Current mood of the fish theater: steely-eyed, intrepid

It's October again.

In San Francisco, that means a gentle increase in the ambient levels of spookiness. Accordingly:

The Pirate Store is now open on weekends

On Saturdays and Sundays, from 11am until we succumb to the call of the sea, the Pirate Supply Store at 826 Valencia St. will be open to the public.

The fish theater is now a drive-in; the mops have been confined to mopquarters. If your eyepatch no longer obscures or your compass has lost its way, come on over and we'll get you sorted out. Face coverings are required for entry.

Spooky stories to read on your phone

When the moon is full and the mist creeps through the streets like a many-fingered hand, students of our Writers' Room at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 clutch their courage about them and write "scarratives," narratives so scary that no conventional English word can describe them.

Thrill to Hazel Alvarenga's A Camping Nightmare in Words That Haunted Me. Shudder as Emilio R. describes The Scratches on the Swing Set in Darkness Threatened to Grab Me. Read both of these, as well as many more, in our free ebooks, or listen to them read aloud to rabbits, or in a bear cave, or with attractive illustrations on our YouTube channel.

Ghostly Gimmicks

Is your werewolf crewmate "hangry"? Is your ghost parrot running amok? Do your spiders need affordable housing? Do you have ghost problems? We have ghost solutions*. Explore Ghostly Gimmicks, our exclusive Fall product line. Locally made from the most tangible physical objects and the most intangible imaginary ones, Ghostly Gimmicks are guaranteed to take up very little space in your house or your brain.

* Not guaranteed to solve anything.

Get Spooky