Monthly Archives: October 2007

Gardening At Night

It’s Halloween. Halloween used to be quite a day when I was a kid. The first costume I remember having was when I was dressed as Laurence of Lodi, a twist on Laurence of Arabia, the fact that my never used middle name is Laurence, and the actor, Peter O’Toole who starred as Laurence of Arabia.

At least that’s what I gathered since no one actually came out and told me so. I got as far as the bottom of Riverview Avenue, to Trudy Drive. That’s all I can remember. I think I was about 3 or 4 years old. Still relatively adorable with a penchant for pinching girls asses. Precocious they called me.

Years later I was able to go out on Halloween night with my friends. Mainly we all had burnt cork on our faces, trying to pass as hobos. We would go up and down Riverview Avenue, Blue Ridge Road, Calvin Avenue, down Wilson to Main Street where we’d hit the garden apartments.

That was the jackpot. We didn’t want to get there too late, it was all in the timing. Once people ran out of candy that was it. Some people, the Manzo’s mainly, would leave a dish out with a note to take only one piece of candy per hobo.

Occasionally if we felt our candy hunting ground was thinning out, we would cross over to the next town, Rochelle Park and try to get whatever candy we could find there. Sometimes there would be bigger kids with eggs chasing us from Rochelle Park, but I don’t think they had any aim at all, since none of us ever got hit by eggs.

I stopped trick or treating when kids a year or two older than me mocked me for going trick or treating. They were in high school, I was in my last year of grammar school.

Years after that, it became adult parties. I went to a party at McSwells once, dressed as Darth Vader, had the official helmet back then, I thought I was cool when I walked into McSwells, but everyone else had home made costumes, mine was bought.

Someone made Steve Fallon a Mr. Peanut costume which was possibly the best costume ever. He looked good dressed as a big peanut, monocle drawn around his eye. I had a cape that my sister in law, Elaine made for brother Frank back in their hippie days. I believe my niece Meghan has the cape now, the mask has been lost for years, a victim of moving over and over.

One of the last times I got dressed up was in the eighties. My friend Rita and I were going to the Peppermint Lounge to see REM, billed as It Crawled From The South secretly opening up for the Cramps. Rita is a makeup wiz and we decided to dress me up as Andy Warhol.

Rita applied the right pallor to my face, I was clean shaven then (singular chin you know) and we spray painted my hair white so I could go as Andy Warhol. I don’t remember what Rita dressed as, and there are no photos from that night.

Unfortunately Andy was slight of build whereas I can be described as husky. I remember going into the club with Rita and not hearing people say, ‘Oh wow, Andy Warhol.’ No, instead I heard, ‘Oh look, Phil Donahue!’ Maybe Rita was dressed as Marlo Thomas.

Pics
Look out, Superman!!
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Halloween stuff?
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Haunted Street corner! Boo!
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Saving souls on all hallows eve……mwahahaha!!!
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Have a happy and safe Halloween! And though no one has ever been killed by razor blade apples or pins in candy, you should still check it out.

Mischief

Another Tuesday and aren’t you thrilled. First off, Harpy has a broken foot. Poor thing is housebound, but not gagged. He still has access to phones and email so he’s not down for the count, just momentarily waylaid. So if the four readers that read this wish him well, I guess that might be enough to get that cast off his foot a few minutes sooner. But I wish him well and look forward to his annual clog dancing at Farfetched during the upcoming holiday season, during which I will be working. I’d say ‘break a leg’ to Harpy but he might actually do that so I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

Last night was pretty good TV, forgot about Chuck and watched Everyone Hates Chris and Aliens in America instead. Bill woke up during ‘Chris’ and he groggily laughed at the episode. Bill is a big Chris Rock fan (who isn’t?) so that helped. Aliens in America was very good as well. A low key show, Not really promoted but worth catching, especially if you have any Pakistani or Indian friends. I do and watching it I can see the awkward assimilation that occurs sometimes, but I can laugh.

Then came Heroes which was better than last week. Dr. Suresh had some balls, then lost them, then found them then lost them again. Such an annoying character. Hiro still in Japan in the 1600’s which is getting thin. Not much happened to Milo V. he went from Cork, Ireland to Montreal in no time flat with his Irish girlfriend. No passport or visa problems for these two, even with Milo V’s amnesia. 21st Century schizoid woman may have shed a personality. Unfortunately it was the interesting personality. Cheerleader is back cheer leading, her father with the horn rimmed glasses is in the Ukraine, and killed his mentor. Oh yeah, spoiler alert.

Weeds was great once again. Nancy held a knife to Celia’s throat telling her to back off, only to later offer her 15,000 to rent her empty house so they could grow some product there, having been chased out but a fire inspector at the last place. Justin Kirk, playing Nancy’s brother in law does a good schnook. Always scoping out the honeys, thought he found one, turns out he was being set up. I love Justin Kirk ever since he was in Angels In America on HBO. And if you haven’t seen Angels in America yet, you really should. Mary Louise Parker is in that as well as the big names you know about already.

Then came Californication which ended it’s season quite nicely. I wasn’t sure where or how it was going to go, whether or not his ex girlfriend would marry one of the WaMu bankers from those commercials, but she did. Duchovny got his agent back together with his wife, and as he and his daughter were pulling away, after the daughter sang, Alice Cooper’s ‘Only Women Bleed’ mere hours after having her first period, the ex girlfriend jumped in the car with the two of them, leaving her WaMu banker husband standing in the street.

All in all a good TV night. Dexter was also very good on Sunday. But I’m not going to get into that right now.

Also John McGruff, president of Wanker Banker got his sorry ass canned yesterday. He was an idiot. Greg Stevens said that McGruff would be alright. He lands on his feet. I guess the gods of employment look over idiots like him. This was the asshole who I pleaded with to do something about my situation at Wanker Banker as it was getting pear shaped. He didn’t do a thing, which turned out to be ok. I had to spend a few months at McMann and Tate which was hellish, but like Steve Miller sang, ‘You’ve got to go through hell before you get to heaven…’

Steve Miller?

Pics!

for the Giants fans I know (who don’t read this or much of anything except for sports pages)
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Preparations for Goose night.
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Nice Sunday afternoon cruise
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7AM Moon
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Here’s a trailer for a movie the White House doesn’t want you to see.