Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Books are my comfort food!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

We will not go back.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Halloween

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Halloween

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Halloween

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

 

It’s the season when my Celtic / Scandinavian ancestors held that the year turned over, and I suspect there are many like me who will be glad close out the last twelve months. And kids get candy, which always improves an evening!


Reader Interactions

160Comments

  2. 2.

    eclare

    In the photo of Joe handing out candy, notice the cutout of a German shepherd on the balcony behind him.  Warning to the Secret Service?

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Blech, but at least I won’t be harried by whiny little trick or treaters. Living 12 miles from nowhere does have it’s advantages.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    I had missed that — glad you flagged it!

    Did the disgraced, twice-impeached, four times indicted previous inhabitant of the WH and his spouse ever decorate it for Halloween and give out treats? They must have done, though I don’t remember any. Maybe they thought Melania’s blood-red Christmas trees were scary enough to cover both holidays.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: When Ohio Son was little, Halloween scared him so we made a tradition of going to a nice restaurant instead of giving out candy.

    We live in a subdivision which attracts trick-or-treaters from all over: there are sidewalks and the houses are close together and it’s flat. It will be very busy tonight.

    He isn’t scared of Halloween anymore but he loves to eat out so off to a restaurant we will go. We are the Scrooges of Halloween.

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    @OzarkHillbilly: Living 12 miles from nowhere does have it’s advantages.

    I live rural too, but cute trick-or-treaters ringing my doorbell is something that I miss living out here in the boonies. It’s only one night a year and seeing all those excited, happy kids dressed in their costumes always made me happy.

    I do get pics of my grandkids every year as they leave for trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, but I do miss the experience.

  11. 11.

    Fair Economist

    I’m currently visiting my mom. We have two huge bags of candy, about 250 pieces. No chocolates, to keep us from eating them. My sister-in-law thinks even that won’t be enough. Here’s hoping!

  12. 12.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I miss trick or treaters. Our last dog loved Halloween. She liked company, plus she used to run out on the porch and stick her nose in their bags.

    My writer group is having a Halloween party at the library this morning. People are supposed to read spooky stuff and there will be treats. I’m taking cookies and reading a short story called “Ghost Cakes” which are a kind of cookie I made up. I find short stories hard to write.

  13. 13.

    Betty

    @SiubhanDuinne: I seem to recall Trump doing something weird, like dropping the candy on a child’s head.  What a world of difference. It was apparently cold and raining in D. C., but Biden was not deterred. A genuine grandpa.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ohio Mom: My parents lived in such a place too. Middle class and welcoming. That place no longer exists, hasn’t in decades.

    @Scout211: Yeah I know, A part of me misses seeing all the whiny little beggar Terminators and Frankensteins etc too. But then I roll over and go back to sleep.

    Have I ever mentioned that I am known as El Ogro in certain circles?

  16. 16.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Sinéad O’Connor did a great, haunting version of “I Am Stretched On Your Grave”

    Think it was on the same album as “Nothing Compares 2 U” I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Adam Wainwright managed to survive 18 years amid the grueling schedule of Major League Baseball before a puppy ended his career.

    The 42-year-old called time on his long career at the end of the 2023 season after 478 games, 2,202 strikeouts, three All-Star appearances and a World Series title with the St Louis Cardinals, his only major league team.

    But when he lodged his official retirement papers to Major League Baseball, rather than listing health concerns or the opportunity to enjoy his $182m in career earnings, he gave his reason for stepping away from the game as “Because I got a puppy”.

    As good a reason as any other.

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty:

    I seem to recall Trump doing something weird, like dropping the candy on a child’s head.

    LOL, what a maroon. I don’t remember that, but it sounds just like him.

    Could have been worse, though, I suppose. Could have been DeSantis lecturing the kids about nutrition and handing out sugar-free crap.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    I was kinda hoping FLOTUS would wear a jacket with “I Really Don’t Scare, Do U?” written on the back.

    ETA: But I guess she’s too classy to take a shot at TIFG’s Russian handler that way.

