Herr Meow was a skunk last night. Most people got it– we got asked if he was Pepe LePew and there were many chortles and pleasantries exchanged regarding the possibility of obtaining tomato soup instead of candy and so on.

But then there were the chosen few who didn’t get it. Notable amongst them was an elderly gentleman who cooed, “Why look at that cute little bunny girl!”

Thoughts of “Fatal Attaction” popped into my head, with one notable substitution.

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Halloween on Capitol Hill is not for the faint of heart. Throngs of kids of all ages parade up and down the street asking for something good to eat. The Eastern Market area becomes a little piece of charming rural farm complete with the scent of road apples. Houses glow and evil cackles and themed songs echo thorughout the neighborhood. Whole families wait for the trick-or-treaters by their doorstep, offering compliments and candy and warm smiles. These warm smiles are sometimes fueled by a nice pinot noir on the part of the candy peddlers, but that only makes things more fun, I think.

But oh, the mobs. You kinda have to focus and keep walking, lest you get trampled. Of course, there is always the clueless couple who tends to stop in the middle of the street to admire the lovely bounty of children or give a compliment to the originality of yet another princess costume in that annoying singsongy voice that some adults tend to display around young children, as if they were deaf or handicapped, or foreign: “Oh, WOW! You’re Princess AURORA?! Oh MY”

Overall though, Halloween was a loud and glittery and happy and wonderful night. People from all over the neighborhood walked around happily and fearlessly as the candy tinkled in bright plastic pumpkins.

I think the people who focus on Halloween being evil and a date filled of sinners and dark forces need to stop being so obtuse and come out for a walk around here: if there were forces of evil out there to fear and shun, then please call me Satan. Because seriously, people: you call yourselves Christian and yet you completely shun others whose beliefs are different from yours? You criticize the “blood and gore” of Halloween but you’re okay with wearing a cross –essentially an instrument of torture– around your necks?

I am actively shaking my head.

01 Nov This entry was published on November 1, 2006 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Onerous Onomastics. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.