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Savannah was founded in 1733 and was one of America’s first planned cities, with a series of squares and parks that can still …

Happy Halloween 2009, everybody! I’ve always loved Halloween, because it’s one of those all-fun, no baggage holidays where you’re pretty much required to party and be ridiculous. As the Geto Boys point out, this year Halloween falls on a weekend, ramping up the crazy factor in cities around the world. I’m fortunate to live in New York, home of the legendary Village Halloween Parade, and even luckier to have a friend who lives along the parade route, so we’ll be watching from above the fray. It’s fun to stand along the sidewalk too, but be prepared for a crush of bodies akin to Times Square on New Years Eve.

Six people fainted on board a British Airways flight from Newark Liberty Airport to London’s Heathrow Saturday, prompting emergency crews to check the plane for hazardous materials.

If you’re like me, you can’t wait for the winter yachting season to begin, but before you don your monocle and climb aboard your megayacht, you’d better plot your sun-seeking itinerary carefully. Just last week, pirates kidnapped a British couple from their yacht, the Lynn Rival, as they sailed off the coast of Somalia. As the AP points out, Paul and Rachel Chandler had been sailing to Tanzania when they activated their yacht’s emergency beacon on November 23, 2009, and the British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday.

Forget the white sheets this Halloween and go on a hunt for some real ghosts.  And what better places than abandoned prisons and hospitals?  The following include some of the most haunted asylums and penitentiaries in the country.  Many of them offer tours… are you brave enough?

Waverly Hills Sanatorium – Louisville, Kentucky

Opened in 1910, this treated tuberculosis patients during the TB epidemic of the early 1900s.  Fresh air and bed rest were the main treatments during this time – patients were kept outside on porches for most of the day, even during the winter (this led to the invention of electric blankets).  Heliotherapy, or “sun treatment”, was also used, as it was believed the sun helped kill the bacteria that cause TB.  Other treatments included ways to temporarily restrict a portion of the lung in order to “let it rest”.  One of these treatments, the “shot bag” method, included placing a one pound bag of shot on both collarbones of the patient. The amount was increased by four or five ounces each week until the patient would carry 5 pounds on the upper part of each lung. More permanent treatments involved various methods of collapsing one of the patient’s lungs.

Visitors to the Sanatorium can take a 2-hour guided historical tour or spend a half-night (4 hours) or a full night (8 hours) hunting ghosts.  One common spot to have paranormal encounters is in the Body Chute, or Death Tunnel, which was once used to transport the bodies of deceased TB patients down the hill to waiting hearses or trains. Many patients died each day during the epidemic and the staff preferred to use the Body Chute rather than carry them through the main hall in an effort to keep morale up.  Unusual experiences at the Sanatorium include seeing shadows, smelling food from the abandoned kitchen and hearing voices screaming and moaning.  During the month of October, visitors can brave the Terror on the Hill, a haunted house at Waverly Hills.

Taking the idea of the road trip to the extreme, an art director from the Associated Press is about to embark on an around-the-world driving adventure. Nicolas Rapp will be departing New York on November 15, 2009 and hopefully returning at around the same time in 2010 after having traversed more than 40 countries on his journey.

Local bank’s 17 branches included East Bay, Peninsula, South Bay

On The Spot by L.A. Times Travel editor Catharine Hamm
Question: I have a great 15-day European cruise next June, and I need to find someone to go with who’s in my age range. How should I go about that?
– Cherie Kimmer, Sherman Oaks
Answer: Carefully — but deliberately.
Here’s an unfortunate fact of single life: You are [...]