  25. 25.

    sab

    @OzarkHillbilly: We still live in such a place. Lower middle class. Safe. Mixed race. Tucked next to a thousand acrec metropark without a busy street. We get kids from all over. Hundreds of them.

    Covid made us stop letting them knock on doors, so we all sit on lawn chairs in the driveways doling out the candy. Many of us also wear costumes. Our city has Beggars’ Night on the last Saturday in October, so we have already had it. It was a blast.

    There was a seven foot tall chicken, and a small dog dressed as a spider.

  29. 29.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: We live in town, but don’t usually get that many trick or treaters, and since it’s supposed to get down in the teens here tonight I’ll be surprised if we have more than a couple. We got candy for them, just in case.

    The guy who installed my furnace is coming over today to leave some copper piping for the new A/C unit, and while he’s here he’s going to put a padlock on my basement door (I can’t lock the knob because I’m not sure I even have a key for it) because when I came home yesterday I discovered my husband had built a fire in our wood furnace even though the house was warm because of the gas furnace. *sigh* I texted the guy who installed it, who said that if he keeps doing that it could damage the gas furnace. Eventually I’ll probably get rid of the wood furnace, but this will work until I get my new basement door in a week or two. Once I have a new door I’m going to lock it and keep the key with me; that will keep him out. I guess 35+ years of having to build a fire to keep warm have made him think he needs to do it even when he doesn’t. I want to yell at him “The reason we have a working gas furnace now is because you wouldn’t build fires last year when we needed them!” I hope none of you ever have to deal with a loved one with dementia, it’s a challenge to stay ahead of them because you  don’t understand how their brain works anymore and don’t know what they know and what they don’t. I have to admit, it’s nice to have the house be warm when I get up in the morning – I was tired of living like a pioneer woman, and we don’t have any business going up and down the basement stairs thousands of times in the winter anyway.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Maybe they thought Melania’s blood-red Christmas trees were scary enough to cover both holidays.

    Apparently in her culture, Pan’s Labyrinth is a regular Christmas movie.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    We have three Costco-size bags of candy ready to go!

    Spawn the Younger and her friends have themed their costumes around vermin. Spawn is a raccoon, another friend is a rat, and one is a cockroach. Spawn the Youngest is an adorable pink piggy. Spawn the Elder is kind of over dressing up. I get it…. I don’t really like dressing up, either. I like my clothes to be soft and I don’t like too much makeup. But I love seeing the kids in their costumes!

  36. 36.

    Eric S.

    It’s the second Halloween in my new house and this year it falls on bowling night. I tried to get one of our subs to bowl for me tonight but he wasn’t available. No treats at my house this year. Sorry kids.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    Spawn is a raccoon, another friend is a rat, and one is a cockroach.

    Wonderful! Which reminds me, it’s about time for Betty Cracker to tell us again about the parade float where she and her sister were rats or roaches or something (because the float was sponsored by a local exterminator). The details escape me, but is wonderfully entertaining!

  39. 39.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: Sounds like my neighborhood! We do trick-or-treat during scheduled hours on the last Saturday in October, and it’s huge.

    My next-door neighbor is the neighborhood hero who hands out full-size candy bars, so she maintains a count. We usually get about 100 kids coming by. On Saturday the weather was fantastic and we got a typically heavy crowd.

    I notice trends in costumes. Superheroes aren’t quite as popular as they were a few years ago, but Spider-Man seems evergreen, still one of the most popular costumes (I think I was a Spider-Man once in the 1970s). A bunch of Marios and Transformers, fairies and princesses, some horror icons out of 1980s slasher films. Most of them, surprisingly, were characters I would have recognized 30 or 40 years ago. And a lot of little kids dressed as firefighters!

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @sab: You remind me of 2020 Halloween, and the ways people came up with to hand out candy without hands being involved. I recall houses with individual bags on the front lawn, or hanging from a tree. There were also a few that set up PVC tubes from their second floor to the street, for gravity-assisted treats.

