We’ve been watching lots of Halloween- and Day of the Dead-themed movies in the bar—Nightmare before Christmas, Coco, Hocus Pocus, etc—and we are in the mood for Halloween! The pageantry, the camp, the spookiness, the candy!

It’s a holiday based on scaring off the evil forces that might try to block our path and on remembering the dead. It comes to all of us at some point, death, so it makes sense we think about it a lot. We see death in the news, feel its weight when family and friends receive hard diagnoses, fear it in the dark sometimes when we feel particularly alone. It’s hard, it’s painful, it sucks. Everything dies, I used to say to my kids when they’d find a dead worm or the flowers they’d carefully picked had wilted in the vase.

And death, even in its finality, is not solely bad. Things ending is not solely bad. If we started playing a round of, say, Skull here in the bar and it went on for literally eternity, that would be horrible. The end helps give meaning to the present. Our grief at death is worthy to be heard, as is our need to celebrate the living in big and small ways. It’s our relationships that grow something beautiful, even though it cannot last, because it cannot last.

So we find ways to lighten the burden of death by remembering people from before, and by partying to drive away the fearsome things in the dark. Sometimes that’s at our friendly neighborhood board game bar—playing and laughing and simply spending time—sometimes it’s at the cemetery or in the quiet or raucousness of our homes. We hope this spooky season you have the space you need to grieve, to remember, and to celebrate.

Alice C, board game librarian

Play Ghost Court!

“A ridiculous party game for 6 or more players about ghosts and the people who sue them.”

Seriously, this game needs more love! If you’ve got at least 6 people (though more is better), make one the plaintiff, one the defendant, one the judge, and everyone else the jury—each of the first three gets a minute or two to wax poetic about their grievances and justice, and then the jury decides a winner. Cases might range from Turnbull the peaceful ghost forcibly evicted from their quiet attic home to Travis the BBQ purveyor who is being taken to court because the meat smoker’s delicious smell is blocking ghost Shribman’s award-winning brimstone—who will win?

Ghost Court is a raucous and pontificating good time!

Try our special Scooby Snack shot!

Kick back, have fun with your Scooby Gang, and grab a Scooby Snack shot with flavors of coconut and pineapple and topped with whipped cream. This shot goes down smooth, but no promises if it’ll help you play Ghost Court…

Come over for our Halloween party when Scooby Snacks will be $4!