These days, I'd guess most women of voting age don't have a hyphen anymore.
Dressing a baby up in a costume turns out to be great fun. Also, Blume and I agreed that while showing up at work/school and realizing you're the only one in costume would be mortifying, showing up at daycare with your baby and realizing it was the only baby in costume would be AWESOME.
Sally has maddeningly refused to allow me to get a picture of her as a Dio Di Los Muertos sugar skull. If I get her permission, I'll put one up on Flickr.
Newt went conceptual -- he's wearing a sign saying "Life", and handing out lemons and index cards with a lemonade recipe.
"Remember kids, vandalism charges are a slap on the wrist when you're a minor so we're going to put this nice sized rock in your candy bag just in case some asshole hands you a letter telling you you're fat."
Blume and I agreed that while showing up at work/school and realizing you're the only one in costume would be mortifying
The solution is to have a costume that fully disguises your identity, so that if you're the only one dressed up you can leave, change, and come back, and no one will know that the guy in the Sigmund the Sea Monster costume was you.
A coworker here brought in pictures of a seriously aweinspiring Dr. Who Weeping Angel costume she made for her thirteen-year-old. The kid really looked convincingly like a piece of statuary.
This is the first year in a long time when I actually went all-in - or mostly all-in, since I was a shopper rather than a crafter - for Halloween. But the party I went to was on Saturday the 26th, and ever since I've found it impossible to remember that Halloween hasn't actually happened yet.
These days, I'd guess most women of voting age don't have a hyphen anymore.
Texas likes to keep track.
Also, I found out this complication: (I may have the details wrong) - your Texas drivers license automatically puts your maiden name as your middle name and drops your old middle name. So even if a woman updated her voter registration card with her married last name, it still often won't match.
OTOH, it sounds like they're just letting people sign statements all over the place. They had me change my voter registration card for the future, while I was there.
Dio Di Los Muertos
Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice AND Unfogged's own DiKotimy ARE COMING AT YOU IN '83 AS "Los Muertos" and ARE READY TO ROCK.
1 year old classroom was only animals, I think that's the most common toddler costume theme. I had a puppy, there was a dinosaur and an elephant. Then I went to work and didn't see what the rest of the kids were.
The real sign you're committing voter fraud is you're voting on a Thursday.
At my work so far I've seen one black cat, and a lot of people dressed as doctors.
At my work so far I've seen one black cat, and a lot of people dressed as doctors.
You work at an over-staffed and under-utilized veterinary hospital?
Heebie, I had a friend get married in TX a few years ago who was told it was impossible to hypenate her last names when she went to change it at the DMV. She wanted to be Sara Smith-Jones from Sara Smith, and the woman refused, saying it couldn't be done in her system. Sara ended up at the Social Security office the next day, and the man who assisted her wrote a letter for the DMV to help her get the license done. The DMV staff refused again until she raised hell and got a supervisor, who told her that the inital staffer she'd dealt with (twice) "just didn't like hypens and thought the woman's duty was to take her man's name." I hope the DMV lady isn't en election judge somewhere.
My wife speculates that the fat letters story is a hoax. The only evidence for it is some woman called up a radio station and claimed she was going to do it.
WHAT I MEANT WHEN I SAID IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THAT
IS THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THAT WITHOUT GOING TO HELL
We coaxed the child into her Frances the badger costume and took her to daycare, where I had an awkward conversation with her caregivers about whether or not they had any of the books on hand. (They are long and don't always go over well at storytime, said the teacher, after I explained that my kid has requested all of them back-to-back on many occasions.) The parts of the costume made by my mom look great; the stuff I did was just barely presentable, since I was totally unwilling to tear out any but the most egregious bad seam. (Incompetent Seamstress Also Condescending Elitist: hooray for my lucky, lucky daughter.)
When the girls were in first grade, one of them went as a jack-o-lantern (pic in flickr pool). She overheated from the stuffing, and I had to take her home sick about 45 minutes after I dropped her off.
"pic in flickr pool" gets it right.
Trick or treating in the rain, probably. Maybe the crepe paper costume was a mistake.
