Bah humbug

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/woolgathering_/2007/10/halloween_grinch.php

Regarding competition from your neighbor's spooktacular show. There is a simple solution.

However it involves compressed air, a candle and Inkblot. And since I am rather fond of Inkblot I won't discuss the physics of the trick.

I carved one of our pumpkins after the New Yorker cover version of the Dick-o-Lantern. It does not say, "Go fuck yourself". If the small children start to cry, I'll take it in.

we get about 3 kids here most years. tonite we won't even get that, thanks to tropical storm noel. a high school classmate up north, on the other hand, puts on a big show and expects between 500 and 600 kids.

Bah humbug http://www.samefacts.com/archives/woolgathering_/2007/10/halloween_grinch.php
Posted by: Michael O'Hare

That guy, apparently, had a really lousy childhood. "Hates" the Great Pumpkin. The very idea . . .

Most of the rotten gothic teen vandals around here 'treating' are too old to be doing so and wont be getting anything but a darkened stoop.

I am unable to understand where the expression 'Happy Halloween' came from or why it is used. We have happy birthdays but merry christmas's. I noticed a few years ago people started saying 'Happy Thanksgiving,' which I did not recall people saying before. I say Bountiful or Copious Thanksgiving to wish family, friends and associates well. But what about Halloween? What would be an appropriate expression to say to people for All Hallow's Eve?

Have a beatified Halloween everyone.

Are those neighbors indulging in the accelerating professionalization of everything ?

I live in a section of our neighborhood with some odd jogs in the streets, and as a result, few trick or treaters. However, it's great for my kids: they fill up the bags in about two blocks.

Meanwhile, we keep a weather eye open for the ghost of H.P Lovecraft. He lived and died about a ten minute walk away.

Dick Cheney pumpkin? That's the cover of the New Yorker this week. Sue, Kevin, sue!

We had a decent turnout-- a lot of out-of-neighborhood parents drive their kids here: quiet streets with no through traffic (one entrance to the development) and *sidewalks*, a rarity in SE Connecticut suburbs.

Plus the weather was brisk but not cold-- perfect. And not many older kids at all, with "older" meaning teenagers too cool to dress up but not too cool to scam some freebies. If you're wearing a costume you're good for a treat, in my view.

Our neighborhood was chock full of rude kids without costumes. They show up on your doorstep and gather handfuls of candy without saying a word. Fun kids.

yeah, i always enjoy the kids who say nothing, especially the older ones. on the other hand, the kids who showed up tonite for the most part were polite and seemed to be having fun.

I'm still recycling treats from 4 years ago, when I spent my first Halloween here, expecting a hoard.

Few and fewer have showed up, and since I don't eat any of the stuff, it's been sitting in the pantry.

I haven't checked, but I sure hope that the shelf life of Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, etc. is quite long.

My two year old daughter was a black cat for all souls day. Her wicked witch mother did not get the new batteries for the digital camera. So we got it on snail film. Great. I was so looking forward to upstaging Kevin on Friday...

The Tate's live in the "neighborhood across the street"--except we are in MN, of course. But every year we close off the streets and about 1/2 the houses decorate with some kind of tableau--we had around 600 trick-or-treaters tonight. We been doing this for 24 years now; My neighbor and I organized it when our children were toddlers because we wanted them to have fun on Halloween without having to leave a place we knew they would be safe. Somehow it just grew. Now all those children are adults and other children are enjoying what we started. Through all these years, we have had a single rule: The displays go up around 4 and are taken down around 8:30. It's like Brigadoon--nothing is there, then for a couple of hours it is full of life, and then the streets are quiet again.

I've never liked scary displays--the witches, skeletons, vampires and so on--so our displays tend to be gentle. This year, at our house, we had six adults and three dogs in bee costumes in front of an 8' high "hive." My sister and I and occasional others did "bee dancing" all night to "Flight of the Bumblebee," "Honey" by Moby, "Honey Honey" by ABBA, "Honeycomb" by Jimmie Rodgers, and "Honeybee" by Gloria Gaynor.

It was a good night. I suppose we could talk about something serious--declining social capital in America, competition, the aging of America, or Christianist rejection of pagan holidays--or something, but I'm too tired. But I'm sorry to hear that your neighborhood across the street puts on such a Halloween show that you can't compete. It gets complicated, doesn't it. Their initative results in a subtle decline in your quality of life.

Kids don't shriek out "Trick or Treat!" as much anymore (and you can sense the genuineness of their sense of fun and excitement in their voices). You could probably graph the frequency of occurrence with time since WWII and find some interesting correlations. They collect candy and attend a theme park. Give it a few years and your neighbors will be charging admission, making good money, just like another Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Someone will be selling them Halloween Project Management software and advising their clients on getting any zoning or covenant problems fixed to allow the mini theme parks to proliferate. They will need to keep updated with the newest software with a good subscription, too.

Iran dumped a bag of dog crap my the porch, set it on fire, rang my doorbell, and ran away.

They sabotaged my keyboard, too. on my porch!

Pat Robertson declares Halloween a mistake for Christians.

Pat Robertson declares Halloween a mistake for Christians.

This has been going on for a few years now. Are fundies getting dumber or are their leaders getting more hard up for fundraising opportunities? I've talked to a few of them about this, and not one possessed a shred of knowledge about the pagan and Christian history and traditions associated with Oct. 31-Nov. 2. They just kept repeating, "Devil's holiday, devil's holiday."

Well, what else does Pat have to do....it isn't like he is busy monitoring the moral decline of our nation and global reputation, and saying "Devil's in the White House, Devil's in the White House."

Halloween is an easy target that doesn't endanger one, politically or morally.

PTate in MN: 600 kids? Wow, commendable. :) I got nary a ghost down here in AL.

I got invited to a Baptist Block Party. Thanks!, but no Thanks! God bless! Nice folks, but does a big "statement" have to be made over *Halloween*? I thought it was because Halloween fell on Wednesday night (church night), but no, I was told if Halloween falls on Monday night, they would go to church Sunday night and then go right back to church(or a church-sponsored event) again on Monday night.

For the seventh straight year since we moved into our house, we have had zero trick-or-treaters. I sure wish my wife would buy higher class candy for me!