Hey, I am a daily reader of your blog (actually, a multiple-times-a-day reader) and I feel I have a story that would excite other readers as well. It’s not your average story but everyone loves Halloween, Right???
I just saw a video of Elvira and it says how Philly is bringing in ELVIRA this year and there is going to be events at Eastern State Penitentiary, Edgar Allan Poe’s house and a party at the Park Hyatt.
When I heard this I got really excited because there hasn’t been much going on for Halloween the past couple years in Philly. Elvira plus Halloween in Philly. How much better does it get?
Just a suggestion and I figured I’d throw it out there.
Yes, the only thing I love more than Halloween are emails sent from PR people using Hotmail accounts. Syntax like that, though, totally gets you a post, no matter who you work for.
Alternatively, maybe it’s just someone who constantly Googles “Elvira” all day. Hmm. It truly doesn’t get any better than this.
How did you spend your Halloween? Maybe a little trick-or-treating, a party or two, or just sitting at home and playing Nintendo. Whatever you did, it wasn’t as interesting of a Halloween party as City Inspector General Seth Williams, who took his daughters out to trick or treat in Lansdowne in order to catch a DHS employee who doesn’t live in the city.
The Inquirer’s Heard in the Hall blog reports Williams, dressed as a Rastafarian, took his two daughters, dressed as DeeDee Doodlebop and Violet Incredible — I only have a tenuous grasp of who these characters are — to the employee’s house in Lansdowne at 8:30 p.m. The man answered the door and said he wasn’t giving out any candy.
Eight-thirty? Aren’t all the trick-or-treaters gone by 8:30? Still, that didn’t stop Williams from giving out a lame pun: “The trick was on him.” Just wait ’til Thanksgiving, when Williams dresses up as a turkey in order to catch more employees who don’t live within city limits.
Daily News “hip trend” columnist Jenice Armstrong did one of those ‘let me get outraged’ DN columns today where something offensive (sometimes “offensive”) is detailed and the columnist gets outraged and encourages you to get outraged, too.
There aren’t many rules to these columns but that, although they do need to include a “What’s Next?” joke. (As in, “What’s next after t-shirts promoting marijuana? T-Shirts promoting baby murder?)
Today’s topic is offensive Halloween costumes, including one for — get this — “Anna Rexia.” I am offended by that costume, but only because multiple people over the age of 17 would actually go out and spend $40 on that crap.
Armstrong notes she wrote this same column about “Skankoween” — that’s almost as annoying as the people who insist on spelling it Hallowe’en — around this time last year, and it’s only gotten worse, because now you can make fun of a disease. (She doesn’t mention any sort of Osama bin Laden in a Gap sweater or WTC costumes.)
Actually, the headline and first few grafs are about Halloween costumes, but the rest of the article is about some Barbie doll where you can spend an unlimited credit card. (Punctuated by, of course, the line “what could be next, Lap Dance Barbie, complete with a plastic fistful of dollar bills and a tiny stripper pole?”) Complaining about capitalism, though, doesn’t make good photography, so the photo is of a woman in a skin-tight Halloween body suit.
Anyway if you’re wondering, yes, that means this column was, essentially, about offensive Halloween costumes (circa any time post-1930s) and Mall Madness (circa 1988).
First, the background: E.D.T.’s parents are Christians who don’t agree with Halloween because of its pagan origins. (I hope they don’t put up a Christmas tree!) But they didn’t want their son to feel left out at school, so they wanted to dress him as Jesus for the school’s Halloween parade and party. The lawsuit says the school objected.
School districts have a right to ban students from wearing “offensive” costumes. I’m not sure how many people find Jesus’ message of tolerance and peace offensive, but I’d guess it’s pretty small group. And so, the lawsuit was filed, blah blah blah, et cetera.
The student, only identified as E.D.T., is in the photo at right. There’s really a lot to be said about this whole incident, too much to be contained in just one front page entry alone. So follow me after the jump to find out why Jesus has a pocket on his robe, what the school allegedly suggested the student be instead of Christ and just how hilarious the Inquirer comment section can be.
The family of a student who previously attended Willow Hill Elementary in Glenside in Montco have sued the principal and the Abington School District for forbidding the student to dress as Jesus for Halloween.
The parents are Christians and don’t like the pagan origins of Halloween and the idea of dressing up as ghosts and goblins and Steve Irwin’s corpse and the like. (Fair enough. My only problem with Halloween are dipshits who insist on writing it “Hallowe’en,” as if they makes them more cultured or smarter than anyone else.)
But the parents are also, well, parents and they didn’t want their son to feel left out, so they had him dress up as Jesus. Despite allowing students to dress as devils and witches and probably even Spider-man, Principal Patricia Whitmire told the student he couldn’t wear the costume because it violated a prohibition on promotion of religion. The school stupidly forces kids to wear a costume if they want to participate in a parade and party; those without costumes are ostracized in the computer room.
The school wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit, which was funded by some Christian group, but here’s an idea: Just let the kid dress as Jesus, and if anyone gets upset or threatens to sue themselves — hey, you never know — just tell the offended party he’s dressed as Kanye West. Simple as that!
Engineering senior Saad Saadi may have offended a lot of people with his suicide-bomber costume last week- but that’s his prerogative, free speech experts say.
I want to be a free speech expert so I can make such bold statements as that.
• A campaign mailer in the 143rd district in Pennsylvania accuses Democrat Larry Glick of stealing dogs. Glick says he was sued by a woman who said he stole a dog, like, 29 years ago, and that he never did such a thing, etc., etc. Right: This is just an excuse to post a puppy photo. But you probably knew that already. [Inquirer]
• Phillyblog joins the fray in the Amy Guttman Halloween costume debate: “This man made a consious decision to dress like this because he knows he’d get away with it… if I did it (blue collar white male) I’d be in jail right now…. If this guy wanted to dress up as a controversial figure, he could have just as easily rented a Babe Ruth costume. Babe never hurt anyone other than himself. This tool knew exactly what he was doing.” Damn, imagine the headlines a Babe Ruth costume would have made! [Phillyblog]
• Oxford Valley Elementary School was shut down yesterday after a threatening letter was sent saying that “Dick Lewis” would make the school “look like Amish country.” What? He wanted to return Bucks County to the sprawling farms of old, nothin’ wrong with that. [Bucks County Courier Times]
A man who approached trick-or-treaters Tuesday night in Berlin, NJ prompted numerous inquiries to local police from kids and parents who thought he was impersonating a police officer.
Several people said he approached them, showed a badge, and asked some questions.
As it turns it out, the man was a legitimate plainclothes police officer who was checking on several incidents in the Camden County area.
Berlin police say he was not a police impersonator.
