And more about tricks than treats.

I'm confident that I paid my debt to society by shaving my beard off and plastering my face with glue and makeup for last year's workplace Hallowe'en celebration, so I decided to go a bit easier on myself this year.  My 2011 costume was nothing more than an oversized version of my workplace ID card with an appropriate hole where the picture goes - said hole to be occupied by my actual face.

However, after last year's prize-winning zombie look, people at work have been curious as to what I was planning for a follow-up. Agatha, a member of our labour relations group, asked what I was going as this year, and I replied, "Myself."  Before I could explain further, she replied, "That's not very scary!" *

Frankly, I was surprised to get that response, but I was also somewhat pleased as well. It's good to find someone who still remembers that Hallowe'en is supposed to be about fear.

Yes, fear.  October 31st used to be a celebration of fear, where we went out, long after our usual bedtimes, into a night that youthful imagination peopled with a myriad of monsters.  But it was also an education in some ways, because it taught children that the monsters were just that, imaginary creations, with the comforting presence of a parental hand to hold onto as proof that it really was safe.

In recent years, Hallowe'en has transitioned into much more of an adult holiday (in both senses of the word).  Gone are the days of Hallowe'en being nothing but parents tolerantly marching their children door-to-door in search of goodies - today's Hallowe'en is more of a bacchanalian event, an event that provides license for costumes that are more about sex than candy.  What a terrible loss!  As strange as it sounds, I sincerely hope that lots of small children go out tonight and have the most frightening time of their lives.

Oh, and P.S. - Agatha won the prize at work this year for Scariest Costume.

- Sid

* Thank you, Agatha, that's the nicest thing that an attractive woman has said to me for quite some time. 

The introductory comic is by Randy Milholland.  http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html