"Halloween" news and stories

In Toronto's Union Station this week, there are people living in glass houses but they are decidedly not throwing stones. OK, it's not "people," it's one magician, and he's living in a glass box as part of a Halloween food drive.

As reported by The Toronto Star this morning, 25-year-old magician and social activist Scott Hammell is living in a glass box until 6 p.m. this Halloween in hopes passersby will stock his little 12-by-6-by-8-foot transparent digs with nonperishable goods for the Free the Children social justice charity, for which he works.

Grinning behind his plate-glass window, pumping away at his Twitter and Facebook accounts in his "Think We" T-shirt, Hammell tells the Star, he hopes people will make him "disappear" by filling the house's two-can-width glass enclosure. Sounds like an impending life-size Warhol to us, and one with admiral merit, to boot. We wonder how anyone could say no to this goofy guy (and fully support a national tour, by the way).

Are trick-or-treaters in a candy rut? Year after year, kids come home with bags full of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Twizzlers, and M & M's. Isn't it time to switch things up? The editors over at YumSugar have rounded up the top-selling candies from around the world -- from Bounty to ToffeeCrisp to a Yorkie bar (but what's with the Yorkie's "It's Not For Girls!" slogan?). This Halloween, bust out and get your hands on some of these delicious international treats.

Top-Selling Candy From Around the World

We, the editors at Slashfood, fully admit that we love Halloween just as much now as we did when we were kids. And to make up for the fact that we won't be making the door-to-door rounds collecting the sugary loot, we've decided to whip up a few batches of Halloween cookies instead. All of these recipes are on our sister site, KitchenDaily -- from unnervingly creepy witch's fingers to charming enchanted brooms, we've got something to satisfy your inner goblin's sweet tooth.

• Witch Finger cookies
• Bats Across the Moon cookies
• Spiderweb cookies
• Spooky cookies
• Candy Corn cookies
• Stack of Bones
• Enchanted Brooms
• Cocoa Cats

Halloween is known for many things -- witches, zombies, tooth decay -- but environmentalism isn't among them. Just consider all the candy purchased, each tiny piece individually wrapped, of course. (Guilty.) And then a good portion of each haul is fated to be discreetly tossed out by concerned parents. (Still guilty.) And then there's all those plastic orange jack-o'lantern bags clogging up the landfills. (Sigh....guilty. Again.)

Some parents are trying to change all that -- and many businesses are happy to help by creating organic "green" treats. After all, if you're striving to eat mindfully and be environmentally aware throughout the rest of the year, why forsake those values on October 31?

"I just feel like candy is unnecessary," Jennifer Boyd-Mullineaux, mother of two children, ages 7 and 9, told MSNBC. "You see the incredible volumes of candy collected -- knowing that no one should eat that much -- and it just goes into the trash. It just doesn't seem responsible to us."