The October issue of Animalia Magazine was a little confusing because it was released a little earlier than usual, but since Spookyville was coming up, it was to be expected a little bit.
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The Cover "Couple" was a little surprising since it was Ling and Anastasia. But since Ling was a bit of a controversial Animalian since she was from North Korea, and Anastasia was descended from the hounds of the Russian Royal Family, and since Russia was rumored to have helped the current president gain office, it was a little understandable.
Ling's article talked about animals that were so strange and unbelievable that many of them were considered to only exist in fantasy or science fiction but were confirmed to really exist. The running gag in the article talked about how many scientists who had "predicted" the existence of said monsters were scoffed at by similar scientists for them being stupid, only to be proved wrong.
Anastasia's article talked both about the history and events that led to the Bolshevik Revolution, the girl who claimed to be the sole surviving member of the Romanov Family, and the movie that was seemingly inspired by such a claim. It also sorted out which events were fact, and which were more like "poetic licensing" by 20th Century Fox. For example, it was surprising that the reason why Grigori Rasputin was admitted into the Russian Imperial family at the time was because one of their family had a bad case of Hemophilia B, which wasn't really understood at the time, and Rasputin was (seemingly) the only one who could keep it in check. It also spoke that, while Rasputin wasn't a practitioner of evil magic, he was part of a controversial sect of the church which might have been partly responsible for the accusations.
But what made it really surprising was the pendant that Anastasia had bought for $25 was actually an extremely rare piece of jewelry. Every single one of the pale gems were determined to be real diamonds and the pink, teardrop-shaped was actually an imperial pink topaz, reserved only for Russian royalty. The reason why the diamonds and the topaz appeared fake was because of the way they were cut. Fortunately Anastasia's article also explained why that was.
During the 19th century, gemstones were cut in a way that reflected a lot less light than 20th century cuts do. It was identified by a jewelry expert who worked for the Burrows' Geological Museum (which Ellie and Anastasia decided to visit on a weekend "whim") whose job it was to identify what was what in the collection. After some help with some historical experts and geological experts, it was determined to have been commissioned in the 1860s (1861 to be overwhelmingly precise) for a Russian Tsar for his wife to wear at an important event at the time, the 50th anniversary of Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia.
After the article was published, Anastasia started receiving offers from both museums and private collectors to buy the gem, with the biggest offer topping at $500 million, officially taking the record of Most Expensive Piece of Jewelry from the Graff Pink. But Anastasia had decided to keep it for the time being, as well as the official Guinness World Record certificate, much to the chagrin of everyone who made offers.
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Also, because Spookyville was beginning in the Halloween Week, there was an article that talked about many famous Halloween and/or horror icons. While some of them were to be expected, there were others that were a little surprising. One of those was the fact that jack-o-lanterns were originally carved from turnips, but pumpkins were eventually substituted for turnips due to being better suitable for such things.
Also, the famous saying "trick-or-treat" actually came from the fact that in the early days of "modern Halloween", children had to put on a performance in order to get candy. While some of this would be considered unfair to modern kids, back in those times it was actually considered common.
Probably what was considered the most surprising was the origin of Halloween with the Celts. While some, especially on the website, made a few bad football jokes, it was more in line to the Iron Age inhabitants before the arrival of the Romans. The original concept of Halloween was the Celtic festival of the dead. During said festival, offerings of food and drink were left out for the ancestors; but if the dead had felt that they weren't properly respected, they would drag their descendants back with them into the cold, dark afterworld.
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Two other things that were included in the magazine were a list of activities for the Fall Festival, and a tear-out map of Spookyville and where certain activities would be taking place and when. While it wouldn't mean that maps wouldn't be purchased at the ticket booth, it was a good thing to have to plan around.
There was also a sneak peek of what Halloween would be in Dino City, since it was considered one of the newest colonies. One thing that was definitely decided on were "puppets" of not only giant insects but also ancient lifeforms from well before the dinosaurs, mainly the Cambrian period of Earth, which were definitely weird enough to be seen/mistaken as monsters.