It is Sunday, October 27.  If the weathermen are correct (and I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in that) we will actually have Halloween this year, so get out the candy and get ready for all those greedy little children in their costumes.  There are only 59 days until Christmas so start remembering what comes with each of the 12 days of Christmas.  It is the birthday of Niccolo Paganini, Enid Bagnold and John Cleese.  Today, in 1775, the US Navy was established; in 1871 “Boss” Tweed, Democratic leader of Tammany Hall, was arrested after the NY Times exposed his corruption and in 1982 China announced its population at one billion plus people.  It is Statehood Day in St. Vincent Islands, Mother-in-Law’s Day in the US and Navy Day in the US.

Let’s take some time today to talk about Halloween.  Halloween is a day of fun and excitement for kids.  It is a day when they get to dress up in costumes as their favorite super heroes, cartoon characters, princesses, ninjas, pirates, etc.  They go to school, have parties, parade in their costumes, get goodie bags and then go home.  Their parents then take them out to trick or treat and the kids get bags full of candy which they then consume within days of the holiday and run on a sugar high for the next month or so.

Here is a question for you - what is the deal with costumes these days?  The cost has become ridiculous.  My two grandsons got costumes that they are quite pleased with, but it cost well over $70 for two costumes and that was with a coupon.  Just two costumes!  Are you kidding me?  These costumes are so cheaply made that they will barely last through one day.  What could possibly make them worth that kind of money.  When my son was young, the lovely Elaine made some great costumes for him.  One year she took the liner from a trench coat, cut off some of the pile lining, glued it to gloves and used it to turn him into a werewolf.  It did not cost much and he was happy with it.  I guess parents are too busy to create costumes and retailers know they can charge whatever they want and people will pay it.

When I was a kid, all we did was wear a pair of pants that had the knees ripped out from playing in them, put on a grungy shirt (which most of us could find under our bed), put some dirt on our faces and go as bums.  We used to wait to go out until around 8.  By then most people were getting tired of the whole trick or treat thing and just wanted to get rid of the candy.  We would go and end up getting two or three bars of candy at each house. It was a great deal.  We would fill several bags with goodies.  We usually scored enough candy to keep us going until Christmas.  But I digress …

I understand that kids want to have special costumes that allow them to live out their super hero or ninja or whatever fantasy.  I get that.  What I do not get is why retailers feel that they should get rich from it.  They start selling decorations in August and encourage you to buy the fake pumpkins, spider webs, scare crows, etc.  They want you to adorn your house with orange lights, ghosts, witches that have flown into trees and all manner of other stuff.  They sell the decorations that we refer to as holiday lawn condoms.  You know the ones I mean.  You turn them on at night, they fill up with air and they are lighted.  At the end of the evening, you turn them off and they are just a pile of plastic on the lawn that look like …

Here are some things that I would like to see: some retailer selling costumes at a reasonable price so that families do not have to get loans to dress their kids up; a smart retailer giving a small portion of the profit from all Halloween items to a charity that benefits children in the US; parents that try to be creative and come up with costumes made from things they have in their house.  If we could see some of this going on, it would be a better holiday.

Anyway, let’s hope that Halloween is not affected by a hurricane or a snow storm or a plague of locusts or some other catastrophe.  There are a lot of kids looking forward to this Thursday and we do not want them to be disappointed again.  Besides, if there is another weather problem, we will be stuck with the bags of candy we bought for the kids.  You know, maybe if it just started raining around 6 … I do love chocolate.

This week’s fact tells us that 100% of lottery winners do gain weight.  So, there you go.  I am all set to win the lottery.  I have already gained some weight recently, I have a dollar and I have a dream.  All I need now is for the state to keep their part of the bargain and make me rich.