  41. 41.

    Mousebumples

    My daughter will be Doc Mcstuffins, and her brother is a dragon that we’re calling Stuffy. We usually get a decent turnout – no sidewalks, but lots of houses pretty close together. Though there’s tons of road construction (still!!), and we have a dusting of snow on the ground this morning.

    My parents live in the country with 1 sq mile blocks and maybe 5 houses per 1 mile stretch of road. They almost never get trick or treaters, so they’re coming to give out candy while my husband and I take out the kids.

    We’re meeting up with a friend of my daughter’s and his parents. Should hopefully be fun – though cold. Brrr!

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: At the beginning of the season he said it would be his last, he just wanted one more shot at #200. It became obvious that he just didn’t have the gas for MLB anymore. Striking out Carlos Beltran to end Game 7 in the NL Series is a moment I still remember, right up there with David Freese’ Game 6 heroics in the 2011 WS.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken: 2020 was dead for us–the town cancelled the official hours, we put some bowls of candy out front for people to grab if they wanted, but nobody came by. But in October 2021 trick-or-treat was on again, and went at a pretty typical volume.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    Just turned cold in my little corner of NoVA. It got up to almost 80° yesterday, but now it’s 45°, with a high today of only 53°. Dunno how that will affect the trick-or-treaters. I don’t get any in my small building. (The door is locked downstairs.) I think the parents on Threadkill Lane take their kids to the nearby single-family-home neighborhood.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    Fingers crossed (knees and eyes too) I may have found a house.  Very cute, move in ready, half of what mine should sell for.  It’s in a cute neighborhood near the high school and athletic fields. Would be four miles from my new office which would mean I won’t spend my life commuting.

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was glad he got #200. I couldn’t understand the fans who were sniping about the manager letting him try for it. It’s not as if the Cardinals were competing for a playoff spot! They have to put a pitcher out there for every game, why not let him have a go?

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    And kids get candy, which always improves an evening!

    Says anyone who hasn’t spent an evening with kids who have either eaten too much candy, or with a kid who has a sugar sensitivity.  Either one can get kind of ugly!

    Pre-pandemic when I never missed the university volleyball matches, they sold Skittles at the food stand and there was one kid who just couldn’t metabolize the straight sugar and you could see the changes unfold right before your eyes.

    I don’t miss that kid!  But I do miss the volleyball matches.

  53. 53.

    oldster

    Big ups for Kate Rusby! Not well known, and worth finding.

    But what’s all this lavishing praise on Jill Biden?

    So what? Melania dressed up for Halloween every day!

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: My folks’ neighborhood became McMansion hell when the old folks started dying out. The land was worth more than the very modest ranch houses and split levels could ever be. I knew I was no longer welcome there when I was accosted by a parvenu woman after parkingmy beat up old Ford P/U bin front of my folks house. Threatened to call the cops on me.

    I managed to keep a civil tongue even if my tone of voice was dripping with contempt.

  56. 56.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Agreed, similar.  Living on one of the busiest roads in the county where there are no sidewalks means a quiet evening at my house.  Which is fine with me because I really am not a Halloween fan at all.  Never was, even as a kid.  Too much trouble.  Just give me candy (or I’ll buy my own) and don’t expect me to dress up in some stupid, ludicrous outfit or walk around in the dark for it.  I feel much same about Christmas.  Thanksgiving is the only real holiday that I love.  You can have the rest and I’ll take the paid day off and ignore the whole thing.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I couldn’t understand the fans who were sniping about the manager letting him try for it.

    They are the same people who complain about “participation awards” and beat up soccer refs at their kids game.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    Good morning everyone!

    We got our candy for the trick-or-treaters yesterday afternoon.  Whatever’s left over is going to the office break room.  CAN. NOT. have that stuff lying around the house any longer than necessary.

    Mrs. Fro and I are going to a Halloween party dressed as That Pop Star and That Football Player.  What can I say, it seemed original at the time (sigh).

