Here are this weekend's read­ing diver­sions for your per­sonal enlight­en­ment. Have a great Happy Hal­loween weekend!

Hal­loween Facts to share with the chil­dren

• Since 1995, trick or treat­ing in the town of San­dusky, Ohio, has been against the law for any­one older then 14.
• It is very rare for a full moon to occur at the same time as Hal­loween. It has only occurred in — 1925, 1944, 1955, and 1974. The next time it is said to occur is 31 Octo­ber, 2020.
• The word Hal­loween appeared in the Dic­tio­nary in the 1700s.
• Accord­ing to ancient super­sti­tions, if you stare into a mir­ror at mid­night on Hal­loween, you'll see your future spouse.
• The pump­kin is one of the best sources of Vit­a­min A.
• Orange and black are Hal­loween col­ors because orange is asso­ci­ated with the Fall har­vest and black is asso­ci­ated with dark­ness and death.
• Jack o’ Lanterns orig­i­nated in Ire­land where peo­ple placed can­dles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spir­its and ghosts on the Samhain holiday.
• Pump­kins also come in white, blue and green. Great for unique mon­ster carvings!
• Hal­loween was brought to North Amer­ica by immi­grants from Europe who would cel­e­brate the har­vest around a bon­fire, share ghost sto­ries, sing, dance and tell fortunes.
• Toot­sie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.
• The ancient Celts thought that spir­its and ghosts roamed the coun­try­side on Hal­loween night. They began wear­ing masks and cos­tumes to avoid being rec­og­nized as human.
• Hal­loween candy sales aver­age about 2 bil­lion dol­lars annu­ally in the United States.
• Choco­late candy bars top the list as the most pop­u­lar candy for trick-or-treaters with Snick­ers #1.
• Hal­loween is the 2nd most com­mer­cially suc­cess­ful hol­i­day, with Christ­mas being the first.
• Bob­bing for apples is thought to have orig­i­nated from the roman har­vest fes­ti­val that hon­ors Pamona, the god­dess of fruit trees.
• Black cats were once believed to be witch's famil­iars who pro­tected their powers.

5 Ways To Keep Your Brain Active As You Age

I had a senior moment the other day. I was talk­ing to my daugh­ter about my ele­men­tary school, and I started list­ing my teach­ers one by one. But when I got to fifth grade, I drew a com­plete blank.

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Prem­pro Hor­mone Ther­apy Ampli­fies Breast Can­cer Risks, Study Finds

Women who took hor­mones and devel­oped breast can­cer were more likely to have can­cer­ous lymph nodes, a sign of more advanced dis­ease, and were more likely to die from the dis­ease than were breast can­cer patients who had never taken hormones.

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Joanna Dol­goff, M.D.: Could an Ear­lier Bed­time Mean a Health­ier Weight for Your Kids?

Babies and chil­dren under the age of five get­ting less than 10 hours of sleep at night are more likely to be over­weight or obese five years later. Insuf­fi­cient sleep at night may be a last­ing risk fac­tor for obe­sity later in life (nap­ping can­not replace the ben­e­fits of night­time sleep).

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Dr. Michael J. Breus: Exer­cise: The Key to Bet­ter Sleep

If you're an insom­niac, lis­ten up: a new study from North­west­ern Med­i­cine that will be pub­lished in the jour­nal Sleep Med­i­cine soon showed seri­ous promise to the dra­matic effects of exer­cise on peo­ple diag­nosed with insomnia.

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Why Can’t Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair? - NYTimes.com

MY mother hates it. My sis­ter wor­ries about it. My agent thinks I’m hid­ing behind it. A con­cerned friend sug­gests that it under­mines my pro­fes­sional cred­i­bil­ity. But in the mid­dle of my life, I’m happy with it. Which is say­ing a lot about any­thing hap­pen­ing to my 55-year-old body.

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Dr. Jim Tay­lor: Chil­dren and Respon­si­bil­ity: Teach­ing Kids the Impor­tance of Fol­low­ing Through

Yet, as chil­dren are going to learn sooner or later, the real world of adult­hood just doesn't work that way for us reg­u­lar folk. To pre­pare your chil­dren for that real world, one of the great lessons they need to learn is that some­times they just have to suck it up!

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Health Canada weighs in on table salt - Parentcentral.ca

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to salt. Eat too much and you run the risk of heart dis­ease. But because table salt is for­ti­fied with iodine, it helps ward off thy­roid prob­lems in adults and devel­op­ment delays in children.

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Brian Gresko: In Defense of Child­hood: Let Kids Be Kids!

Child­hood is under attack by the very peo­ple who should be pro­tect­ing it: parents.

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Read more from the author/contributor here.

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