I just got some kind of mouse with 2 big swords, and before that, some kind of thing with a white headpiece and some red I don't know what, and then there was a bear — I got that — whose companion was dressed as — apparently — a ceiling fan.
Halloween is hard for me now that I don't watch any kids' shows and movies and I don't know the video games
October 31, 2019
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hmm. Was it a wireless mouse?
Could the mouse be Reepiceep, from the Narnia novels?
You answered the door???
On of my favorite Althouse posts ever. I am not sure I can cogently articulate why.
The wild animals keep the kids away. A bit jealous I am...
Top this. A local troupe all dressed as the "My Pillow Guy" - blue shirts, fake mustaches, all holding pillows and singing.
Of course they were drinking..........
Very funny.
LOCK THE DOOR! TURN OUT THE LIGHTS! HANG OUT GARLIC!
De debil will gets ya if yous don't watch out!
Reepiceep seems a better fit than Splinter from TNMT. Both are decades old characters.
Whole bunch of people in San Francisco tenderloin costumed as homeless druggies. Group effort, pretty darn good!
I don't expect many this year, it's cold and snow is on the mountains. But it is better than yesterday when the temperature was in the teens.
I like sounds of delight at my door when they realize they're getting full-sized candy bars.
Only 20 so far. The cold is keeping some away I think. Plus neighbors on both sides are gone, so getting to our house means skipping an empty house.
"Could the mouse be Reepiceep, from the Narnia novels?"
No, because he made a point of waving 2 swords, one in each hand/paw... and it wasn't an epee sort of thing but machetes!
"I like sounds of delight at my door when they realize they're getting full-sized candy bars."
I'm doing full-size, yet not one kid has exclaimed over that. They're not even into getting to pick which one they want — Kit Kat... Milky Way... whatever... They don't seem to care. Maybe because I'm getting little kids.
I've been doing the very absurd thing of Googling to try to figure out what the hell character that kid was supposed to be.
In the old days, it was very common to just ask the kid, "What are you supposed to be?"
Now, I'm like: Kidland is entirely foreign, so what's the use of asking? How will I understand?
I would have guessed the mouse was one of the characters from the Redwall series, but the newest book is 8 years old.
Was the white head/red body Cuphead perhaps? That game was just released on switch in April, so it's timely. Interestingly, that game raised some questions about ethical journalism - a games "journalist" recorded himself struggling to get through the tutorial, and then that video was published right alongside the article where he complained about the difficulty of the game. For a time, the gamer community and games journalists argued over the question "Do games journalists need to know how to play video games?" Gamers and developers both came down on the Yes side, journalists, unsurprisingly, said "No, journalists don't need to know anything about the subject they're reporting on."
I have no idea about the ceiling fan.
I have to say that Hersheys with almonds are not popular compared to Reese's, KitKats and plain chocolate bars. We didn't even buy the boxes with Peanut M&Ms -- no one took those last year.
I just learned that we're the second place that the last bunch of 5th grade boys (I'm guessing) have been to that has full-sized.
We had the cutest little boy, shepherded by a father and two doting older sisters. He wasn't sure about the "Trick or Treat" incantation, but when he saw me dropping candy into his sisters' plastic pumpkins he knew to hold his out.
About a half hour ago the skies opened up and it poured like Noah's Flood, which cut down on the kids coming around. It's slacked off a bit so the older and more intrepid children are out and about. Even so we're going to have lots of candy left over, I fear. Big Mike will get bigger,but only in the horizontal dimension.
Kidland is entirely foreign, so what's the use of asking? How will I understand?
But it would give you a starting point for your Google search, wouldn't it?
I have to ask my grandkids who the costumes are, what movies and TV shows they’re from.
I am Groot.
Mouse with a sword I'm thinking Matthias from Redwall, but 2 machetes...I don't know.
My mother loves the DragonCon parade with all the homemade costumes and I used to have to explain a good portion of the characters to her, but last time we went I had to have my nephew help me with a fair portion of them, so I know how you feel Professor!
Once it gets into anime characters I'm lost, and anime seems very popular these days. Kids!
Could it be Crime Fighter Ninja Cat?
I never heard of it either, but you can buy the merchandise on line.
We have an artsy group-house up the street. This year's show included a fire twirler.
We are following the example of the Coneheads, and giving out fried eggs and beer.
Full size candy bars lend an air of legitimacy.
I have noticed that Skittles are getting shunned.
Maybe tartness is rejected by the very young.