    (That’s after we hand out comic books and candy for a couple of hours.)

  62. 62.

    Ramalama

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’ve never had trick or treaters at our house either. People think our place is a run down uninhabited shack. I shouldn’t walk around with a corn cob pipe in my mouth. That doesn’t help matters. My wife thinks it’s a blessing no kids come. “Think of all the money we save not buying candy.” Meanwhile, I spend countless hours thinking about why Belgian chocolate recipes have changed (Cote d’Or) between Europe and Canada (where I live), and also What Can Be Done About It, all while I eat Mars bars, which I only recently discovered are Milky Ways, but before Milky Ways started using lesser ingredients. The Mars bars are the real thing.

  64. 64.

    The Other Steve

    For those of us over 40, today we remember the Great Halloween Blizzard of 1991!

    Minnesota Strong!

  65. 65.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: That Pop Star and That Football Player.  What can I say, it seemed original at the time (sigh).

    Swap costumes, that should get you back into original territory.

  67. 67.

    Danielx

    @Danielx:

    It is 27 degrees this morning, looks like the Solo Stove will get a workout this evening while we hand out wonderfully unhealthy stuff.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @Ken: ye gods, no one needs to see me in a getup from any “Era”

    (but yes, that would make it more original!)

    Mrs. Fro looks good in a jersey; with a mustache, eh, probably not so much.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @Ramalama:

    I haven’t had one in a long while, but I think there is such a thing as a dark chocolate Mars bar. Yum!

    . . . Aw, just checked, and it looks like they discontinued it. But there is apparently a dark chocolate Milky Way.

    ETA: Candy is not something I typically keep on hand, because there is no such thing as portion control. But, oddly, I do always have a supply of the little bite-sized Dove dark chocolates. I can handle those.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @geg6: In the road of life, holidays are the potholes. Thanksgiving was the last holiday I enjoyed but after my sister Peggy died there was a great big hole in that day that no amount of pretending could ever fill.

  71. 71.

    sab

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like my parents old neighborhood. We sold their house to the neighbor, who knocked it down and hired a landscaper. Then he put his house and my parents’ lot on the market as “an in-town estate.” That didn’t go so well, so now the lot is on the market as a separate lot.

    At least they didn’t chop down the buckeye and the copper beech in front. They did rip out all the rhododendrons.

  74. 74.

    kalakal

    @Ohio Mom:

    We live in a subdivision which attracts trick-or-treaters from all over: there are sidewalks and the houses are close together and it’s flat. It will be very busy tonight.

    Sounds like where we live + street lighting and basically zero traffic.

    Everyone sits oit on lawn chairs and hands out candies.It’s a lot of fun, I find it fascinating we don’t do trick or treat in England. We wait till Nov 5th and everyone unleashes their inner pyromaniac

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @narya:

    In metro Atlanta we had highs of 80° in the last few days. It’s cold and dank right now, and there are overnight freeze warnings.

  80. 80.

    SiubhanDuinne

    POTUS held an event at the WH to talk about AI, and one of the things he mentioned was using AI to enhance space photos from the Webb Telescope. And apparently Laura Ingraham and some guest she had on thought he couldn’t remember the name of Hubble and was just dementedly calling it a “web telescope” and they laughed themselves sick over how old Joe Biden is losing it. Hahaha, a web telescope, can you imagine hahaha? And then someone told Laura that yes, there is in fact such a thing as the Webb Telescope, and she had to issue a correction on air.

    LOL.

  82. 82.

    Ramalama

    @Steeplejack: No portion control. That’s just for … intermittent fasters. Some family sent me some a-ok dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s and then we learned that there’s some kind of metal poisoning going on with the bars I liked better than the others from TJs. Ye gods.

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rescuers free humpback whale ‘hog-tied’ to 300lb crab pot in Alaska

    “This was a complicated entanglement with a line through the whale’s mouth, and wrapped around the animal’s tail stock,” Fred Sharpe, advanced large whale entanglement responder with Alaska Whale Foundation, told the Noaa. “The drone imagery assisted tremendously with our understanding of the entanglement and how to prioritize our cutting attempts,” he added.

