Sunday, October 31, 2010

I GOT A ROCK:   Any Halloween happenings to report?  Harry Potter and vampire stuff seemed very popular this year in our neck of the woods.

66 comments:

  1. Adam C.8:40 PM

    The 9-y.o. was Hermione and the 6-y.o. was a pirate. Seems to be quieting down at our door. My wife, who stayed home to distribute while I took the girls around, says there were a lot more kids this year than last.

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  2. Adam C.8:43 PM

    The 9-y.o. was Hermione and the 6-y.o. was a pirate. Seems to be quieting down at our door. My wife, who stayed home to distribute while I took the girls around, says there were a lot more kids this year than last.

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  3. I should report that on us: Lucy -- vampire-slash-prisoner; Phoebe audibled out of dinosaur and found an old Cinderella costume of her sisters'.

    Heavy foot traffic in Society Hill tonight.

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  4. bella wilfer9:16 PM

    What does a vampire-slash-prisoner look like?  Love it.

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  5. At least in NYC, Halloween expanded to Saturday as well as Sunday--many folks wandering about in costume last night.  No real trends that I noticed, but I tend to avoid the mess--getting around below 23rd Street can be more than a little bit of a nightmare on Halloween night.

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  6. Our 7yoG was a witch.  The conspicuous trend here was a resurgence of Mario and Luigi, no doubt courtesy of Wii.  I took my daughter and her friend dressed as Mario out trick-or-treating.  At one point, my daughter said "Let's run to the next house, [name]!"  To which he replied, "Mario doesn't run.  Have you ever seen Mario run?  And have you ever seen Luigi?  He can't run!"

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  7. Maggie10:04 PM

    My three-month old niece was a chicken - in a stroller covered foil and with flames around the bottom, so it looked like a pot. My brother and sister-in-law each wore an apron and a chef's hat.  It was a giant hit. 

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  8. Course, back in the day, before he got a Kart, Mario could not only run but jump over flaming, rolling barrels.  

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  9. jessica10:18 PM

    my neighborhood in NW Philly was predominantly princesses and spidermen. and there were a surprising number of ladybugs. well, children dressed as ladybugs.

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  10. I dressed as the Statue of Liberty circa 1890, or the Statue of Liberty from the alternate reality in Fringe, if you want to be geekier, and I was surprised to discover that a lot of people didn't know the statue was not always green.

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  11. Death casts her shadow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneezypb/5131692382/

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  12. J. Bowman11:00 PM

    All I noticed was a lack of trick-or-treat etiquette: Say "trick or treat," make eye contact, grab one piece from the bowl, and if a second or third piece sticks to your hand, so be it. Don't simply reach out both hands for the bowl, grab massive handfuls, then come back for seconds.

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  13. I was a Lady Gaga zombie, but I lost the costume contest to the Dark Knight Joker in the nurse uniform. As my first time with a fully realized costume concept, I was pleased.

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  14. piledhighanddeep12:26 AM

    NINJAS.  Seriously, about a dozen or so.  Some Harry Potter, Luigi, Buzz Lightyear, pirates, etc., but seriously, what's with the ninjas?

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  15. Emily1:07 AM

    I went to the Halloween Extravaganza at St. John the Divine on Friday night. The puppets and masks were beautiful.
    There were people in costume Friday, Saturday and today here. I saw a guy on Friday night with a miner costume complete with two women walking behind him. The other one on the subway last night that got me was a woman dressed as an iceberg with a cut out Titanic on a blue plastic tray on her head.

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  16. The Pathetic Earthling2:03 AM

    The Little Earthling was Obi-Wan, the Wee Earthling was Word Girl.  Saw plenty of Harry Potters out there -- less Star Wars stuff this year than last -- a few more traditional things: knights, vampires, and the like.

    We had zero trick or treaters again this year -- we're in a good neighborhood, with plenty of kids, but we're about 40 vertical feet higher than the rest of the rather flat neighborhood.  A friend who lives down the hill from us reported 600 visitors last year.

