Mansfield Reformatory: Haunted place with scary stories and a bridal fashion show

by Jamie Rhein on

Happy Halloween! This video clip of Mansfield Reformatory, a former prison in Ohio, is of a documentary that highlights the prison’s paranormal activities. It’s creepy whether you court the idea of the paranormal or not. When I was walking around the grounds a few weeks ago, it was daylight and sunny, but the massive building is an imposing sort that has a definite thrills and chills factor. It’s the perfect setting for the haunted house that continues through tomorrow night.

Although, it is possible to visit the reformatory at night when its not Halloween, even stay there overnight to search out the paranormal for yourself–or tour during the day, there are other events with a more lighthearted touch.

“Glamour in the Slammer Bridal Expo” a bridal fashion show, is held here each year. This year’s is scheduled for November 9, and it’s free. After watching the video clip, and finding out about the bridal show, it seems like a showing of Corpse Bride would be a perfect fit.

Play this free, on-line, animated travel game to compete for prizes

by Jamie Rhein on

Never mind the prizes you might win by playing the interactive, animated game Race for the Sky at iloho.com, a travel Website. It’s a fun way to while away time, even if you don’t win.

Ever since Emma Torry, a blogger at iloho sent us the link to the game, I’ve played it six times, trying my darnedest to get Marcos to his flight on time.

See, he has slept through his alarm, and with a couple other mishaps, he’s hoofing it to the airport by running down the highway dodging cars, tire spikes and bananas peels. I think those are banana peels. Along the way, he can pick up a key which puts him on a motorcycle for a brief while, and pick up “S’s” which put in a cape so he can fly. Watch out for the cars, though. Hitting a car puts him in bandages, and on crutches.

I’m not very good at this game.The first attempt was pitiful. Marcos was in bandages in half a second. Other people playing are great, though. There’s a leader board that lists the top 10 scores. Currently, the highest is 16870 points.

When the competion ends January 31, 2009, the top winner will win two round-trip business class round-the-world tickets. The next top two winners will win a Canon camera. Other prizes include USB sticks and iPod speakers.

Do you live in one of these 10 great American neighborhoods?

by Jeffrey White on

The American Planning Association has released its 2008 “Great Places in America” survey, which lists 10 great neighborhoods, streets and public spaces.

APA is dedicated to the development and sustainability of “vital” communities. In choosing these 30 “great” places, the organization says it is celebrating character, quality and planning.

From APA’s Web site: “Places are selected annually and represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement and a vision for tomorrow. APA Great Places offer better choices for where and how people work and live.”

Being a sucker for neighborhoods, I list APA’s 10 great neighborhoods here:

  • Charles Village (Baltimore)
  • Downtown Salem (Salem, Mass.)
  • Downtown Sheridan (Sheridan, Wyoming)
  • Echo Park (LA)
  • Greater Park Hill (Denver)
  • Greater University Hill (Syracuse)
  • North End (Boise)
  • Old Town (Wichita)
  • Society Hill (Philadelphia)
  • Village of Mariemont (Mariemont, Ohio)

You can check out the other lauded locations — 10 great streets and 10 great public spaces — here.

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Gadling infiltrates Southwest HQ for Halloween

by Grant Martin on

As I’m sitting on WN1540 headed towards Saint Louis, I’m starting to realize just how serious they take Halloween at Southwest Airlines. Sure, I know they’ve always been a little wacky – their blog is called “Nuts about Southwest” after all – but I guess at the core of that fun, outer shell I just expected to see the same old straight-laced corporate abomination.

It took me until about page 12 of “Spirit,” their in-flight magazine, to start to change my mind. On it is the normal letter that Gary Kelly, Southwest’s CEO always writes to the reader and passenger — only the topic of this note is how passionate he and his airline are about Halloween. And at the bottom is a cutout picture of Mr. Kelly dressed up as Gene Simmons from Kiss.

Alright. So maybe when I was invited out to Southwest’s headquarters to help judge the annual Halloween contest I underestimated how strange this could get. Yes, they did ask me to dress up and yes, I do have an orange pilot’s suit in my carry-on. But Gene Simmons? Are you serious?

Well, I guess we’ll see what happens. Throughout the day today I’ll be wandering around Southwest headquarters with Gary, some friends from Jaunted and The Cranky Flier, inspecting some of the decorations and skits that the various departments have prepared and declaring the most outrageous getup as winners.

You can follow along at our Twitter feed with live picture updates, or for those more patient among you, you can probably wait until I return home for the closing post. I have a feeling I’ll be sleeping on the return flights.

Early Christmas gift for iPhone and Blackberry users – free AT&T Wi-Fi access

by Scott Carmichael on

If you are an iPhone or Blackberry Bold customer with AT&T, then as of today you’ll finally be able to access any AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot for free.

The 17,000 AT&T Hotspot locations are primairily found at Starbucks and Barnes & Noble.

There are no additional steps required to access the hotspots, you can simply select the hotspot name like any other wireless access point and login using your mobile phone number.

Being able to access Wi-Fi only really makes sense if you don’t have the 3G iPhone or if you desperately need access to something faster than the existing 3G signal.

Of course, it could also help a lot if you find yourself outside the 3G coverage area, or if you need to access something not possible over 3G (like accessing the iTunes music store).

Wi-Fi access to the AT&T network normally runs $19.95 a month, so this freebie certainly adds some more value to the monthly plan. Of course, AT&T is not the first to offer free hotspot access with their phones, T-Mobile offers a similar perk for Blackberry and G1 users with select data plans.

Via: Engadget.