    The NPS said the whale was making 7-9-minute dives and was at the surface for only approximately 30 seconds.

    “The whale had a loop of line through its mouth that led to a large, heavy glob of tangled lines at its tail. In effect, the whale was hog-tied, its body bent sharply to the side as it swam in a predictable clockwise circle each time it came up. The whale also had a distinct healed scar across its back from being hit by a vessel’s propeller,” it said.

    That they managed to free it feels like a minor miracle to me.

  84. 84.

    Ramalama

    @JAFD: The one candy that breaks that rule? York Peppermint Patties. You can stuff them in, while frozen, without breaking anything. I was doing research! Will be writing up my findings forthwith.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: Then he put his house and my parents’ lot on the market as “an in-town estate.” That didn’t go so well,

    A fool and his money are soon parted.

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    @JAFD:

    Good plan!

    I want to thank you for your recommendation of WBGO. Now that I can easily listen to almost any radio station with my Echo devices, I have been hitting WBGO a lot for good jazz. Also KUNV in Las Vegas.

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Anyway: I’ve never had a problem with writing short stories, Here’s my latest:

    “He lived a long and miserable life. Then he died.”
    the end.

    I didn’t say they were good.

  90. 90.

    randy khan

    I may have mentioned this, but my office had its Halloween celebration last Thursday, and it was awesome.  There were two balloon arches, free pumpkins, refreshments for both children and parents, and people in costume all over the office.  And my part of the office was fully decorated, with a kind of tunnel of horror with video and sound effects.

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @Ramalama: You definitely have something there. I’ve found the same of frozen Thin Mints cookies, also chocolate and mint.

    (Each box has two tubes of cookies, so I buy six boxes each year, hide them at the back of the freezer, and limit myself to one tube a month. Admittedly that tube is finished in under an hour….)

  92. 92.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @kalakal:

    We wait till Nov 5th and everyone unleashes their inner pyromaniac

    Since lockdown, that seems to be a year-round practice here in the US. At least in my suburban PA corner of the US.

    We used to get mobs of kids. Now I don’t know what to expect. Last couple of years have been really light. It gets so I’m grateful even for the teenagers who come by and didn’t even bother pretending to dress up.

  96. 96.

    kalakal

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    For a reporter she sure shines at keeping up with what’s going on in the world. I’d have thought it impossible for anyone who follows events not to have heard of the Webb telescope. Maybe she’s too old?

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    Love Halloween. It’s one day when kids can freely demand candy and goodies from adults.

    I loved running from house to house with friends when I was a kid; and even enjoyed taking my younger siblings around when it was their turn to go trick or treating.

    Here in the Los Angeles area, there were some adjacent wealthy neighborhoods that were Halloween friendly. Kids would make out like bandits with a nice variety of candies.

    Always a range of costumes. It’s fun to see some Day of the Dead themed costumes along with the regular monsters and superheroes stuff.

    O/T. Got my Covid booster. Usually no problem, but this time my arm is a little sore and I am a little tired. I guess I got a little Trick, instead of a Treat.

  99. 99.

    John S.

    “Support among Arab American voters for Biden has plummeted from 59% in 2020 to 17% today,” the poll analysis said.

    Moreover, 40% of those polled said they will vote for Donald Trump in 2024 – a five percentage-point increase from 2020, marking an all-time high for Arab American identification with the Republican party.

    I get that Arab Americans may be disappointed with Biden’s handling of the situation in Israel, but how the fuck does that translate into support for Trump and Republicans??

    I guess the appeal of having your face eaten by a leopard is too great for some people.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/31/biden-polling-israel-hamas-war-arab-americans

  100. 100.

