Busy blog morning. You just never know what you’re going to find when you launch Google News, do you? Today I discover that the guy in Florida who was stabbed in the heart by the stingray? Was a local. Floridians must think that everyone in the world comes from Ohio or Michigan.
And now it’s pushing 11 and I haven’t done my 30 minutes of erg torture. So I’ll leave you with a quick photo and an invitation to make merry in the comments.
A little background: A few days ago, one of my favorite lemon-sucking conservative crones, Mona Charen, made a remark on the National Review’s Corner site that “childhood now ends at 8,” and girls older than that are only interested in being “vamps” for Halloween.
Please note: Charen has no daughters of her own. And you know what? She’s not only a lemon-sucking crone, she’s wrong:
Please do not look too closely at the craftsmanship on Little Red Riding Hood’s signature item. I am but mortal.
Danny said on October 19, 2006 at 11:08 am
Great costume for Kate, Nance, but you have some work ahead of you if Spriggy is going to pass for the big bad wolf.
We don’t normally do anything on Halloween except answer the door in straw hats and overalls with our hill-billy teeth in.
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Laura said on October 19, 2006 at 11:30 am
Watch out! There’s a ghost mom (with a camera) in the shot.
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Jennifer said on October 19, 2006 at 11:30 am
“but you have some work ahead of you if Spriggy is going to pass for the big bad wolf.”
I was thinking the same thing.
Cute pooch!
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Marcia said on October 19, 2006 at 11:38 am
Oh, what a beautiful Ms. Riding Hood.
Ooo, in honor of both Halloween and the art of maternal costume making, I’m going to post a cool pic of my kid from last year on my blog. I was quite pleased with my work.
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colleen said on October 19, 2006 at 11:45 am
Kate’s so cute. In pix, she always looks contented and self assured. I hope she never ever loses that!
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Dorothy said on October 19, 2006 at 11:54 am
I have never seen Kate in person, but even I can tell she’s getting so TALL! She’s a cutie pie for sure. Good job on the cape! Would you make one for me? I have the pattern and the wool plaid – just haven’t worked up the nerve to cut into the fabric yet.
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nancy said on October 19, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Actually she’s not that tall at all — on the short side, compared to her peers. But she is very thin, which makes her look taller. This summer I finally threw out a bathing suit Alan bought for her when she was … four. In 2001. She wore it four straight years and probably could have squeezed another out of it, but I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore.
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mary said on October 19, 2006 at 2:17 pm
We’re thinking of doing a Halloween costume of a dog bed. I’m going to cut a head hole, arm holes and open one of the short sides completely of a rectangular dog bed, and attach a giant stuffed lab in a reclining position to it. My son will walk around with a dog bed on him, and if he lies down, it will look very normal. In the past my kids have been jellyfish, preying mantises, pterodactyls, fruit bats, zebras, and clowns. Last year Peter made his own costume from things gathered at the thrift store. He was an old fart.
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brian stouder said on October 19, 2006 at 2:36 pm
fruit bats could be lots of fun….
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dwight the troubled teen said on October 19, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Every Halloween, I try to anticipate what the pop-culture costume of the year will be. (i.e. Bill and Monica, OJ Simpson in his collarless court outfit, Donald Rumsfeld, Sadam Hussein in his collarless court outfit, etc.)
After this post I suddenly put two and two together to realize that this year’s Halloween meme will be Dead Steve Irwin with a plastic manta ray hanging from his chest.
Nice costume, Nancy. That perfect Red Riding Hood cape was harder than to make than meets the eye, I’m sure.
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mary said on October 19, 2006 at 2:50 pm
The fruit bat suits were really good. I forgot they were knights one year, which was very nice as well.
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Connie said on October 19, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I am planning on being whatever the Halloween version of the grinch is. Teenage kid is off to college, neighborhood has few kids, and I am not in the mood to spend bucks on candy for strangers. Think I will keep the lights off and hide in the lower level family room. Bah humbug.
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colleen said on October 19, 2006 at 3:20 pm
I have the perfect costume for my husband and me. His name is Steve. He would dress as…himself. And I would dress as a carton of Edy’s ice cream. And we would be…Steve and Edie!
Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people around who would get it…..
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Danny said on October 19, 2006 at 3:38 pm
colleen, hilarious, but you are right about the demographics.
Dwight, that Steve Irwin one sounds really funny. Are you going to try it?
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brian stouder said on October 19, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Thanks to the Scooby Doo movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar (pronounced gelLAR, btw) our 8 year old daughter is going to be Daphne, but our 11 year old son has no desire to be Freddie and wear the silly ascot (I think mom laughed too much when she pitched the idea) – so he is going to be a WWII soldier…
and our 2 year old daughter is going to be DeeDee Doodlebop – who is a bluesy-jazzy-rock star on a Disney-fied Canadian children’s program called the Doodlebops, which Chloe loves! The show is a nice mix of musical whimsy and comedy; we bought tix to the live Doodlebops show, when they come to Indy next month.