I've got kids and I have no idea what they were supposed to be. Mine were: Carmen San Diego, a demented doctor, the grim reaper, Pac Man, and Elena of Avalor (Disney Princess).
Even nickel Hershey bars are not full size anymore besides now costing 89 cents plus tax.
We get almost no one, since we live on a small hill and people are too lazy to walk up it. My wife got snickers bars this year, she usually just gets one type, due to the small number who show up.
Skaven are commonly depicted with two machete-like swords. Warhammer isn't a kid thing though - it's math and a two-inch thick rulebook.
When I was young, I can remember kids going as Star trek Spock or Luke skywalker and the the adults looking puzzled when they were told who they were. I usually just went as a Pirate. An eyepatch, cutlass, and pirate hat and i was ready to go. And one year I went as a girl, my mother wanted me too. Never asked her what that was all about.
When it looks weird, I just assume they're a harry potter character.
300 trick or treaters so far. We’re a little down this year because it’s colder than normal in North Texas this year.
A guy in the neighborhood dressed as Santa and handed out candy canes. It all my kid could talk about when she got home.
Having gotten a couple inches of snow, the first snow Halloween in a long time
.. I have to say it was brilliant.
Bummed that no one is giving out licorice this year as kiddo always gave all of hers to me.
Maybe the machetes were for cutting cane, so his character was a field mouse. And maybe the other kid simply went as a ceiling fan. Wish I'd have thought of that back in the day.
I left out 82 tootsie treats, rolls and bars and fruity tootsies. Half gone by 8:15, rustle rustle rustle, all gone by 8:30.
Dog quiet, cold contained, lights out.
My 18 month old trick or treated for the first time, just a few houses. After she was exclaimed over -- she was very adorable as a little butterfly -- and candy was deposited into her bucket, she very solemnly tried to put the candy back into the giver's bowl.
Her smart 3 year old sister, also a butterfly, was met at one door by a lady dressed as a cat with full face makeup. My girl took her measure and then said, "You are a cat for Halloween, and I am a beautiful butterfly. Please don't chase me and try to bat me with your paw. It would hurt me."
My 13 year old dressed, along with her friends, as some group of characters that I did not recognize from Stranger Things which I do not watch. My 9 year old was adamant that he wanted to make a ghost costume from a sheet like Charlie Brown in The Great Pumpkin, but the wind blew it everywhere and he kept tripping and it was a bust. Dispiriting, but he got all the leftover candy at Casa Pants when I shut off the porch light at 9 pm so that was a consolation prize.
The 16 year old worked at a charity haunted house and the 18 year old has a full slate of activities away at college, including a party at her church. Wholesome!
Many DragonCons ago, I passed the threshold of being unable to identify half of the cosplay projects I saw. Eventually, I settled on shrugging and saying, "Must be anime."
Which makes sense. An anime artist can come up with a new character or costume with a few strokes of a pen and a lick of paint. The 'costume' doesn't have to hang right, move right, be wearable by a human being or practical in any way.
This is how you get the spectacle of a fifteen-year-old in a loincloth and Aztec headdress carrying around an eight-foot long, papier mache sword for four days.
Two of the women at my work dressed up as what I thought were Mario and Yoshi from the Super Mario Nintendo game. When I said this the one looked at me with a mix of concern and disgust. Apparently they were actually "Ash Ketchum" and a dragon from Pokemon. And also apparently I'm supposed to be the one who was embarrassed by this situation...??
"In the old days, it was very common to just ask the kid, "What are you supposed to be?"
I still ask it. Even if I don't know who or what the character is. I'll ask one of my daughters. They usually know. I also tell them to ,"say the words and the candy will come out." Except for the tiny ones. They always seem a little confused by the whole thing, but mom or dad is there so it must be alright.
We ended up with about 75 kids. The last one who came got about 8 full-sized Reese's/KitKats dumped into his pillow case. I was ready for bed (it was 8!) Lights out!
I ended up burying all the candy under the Hershey's with Almonds, so the kids took those. That's why I ended up with KitKats and Reese's (far superior, IMO)
I'm not on the full size candy bar train. I distribute candy by volume, not by count, each kid gets a giant handful of random fun-size candies. On a by-weight basis I think the kids are getting more candy at my house, and they are getting more variety certainly.
I give out apples and razor blades but the kids still come back each year.
Maybe the ceiling fan kid was going as Wile E Coyote (c.f. Fur of Flying, which actually does a good job of capturing the flavor of the old classic outings)
Halloween just ain't what it used to be: https://youtu.be/_xMVj3kAu-A
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