    Ramalama

    @Ken: Can’t find Thin Mints in my neck of Quebec. Maybe the Scouts here don’t sell cookies? Every time I’m in the US, I do look out for tables of Girl Scouts selling them and don’t see them. One time I was at one of my sister’s homes (America), and found a single sleeve of Thin Mints stashed in a cabinet far from her children’s reach. I couldn’t help myself. Until I could, leaving maybe half a sleeve there. And then I found the step ladder from the garage and placed it near the cabinet so that my step brother would think one of the kids had eaten them.

  101. 101.

    Nelle

    We had Begger’s Night here last night.  The tradition is that the kid has to tell a joke to get a treat.  There are some real groaners, but I sort of liked “What is the favorite candy on a playground?  Recess Pieces.”  Good to see even the four year olds trying to tell jokes.

    We lived in Fairbanks when my daughter was three.  When she was all dressed to go outside, she was sort of a cube of down.  For Halloween, the costume had to go outside the parka, hood and pants.  She wanted to be a ghost princess, so we cut armholes and head hole out of a pillowcase and made a cardboard, aluminum foil crown to go on top of her hood.  We only went to two places.  It was about -40F degrees.  But she was happy.

  102. 102.

    Matt McIrvin

    @John S.: I understand it. Just viscerally, when you don’t like the guy in power, you punish him, and sometimes it makes emotional sense to do that even if the result will be worse and harm you.

    The Israel/Palestine situation is basically a no-win situation for Democrats. For Republicans, unless they’re literally Nazis and are too antisemitic for it, it’s easy: just go full Likud. But this is an intra-left wedge for liberals–no matter what position you take you’re going to lose a lot of support.

    I’ve been arguing with a guy over on LGM who thinks Biden’s position was a fatal political mistake. While I don’t really like Biden’s position myself, I think that guy is committing the Pundit’s Fallacy of assuming that what he wants is smart politics. I think going any other way would have been even worse for him in stark electoral terms.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @John S.:

    Moreover, 40% of those polled said they will vote for Donald Trump in 2024 – a five percentage-point increase from 2020, marking an all-time high for Arab American identification with the Republican party.

    I wonder what they think that Trump will do for them?

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes! I was thinking of that story too – it never gets old, partly because of BC’s iconic way with words but also her wonderful drawings of herself and sis stuffed into their vermin costumes. I’m grinning ear to ear right now just thinking about it!

  105. 105.

    Nelle

    On the other hand, my inner frugal Mennonite resurrected when listening to NPR while driving this morning.  The report was about how much was spent on Halloween this year.  I will gag if I hear another person complain about cost of food or gas (usually while driving a big truck or SUV).  $700 million on pet costumes.  In a country with hungry children.  The country has plenty of money.  Oh, wait, let’s cut the IRS so that the richy rich can keep more of their hard stolen money.  Grumble, rant, grumble.

  108. 108.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    Apparently in her culture, Pan’s Labyrinth is a regular Christmas movie. 

    No, she’s just a creep who married a loser for his Russian money.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: I think you hit on the emotional reaction Arab Americans have toward the administration’s support of Israel as it bombs Gaza. A more rational view would be that even if Biden is bad, a Republican would be worse.

    Emotions are inflamed about this war right now and with good reason. The question I have is how salient an issue this will be a year from now, and for how many people. I guess that may come down to events over the next few weeks, as this situation will likely get worse before it gets better.

  111. 111.

    Jinchi

    @SiubhanDuinne: God could you imagine the reaction if Michelle Obama had put up blood red Christmas trees?

    TFG could publicly praise Satan and the evangelicals would still worship the guy.

  114. 114.

    MisterDancer

    @Geminid: Tagging on to say this: these are people who are struggling with a lot of compounded pain and suffering, and who are very rightly angry. I gather they feel trapped in ways I submit are hard for many of us not from that diaspora to “get”. And a feeling of no options? Well, it’s not a pretty place to be.

    Rather than throw them to the leopards, we need to engage them with compassion

  115. 115.

    Ken

    @Ramalama: Every time I’m in the US, I do look out for tables of Girl Scouts selling them and don’t see them.