23 is awesome too! My three are going as Mary Marry Merry, though I should probably google-proof the details since I already spilled them on fb. Mara insisted on being the Had a Little Lamb sort and then Nia wanted to MARRY a little lamb (which, seriously, is the only evidence I've ever, ever seen for the whole "same-sex marriage is a slippery slope to man-on-dog or whatever") but settled for regular bride outfit in my first communion dress and a veil one of my aunts wore back when one wore veils to church. So then Selah came into the picture and I've got a little Mrs. Claus dress that she absolutely loves and would wear every day. It's raining on and off, so maybe we won't get the over 1000 trick-or-treaters we usually get, but maybe we will. Candy is a powerful force.
27 is the greatest costume idea ever.
My three are going as Mary Marry Merry
Awesome. Just awesome.
Pics from Halloween at the Zoo last weekend in the flickr pool, since I have no idea what kind of shots I'll get tonight.
28: Yes. I think Thorn won Hallowe'en.
Over 1000!
My mother has been counting her trick-or-treaters since I was a kid - this is in a walkable suburban neighborhood - and I don't think we've ever had more than a hundred. It must help (?) that though the neighborhood is "in town" it isn't connected to any other.
27 is great. We'll hand out candy tonight, as we always have, in my parents neighborhood, which got 1200 trick or treaters last year before we shut it down. This year the neighborhood showed up on a whole bunch of "best trick or treat neighborhood" lists, so there could be even more -- I think my Mom bought 1500 pieces of candy.
I guess "shut it down" would have been less ambiguous if I'd said "ran out of candy."
I don't know how many treats Lee bought this year, but last year's 800 lasted only 75 minutes of the two hours allotted, I think. The whole town comes to our neighborhood, so the girls should see all their school friends and we usually see Val and Alex's grandma and her family.
Just for nobody cares but: it's my first name that's hyphenated. I kept my maiden name, cherry intact.
We can all see that "heebie-geebie" has a hyphen, heebie!
I think I did know I couldn't extrapolate from my childhood environment - we're a less-convenient, less-efficient place in a not-too-dense MSA - but I really can't imagine the scene produced by nearly 1000 trick-or-treaters!
I have already warned my neighbors, who have the only kids in the zip code, that we have none candy and they'll be disappointed if they knock on our door. I only remembered to do that because our neighbors on the other side were doing the same. Perhaps our neighbors will drive somewhere fun. On the other hand, I expect a lot of grown, costumed drunks to pass by tonight.
A friend posted his daughter's preschool class, which featured a female Batman and a black Batman/Wolverine. We're in ur hippie neighborhood, subverting ur paradigms.
I will be surprised if we get more than 50 trick-or-treaters tonight. It's possible, but the demographics and weather don't favor it.
|| Just wait til they hear about the plans to add Karl Marx and Jomo Kenyatta to Mount Rushmore! |>
I first read 43 as invoking an "ur-hippie" neighborhood and "ur-paradigms", and if I squint I can convince myself it's meaningful that way too.
Tons of kids out here this evening, but apparently the new thing is that every building sends some people to hang out on their stoop with a big bowl of candy.
I'm seriously thinking of copying 4. That, or going as Snowden. But then I'd need to get a haircut.
51 made me laugh.
Is this Halloween letter for real?!
Mara was done after about 20 minutes, as usual, but we dragged her around for the first hour. Now I get to put the baby to bed (mostly done; I'm on scream-waiting duty) and then sip tea. Our next-door neighbor's adult grandson and his girlfriend offered to hand out treats at our house, so they've been doing that and Lee will take Nia over to her best friend's house at least. The rain slowed people down. We're in a historic district and all the houses are set back from the street, so you only go up if there are people on the porch, but it means a lot of stairs and standing around on sidewalks for the kids, definitely a workout!
On a rainy night, you get more candy once gets close to the end of trick or treat hours.
45: The UN won't control the entirety of the Alamo, just the basement where the keep the bicycles.
50: A haircut honestly did figure into my costuming decision. I'd been semi-intensely curious what I would look like with my head shaved, so I brainstormed compatible costumes. Decided on a football player, as that was manageable without crafting - see above - and could be defended as scary (even without rejected polemical accoutrements such as a neck brace, a hypodermic needle, and a monitoring anklet).
|| It bothers me when adults use the word "yummy." Why am I so mean? |>
(even without rejected polemical accoutrements such as a neck brace, a hypodermic needle, and a monitoring anklet)
Not a printout of an MRI?
