Something wicked this way comes...

Is everyone looking forward to the forthcoming Halloween? The 'All Hallows Evening' is at our doorstep and everyone is preparing for trick-or-treating, brushing off their scary costumes, renting horror movies, carving pumpkins and generally intending to have fun.

We were told that the apple harvest this year was enormous. Apart from making plenty of traditional apple pies and cider (ah, we all love that, don't we?), one can do the traditional Halloween thing - the apple bobbing. Apple bobbing is a very old tradition that dates back to the Roman conquest of Britain, when the old Celtic customs of worshiping the pentagram (yeah, this is right: many nations worshiped the five-pointed star, with the Soviets being the latest addition to that tribe) was fused with the new Roman tradition of fruit goddess Pomona (it is rumored that the Romans were actually the ones who introduced the apple tries to Britain after all). You see, when the apple is cut, a pentagram-shaped form is revealed. Thence, apples gained respect and popularity among the Celts and have been consumed in a pie or as a cider ever since. This is quite interesting, since the Romans preferred their wine and never learned to fiddle with their apples so much. 
Anyways, apple bobbing is a game when the large tub is filled with water and several apples are left floating on the surface. The players try to catch the apples with their teeth (which makes this game not very hygienic and thence not very attractive to some people), while they also try not to fall into the tub (unfortunately, this happens sometimes, as for example in Agatha Christie's 'Hallowe'en Party', in which poor Joyce Reynolds drowned in the tub). 

Well, as the Halloween approaches, we are glad to announce that we also have a Halloween gift for you. Hereby, we are glad to present the recent fruit of our supernatural economics activities: in November a journal called 'Modern Economy' will publish our article (co-authored by Dr. Welkins). The article that is a study investigating the possibility of peaceful co-habitation of humans and vampires, can be downloaded here. Read and enjoy! There is more to come, of course, and we will be posting some other interesting and scary things right before Halloween! Stay tuned, stay away from the tubs and follow 'Supernatural Economics'!

WS and EL