In fact, I’m looking forward to it (truth be told); when DeeDee (aka Lisa Lennox) sings Tap Tap Tap – kids’ show or not – you’re up and shakin’ it!
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Danny said on October 19, 2006 at 4:12 pm
The show is a nice mix of musical whimsy and comedy; we bought tix to the live Doodlebops show, when they come to Indy next month.
Don’t forget your bic lighter! Rock on!
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mary said on October 19, 2006 at 4:15 pm
One year I worked in an office that had a mandatory Halloween fun rule, and we all had to dress up. I convinced a short roundish male colleague to be Boris to my Natasha.
Luckily, this place does not encourage employees to dress in costume. It would be pretty disturbing to patients to have mummies doing their blood tests and things.
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brian stouder said on October 19, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Boris Badanov – marvelous! If he had the black fedora and trench coat, and the Groucho Marx eyebrows – and if you towered over him with the Zsa Zsa accent and the pulled back black hair, voila!
Natasha wore a strapless dress, yes? – or did she have spaghetti straps?
(I never shoulda’ let Pam get me hooked into Project Runway; my nascent ‘fashion consciousness’ is vaguely unsettling)
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Danny said on October 19, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Mary, you are right. My wife has an interesting story about something similar. She was in a roll over car accident about 15 or so years ago. Reallly shaken up, but not hurt (thankfully). She got taken to the hospital to get checked out and they were doing an disaster emergency drill with people all dressed up with fake injuires.
When the medical staff rushed her through, ignoring all of these other people with much more horrible situations, she freaked out a little and questioned the doctor who informed her of the drill. She then just started sobbing because she really was beside herself with the whole day’s ordeal.
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nancy said on October 19, 2006 at 5:06 pm
I’d be interested in hearing from a medical professional about the utility of those drills. Of course it’s important to practice, but sometimes I think they exist solely to provide low-hanging fruit for local TV news. (Yes, and newspapers.) Notice how often they ask reporters to play patients in these little dramas.
And not to take anything away from your wife’s experience, Danny, if I had blood drawn on Halloween by someone dressed as Dracula, I think that would be pretty amusing.
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Dorothy said on October 19, 2006 at 5:13 pm
“And not to take anything away from your wife’s experience, Danny, if I had blood drawn on Halloween by someone dressed as Dracula, I think that would be pretty amusing.”
I’m with you! I’d probably ask the phlebotomist to put a couple drops of my blood on my neck, too, just to play along. Then ring for the nurse.
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mary said on October 19, 2006 at 6:03 pm
The Boris guy was about 5’5″ and I’m 5’10”, and I wore heels. My dress had straps. I did the blue eyeshadow and red lips thing, and had a cigarette holder.
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mary said on October 19, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Oh, and we do disaster drills. Earthquakes to be precise. All the schools do them too. It’s on the news sometimes here, but they get done a lot here on the faultline.
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mouse's moom said on October 19, 2006 at 7:18 pm
My favorite costume mom in the youth theatre world always says, “if it’s done, it’s perfect.” For a few years when my kids were little, I made elaborate Halloween costumes for them. Around the time they were in middle school, I more or less gave up. You guys go do yer own costumes! And they did.
Kate’s costume is great! And healthy, skinny kids are great too, mine were always like that and still are as young adults.
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joodyb said on October 19, 2006 at 7:19 pm
so cute. i am tearing up. what a cam-ham that spriggy is!
kids everywhere: hang on to childhood for as long as you can.
my young kerouac threatens to dress up yet again this year.
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Danny said on October 19, 2006 at 8:11 pm
My favorite was a few years ago at work. One of my friends, a British ex-pat, came in dressed as Ozzy. Black wig, leather pants, torn tee, ink spelling O-Z-Z-Y on his knuckles and lots of chains.
This is on the engineering design floor. What a hoot.
joodyb, is this your inner-Kerouac or your son? Just curious. I too went through my Kerouac-Kesey-Morrison phase in youth.
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Mindy said on October 20, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Nice costume for Kate; good job, Mom. A current ad in my sewing magazines reads, “Halloween would be fun again if everyone sewed.” Or something like that.
I’m late to the party here because I spent Thursday making my own costume. A poodle skirt. The party is tonight, ’50s costumes required. And let me tell you, poodle skirts are for scrawny teenyboppers and not fat forty-somethings. The thing makes me look like the world’s biggest lampshade.
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ashley said on October 20, 2006 at 9:20 pm
My goal for this halloween and every one following is to finally create the perfect Ignatius Reilly costume.
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Danny said on October 21, 2006 at 9:40 am
Don’t do it, ashley! Don’t you know there is a curse associated with that role? Wikipedia says Belushi, Candy and Farley were all variously mentioned as possibilities.
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ashley said on October 21, 2006 at 12:35 pm
There is no proper geometry and theology with your argument, Danny, but alas, I must do it to avenge the horror of the last person cast to that role.
Will Farrell.
What were they thinking? Did they actually read the book?
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