Dare to be Scared

Hello Guys and Ghouls on this most holy of unholies and my favorite day of the year. I'm a little brought down because I didn't manage a real costume this year thanks to Grad School (like THAT'S important!) and I didn't get to go to a big crazy costume party this year. Still when I saw a man on the subway this morning with 12" horns sticking out of his head it brought a big, evil grin to my face.

Besides all the fantastic & terrible horror movies on TV, that chill of mischief in the air, and all that candy, I love reading the little stupid Halloween stories in the news today (most of my favorite stories when I was a journalist were done around Halloween time...a standout would be when I went on a hunt with the Jersey Devil Hunters). I came across this little nugget today, which claims that Halloween is just too scary for kids:

It is the adults who should be afraid this Halloween. Not of ghouls and goblins, but of permanently scarring their children.

In a recent study of six- and seven-year-olds in the Philadelphia area, Penn State psychologist Cindy Dell Clark found that most parents underestimate just how terrifying the holiday can be for young kids.

First of all, parents are always permanently scarring their children, I don't think Halloween is to blame. Secondly, Philly kids are tough! They can handle a little emotional scarring all in the name of fun. Remember that 7-year-old who chewed her way out of a kidnapper's captivity, broke out of the basement where she was kept, and ran to safety? Yeah, she was from Philly. No Jon Benet's here. Represent Philly, your kids are tough as nails. They can handle a handful of peeled grapes without pissing their pants.

Plus (and I've gotten in weird heated arguments over this in the past) the best fun is scared fun. One of the many reasons horror films are so great (not that there are very many actually scary ones as of late). I remember being a kid, gripping on to one of my friend's arms, running wildly through the entire length of a haunted house, screaming and panting and laughing and falling over at the end. (Out of curiosity I just googled that friend, and see that he's a Johnny Cash style country singer and I'm not at all surprised. In high school he signed his home recorded CD for me saying that he'll remember our haunted house adventures when he's rich and famous. Not sure if he's famous or rich, but he's definitely a touring musician so bully for him!)

Anyway I like being scared just as much as I like being scary, so here's a little boo for you:


Me and my friend, Halloween birthday boy Charles, from last year. I'm silent film Cleopatra. I'm not quite sure who he was supposed to be.