    Around here they only sell once a year, and for just a couple weeks. It’s usually around February and March.

  117. 117.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: Okay, let me crunch the numbers.

    “Support among Arab American voters for Biden has plummeted from 59% in 2020 to 17% today,” the poll analysis said.

    Moreover, 40% of those polled said they will vote for Donald Trump in 2024 – a five percentage-point increase from 2020, marking an all-time high for Arab American identification with the Republican party.

    So, the split in 2020 was 65/35 (if we believe the numbers) and that the updated findings suggest something like a 60/40 split if the election were held now.  Not good, exactly, but really, the biggest risk IMO, is that disaffected voters will simply sit out the presidential election.

  119. 119.

    Ken

    @Nelle: The tradition is that the kid has to tell a joke to get a treat.

    “And what’s your joke, mister pirate?”

    (twenty horrified minutes later the kid finishes with) “The aristocrats!”

  121. 121.

    mrmoshpotato

    @narya:

    It is snowing in Chicago . . . 

    Gonna be bundling up to take pictures of neighbors’ Halloween decorations.

    So. Many. Skeletons.

  128. 128.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: My 6 yo little sister:

    Do you you know how to catch a unique rabbit?

    You neek up on them!

    Do you know how to catch a tame rabbit?

    Tame way! You neek up on them!

  129. 129.

    Manyakitty

    @sab: not sure if you’ll see this, but were you by chance at the Summit County BOE this past Friday? I stopped to talk to the Democrats and wanted to ask.

  131. 131.

    Jinchi

    @Matt McIrvin: I disagree that the Democrats are in a no win situation with Israel. The no win situation is the uncritical support of Netanyahu and his Likud faction.  An American president should be capable of demonstrating unwavering support for the people of Israel without giving carte blanche to an unpopular leader of a party that campaigns on bigotry and fear.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Trying to expand the borders beyond the (not that there’s anything wrong with them) classics this year.

    Makes me smile. From the Fish link at #112:

    Carmen MIranda’s ghost is haunting
    Space station three
    Not that we’re complaining
    Since the fresh fruit all comes free
    :)

  136. 136.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jinchi: Trying to phrase this as delicately as I can, but… I have seen enough liberal Democrats who get really defensive and pissed off at any criticism of Israel in this particular moment to think it’s not that simple.

  137. 137.

    CaseyL

    I haven’t gotten trick or treaters for so long I can’t remember the last time I did.  But there are now kids in our townhouse complex old enough to trick or treat, so I’ve laid in a supply of candy Just In Case.

    Most likely, I’ll need to take all the candy to the office tomorrow.

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    @mrmoshpotato: ha!  it looks like “Maauto” is only available via personalized jersey shops.  You’d think State Farm would run a contest and give a few away or something!

    I think mine ran to about $120?  It’s pretty good quality and I’ll get a few years’ use out of it.  The fake mustache, not so much.

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    So, the split in 2020 was 65/35 (if we believe the numbers) and that the updated findings suggest something like a 60/40 split if the election were held now.  Not good, exactly, but really, the biggest risk IMO, is that disaffected voters will simply sit out the presidential election.

    I think it’s too early to read much into this. But yeah, some voters may think about staying home. However, the Republicans may be so scary that voters will rush to the polls to vote for Democrats.

    Plus, I continue to believe that Trump is mentally deranged and increasingly focused on his anger and resentment. If he becomes the GOP nominee, it will be critical to do everything to insure that he is not elected.

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    @Jinchi: The US has not given the Israeli government carte blanche, and it has not given uncritical support to the Netanyahu government. If you have to exaggerate to make your argument it is that much less credible.

  143. 143.

    Almost Retired

    My neighbor retired from a 35 year career in special effects at one of the studios a few years ago.  He said he didn’t want to spend his retirement playing pickleball and writing angry letters to the editor.  So one of his projects is putting together a magnificent haunted house that draws far more than the usual quota of trick or treaters to our street.  Our candy budget has soared the last two years.  So has the average height of the trick or treaters.  But I don’t begrudge an older child wanting some free candy before he goes on a vandalism spree.  Plus, the haunted house has wine in the side yard for the adults.

