THE SPECIAL HALLOWEEN EDITION NOTE

     Vast gray sheets of clouds cover the sky like a sepulcural vault. Murders of crows gather in raucous caucus in tree tops at twilight. The chill wind clatters dead leaves and howls through barren branches like some soul marrooned in the middle of the Styx...

     It's about that time of year...

     Events seemed to have conspired against us. Against a background of late breaking stories, personel suddenly summoned out of town, the baffling cooincidence of certain reference materials recently checked out from libraries, the launching of our web site on the Internet, and a trip to the Emergency Room at the last minute, our Readers are only now receiving their September and October issues.

     Sister Kasi took her vacation to observe the Rites of the Season this month. Perhaps she sensed the onslaught of confusion and apprehension that enveloped us as Halloween drew nie. But, far be it for us to ever refuse her.

     And thus short staffed, this issue has been quite different, indeed.

     Iowa City is full of ghost stories and many have been collected by Lori Ericson in her Ghost Stories of Johnson County.

     But not all.

     Our task proved quite difficult since most of our stories involve our neighbors and friends who needed just that extra effort to convince them of our sincerest efforts to preserve their anonymity. Some said they would tell us stories only if we didn't print them at all.

     And when we heard those, we understood quite rightly why.