The Friday Link for 11/1/19

Halloween last night, my wife and I took different approaches.  I treat the night as a chance to see the neighborhood kids in costume and hand out candy.  My wife looks at it as an opportunity to make sure 10 year olds never sleep soundly again.

There's a certain amount of people who like to scare others.  Mind you, the enjoyment of the person being scared is irrelevant to them, as the 'scarer' is mainly in it to see the bare, raw visceral emotion of a person they've scared to death.  I think a lot of it comes from the kind of Halloween you grew up with.  It sounds like my wife's family set up real scares and a spooky experience to force a 9 year old child to nearly wet themselves for the ultimate goal of a fun size Milky Way.

But to be fair, Halloween used to be more about scares than it is today.  When I was young, there were some neighbors who would go all out, but not in the modern Target purchased accessories way.  They would hide a family member in the bushes, or set up a floating ghost which would come right at the kids, or they would have a really creepy presence at the door which would cause some kids, including myself, to say "no thanks!"  And there were kids who held onto some sort of Halloween 'code of honor' back then.  If a person didn't have candy, or didn't answer the door, egg splotches would soon adorn their siding and toilet paper would be in their trees.

But somewhere things changed.  In the mid-1970's, there was a woman who gave out KING size Hersey bars in our neighborhood with no scares attached.  Everyone loved her.  As Halloweens progressed, it seems the rest of the neighborhood realized being the house everyone feared didn't compare to the house everyone adored.

I'm lucky.  Of my wife and her two sisters, I have the one who tries to scare the kids the least.  Her one sister puts on a Halloween showcase at her house north of Portland, Oregon which would cause Freddy Krueger to say 'whoa, tone it down a little!'  Her other sister has the reputation from some of the neighborhood kids of being the 'scary lady.'  My wife tried to scare a few kids.  The first kid she confronted was clearly terrified of her in her creepy mask, but because the kid stood still, she kept ramping it up until I interceded.  She thought he was being stubborn when I could see the kid was frozen in fear.  I gave the kid extra candy.

For tonights Friday Link, let me give you one of the top ten things in television every year.  Ellen Degeneres sends her producer Andy to haunted houses.  Andy would definitely be on the "not scaring" side of the Halloween debate, much to his chagrin.  This year, he got to go through two haunted houses, one with Tiffany Haddish, and one with my super secret girlfriend Lizzo.  Warning there is a lot of bad language on these, which even bleeped out is still pretty in your face.  Enjoy!





Have a great beginning of November everyone!