Yay! First trick or treaters. I think they were the next door neighbors, as they looked familiar and had no other candy.
57: Not enough love in your tummy?
58: Not even. I was interested enough in being anodyne, and in being prepared, that I looked to see whether the Bengal whose jersey I was buying was ordinary.
I'm feeling sick, and have actually gone the lazy route of leaving candy out on the front steps.
We've just been chucking jawbreakers out the third story window. Throw 'em hard enough, the kids notice.
(Nobody trick-or-treats at our house. So sad!)
I am sick too, but I am soldiering on regardless.
At least I got a nap in this afternoon.
My upstairs neighbors are sitting out on the porch with candy but I only saw one group of 3 kids come by. I did see lots of late-teen-to-twenty-somethings in costumes and one middle-aged man in a very elaborate Ghostbusters getup, though.
After two days at home with a puking kid, I'm feeling sick as well. Something must be going around.
4 and 27 are indeed fabulous.
I got home late but still managed to have a very fun Halloween. It helped that I handed out candy to the train conductor and on my walk home.
The most fun costume was a kid with an Eagles jersey and a big brown cardboard sign on her back showing our first president in profile. Quarterback!
Walgreen's has the temerity to have put out Christmas candy today. Sacrilege.
Also, the weirdest note of the evening was seeing on my Twitter feed that a 10 y/o kid in {costume} was missing from {historically African-American neighborhood} a couple of miles from me, about 30 seconds after an African-American kid in {costume} had walked off my porch. He didn't seem lost, though.
Yeah, they should have Thanksgiving candy instead.
Oh, I get it. At first I thought 68 was very racist indeed.
I'm pretty sure 67.last means Witt is a Satanist.
I've seen quite a few grown-up Walter Whites this year, so hooray for chemistry and violence? Also I only now discovered how neat fake blood is... it looks surprisingly realistic, if you don't use too much.
There was a Walter White at the one party I attended. He left his rubber gloves and Ziploc bag of meth behind at the end of the night.
57: Not enough love in your tummy?
The last word of that is even worse. I can't even type it.
I am going to be around Berkeley for Halloween I guess. Hopefully there will be students dressed as Sexy Subaltern (they ring the doorbell and then don't speak) or something. Sexy Lacanian Imaginary.
Sexy Nonexistence of Authorial Intent
57, 60, 74: I vaguely recall having a very similar exchange with ogged, pbuh. I am solidly in the anti-yummy/tummy faction, and was dismayed to find myself using the former word recently in a way that may have come off as slightly less ironic than intended. Better not to let it pass one's lips at all.
Gummy gummy gummy I got chum in my tummy
Ours were the 10th Doctor and Rose Tyler. They were recognized a few times.
The Sexy but Unreliable Narrator.
Sra. Sugar Skull is in the flickr pool.
"one middle-aged man in a very elaborate Ghostbusters getup"
I saw something very similar near the library. His pack lit up when he pushed the button.
His pack lit up when he pushed the button.
"Sweet Aqualung costume!"
I'm disappointed at the neighborhood turnout. Half a dozen, maybe, between 5:30 and 7? I know friends just on the other side of the square who get more like 500; the unevenness is kind of startling.
Holy shit, that's the first time I've ever been to a street that's a go-to street for trick-or-treating. Just a steady stream of kids and parents. It kind of felt like a movie set, except I don't think I've ever seen a movie set IRL so probably just how movie sets are portrayed on TV.
By the end I ditched the family, ostensibly so I could head home and pack for camping this weekend but also because I'm sick of being around people.
It bothers me when adults use the word "yummy." Why am I so mean?
Relatedly, I hate myself for automatically using the word "potty" to refer to myself using the bathroom.
I don't think I've ever seen a movie set IRL
Very bright.
86: oh my god heebie be a gronwup it's the shitter.
86: I used "toilet" with Mara (and why???) but I'm sure I'll lose that battle because Selah will be in daycare all day and learn there. Once they get to school, all is lost anyway. I know I never taught them to say "booty cheeks," and yet 80% of their daily conversations apparently require the phrase.
