HUMOR, CULTURE/SOCIETY and SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?

Got this from The Onion - OlderMusicGeek


In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?

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HUMOR and CULTURE/SOCIETY: How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

From The Onion - OlderMusicGeek


How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

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MY LIFE: 3 Halloween Questions

Well, I got thes questions for my work newsletter, so I thought I could put the answers here on my blog too! - OlderMusicGeek

1. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a child?

I can’t remember that far back, but I do remember one year dressing up as my childhood hero, Doc Savage, a kind of pseudo-Superman from 1930s pulp magazines. Of course, no one knew who he was, so no one knew who I was being!

Then one year, when a friend and I were passing out candy, we ran out. So we put on our clothes backwards, walked up to the doors backwards, stood with our backs to the people, told the answer to the joke, then the question, then said trick or treat!

My daughter was Queen Amidala from Star Wars for 3 years in a row. We offered to buy her a new costume, but no way!

2. What is your favorite scary movie?

“Alien” always has been and will be my favorite movie. Every time I watch it, I get chills and jump! Especially during the scene in the escape hatch!

But I also love Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". Found out recently that I apparently let my daughter watch that movie at too young an age! She told me that she tied the bathroom door shut for a week when she took a shower after she saw it!

3. What is your favorite Halloween candy?

Peanut M&M’s all the way! Though I can't eat too many of them now with my high cholestrol!

But I loved Snickers too! Anything that mixes chocolate and peanuts!

Unfortunately, with the low-fat, low cholestrol diet I'm on now. Can't really eat too many of them!

Other Halloween blog posts

MY LIFE (and ENTERTAINMENT): My Daughter And “Her Nerds”

Since time immemorial, as far back as anyone can remember, from the dawn of the cave dwellers, a particular group has been picked on and mistreated by the mighty and the popular.

This group has been known by many names - “geeks”, “dorks”, “spazzes”, “losers”... and most notably “nerds”.

But in ONE school, this arrangement is changing! In one school, ONE girl is standing up and saying “No more!”

This is THE story of that girl!


Okay, my daughter isn't heroic as all that... although his friends might disagree. But has seemed to change the way that at least her friends at school are treated.

And what got me started thinking so much about my daughter and “her nerds” was the song below...



I, myself, could relate to this song quite well. I'd been on both sides of the equation, picked on and ignored, as well as ignoring others who were picked on. I'm not proud of that, but I'd be a liar if I told you otherwise.

But my daughter... now there's a completely different story. Although she picked up my compassion, she fortunately also picked up her mother's feistiness and confidence.

And one time when I was listening to this song, I imagined what it would be like if my daughter was the main character of this tale.


Things would be different from the start, I can tell you that!

That first day after the bicycle race, which my daughter would do her damnedest to win, she would go up to that James and say, “Hi, I'm J---. You're going to be my new best friend. What's your name?” It seems like she does this to almost every new nerd that joins her school. Like she's the school's nerd-welcoming committee.

And if the guy wondered what was going on and who the heck she was, she'd just say, “I told you! I'm J---, and you're going to be my new best friend.”

And if the guy should protest and say he doesn't need a new friend or something, she would inform him that's “Too bad!”


Come lunch the first day, James would find himself suddenly surrounded by my daughter and her friends, who she refers to as “my nerds”. My daughter would play master of ceremonies introducing the new nerd to the rest of the group.

Do they know that she calls them “my nerds”? Apparently so. Have they complained about being called that? My daughter told me they did. Her response? “Too bad!”


If James and my daughter went for a walk like they did in the song, she would probably talk with him about being from a divorced home.

But if he tried to tell her that her music was junk, she would most definitely put him in his place.

And soon as he brought up The Sex Pistols... oh boy!

She'd rip into him about how he listens to that old awful crap her dad does! And probably ask him with a sneer if he listens to Violent Femmes and Devo too. And then she'd tell him about how there is new music out there! And that teenagers should be listening to their own music, not their parents'!

Have to admit my daughter has a point on teenagers who listen to their parents' music and nothing from their generation. That's just wrong and kind of sad!


Now, if three guys started picking on James, this would definitely turn out differently!

As my daughter explained: “One guy would find himself himself pushed to the ground. Another would find his face slammed into a locker. And the third would find himself with his arm twisted very far behind him.” Then after a pause, and with a bit pride, “All things I have done to people who have picked on my nerds!”

I should say here that my daughter is not a big girl. She gets some of her stature from her petite, five foot tall mother. But then her mother doesn't take crap from anyone either!

My daughter is apparently known as “the psycho girl who hangs out with the nerds”. And most bullies, it seems, have learned not to mess with her friends.