  144. 144.

    trollhattan

    @Nelle: Halloween has become nuttyballs with the decorations. We have folks hiring professional Halloween decorators who, as soon as they’re done clearing the elaborate spooky dioramas, put up the Christmas stuff.

    Yesterday I spotted a large yard done up in full-on GOT white walker battle scene.

  145. 145.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    John Oliver had a segment on his show last night that has ruined chocolate for me forever.  In short, if you eat chocolate you are supporting child labor.

  146. 146.

    Barbara

    @Almost Retired: One of homeowners in my neighborhood, three blocks away, has the “Holiday House,” which he elaborately decorates for every major holiday.  His theme is, basically, excess is best, so it’s a bit kitschy.  I think he buys a lot of decorations secondhand and he just tends to add and rarely subtracts.  It is most effective at Halloween.  The effect at Christmas feels more like stumbling into a warehouse filled with cast off life-size symbols of the season.

    The effect for us at Halloween is a siphoning of trick or treaters away from our out of the way street, so we have hardly any activity, whereas, the street they are on gets hundreds of kids in costumes, along with passing cars and so on.  We don’t care one way or the other, but do know not to try to drive anywhere on that street after 5:00 on Halloween.

  148. 148.

    wjca

    Growing up, nearly half of the treats we got were homemade: cookies, brownies, etc.  Then massive paranoia set in.  Now, nothing will do but pre-sealed, commercial, colored sugar.  It’s just not the same.  (End of annual reactionary bout of nostalgia.)

  149. 149.

    Soprano2

    @Nelle: You don’t know how much I want to say to them “No one made you buy that huge pickup that gets 8 miles to the gallon when you live 30 miles away from town” when they’re griping about the cost of gas. It makes me crazy!

  151. 151.

    Soprano2

    @Leto: Don’t they know that the internet is forever? I agree with one of the comments there, why isn’t she proud of it? If this is what they truly believe, she should be proud of what they’ve done. That she’s scrubbing the internet of it tells you that she knows it’s bad and bogus.

  152. 152.

    Manyakitty

    @sab: oh well. Next time! Do you know if they updated the Copley-Fairlawn school board candidates? I figured out which one to support and I think a nice young man called someone to add it to the list.

  154. 154.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: You could take a positive approach, like telling them, “There’s this guy Max on Balloon Juice who bought one of Ford’s hybrid Maverick trucks, and he says it’s a really good truck.”

  155. 155.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

     I think he buys a lot of decorations secondhand and he just tends to add and rarely subtracts.  It is most effective at Halloween.  The effect at Christmas feels more like stumbling into a warehouse filled with cast off life-size symbols of the season.

    Nice, vivid description. Also reminds me of the John Woo action film “Hard Target,” which includes a fight scene in a warehouse full of old Mardi Gras decorations.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @Ramalama:

    I love those TJ chocolate bars too. I did some looking around after the lead and cadmium story came out. The TJ bar have around 1 (unit) of lead. Some tests in 1980 found about 40 (units) of lead in dark chocolate.

    Yes, it needs to be reduced, but it’s on the right trend and much better than the good old days.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott:

    Here’s the
    FDA – Closer to Zero (1 page .pdf) I was thinking of:

    Graph of Average Daily Dietary Exposures to Lead for 1-3 Year Olds

    1980 – 43 micrograms
    2014-2016 – 1 microgram

    FDA’s work to reduce exposure to lead from food began in the 1970s with efforts to reduce the use of lead in cans.

    This FDA action, combined with the phaseout of lead in gasoline—which contributed to significant levels of air pollution and contamination of crops—resulted in a dramatic decline in lead exposure from foods by the mid-1980s

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  160. 160.

    Paul in KY

    @Barbara: I have a neighbor and I think they must have dropped at least 3 grand on their decorations. Professional dry ice machine, etc.

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