Happy Halloween! Er, day before Halloween. All Hallow's Eve eve? Anyhoo, phrases repurposed for a witchy good time, SPELL CHECK a ...
read moreHappy Halloween! Er, day before Halloween. All Hallow's Eve eve? Anyhoo, phrases repurposed for a witchy good time, SPELL CHECK a witch's tech tool, CHARM SCHOOL where witches go to study charms (under (HARRY POTTER NERD ALERT!) Professor Flitwick of course), etc. Amusing stuff.

Man oh man did I dig Witch Hazel from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Not sure what that says about me ...
Seems like this would have worked better tomorrow. Not only would it have been the actual eve, not the eve eve, but there's a good amount of tough vocab in the grid. I think it's all fair — CAPONS (chickens for good eatin'), SACCO (and Vanzetti), the INCUS ear bone, and Max SCHELL — but that's a lot of potentially head-scratching material for a newb solver.
Given the early-week nature of the theme, I would have preferred only one or two of them in the grid. Even if it had run on a Tuesday, experiencing all four entries could make for an unsatisfying solving experience.
Some fun Halloweeny touches in the grid, a bit of EERIE, "The Ghost and Mrs. MUIR," HAGS, EVIL. I usually don't like when the fill potentially muddies up what is theme and what is not, but these are all such shorties that they more provided additional black and orange color.
Some OBE, PARA, REL, nothing major. Well, OBE could be very rough on newer solvers — tough to keep the Order of the British Empire straight from the other British medals. This is an American crossword, by gum!
Overall, I would have liked a little more kookiness out of the themers, as I had heard some of these before. Perhaps if I weren't such an HP nerd, able to rattle off at least ten charms Hermione Granger can do …