Boing Boing reader BrotherPower shares this work-in-progress shot of the Animal costume he's making for his 8-year-old.

"I just finished the oversized drumsticks and the spiky wristbands today."

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Happy Halloween! Mother Jones has a video and multi-part "long read" feature with Gary Taubes on how the sugar industry works to fight research that links sugar consumption with chronic diseases. Taubes is the author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories," and is working on a book about sugar.

In "Big Sugar's Sweet Little Lies," Taubes explores the industry's campaign to "frost its image, hold regulators at bay, and keep scientists from asking: Does sugar kill?"

There's a document dump here with internal memos revealing a strategy to safeguard sugar from "opportunists," "pseudoscientists," and "enemies."

Also, "How a Former Dentist Drilled the Sugar Industry," some classic creepy vintage sugar ads, and a timeline of "sugar spin."

Right, then. Enjoy your trick-or-treating!

Brava, Sarah! "Sorry to be a party pooper but it should probably be attached closer to your mouth since it's actually a tooth," wrote one commenter. "Yes, but it would have interfered with my beer drinking," replied Sarah.

More: Share your DIY Halloween costume in our epic 2012 thread!

Jamin Hoyle sez, "Castle Magpie is a self-contained, wearable ghost story that takes place in a haunted Scottish castle. It took six months to plan and six months to build. I was inspired by all sorts of things, the Haunted Mansion, Tasha Tudor, the Spooky Old Tree, the Goonies, Tin Tin, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun to build."

OK, this is the single best thing I've seen this year. Including the Curiosity landing. Holy. Goddamned. Crap.

Once upon a time in a hilly corner of Scotland, among the barley fields and salmon streams, there lived two small children. Billy was clever and intrepid and wrote swashbuckling adventure stories in the margins of his math notebook. His sister Rachel was younger but no less daring. She was a master of tree-climbing and star-gazing and poetry. They lived in a smartly whitewashed stone cottage a short walk from the warehouse where their father oversaw barrels of aging golden whisky.

One afternoon in early autumn the children took advantage of a rare day of sunshine by riding their bicycles out of the village. They wound through the glen until they came to an overgrown path. Billy said, “I’ve never seen that lane before.”

Rachel said, “Shall we see where it leads?”

Billy considered his bright gold watch. “Of course we should,” he said.

They rode deep into the forest. When dripping green branches began to graze their necks and ears, they started pushing their bicycles single-file, Rachel in the front and Billy just behind. The path turned sharply to the right after crossing a little rushing stream and ducked through an arch set into a crumbling wall. Beyond the wall was a small clearing and in the middle of the clearing was a tall stone tower house. Their track led to the tower’s front steps. Rachel said, “I’ve never seen this castle before.”

Billy considered his gold watch again and asked, “Shall we see if anyone is at home?

Castle Magpie (Thanks, Jamin!)

A fantastic vintage ad set from the ever-reliable Man Writing Slash: this one, a collection of old ads for fright masks and associated novelties.

Halloween Masks - SIX Different Ads!

[UPDATE: You guys, sorry, but Disqus is not behaving well today with image uploads. If you leave a comment with a photo of your costume here, and the image doesn't show, consider sharing it via a third-party image hosting site link?]

Photo: "Day of the Dead," shared in the BB Flickr pool by Chris Wilson. Make-up by Gretchen Wilson. Hair by Chaunah Macewicz.

The always-excellent Haunted Dimensions has excellent directions for making your own gingerbread replica of the Phantom Manor, Disneyland Paris's answer to the Haunted Mansion, along with a gallery of others' haunted gingerbread creations. Yum!

Haunted Dimensions- Gingerbread Dimensions (Thanks, Francesco!)

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Jason Smith made this awesome father-daughter power-loader costume for his baby daughter, who gets to play Ripley as they stalk the night streets. This is parenting at its finest.

Dad and Baby Daughter Alien Power Loader Costume: Now With Video

Man_Writing_Slash has plundered a haul of Haunted Mansion ephemera from Monster Memories, including a pair of ads for the (absolutely fabulous) old model-kits.

Disney Haunted Mansion toy ad & sound files