Some people say their fondest memory of Halloween is always the candy, and the fun, and the

pranks they could pull on people. Yeah, I just enjoy the pretending, and I like feeling

like people admire my creativity with my costume. Last year, I dressed up as a Smurf. Wow! It

was epic! People loved it, I think. It was surprising 'cause it's not traditional, and

it's kind of self-deprecating, you know. It doesn't make me look awesome or cool. I personally

love costumes where you dress up as benign or normal things like a "hot dog" outfit.

Someone dressed up in a "Wheaties" box, or something? A cereal box? This holiday has

been practiced in places like Scotland and, I think, throughout Scandinavia, some other

parts of the world, even in parts of Mexico, but what would you say is the most American

aspect of that holiday as we practice it?

I see a lot of kids dressing up as Superman, and firemen, and stuff that has cropped up

in our pop culture, like Star Wars and other movie characters, like Transformers, and things

like that.

The only memories I have are just dressing up like a cowboy, or I had one of those cheap

plastic outfits that you can get from the store with a plastic mask. It was a bear,

or something. I don't have a very creative background on costumes for Halloween.

Americans aren't completely united on their feeling about Halloween. Some folks think

it's uninteresting. Some folks think it's... [Satanic?] ...uh, Satanic, really, really

horrible. Some people think it's just irritating, and some people think it's a lot of fun, and

some people really, really love it. But, I remember here listening to Michael Medved

on the radio discussing Halloween, and he's pretty critical of the whole idea in the first

place. And, he was just debating his wife, who thinks it's a wonderful idea, you know.

And his point was that it teaches children how to beg. The whole ceremony of going to

each door and saying, "Trick-or-treat! Give me something good to eat!"

Well, that's what it was originally in Europe. Something where poor people and young children

would go door-to-door begging for either some treats like food, or even money in exchange

for saying prayers for the dead...[Yeah.] ...as a Catholic tradition. Today, I mean,

I just see most of it in America as being something that's entertaining. We have big

crowds in our neighborhood doing the Halloween trick-or-treating. Even some people turn their

garages into something of a haunted house.

I have a beef with people decorating their house. This is my soapbox for a moment, OK?

My homeowners association says I cannot leave garbage on my front lawn. But, there's one

month a year where everybody kind of has free reign to dump a bunch of garbage on their

front lawn, and try to make it look scary, but it just looks ugly. I'm talking about

skulls, and coffins, and cobwebs all over their trees. And it's a bunch of...looks like

a yard sale that somebody had last year that he never cleaned up. [Yeah.] It looks just

terrible. [I hear you.] And that's a minor quibble. Not a big deal.