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  17. Dan Suitor4:58 AM

    I got a last minute invitation to a Halloween get-together, so I would up tossing together a "hickster" costume. Part hick and part hipster, my flannel shirt and puffy vest contrasted well with the cut-off shorts and overly ornate scarf.

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  18. lisased6:52 AM

    Our kids were Neytiri and an Inidan princess, and I dressed up as vampire Drucilla. I saw a few Mad Hatters, which surprised me. We ended the night in the emergency room -- the Indian princess, who wanted to be "authentic", refused to wear shoes after a while and cut her toe. The ER had only one costumed kid -- a skeleton.

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  19. isaac_spaceman8:10 AM

    What are you talking about?  In Super Mario Brothers Wii, he runs so fast that he leans

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  20. My one-year-old twins went as a Goth (black hair, whitish makeup, black eyeliner, black onesie, and a surly disposition) and a Punk (blue hair, Ramones onesie, flannel shirt). I went as Grunge (old ripped jeans, flannel shirt over a faded t-shirt) because, in all honesty, I need to do laundry.

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  21. Sorry, Isaac -- I don't think my daughter's 6-year-old friend reads this blog, so he won't be able to respond. 

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  22. Black and white horizontally striped shirt, powdered-and-made-up face, fangs.

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  23. Stevie9:25 AM

    I saw someone dressed as Darth Vader waiting at a bus stop, which was all I really needed.

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  24. sconstant9:27 AM

    Best I saw was a teacher at school, who did the glam-crazy-fashion-blond-wig thing, except that her crazy fashion accessories were made out of 30 or 40 convenience store coffee cups sliced and : Lady Wawa.

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  25. sconstant9:28 AM

    <span>Best I saw was a teacher at school, who did the glam-crazy-fashion-blond-wig thing, except that her crazy fashion accessories were made out of 30 or 40 convenience store coffee cups sliced and diced, and thus she was: Lady Wawa.</span>

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  26. Genevieve9:34 AM

    I just "like" all of these, but it's getting tiresome/pushy to keep clicking "Like" . . . .

    The kiddo was Undead Spongebob - we zombified a Spongebob costume by painting it mottled grey-green, making the eyes pink and bloodshot, making the teeth greenish, tattering the shirt/pants, and painting the sponge holes blood-red.  In the daytime, this was clear, but in the dark, most houses just thought he was regular Spongebob, failing to notice that he carried Patrick Star on a pole, attached by cartoonish intestines (red electrical wire) and with Patrick's brain exposed.

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  27. bill.9:49 AM

    plenty of cats, princesses, and zombies (including Dead Justin Bieber). Also, too many parents are ok with their daughters dressing as Slutty McWhoresalot.

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  28. Watts9:57 AM

    The one I didn't know, even after the trick-or-treater told me what she was, was "Pinkalicious."   Had to look it up to find out it was a children's book.

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  29. sconstant9:59 AM

    The Sluttly McWhoresalot thing is just seeping younger from the "sexy [any noun.  we mean it, ANY noun AT ALL]" thing that the women's costume market has become.  Best take on this: http://www.cracked.com/article_18834_26-sexy-halloween-costumes-that-shouldnt-exist.html

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  30. Michelle10:08 AM

    We saw lots of girls and boys in superhero costumes... mostly Batman & Ironman.  Couple of princesses, fairies and cats.  There were also quite a few dinosaurs, which seems like a great costume for little kids since it's nice and warm.

    Among our friends who have children, there was a Batman & Robin duo (the son chose Robin, so dad was Batman), a Super Mario, and a Jayna from Wonder Twins.

    I was a UGA football player (courtesy of my husband's Knowshon Moreno jersey) and he was a Hogwarts student sporting his Gryffindor tie & robe from Dervish & Banges at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Geeky awesome.

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  31. Heather K10:20 AM

    Friends of mine throw an 'inappropriately sexy' themed costume party every year.  Faves from this year were the host and hostess as "Sexy Oregon Trail" which involved a bonnet, a prairie dress made mini and a note pinned to her that says Katie has dysentery what do you do 1) wait a few days and rest. . .etc.  But the highlight was a female friend who went as sexy Zack Galifinakis (too lazy to check the spelling) which involved the hangover costume with hot pants instead of cargo shorts and a cabbage patch baby and of course a big fuzzy beard.

