Esqueleto

Like Nacho Libre's sidekick, I like to say "I believe in science."

But on November 1, sandwiched as it is between All Hallow's Eve and All Soul's Day it's easy to wonder if hanging a skeleton in the rue will increase it's power to ward off the evil spirits of cats; and, can peppers on a string cast off the evil eye from my house, and does a grasshopper on the ristra bring especially good luck or just chewed up chilis? (Or does it need to be a cricket?) And with the tagetes lemmonii in full odoriferous bloom, it's tempting to wonder whether marigolds really do guide the souls of the dead back home on such a day.