And yet, as she trained her binoculars on the familiar but spooky creatures in her yard, Haupt found aspects of the corvid family that argued for more respect.
Monsters of the Sea, by Richard Ellis (Lyons, $22.95), is a historical survey of mermaids, giant squids, sea serpents and other spooky creatures -- both real and mythological -- that lurk in the deep.
Ghosts and spooky creatures.
Written by Philip Pullman, it quickly became a critical and commercial success for the most obvious of reasons: It's a charming romp set in a parallel universe stuffed with magical creatures, spooky villains and mythopoetic conceits, and propelled by a young orphan, Lyra Belacqua, who embarks on the hero's journey with her shape-shifting daemon, Pantalaimon (Pan for short).
The ocean's twilight zone is a spooky place, where creatures like krill and "werewolf" plankton hunt and hide using only the light they themselves emit.
Because she didn't fit the stereotypes, she was treated like some exotic creature, put into the box reserved for kooky, spooky, witchy women and patronised by hyperbole.
Her Creature comes back to haunt her, literally, as a spooky voice that describes her, aptly, as "Frankenstein's Frankenstein" and, borrowing the Miltonic accents that her learned self-taught creature himself borrowed, asks of her, "Frankenstein, why did you make me?" It's a play full of interesting flashes in which Mary seems to regret a free-loving misspent youth rather as a Sixties hippy might.
The "crack creatures," as they are known, are spindly, skinny and all around spooky -- a sure nightmare for any child worried about the potential of monsters under the bed.
It was inspired by "early computer life-experiments and the imagined creatures of our subconscious", allowing users to explore a mysterious, expressionistic world while listening to Radiohead's spooky soundtrack.