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  32. I stuck my head into one of the many Ricky's pop-up costume emporiums (emporia?) in the city on Saturday night, and noted, in addition to "Sexy Big Bird," "Sexy Elmo" and "Sexy Cookie Monster."  To be fair, they also had a fair share of male costumes which were devoted to the concept of "I have something large and long sticking out of my pants" (e.g., a firehose, the trunk of an "elephant").

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  33. I'll be the grinch here, but I'm really over adults dressing up - unless they're doing it with or for kids (see Lady Wawa above).   While I've seen some creative costumes (nothing that blew my mind), I felt like Halloween went for three days this year- people dressing up on Friday for school, Saturday because it was Saturday (?) and Sunday because it was Halloween.  I guess I am Halloween weary at this point.  Have they put up the stuff for Valentine's Day yet??

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  34. Marsha10:56 AM

    Took about 15 doors before my three year old got the sequence down. My repetitions of "What do we say....?" often ended up with the "trick or treat" and the "thank you" coming out in the wrong order. About half-way through we managed to settle in to him knocking, yelling "Trick or treat! I'm a doggie! Thank you!" as soon as they opened the door, and then having to be blocked in so he would stick around to get the actual candy. Insanely cute, but exhausting!

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  35. Marsha10:57 AM

    Ouch! So sorry to hear it!

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  36. Marsha10:58 AM

    We saw an entire extended family dressed as a good portion of the Star Wars universe - Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader, a few Storm Troopers... the baby in the stroller was Yoda. Was fabulous.

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  37. Marsha11:01 AM

    http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/a-great-excuse-not-to-hand-out-halloween-candy/

    A sign left outside a darkened house in my neighborhood Halloween night:
    Sorry we are not home tonight.  We got called away to an emergency meeting of the Delaware Witches Association.  One of the members keeps saying “I am not a witch,” and we are having a vote to decide whether she should be thrown out of the association.  See you next year.

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  38. J. Bowman11:15 AM

    Halloween is more exciting if the cars can't see you.

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  39. That's pretty awesome. My niece loved that book. Was she just dressed all in pink? Did she have a pink cupcake with her? 

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  40. That's pretty awesome. My niece loved that book. Was she just dressed all in pink? Did she have a pink cupcake with her? 

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  41. That's pretty awesome. My niece loved that book. Was she just dressed all in pink? Did she have a pink cupcake with her? 

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  42. I wanted to go as a Stormtrooper, but Princess Leia said I was a little short for that (well, technically she asked, but you could tell where she stood on the issue).

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  43. ren090112:07 PM

    Reporting from the south burbs of Chicago, also plenty of ninjas and black cats. Darth Vader and R2-D2 made an appearance as did assorted princesses (can't distinguish one from the other).

    A sad trend though - older kids not bothering to come in costume or bring a goodie sack (just putting out their hands - seriously). C'mon, where's the effort?

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  44. Meghan12:10 PM

    My 11-month-old is a biter at day care.  Thus, she was dressed as a shark for her first Halloween.

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  45. Meghan12:10 PM

    My 11-month-old is a biter at day care.  Thus, she was dressed as a shark for her first Halloween.

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  46. Halloween in college is awesome.  That is all.

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  47. lisased1:00 PM

    Ah yes. Standard last-minute uniform for girls in my dorm: Playboy Bunny. 

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  48. Watts1:05 PM

    We got our fair share of the no costume set - but most of them were carrying plastic grocery sacks.  Heard someone on the radio railing about it this morning, "That's not trick or treating, it's just BEGGING."

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  49. Watts1:07 PM

    She looked just like the cover on the book - but I didn't see a cupcake.  If I were her, I would have already eaten it.  Which, as I now understand it, would be perfectly keeping in character.

