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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with news of jack-o-lantern art this Halloween. Ray Villafane is a former teacher who found his medium after carving a gourd a student gave him. The sculptor began with a pumpkin, this year, weighing just under a ton to create a vividly realistic life-sized stringy haired orange zombie pulling other zombies out of a pumpkin garden. The work of pumpkin art is now giving people the shivers at the New York botanical garden. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's report on a different kind of horror. Tonight, of course, is Halloween, and Americans are expected to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 billion on decorations candy, costumes and other stuff.

From Seattle, NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports on the business behind this ghoulish night.

The National Hockey League has now canceled all games through the end of November, as team owners lock out players in a labor dispute. In the meantime, there are many businesses and workers who count on hockey games to help make ends meet. But they are now trying to make due without.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Oh my gosh. You create the social equivalent of nuclear fusion when you combine the people who are obsessed with Star Wars and the people obsessed with Disney. The Walt Disney Company is apparently willing to take that risk. In a move that surprised industry observers, Disney announced, yesterday, it is buying Lucasfilm, the studio founded by George Lucas and home to the Star Wars franchise. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports there are already plans for a new "Star Wars" movie.

The New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ are both set to reopen Tuesday. The markets were closed Monday and Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy pounded the East Coast, flooding New York's financial district.