🪩 It's Friday and officially the weekend! Let's celebrate.

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, but there's a frost advisory overnight. High 62, low 40.

🎸 Sounds like: "High" by Slow Pulp, who play Revolution Hall tonight.

Today’s newsletter is 979 words — a 3.5-minute read.

We've got one more full weekend before Halloween and Portland's ghoulish goblet runneth over with spooky and scary ways to celebrate the season.

The big picture: From actually scary haunted houses to family-friendly zoo visits to corn mazes for everyone, there's no reason not to fill your weekend with something a little creepy.

• Here are a few of our faves.

🧛 Scaregrounds PDX

Billed as "Oregon's largest Halloween event," you can sample up to seven different haunted houses — with themes ranging from a macabre movie set to a cursed castle to "compromised subterranean medical facility" — at Oaks Park every Thursday through Monday until Nov. 1.

• Tickets start at $25, depending on when you go, but some attractions require an upgraded ticket.

🐘 Howloween at the Oregon Zoo

For something a little more kid-friendly, head up the hill this weekend to the Oregon Zoo, where costumes are encouraged, critters will be crawling alongside candy baskets and lawn games will keep everyone entertained.

• Howloween is free with regular zoo admission, though a separate $5 "Treat and Ride" pass is available for a spin on the train or carousel and access to candy stations.

🌽 Sauvie Island corn mazes

There are plenty of ways to get lost on Sauvie Island this weekend, with no fewer than three mazes crisscrossing the cornfields.

• Head to Bella Organics' "5 Kind Acts" maze, The Maize's "America 250" labyrinth or stop by Topaz Farms, which also offers a cow train, a hay pyramid and u-pick pumpkins. Times and ticket prices vary by maze.

🧟 Thrill with your friends

Irving Park will host the 20th iteration of Portland's "Thrill the World Dance" tomorrow — a mass dance-off, where hundreds of zombies, mummies and other creatures will gather to perform Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

• Organizers will be collecting donations for Hygiene4All, while a DJ and professional dance troupe warm up the atmosphere before the main event at 3pm.

🎥 Scary local short films

Clinton Street Theater is putting on GuignolFest 2026 — a short film contest where horror creators are given only 72 hours to make their movies before being judged by an audience of their peers.

• Showings start tomorrow at 1:30pm. Tickets cost $20.

Tell a seeker of the spooky

Buyers are walking away from homes in Portland at rates higher than the national average, according to new data from Redfin.

State of play: About 17.2% of pending home sales in the metro area last month fell through, compared to the 14.5% U.S. average — the highest September rate since the pandemic, per the real estate brokerage.

• It's also another sign of Portland's picky housing market, where house hunters have more negotiating power and sellers are struggling to close deals.

Zoom in: Sellers are competing for buyers and buyers are more likely to walk away if inspections reveal problems, their monthly payments prove too expensive, or if they simply want to, the report found.

• Local real estate agents echoed those findings. For example, broker Dirk Hmura at The Agency told Axios last month that he estimates 25% to 30% of sales return to market after inspections.

The bottom line: Nationally, pending home sales fell in all 50 of the most populous U.S. metros highlighted in Redfin's report, reflecting a broader slowdown in housing demand as mortgage rates climbed above 7%.

Tell a seller

🚫 North Plains, a small community near Hillsboro, is considering becoming the first city in Oregon to enact a permanent ban on data centers, citing concerns over land use, the environment and electricity. (The Oregonian)

🎭 Beaverton's Reser Center for the Arts is thriving, in part because it has bucked traditional theater norms and embraced season-long themes like this year's "Rhythm + Revolution," which highlights hip hop artists and their cultural contributions. (OPB)

Oregon U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum called on ICE to stop immigration enforcement in Bend following the deadly school shootings last week after she said some families were afraid to seek the mental health care they need. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

🥃 Brett Adams and Jacob Grier, the pair behind the Multnomah Whiskey Library, are out with a new spirit-forward book — "The Bartender's Library" — which aims to be an all-encompassing guide to building your own bar at home. (Bridgetown Bites)

Remember in the fall of 2024 when an Arctic fox was found wandering the streets of Portland? Two years later, she's living her best life in a Wisconsin zoo.

Catch up quick: The fox, now named Luna, was found hungry and dehydrated near Willamette Park.

• She was taken to a Bird Alliance of Oregon rehab center and nursed back to health, but because she wouldn't survive in the wild, she was transferred to the Ochsner Zoo in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

The latest: Luna now shares an enclosure with a male Arctic fox named Apollo, as well as two black bears, Taglu and Aspen.

• "She's very sneaky and smart," the Bird Alliance shared on social media, sometimes "nipping Taglu on the butt to get him to chase her."
• They still don't know how she ended up on the Portland streets, but it's likely she was an illegal pet. These days, she spends time sitting in the front of her enclosure, close to people, and has become a fan favorite.

The bottom line: We wish she could have lived out her life chasing hares in the Arctic, but this seems like a pretty good alternative, given the circumstances.

Tell an animal lover

🌕 Meira is checking out this full moon hike at Tryon Creek on Sunday.

😴 Kale is going to bed at the perfectly reasonable hour of 7:30pm.

This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.