We went out to see Night of the Living Dead* at a big screen theater (but the copy they had was very small, but still pretty good). In part my wife and her friend prepping a weekend showing of a NotLD opera which is premiering locally. We left candy in a bowl; 5 or 6 taken.
*I first saw it in the early '70s at a drive-in in Latrobe Pa.
at a big screen theater (but the copy they had was very small, but still pretty good)
Wait, so the screen was big, but the actual film image was very small?
I know I never taught them to say "booty cheeks," and yet 80% of their daily conversations apparently require the phrase.
Oddly enough, that's what I call the WC.
85: 15 years or so ago the street behind as was like that for a few years. Took an Aussie workmate with us once, and he was quite blown away.
Relatedly, I hate myself for automatically using the word "potty" to refer to myself using the bathroom.
Oh man do I feel you.
91: Yes. Not sure what the deal was. Sound was excellent; I had forgotten that much of the soundtrack was so striking.
I still say, "I have to go see a man about a horse."
When you're talking about your booty cheeks?
Horses don't have booty cheeks. That's why they don't need toilet paper.
They don't need it, but boy is it a good time.
I'm trying to gradually reintroduce the pronunciation "terlet," but it hasn't caught on yet.
100: You need to come visit here and meet everyone's uncles. It has not died out at all, nor has "warshcloth," though both are generation-specific.
Mighta just had my last two trick or treaters. About a dozen total. Kids today don't have the same fortitude we did in my day.
A dozen isn't too bad. Have you decided how you're going to cook them?
Pumpkin Spice Cannibal Latte!
The kids are supposed to stop at 7:30 here.
Hmph. Don't hold with stupid curfews here in the Phillips Free State.
Wait, so the screen was big, but the actual film image was very small?
I feel like you're not really listening.
Look, Norma, I tried to make that joke but it just grammatically is a little tough for me right now I'm very sleep-deprived.
We've hit 1100 kids and its not even 8. Could get to 1500 easy.
That's a lot of kids. We've had maybe 100.
That may explain why we have some neighbors who give out whole candy bars.
Not a single trick-or-treater here tonight. Sad face. I got a rock.
No trick-or-treaters here, as ever. Hella urban hellhole.
Bonus Skittles are really reminding me that I need think about getting that molar fixed.
Oddly, though pumpkin soup is a common dish in this country, I saw not a single real jack-o-lantern while trick-or-treating this evening.
I ran out of candy, which made me feel bad.
I had lost track of how much was needed, since Halloween here had basically been cancelled for two years in a row (last year: Hurricane Sandy; the year before last: a bizarre snowstorm in late October, which left us without power for three or four days). And I think people around here were really into Halloween this year, because of the previous two years' cancellations. So there were more cute kids in costumes than I had anticipated, and I ran out (but only for the older kids who came later, not for the little ones who came with their parents in the late afternoon/early evening).
My son went out trick-or-treating with a friend whose mother is seriously over-protective, and I had talked this mother out of going along with them for parental supervision (because it seemed silly; and the boys were mortified by the very idea of it, o the shame). "Oh, they'll be fine," I said, "they don't us, they can go without a chaperone. They'll just go around the neighbourhood, nothing could be safer, and then I'll drive your [over-protected little darling] boy home." Next thing I know (through text messaging), son and friend are blocks and blocks and blocks away, near a grocery store on a busy thoroughfare (not exactly the quiet residential street that I had promised!). I wasn't worried about my son, nor about his friend, but I think I may be in trouble with the mother.
I hope you went around asking, "Are those pumpkins real?"
"they don't us" s/b "they don't need us"
We ran out of candy, then rustled up some White Rabbit candy and individually wrapped Life Savers from the cupboard. "Come back! We're on the weird candy now!"
When I was a kid, wrapping Lifesavers was something we did as a family.
One of my friends' kids once got a can of borscht while trick-or-treating. (The kids had wandered into the block of grad student housing, and most of the grad students were totally unprepared for this.)
Is White Rabbit candy the kind that makes you taller? Or the kind that makes you small?
When I was a kid, my mother worried about razor blades being inserted into apples. This was way back in the mists of time, when an apple might pass for a Halloween treat.
