One good thing about my current status of living very alone is that I can be selective about what occasions to recognize, learned from my cranky old father who gave up Christmas after my mother died, At first, the rest of the family feared it was a sign he was falling into a state of depression, but no, it was just a feeling of relief about never being nagged into putting up Christmas lights and go gift shopping anymore (and later on, I learned personally what falling into depression is really like).
Now, I am not going to give up Christmas myself (no nagging is needed for me to deck the halls), but for me, Halloween is history. Nope. Not gonna do it. No costumes (the expense of finding something in my size, the fact that my most imaginative costume ideas are behind me and a lack of practical things I’d like to dress up as – no way I can ever make myself look like Locke from ‘Lost’ or Bloo from ‘Foster’s') and no candy (my favorite sweets have always been chocolate, and the last time I ate chocolate I got surprisingly ill – and it wasn’t that large a quantity, thank you). Nope, no Halloween. The Day of the Dead is Dead To Me. I am proudly going to be the cranky old guy with his lights out when the trick-or-treaters come around, and being at one end of a triplex, I’m betting that the kids will decide ‘two-out-of-three-ain’t-bad’ and not bother to TP my place. (I will follow-up on whether I’m correct)
And I’d like to thank my colleagues at the “5Top” list at MSNBC.com for providing backup for my opinion, via a list (NOT written by me, Helen A.S. Popkin gets the credit) of the Worst Adult Halloween Costumes. Although, some of the outfits on sale on the Web are even worse (but probably not weblishable by a SFW site). I’ll try to be subtle about this, but be forwarned before you click these links, and please don’t buy what they’re selling or I’ll totally lose my respect for you…
Speaking of TP, and inspired, no doubt, by South Park’s Mr. Hanky, are the costumes for “Bull S#!t”, “Chicken S#!t”, “Hot S#!t”, “Holy S#!t”, “Tough S#!t”, “No S#!t Sherlock”, “Talking S#!t”, “S#!t Hits the Fan” and the “Poo Poo Platter”. Or you could always go out in public as a private part: Male or Female. (But not if you’re 14 years old)
Another blogger known as “Baby Hatchetface” has been running a series of posts on Inappropriate Halloween Costumes (with pictures). But personally, what I fear most is a Baby Hatchetface costume.
UPDATE: Another reason to avoid Halloween. The Evil Fox News dot com is running an article on “killer do-it-yourself costumes”, including “Clark Kent” (dress mild-manneredly with Superman t-shirt under partially unbuttoned dress shirt) and “Sudoku” (requires two large pieces of cardboard). No, I’m not going to link to them.
ADDENDUM: This is the 40th anniversary of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. That is certainly long enough.
who has been anchoring there for more than 10 years, and who is rarely ever seen just sitting with his mouth shut like that (see his smiley staff picture on the right ->), so it is obvious the photog caught him just at the instant he was pronouncing the letter “M”. And the on-air demeanor I’ve seen from him all these years is so friendly and benign (hey, he is a Los Angeles News Anchor – it’s a prerequisite) I can’t imagine him resembling a rape suspect even when they have the same nose and lower lip, which to me are the only parts that look alike after the first glance… Brown’s head is rounder and what about Rapist’s wrinkles? Has much of the Web fallen for a somewhat-racist “they all look alike” meme, or am I just too familiar with the news anchor guy?
Having few formal obligations right now, I am obsessively organizing my ‘stuff’, including my digital files… Having a total of 490 GB of storage space on 2 computers and a free-standing hard drive, that’s going to take a while.