and I walked to the top of the grandstands at Winfield, which were (maybe) two stories tall. I was OK going up, but I was frozen walking down. In fact, I was so frozen, I had to ootch my way down in a sitting position. I later discerned the problem was that I could see the ground (two stories below) throught the stair's slats.


5. Favorite "ghost story"
   Henry James was probably the master of the literary ghost story. "Turn of the Screw" is his best known, but there is another I liked even better. I've tried to find the title, and have failed; I think it's something like "In the Corner." Robertson Davies' collection, High Spirits runs a close second. Robert Lewis Stevenson also wrote some fine ghost stories.
      Mark Twain includes the Tale of the Golden Arm in his essay on how to tell a story. It's more amusing than it is spooky.
      Late Ad:I almost forgot Big Joe & Phantom 409. It's a song made famous by Red Sovine (country singer of the 40s), but I'm more familiar with Tom Waits' cover version (on Nighthawks at the Diner)