We went to one house that had home made cookies. You don't see that much anymore, because of teh paranoia. Its too bad. I suspect the unsubstantiated rumors of poison home-baked goods were started and spread by the candy industrial complex.
We give out full size candy bars, because Halloween rules.
...and we got through 1500 single fun size servings, 1 per kid, plus a few bags of random piñata candy, before I left. After about 8:15 the number of adults or teenagers who clearly just wanted some extra candy because they were hungry increased.
127 holy cow. 27 holy cow. Yoda in the flickr pool.
We've hit 1100 kids and its not even 8.
Jesus and I thought I was the resident child-hating monster.
Nothing going on my street this year. A few years ago I was deluged with guisers and - having forgotten it was Hallowe'en - ran out of sweets very early. "Have some dark chocolate truffles! Have some crackers and cheese! Have an apple! A carrot! Some pasta! A screwdriver!"
FUCK YOU fratboy crossfit owner who closes the gym whenever he throws a party. I knew he had some shitty Halloween thing going on tonight (NOT HALLOWEEN) but I sat in the parking lot at 6 am for ten minutes before accepting that he'd closed the gym down, on account of it. (Note: the closing of the gym is the morning of the party, not the morning after.)
I should have known, because he did this TWO WEEKS AGO for a party fundraiser. But I didn't think it was the type of thing he does every two fucking weeks.
Was this well-publicized on their website or FB page? NO. It appears nowhere. I hate everyone and I really did not feel like getting up at 5:15 am, let alone for no reason.
Sorry to hear that, heebie. Here, have a screwdriver.
We had quite a few, for us. (Last year we only had two groups of kids.) Apparently the bloke at the end of the road was standing in his open doorway yelling fuck off at any costumed children, which was nice. Because it isn't such a thing here, people only go to the lit-up/decorated houses, so no one would have knocked on his door anyway.
117 - I felt like a frowned-upon mother too last night. The eldest went to a Halloween party with a friend who was then staying the night. Friend's mother dropped her and her bag here in the early evening and asked me, "so, you're picking them up?" Me - "er, if needs be?" The party was a mile away (so I wouldn't have minded popping out for 10 minutes up to about 1am), and eldest had already said to me that it was good that friend was staying because then they could walk home together.
We had three or four big parties turn up. Maybe 10 or so kids in each. We didn't have any signs out or decorations or anything.
My wife was furious as it woke the baby, but I did have some big bags of sweets in, so we/I had a few things to hand out.
So, for those of you in Blighty, how much Guy Fawkes stuff is going to transpire in a few days? I'm all for spreading the spirit of Hallowe'en, but not if it comes at the expense of other, more local traditions.
I don't know. I feel a bit out of touch. I'm fairly sure my sister and niece and family are off to a big bonfire/Guy Fawkes fireworks thing on Sunday.
When we were kids, Guy Fawkes was definitely bigger, but I remember by sister and her mates [couple of years younger] beginning to do Halloween stuff more, some time in the early 80s.
Have an apple! A carrot! Some pasta! A screwdriver!
Plenty of vodka and OJ on hand?
"Hey, go to that house down the block, that bloke's handing out mixed drinks!"
For the record, 131 was wrong. Apparently there were signs posted saying this morning's workout was at a local park. Somehow having myself to blame for getting up at 5:15 am and getting nothing accomplished has not improved my sourpuss mood.
I didn't count, but we had a pretty steady stream. I bought too much (union-made!) candy, though, so when my niece and her friend came by around 8:30, I threw a few handfuls into each of their bags.
Many of the parents of the little kids were in costume, which I applaud.
I was in London in Thursday and saw absolutely no one in costume. Granted, I wasn't in a very residential parts of Islington, but there were many more people dressed up in my town.
I think I'll be going to the fireworks at a local village on Sunday for Guy Fawkes, and I'm sure we'll do mulled cider, sausages, etc on the evening. I think it's supposed to rain, though.
I have a question for British people about Halloween. Is the number of people celebrating Halloween growing lately? If so, is it Harry Potter's fault? I hadn't realized that trick or treating ever crossed the Atlantic.
Ideally, I'd have thought of this question earlier in the day, before the British time zone had all gone home for the day.
I hadn't realized that trick or treating ever crossed the Atlantic.
