A Happy Halloween to all of the ghouls, ghosts, witches, or mere enablers on our blog! Tonight promises to be frenzy of trick or treaters in Virginia with great weather.
Our house is decked out for our evening arrivals. I love this holiday. Every year we add a couple of new items to the decorations.
Of course, the uninhibited aspect of the holiday is becoming a problem on some campuses. We have been following efforts to ban or deter costumes like American Indian outfits as culturally or racially offensive. Now various universities have started programs for students to call hot lines to check if their Halloween costumes are deemed offensive. State University of New York at Geneseo has posters that read “Unsure if your costume might be offensive? Don’t be afraid to ask questions.” Students are given the number for five costume advisors to avoid anything offensive. Other schools are following suit to deter costumes that could be viewed as insulting to any group or culture. Wesleyan University has six contact numbers and warns students not to select costumes that “mock cultural or religious symbols such as dreadlocks . . . ”
There is a concern that we are instilling a hyper-sensitivity among students who are prone to claim “micro-aggressions” and implied slights to their cultural or nationality or group identifications as we recently discussed.
Fortunately, there remains a far degree of spontaneity and tolerance when the kids that come by the house. We are ready with a truck load of candy. We still have one trick or treater of our own to walk tonight (which means that I can secretly search the Halloween loot for Reece’s Cups).
Have a great Halloween and try not to drive (or at least drive slowly) to avoid all of the kids running from house to house. Happy Halloween!!!
Not that many kids this year. Neighborhoods go in cycles. When my kids were little the neighborhood was filled w/ kids. Now, a lotta empty nesters. In a decade or two, it will turn over again. The circle of life.
Paul, Went to see Bridge of Spies. Good flick, not great. Spielberg does a very good job giving the look and feel of the Cold War, my favorite historical topic.
All the little goblins will get all wet and cold, hot cocoa time.
Inga – I have been out with a parka on over my costume. Candy waits for no child.
We’re having rainy weather this Halloween. The National weather Service says it never rains half the time, but I seem to remember it always be rainy and cold
There is a real problem with playing college football on Halloween because they keep moving the ghoul posts.
Don de Drain – groan.
Don’t let the ghouls get ya!
http://youtu.be/tai8wuLcNLg
Even though we don’t have trick or treaters, that doesn’t stop us from having bowls of candy available for Halloween. 😉 We buy the things we like….mini Baby Ruth bars, Snickers, Butterfingers, Almond Joy. Juuuuuust in case….right? of course since we don’t have the kids coming, we are forced to eat the candy ourselves. Oh darn.
DBQ – buy them the next day. They are half price.
Frank, Always good to see you. These holiday posts attract the good people, and seem to have troll repellent as well!
Steg, LOL!
https://youtu.be/l2PoSljk8cE
Be sure to check your kids candy. Very rare, but bad stuff does happen once in awhile.
http://img.ifcdn.com/images/10de10a493aac27900e0e9d257280c9959cdc3df44e592c40d46a3b63f281ee2_1.jpg
Steg – to the best of my knowledge (although I don’t keep up religiously) nothing has been found to injure kids.
We never get trick or treating children in our area. The driveways are too long, too dark and usually covered in snow. So all the fun that I remember from my youth of dashing from house to house with a big bag to get the loot, is something that these kids never knew. Instead the community hosts a Halloween party at the VFW hall. It is an opportunity for the small kids to wear their costumes, participate in games and decorate cookies, and of course EAT them afterwards. There are hot dogs, punch and other foods. The parents all get dressed up in costumes as well as the kids. Lots of fun.
The older kiddos will attend parties at some parent’s houses or in their barns. Single adults and childless couples usually attend a party and dance at the Fairgrounds where adult beverages are served. More good fun. No one gave one iota of thought as to whether dressing like an Indian, wearing a sombrero, being a genie, Mad Max road warrior or a character from the Rocky Horror Picture Show was offensive or insulting. No. One. Cared. It was all for fun and to see how creative we could be.
One year we went as Killer Bees. Wore long johns that had been dyed yellow, the legs and arms black and the bodies striped. We stuffed them full so we were very rotund. Made black cardboard tubes as stingers on our butts and had antennae on our heads. Faces painted too of course. We all carried our Daisy BB rifles and plastic swords. Killer….Bees….get it??? Some people got it right away. No one was offended or afraid. Today someone might faint at the sight.
Now that the SJWs insist that we all have to toe a politically correct line and not offend anyone, anywhere, anytime, even inadvertently, they are truly sucking the fun out of life. What a generation of prudish, church lady like, sourpusses. Joyless, colorless, drab lives they want us to live. I hope they all have conniption fits and die before they completely destroy the ability or the world to enjoy life.
I’m reviewing the Salem witch trials of 1692.
The trials resulted in the executions of 20 people, most of them women, and most by hanging. 12 other women had previously been executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut during
the 17th century. Despite being generally known as the Salem witch trials, the preliminary hearings in 1692 were conducted in several towns: Salem Village (now Danvers),
Salem Town, Ipswich and Andover. The most infamous trials were conducted by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town.
There is a report that a wheat harvest was contaminated with tares. When bread was made from contaminated tares and eaten, this caused the strange behavior.
Isaac, As a kid, Halloween was my favorite. It was the consummate holiday for kids. For 20 years, my bride and I had a Halloween party in our garage. It was the last stop for kids and parents before going home. I remembered, as a kid, the sudden end to the night. All the excitement, and then the last candy stop, and home. So, we gave out hot dogs, hot chocolate, soda, beer[shots as well], popcorn. We had games, like bobbing for apples w/ prizes. We would give out 200-250 hot dogs and a lotta candy. It was a lotta work, but a lotta fun. The weather in Wisconsin on Halloween has wide swings. We had nights in the 30’s to the 70’s. Damp and cold one this year.
Halloween used to be a wonderful moment of soft aggressiveness where kids could ‘scare’ and be rewarded. There were pranks but nothing serious. Kids made up their own costumes and for parents that was the charm, a parade of inventive costumes with kids having fun. We live in an extremely conservative and therefore staid neighborhood. One year during the administration of the three stooges I dressed my 9 yr old son in a costume resembling a bush. The bush went up to the door and a hand came out. A couple of parents got it but most were oblivious.
It’s still a fun moment during the year when kids and some adults can exit their daily lives. It is probably the oldest festival of inner expression in mankind, predating any religion.
I will stay in and watch college football.
Halloween is so PC that the kids only come out before dark. I have given up on part of our culture.
Hope the weather is good tonight
The Science Geek
http://www.thesciencegeek.org
I don’t usually watch Bill Maher but he had David Spade on so I watched some. Maher is a smug, a-hole but he is strong on free speech and PC. He does a funny and poignant bit on costumes, and how PC is driving many people away from Democrats.
I watched a hilarious video from Middlebury College about PC costumes. I swear it was like an SNL, skit only deadly serious. Bruce Jenner costumes are the big taboo this year.
Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are my kids favorites. I like Almond Joy and Snickers. There is a local ice cram company that makes a superb ice cream they called, Almond Joy. It tastes just like the candy. They got a cease and desist letter. It’s now, Coconut Almond Bliss. Our litigious culture.