Witches. Throughout history and lore, they've been some pretty gruesome characters. The Grimm brothers warned of a witch who would lure children to her house made of candy only to cage the children and fatten them up for a dinner of her own. Russian lore spins many a yarn around Baba Yaga, a deformed old woman who lives in the woods helping or hindering the goals of passersby. She also ate children. And who could forget the many characters that Roald Dahl brought to life in his book The Witches, which was centered around the Grand High Witch's most fiendish and child-torturing plan, yet.

So it's really amazing that the witch has gotten some pretty non-violent, even comical spins in recent years. No longer a thing to be feared, audiences have delighted in films like Hocus Pocus, The Witches of Eastwick, and even 1986's The Worst Witch featuring a young Fairuza Balk and the always dashing Tim Curry. There's Elphaba from Wicked. Samantha from Bewitched. The sisters from Charmed.

According to a TakeSpruce.com survey, the top searched witch in all of Michigan is Willow Rosenberg from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Played by Alyson Hannigan, who might be better known to non-Buffy fans as Band Camp Girl from the American Pie franchise, Willow started off as shy and unsure but certainly found her calling and developed her powers with the help of Buffy. She was always ready with a ham fisted comeback which led to some wonderful moments of comic relief in an otherwise dark show.

I'm a little disappointed. My vote was for Stevie Nicks.

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