As I recall, the holiday was brought here from all the Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 1800's. Normally I'd google it but I'm on the way out.
My favorite costume this year: my colleague, a grown man, dressed as Dora the Explorer.
Yes, I think it's always been a Scottish thing - we did it the two years we lived in Cumbernauld, but we had to sing a song or tell a joke or something to get the apple or whatever it was. I remember being disappointed it wasn't really done when we moved back down south, but we went to or threw Halloween parties most years and did a fuck of a lot of bobbing for apples. I have no idea why that is a traditional Halloween thing? Is it just the time of year?
And then you'd have fireworks the next week. And it's half term. Great week. Our neighbours always have a completely mental fireworks party - terraced houses with gardens 100 foot long and 20 feet wide, and they (or one of their pyromaniac guests) have display grade fireworks that you're supposed to be 100 yards away from. Half an hour of incredibly loud, light it up like daylight, fireworks. You see people watching from all the houses that back onto ours, and depending on the wind, most of the gardens are covered in debris.
Can't reveal too much without lifting the cloak of anonymity, but damn, this out of town contract guy is one of the funniest presenters I've heard in awhile.
we had to sing a song or tell a joke or something
In Des Moines, IA they still have to tell a joke to get candy.
My favorite costume this year: my colleague, a grown man, dressed as Dora the Explorer.
Bonsaisue sent me a link that included a picture of someone dressed up as Dumbledora the Explorer.
and did a fuck of a lot of bobbing for apples. I have no idea why that is a traditional Halloween thing? Is it just the time of year?
I have no idea why bobbing for apples is a thing in the first place, Halloween or otherwise. It seems so silly.
My lord, it has to do with Celts' belief that the pentagram was a fertility symbol. It seems that the seeds of halved apple form a pentagonal shape.
During the annual celebration, young unmarried people try to bite into an apple floating in water or hanging from a string; the first person to bite into the apple would be the next one to be allowed to marry.
However, a citation is needed there.
There is a citation (in addition to a "citation needed" notice), but the source doesn't seem to back up the statement and doesn't look particularly trustworthy to start with.
Yeah. I imagine there's more out there on the matter. Didn't I hear recently that Wikipedia was falling down on the job?
I think Wikipedia is generally very good on subjects that a lot of people know about, and much more uneven on more obscure things. Which isn't surprising, of course.
On the other hand, the link in 149 led me to a whole bunch of interesting Wikipedia pages on obscure Roman gods and priesthoods, so that was cool.
The Romans have a god for everything except coming up with a better joke about Roman god names than Mel Brooks.
Apparently some of the gods are so obscure that even their names are no longer known.
155: So you're saying that there may well have been funnier jokes about Roman gods than even Mel Brooks has made, but we can't know?
There's a German word that contains the names for every Roman god.
Schmuck isn't really a German word pet se.
157: Now that's definitely gott to be funnier than Mel Brooks's jokes, right?
160: it's hard to know until we know what "pet se" means.
I thought it was Yiddish. Also, 159 is wrong.
I went in a dark suit and tie, plus a Santa hat/beard. I was the Establishment Claus.
No trick or treaters; I live in a garage.
162: there is also a Yiddish word schmuck. They mean rather different things.
"We Romans have a god for everything excepting giving your partner jewelery too soon in the relationship, but I hear that we're going to have a god for that named very soon."
I always assumed that the German sense of Schmuck was was related to the Yiddish. Like "family jewels."
Nothing of gods, nothing of fate, weighty affairs will just have to wait!
The first time I was in a German speaking city I was amused by all the jewelry store signs.
If I ever get so much money that hundreds of thousands are meaningless, I'm going to open a store called "Fanny Pack Outlet" and put it in the airport where all the British arrivals walk by.
As kids in the 60s, my sister and I were encouraged to celebrate Halloween by carving a face in a turnip (or a potato if no turnip could be found), putting a little candle in it, and placing it in the window. I don't remember anyone else doing it where we lived or then staying -- Shropshire or Wales -- but we had Scottish roots via my mum's mum and I assume the habit came that way. Mischief Night was also celebrated in some parts of the country, on October 30th or November 4th depending where you were. And all round this part of the year toyshops seemed to be selling cheap cardboard witch and devil masks, and fireworks. Bonfire Night (aka Guy Fawkes) is November 5th, of course.