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  50. Watts1:15 PM

    I'm not keen on Halloween parties so much, but Athens is a lot of fun on Halloween.  There's the general bar crawl in costume aspect, and this year was the second year of the Wild Rumpus - a costume parade with people randomly playing musical instruments and dancing.  Oh, and the Rumpus also includes art cars. 

    There also used to be the BOObutante (our local AIDS charity is the Boybutante Foundation.  They have the Boybutante Ball every spring; this is an offshoot) but it doesn't seem to have happened this year.

    And this year, the downtown festivities were mostly on Saturday, not Sunday, because we have blue laws that prevent most of our bars from being open on Sundays.

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  51. Adam C.1:21 PM

    This is great, but there was also a missed opportunity to create the firstest, bestest, Sharktopus costume in history.

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  52. Hmmm.  At my college it was Andrea Dworkin.  I think I got the short end of that stick.  

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  53. That kid is totally adorable. 

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  54. I live in an apartment building in Queens, so we never get any trick or treaters. However, we see them outside on the streets - it seems that the tradition is to trick-or-treat at the shops rather than the apartments, which is a nice neighborhoody tradition.  I saw a lot of little boys as Iron Man and dragons.

    Here's my complaint - what's up with Christmas starting before Halloween!  Macy's already has the start of their decorations up as of Saturday, and my neighborhood started to put up their decorations over Queens Blvd. on Friday. 

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  55. spacewoman2:37 PM

    We had a 7 year old Mario, but my efforts to convince his brother to go as Mario's brother Luigi failed.  Our 4.5 year old Darth Vader met several Han Solos (Hans Solo?) on the trail, and let's just say it was awkward every time.

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  56. spacewoman2:38 PM

    Spaceboy 2.0 is totally getting into this blog!

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  57. spacewoman2:40 PM

    isaac reports that he saw someone in a "sexy woman" costume.  that was pretty much it.

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  58. bella wilfer3:18 PM

    Genius. Well done.

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  59. christy in nyc3:43 PM

    1. When I was in third grade, a classmate came to school dressed for Halloween as a "hooker." This sticks in my head because at the time I didn't know what a hooker was, and I'm not sure the kid did either. I don't remember what she wore, but I do remember it included a garter. Thus the little kids dressed as whores trend is both literal and at least 20 years old.

    2. I have to admit to being a bit weary of making fun of sexy Halloween costumes, but I do think it would be fun to go to an "inappropriately sexy" costume party, given that the attendees were truly inventive. That's not easy because the sincerely sexy Halloween options have gotten quite broad at this point. Sexy Oregon Trail is a great idea.

    3. I think the Sexy Big Bird costume is actually kind of cute.

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  60. Your comments are going to randomly pop up and make me so sad for the next four years.

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  61. calliekl4:30 PM

    Funniest thing that happened to us while handing out candy was a group of 5-6 y.o.'s (3 or 4 of them) yelling Happy Hanukkah! instead of the more traditional Happy Halloween. My husband was on the floor laughing.

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  62. Michelle4:43 PM

    This reminds me that one of the adults walking with kids through our neighborhood (at least I really hope he was with someone and not just creeping) was a guy in street clothes and a Big Bird head.  I saw him from afar and found it unsettling.

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  63. christy in nyc5:13 PM

    My FB wall is overflowing with Marios and Luigis. I most appreciate my friend who not only got the kids to dress up together, but managed to get the OLDER (and thus taller) sibling to be Luigi.

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  64. Genevieve10:40 AM

    We had a ninja in a white outfit - better for cars.

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  65. Genevieve10:44 AM

    We had a high schooler who was gotten up in a full penguin suit, the fleecy kind with head attached that I stuffed my kiddo into about 7 years ago.  I definitely appreciated her effort.  Her much-less-effort friend at least did something -- he had glow bracelets strung all around one leg, and attached in a pattern on his sweatshirt.  Don't know if he was trying to be something specific.

    Wish I'd seen a Dr. Horrible -- just saw a pic of one at the rally, with a sign that said "I have a Ph.D. in Horribleness."

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  66. Genevieve10:48 AM

    Were you at school with Elle Woods?

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