I will freely admit that I am quite proud of my daughter, The Great Protector Of Nerds. She has the confidence and looks to be part of the popular crowd, but is unwilling to make the compromises. “They're boring! All they talk about are boys, clothes and their hair! Ugh!” Instead she hangs out with the group that willingly accepts all her quirks and eccentricities. And they get a good return investment for letting her in there! Not that she'd give them a choice!

ON OLDERMUSICGEEK'S STUPID ENTERTAINMENT STUFF: "MUSIC: Song Of The Day - Halloween Edition: 'Boris The Spider' By The Who

just click on the title to go to the post

ON OLDERMUSICGEEK'S STUPID ENTERTAINMENT STUFF: "MUSIC: My Quick Thoughts On Yellowbrick Magazine's 8 For 8 Show At People's

MY LIFE: A Visit To Peculiar Missouri, Part 3: The Robot Revolution And Why Peculiar Is Peculiar, And Not!

Sorry it's taken so long to get part 3 done. If it's any consolation, I'm already over half way done with the next post! - OlderMusicGeek

Link to Part 1
Link to Part 2

Now it was my turn to eat.

I skip the truck stop next to the freeway because I figure it will mostly have people pulling off the freeway for a bite to eat, and I want to go somewhere where all the Peculiar people go!

So we go to the u-shape strip mall where we saw a couple of the restaurants.

I go to a sandwich place first. It seems like it would be more Peculiar than the Mexican or Chinese place there.

It is strangely named with the simple “The Sandwich Shop”. It was if it was named by someone who did know how to name a sandwich place.

When I go to the door, I notice the place has no signs or menus on the wall and is completely empty of furniture except a counter, placed there as if it were some prop!

It was, of course, locked. So I went to the Mexican restaurant. But it also was locked and looked like it hadn't been used in ages. Also, it was looking like a prop with the front of the restaurant bare except for the sign with its name.

Then I went to the Chinese restaurant. Same story, locked, bare, only a sign, the same prop look.


“What the hell? Don't the people in this town eat?”

Of course, that's when it hit me! Do they? The only restaurants that were open were the two that get business from the freeway!

Good Lord, did we stumble into a town of robots? Cannibals? Human-eating aliens?

Then I remembered there was still the greasy spoon further in town. It was a risk, but by god, I had to see it through.

So I hopped in the car and drove further into this town of danger and mystery!


Unfortunately, the danger and mystery wasn't very forthcoming. The diner was your typical small town diner. Old and a bit run down, but clean and well taken care of.

And the two teenagers working there were your typical laid back teenagers. The girl dressed in shorts and t-shirt. No long skirt like someone who didn't know how people really dress.

And the guy wore jeans that hung off his buttocks. And he snuck peaks at the girl in the shorts when she wasn't looking. Damn it, typical teenager behavior, not like robots at all!

About the only thing peculiar going on that diner was the half-white, half-black kid sitting alone leaned back in her chair bobbing her head to her iPod. But that's pretty typical behavior for my daughter.


And everyone who came in while I waited for my food were annoyingly normal! My god, did I somehow get to Normal, Illinois, by mistake? Was that what made this town peculiar? It sent you through some space anomaly to Normal? But then why was everything named Peculiar This and Peculiar That?

I finally couldn't take it anymore! I asked one of the other customers if she was from Peculiar. I think she started to think I was peculiar! Imagine that!

Anyway, she said she wasn't originally from there, but had been living there for over fifteen years. So I asked her if she knew why the town was called “Peculiar”.

She gave a story that pretty follows what the website for the town of Peculiar said.


The story basically goes like this...

The early settlers had a hard time picking a name for their little spot on the map. After arguing over it a few times in the general store, they sent three names to the post office, who I guess makes the town names official.

Well, it seems the three names the settlers chose were already taken, so the fed up town told the post-master general that they didn't care what they got “so long as it is sort of peculiar”.

Apparently the post-master general either had a sense of humor or was a smart ass... or maybe he was just fed up with town. Or possibly all three!

But he wrote to the town, “in all the land it would be difficult to imagine a more distinctive, a more peculiar name than Peculiar.” And that, supposably, is how the town got it's name... and not because it's populated by aliens, demons or robots, dang it!


So that pretty much concluded our adventures in Peculiar. I ate my chicken sandwich, which tasted fine and not funny at all. Then I got in the car, and my daughter and I hopped on the Peculiar exit and head out town, and I must say we did so rather disappointed.

But I guess now, one of these days, when we go to Chicago, we'll have to check out just how normal Normal, Illinois, really is...