Halloween is over; at least the ‘trick-or-treat” part; there’s no telling what adolescent boys might be doing for the rest of the evening. Hopefully whatever it is, it won’t involve eggs, pumpkins, poop or fire. I’m now sitting my the fireplace, warming up with a drink and for the first time in two days have time to get down my thoughts on this night of legal extortion. But I don’t feel like writing that, so maybe it’ll have to wait till next year.
From newspaper reports, it appears that St. Louis has beat out Detroit again. This time, the river city is designated the most dangerous city in the country. Detroit is number two. I wouldn’t want to live in either one.
Tomorrow night, my colleague from India will be helping a group of us prepare food for 80 or so people. I’m looking forward to learning his “herb and spices” secrets. Tonight, someone lent him a superman outfit to wear trick-or-treating. He’s pretty interested in this unique American holiday. My daughter’s outfit was the Statue of Liberty. I didn’t wear anything special except to put on my Stetson for the first time this season (it’s white and is easy to see and I only wear it in winter).
I'm tired and ready for bed.
A Stetson? Can't we see a picture?
ReplyDeleteunique american holiday????
ReplyDeleteuh uuuhh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
"Halloween originated as a Pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain with Irish, Scots, Welsh and other immigrants transporting versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century."
but as far as i know the extortion part is all yours ;) and the massive commercialisation.
we just bob apples usually and dressed up.
Halloween for me is practically a non-event. Nobody comes trick or treating at my apartment complex even though it is in town.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds from the tone and content of your writing that you have been feeling too busy. Do take care.
Is that the hat you are wearing in your archived photo area of you carrying a X'mas tree?
ReplyDeleteHow is Halloween legal extortion?
Kenju, go to the photo blog (as Murf pointed out), there is a picture of me there with the Stetson, carrying a Christmas tree.
ReplyDeleteKeda, maybe I overspoke a bit about it being an "American Holiday" but I think it's right to say that we've done it over the top. For us it's a children's holiday and we spend way to much $ on candy and decorations and stuff. With guess here from Korea and India, it was a new experience for both.
I do enjoy having kids come by (that part of halloween I always missed when I lived in places where they were no kids)
Questionable Murf: yes, that's the hat in the pic you are referring to. I just like the sounds of "legal extortion," as the two words don't really go together (extortion refers to illegal activities). But when you say "Trick-or-Treat," you're implying that if they don't give you a treat, you'll do a trick like toilet paper their yard or put a burning bag of poop on their steps so they can try to stomp it out or some other prank...
I think I recently heard that Halloween is the second most expensive consumer holiday behind Christmas. The average person spends over $200+ on costumes, candy and decorations. Legal extortion is the proper term in my opinion!
ReplyDeleteThis year it was a cold night (24 degrees) so we had only around 30 people stop by instead of the normal 200.
Sage & Ed - What kind of candy were you two giving out?
ReplyDeleteKit Kat minis and M&M minis. I have probably ten packages of other unopened stuff due to the poor showing.
ReplyDeleteOk, we need pics of you in that Stetson! ;)
ReplyDeleteHeheh, I hope you enjoyed the rest of your evening in relative peace without worrying about those potentially naughty adolescents :)
ReplyDeleteLoved your first paragraph. lol And actually, did some research and found out some very interesting info on the origins of Halloween, which I posted.
ReplyDeleteI think I saw the list of dangerous cities. I was interested to see that Birmingham made the top ten. That's near here.
Poop and fire never make for a good combinatino.
ReplyDelete