The underlying festival is Hallowmas: which includes All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, at the end of October and start of November. And Diwali also precedes it and overlaps: another urban source of fireworks etc widely evident (visible and audible) in London.
The big shift over here towards kids dress-up and Trick or Treat really began with ET, I think. My part of Hackney was busy with tots dressed as Lord Palpatine, demanding candy with squeaky menaces. Pumpkins are now easily available. My sister and her daughter seem to love it, and go to some lengths to celebrate it elaborately.
I live on the third floor and have never had my doorbell rung in all the time I've lived here.
How is it possible that there are still people who write emails where they insert line breaks themselves instead of letting the lines wrap automatically? Do they not notice their weird short lines with raggedy line breaks look different from every single email that anyone else sends them? Do they actually think it's aesthetically preferable?
174: The ET connection is really interesting! I suppose I was two or three when someone came to our door in an ET costume and I apparently screamed and ran and hid. We did try to carve a turnip one year when my mom was trying to make us respect the traditions, but either she was really bad at it or it's very difficult and doesn't compare to pumpkins at all, because ours was pretty pitiful. Our Catholic grade school had us dress as our patron saints for All Saints Day and there would be a parade at church. I was never allowed to wear a real crown of thorns or burn my skin off with lye or wear a face veil because apparently one can take respect of traditions too far. (I do think it's a bad idea to name your daughter after a body-destroying saint and then stress the saints heavily if you don't want her to grow up anorexic or worse, but I can't actually claim there's a causal connection.)
176: He hand-writes his emails, and tells his secretary to preserve the line breaks when she types them up.
The ET connection makes me so happy. Cultural imperialism is the best imperialism.
There's also "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch", from the same year as ET (1982), which teaches us that if we put a rubber pumpkin on our head and watch a TV special, our brains and such will be turned into creepie-crawlies. This has been less influential.
How is it possible that there are still people who write emails where they insert line breaks themselves instead of letting the lines wrap automatically? Do they not notice their weird short lines with raggedy line breaks look different from every single email that anyone else sends them? Do they actually think it's aesthetically preferable?
My e-mails always look totally weird, like this, but I have no idea why. I'm not inserting line breaks, I don't think, or at least I'm certain I'm not doing so intentionally. I wonder if it's because I put two spaces after periods. Is that possible? Regardless, I really should stop that, but I'm not sure I can. I've tried and failed before.
I've seen Brits complaining that by tradition it should be a turnip -- or a mangel wurzel! -- but they're smaller and much harder to hollow out and carve, and also kinda stink.
The excellent twitter account RealtimeWWII featured this tweet on Halloween:
WW2 Tweets from 1941 @RealTimeWWII 31 Oct
Remember Britons, do not put your carved Hallowe'en turnips outside or open lighted doors to guisers: you may be fined for breaking blackout
But no accompanying link to an historical source unfortunately.
Hoberdy's Lanterns known in Worcestershire in the 18th century -- and Punkie Night was celebrated in Somerset on the last Thursday in October. Some curious etymology being tried out in that link, re punk and punkie and pumpkin.
I think there are email clients in use that convert line wraps to line breaks, or something like that.
The first time I ever posted to a listserve, in the early 90s, my message looked fine when I composed it but I didn't enter line breaks and it posted with each paragraph as a long line and left me with a persistent fear that none of my emails would ever be formatted how I wanted them and I'd never learn how they looked until it was too late.
re: 182
Yeah, I think I was in my mid-to-late-teens before I even _saw_ a carved pumpkin. It was always turnips [Scottish turnips, i.e. the big orange ones].
re: 174
Until last year our flat overlooked Southall and Norwood Green from high on a hill. Diwali was amazing. Fireworks from horizon to horizon for hours.
There's also "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch", from the same year as ET (1982), which teaches us that if we put a rubber pumpkin on our head and watch a TV special, our brains and such will be turned into creepie-crawlies.
Said terrible film was the subject of the most recent How Did This Get Made podcast, which you should all be listening to.
It's actually the only one of the Halloween franchise that I like.
