Get Your Costume Ready!

With just two weeks left until Halloween, NOW is the time to get your costume together- whether you are hand-crafting it, or buying one, it is the right time to get going on securing your Halloween outfit. If you plan to purchase one, you’d best shop for it NOW, before all the good choices are gone, and all that’s left is out-dated stuff like The SNL Spartan Cheerleader outfit, or George H. Bush… What’s popular? Well, among the costumes listed as hot are Sesame Street’s Big Bird (an obvious nod to the political debates), any one of Marvel’s movie Avengers (just remember- dressing as Captain America for a party lets you use your shield as a handy snack tray), Batman characters (Catwomen are especially welcome), and (sigh) Honey Boo Boo. I think they are just recycling outdated “Mimi “ costumes from the days of the Drew Carey sitcom for that one… Also popular are pirates (not Pittsburgh ones- the “arrr” type), witches, and, of course, zombies- I have a feeling you won’t be able to go anywhere this Halloween without tripping over a zombie or two. I saw that a popular costume for women is “vixens”. I would assume they don’t mean one of Santa Claus’ reindeer, but any one of a number of sexy lady costumes- a cop, firewoman, fairy tale character, super-heroine (I still don’t get the “Iron Woman” outfit- there isn’t much “iron” to protect the lady…), ringmaster, saloon madame, Ghostbuster, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (seriously- how do they make THAT a sexy costume?!)… Looking for a couple’s costume, so you and your sweetie can be a matched set? Well, you can be bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly, a fork and a spoon, a plug and an electrical outlet, Bamm Bamm and Pebbles, Jack Daniels and Coke, or Adam and Eve (wait- do you actually need a costume to be them? Weren’t they naked? Just find a few leaves and you’re in business…) I know I’ll see some Svengoolie costumes- heck, I see them all year long at various events we do. It still seems like more women than men dress up as me- I have no idea why. Possible Sven couple’s costumes include me and Elvira, Kerwyn and I( or actually, a rubber chicken and I),or even a Sven and Doug Graves combination. I had a great idea for a topical costume- how about Clint Eastwood’s chair? While you decide what your costume will be, let’s choose a “Halloween Horror of the Day”- how about some dogs in masks? That can only mean our choice is the ever-popular –“Killer Shrews”! Fans of the 1959 epic know that the mutant shrews, created accidentally by a scientist who was actually trying to adapt humans to fight world hunger (hah?!) The shrews must eat many times their weight a day to survive, which makes these big ones even more dangerous- anything that moves immediately becomes their next meal. Not only that, but- a bite from a killer shrew is somehow toxic, and will kill you! The horror of this is somewhat diluted by the fact that, in close-ups, the shrews are played by hand puppets, and, in wide shots, they are dogs wearing shrew masks(Say- there’s a great costume for your dog this year!) It is stated that the omnivorous shrews would even eat each other- which makes one wonder why, with so many other shrews readily available to nosh on, the shrews would go to so much trouble to try to get to the few humans? Well, dining habits aside, the killer shrews can feast on the fact that they have been named today’s “Halloween Horror of the Day”!