Evidently some people were offended by my comments about halloween recipes. As proof of my assertion that fears of adulterated candy are groundless (and in general just to help spread peace and gentility, so we can start worrying about real problems again), I provide a news story which was provided by the very good gentleman Snopes of alt.folklore.urban.:                             THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS                                                           October 21, 1996                       Tales of tainted treats a trick;                        Few Halloween tampering stories turn out to be true By: Aline McKenzie    Scary stories are part of Halloween.  Ghosts and monsters will get you. The creepy guy down the block is an ax murderer.    Here's another myth that masquerades as fact every year:    Masses of crazy strangers give out poisoned candy or apples with hidden razor blades.    In fact, only a few real incidents of poisoned candy are recorded, say sociologists and folklorists who track urban legends - those dire stories about awful things that happen to a friend of a friend of a friend.    And in the few real Halloween tamperings, the poisoned treat was given out in apparently safe circumstances: by a family member or friend, or at a school party.     I'm not arguing that no one does it, but it clearly isn't the common problem that people imagine it is, said Joel Best, a sociology professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.    The other classic Halloween bugaboo - the razor blade in the apple - is a more realistic threat, Dr. Best said.  But even then, the danger is overrated, he said.    There are occasional pins, needles, or razors found in fruit or candy, he said.  But invariably the culprits are the children themselves who planted the dangerous _object_s to scare a younger sibling or to fool parents.    In all, Dr. Best said, he's been able to track about 80 cases of sharp _object_s in food since 1959, and almost all were hoaxes.  Only about 10 involved even minor injury.  In the worst case, a woman needed a few stitches, he said.     I have not found any evidence that any child has been killed or seriously injured by candy given out in trick-or-treat, he said.    Two infamous cases involving poisoned Halloween treats help keep the stranger-poisoning myth alive, say researchers.  In reality, both victims were killed by family members.    In 1974, Ronald Clark O'Bryan of Deer Park, near Houston, killed his son with cyanide-laced candy, apparently for the insurance money.  He had also given poisoned candy to his daughter and three other children he knew, but, by sheer luck, those children didn't eat it.  Mr. O'Bryan was executed in 1984 for the crime.    In 1970, a 5-year-old Detroit boy died of a drug overdose, and heroin was found in his Halloween candy.  But it was later revealed that he had accidentally gotten into his uncle's heroin stash, Dr. Best said, and family members then put heroin in his candy to divert suspicion.    Other cases have been reported but found to be either hoaxes or too inconclusive.    One boy put ant poison on his own candy bar as a hoax, then ate only the safe end, Dr. Best reported in a textbook article.    One case that remains murky is a 1982 kindergarten party in Somerdale, N.J., where several children and some adults were reported to have eaten drugged treats.  No arrests were made, a police spokeswoman said.    There have also been two widely publicized cases that were originally thought to be random poisonings, Dr. Best said.    In 1990, a Santa Monica, Calif., girl collapsed and died while trick-or-treating, leading police to cordon off a neighborhood and question people.  It was later found that she had died of congenital heart failure. Similarly, in 1991, a 31-year-old man near Washington, D.C., died of heart failure, coincidentally after eating some of his child's candy.    Hysteria over poisoned candy began in 1982, after seven people died from poisoned Tylenol, said Barbara Hamel Mikkelson of Los Angeles, who along with her husband, David, has made a serious hobby of debunking urban legends.    That year, there was such a rash of reports of drugs, poisons, pins and needles that it was very difficult to sort out which was fact, she said. Although few, if any, cases were ever confirmed, the fear remained, she said.     It's not healthy to always live in fear of a random poisoner to the point of ruining a holiday for the children, she said.  On the other hand, she said, if she had children she would still inspect their candy.    As a result of the 1982 panic, the National Confectioners Association set up a hotline to answer questions about safety and tampering, said James T.  Corcoran, director of trade relations.    But every year, fewer and fewer people call in - a sign that people are relaxing, he said.     People enjoy the holiday today, where maybe 10 years ago or 15 years ago there was real fear, he said.     There are more sales taking place this year not only of candy, but also of decorations and costumes, he said.     Participation in the holiday is at an all-time high.    Still, he said, the industry fears that a candy poisoning could happen. So every year, the association prepares to act as a liaison with police departments or hospitals in case of a poisoning, keeping a list of emergency phone numbers for all major candy manufacturers.    There are many genuine, non-Halloween cases of random poisonings, such as the unsolved 1982 Tylenol murders, or the 1986 death of a New York woman who also took poisoned Tylenol.  There are also two cases in Washington state of people who killed or tried to kill their spouses with poisoned medicine, killing three random strangers in an attempt to cover their tracks.    Dr. Best and Sylvia Grider, an associate professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University, said the fear of Halloween poison is now deeply ingrained in people, and isn't likely to go away any time soon.    But the fear can serve a useful purpose, Dr. Best said.  In a world that can seem very dangerous, Halloween treats are one thing that people can control with a few simple precautions, so they feel like they're protecting their families.     I think it's a way of taking general anxiety about children's safety and making it easy to deal with, he said.     On November 1st, you look around the breakfast table and everyone's there - you can relax, he said.    Dr. Grider said she doesn't believe the Halloween crazy-stranger fear will ever go away, no matter how much people know about the reality of the danger.     The story is so frightening and so chilling that it's too good to let go, she said.   In earlier centuries, the threat was that demons will steal your soul.  Now, it's that strangers will poison your candy . . . Halloween is symbolically so powerful. ________ Omar