Still in all-about-me mode, today was Mara's birthday party. Three friends from school came, as well as two family friends. And so did her mom and eventually her dad and his girlfriend. I'm not sure what any of her friends made of her having three moms and a dad, but she's probably lectured them extensively about it anyway because she's all about coming out these days. We've never had either parent to our house before, but the time seemed right, although having both simultaneously wouldn't have been either's preference. It was a lot of fun for the kiddos, not an insane amount of work for me, and Lee's cleaning compulsion means she got all the Play-Doh and whatnot put away the minute everyone left, while I was putting the baby to bed.
It was a good day and such a change from last weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who's had a kind word or other support. I'm so grateful for so much right now.
189. That's great to hear.
190 made me re-read 189 for the expected reference.
191.last reminded me that it's been hours since guests left and so there's really no reason I should still be wearing a bra, so hooray for that.
Very glad to hear it is a better time of late, Thorn. Hoping in your general direction.
there's really no reason I should still be wearing a bra
Oh, damn, me neither!
Tweety alert: just ran into John Henry at Fiorello's in NYC, told him congrats and thanks. He was a cold bitch, but he shook my hand anyway. Boston strong!
195: super good. Did he give you several hundred thousand dollars? If not, what a dick.
Thorn: there's really no reason I should still be wearing a bra
Tweety: Oh, damn, me neither!
I'm going all the way and taking of my pants. Yeah baby.
I'm going all the way and taking of my pants. Yeah baby.
Yeah, well I'm taking of my glasses and shaking out my hair.
I'm taking stock of my pants.
Which reminds me I need to make more stock. My cupboard is full of the containers I freeze it in.
Yeah? Well I put on my robe and wizard hat.
Have you tried simmering your pants?
202: Like in that children's book "Stone Washed Soup?"
Fiorello's, eh? I went there exactly once because, though it's the place to go after the opera, it's like $18 for a slice of cheesecake (because they can, I guess.) I'd have liked to go more, as you do apparently run into all manner of non-famous but famous-to-me people there after the opera. And actually the night we were there, in the realm of actual fame, I said to the people at my table "the voice of that woman at the next table sounds exactly like Kathleen Turner," and then I found five Kathleen Turners but actually just one.
I have a colleague who insists, insists, on receiving e-mail "in HTML format". I'm also on technical lists where people literally scream at you if you don't inline-quote in plain text. For years, I didn't have an official copy of MS-Outlook because nobody paid for it, so this was needlessly exciting.
Now, I've adopted a split brain policy - anything that might involve colleague in the Outlook client, with bells and whistles and top-quoting, anything else via Thunderbird/GMail in plain text with correct quoting.
And I insist on receiving my compensation from a well-oiled amazon, but it's interesting just how little weight people seem to put on my less rational demands.
where people literally scream at you if you don't inline-quote in plain text.
As they should!
208: We're sorry, but we just couldn't make that work in our business model.
then I found five Kathleen Turners but actually just one
If a 60-year-old woman wants to leave Body Heat-skinny in the rear view mirror, who are you to judge?
I insist on receiving my compensation from a well-oiled amazon
I met a spectacularly tall Scottsdale blonde, a friend of a friend of a friend, hanging out at an old-school restaurant bar with plush booths and a pop/jazz combo playing in the restaurant. A flirty frisson. She asked me to dance, and even made fun of me for "leaving room for the Holy Ghost" between us.
You might say that she was just making sport of the short, sweet, safely married man, but I enjoyed thinking I still got it.
And then she asked for five dollars.
I enjoy thinking that I never had it.
I watched Body Heat with KT's first cousin. "Is this weird for you?" "Not really." OK, then!
I feel like any squick I would experience from watching my first cousins have sex would be based on their objective levels of squickiness, not on the degree of familial closeness.
I know my first cousins really well. There would be squick.
If they're doing it right there would be.
A long time ago, I watched [high end soft porn] with the brother of [famous actress who got very naked in high end soft porn]. He coped by being as high as a kite.
The redactions in this case are deeply unfortunate. Have the courage of your convictions, Roberto Tigre, or you may not be the man to bring Halfordismo to the people.
Said terrible film was the subject of the most recent How Did This Get Made podcast, which you should all be listening to.
Seriously? I had to stop listening thanks to the omnipresence of rape jokes.