Trick or Treat

Halloween is an interesting holiday. I am aware of many of the cultural underpinings of the day. I refer here to the modern execution.

I can certainly understand the enthusiasm children have for the day. Costumes and candy are a heady combination when you are ten years old.

As a teen, you have a chance to stretch your imagination and attempt the same mayhem your older brother did, which he learned from his friend's older brother, who learned it from that drunken uncle of his... What can I say? The teenage imagination thinks it is far more clever than it actually is.

As one approaches twenty, things just get sad. Seeing that guy -- the one who hung around the high school a bit longer than any one was comfortable -- come knocking on your door saying "trick or treat..." Well, you can almost see him dying a bit inside as he says it.

Once twenty-five hits, or thirty is within sight, things change. Halloween almost becomes an excuse for debauchery. Just look at the costume choices for women. Sexy nurse, sexy witch, sexy devil, schoolgirl (that last one is all for weevil). Bless them all, it is wonderful, especially seeing these costume choices in effect on a college campus. When the cute teacher's aide decides to show up dressed as a magician's assistant -- well, I was glad the day was just calculus review. No new math information would have been retained.

I just wouldn't be Boom without a shot across the bow at the revelers, however.

Today on campus I noticed no fewer than eight people dressed as the Joker. Every single one dressed as the most recent film iteration. Most of them poorly done. I can relate to the enthusiasm over the character. As I mentioned, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Honestly, though, I knew months ago that far too many people would latch on to the character for Halloween. There was a single, bright spot of variation, however. I had to run some errands around town, and bumped into a great costume. Green hair, white makeup, black circles around his eyes... nurse uniform. The costume made me smile.

I would imagine today tends to make bank employees nervous...