I still trick or treat, I just use my grandson as cover.

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I'm not a scientist, but I play one on the internet.
http://www.rrac.org

That's different.

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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those … moments will be lost … in time … like tears … in rain. Time … to die.

Mangler, a lot of communities nowdays have ordinances prohibiting kids over 14 - or whatever - from trick or treating.

I wandered around town tonight dressed as a balding plump middle aged bearded guy. They recognized me at the Chinese Buffet anyway. Go figger.

If you're not in a costume, you don't get to trick-or-treat. That's my personal rule. However, Erma Bombeck said that, if you were more interested in the housewife handing out the candy than the candy itself, you're too old. Also if you rode into the neighborhood on your motorcycle. I personally made kind of a ritual of My Last Solo Trick-or-Treat Expedition (ie, not with my potential children) at age seventeen. And, yes, I was probably too old.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Well, after all, Stacy's mom has got it going on.

I love the way that when pagan communities were christianised, existing festivals like the ancestors of christmas, easter and halloween were adopted into christianity. Pretty clever. No of course you don't have to stop doing that, Ulfthang. The really amusing thing is when people start banging on about "the true meaning of Christmas" or, even funnier, Easter - I find those who bang on about it the most are those who are the least aware of the origins of these festivals.

I can't be doing with the modern Halloween at all. It's become too Americanised. We had a great tradition of Halloween in this country, we'd go guising and suchlike. Kids these days, however, seem to refer to it as trick or treating, and I can't be doing with it at all. A friend suggested that a good way to deal with it was to get a large pumpkin, and leave it on the step with a sign saying "Don't knock, just help yourself!". Then fill it with mousetraps. It is, after all trick or treat!

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

I have heared that the first chrisitans built their churches on pagan sites too. To kind of squash the pagan thing.

edit-does anyone know whether this is the reason why there are yew trees in a lot of churchyards?

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Absolutely.

As for the yew trees . . . well, they're pretty, of course. But, yes, the yew is one of the sacred trees of the Druids, though not as well known as oak and ash and thorn and mistletoe. (Yet another Pagan tradition co-opted to convert the masses; mistletoe was sacred to the Druids, too.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I still trick or treat, and I'm fifteen. Of course, I and my friends were wearing costumes (one was a bananna and the other a dead Ashlee Simpson)

Jew-woo...*dies laughing*

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here we go, the world is spinning
when it stops, it's just beginning

sun comes up, we laugh and we cry
sun goes down, and then we all die

Touched by his noodly appendage

No one came to my house (8 unit condo building). There are security doors requiring a key or a buzz into the building as the first entrance. I guess kids don't want to go through the hassle.

My dad got about two dozen granola bars, half of which the trick-or-treaters took away. I tried one of the remaining ones... Absolutely vile, so damn sweet as to be nauseating. I swear I have never tasted a worse granola bar.

Very few kids came this year, I'm actually fairly suprised, the number of people decorating/trick-or-treating seems to be dropping drastically. 2 years ago when you went ot my Highschool on the 31st you'd see about 1/4 of the kids in full costume, this year I was one of about 15, maybe 20.

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Pft. Did some of those 15-20 use Halloween to dress like...a lady of the evening? (to put politely)

Most people used Halloween as an excuse to dress casual (we have a uniform). They just wore a silly hat and called it a night.

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here we go, the world is spinning
when it stops, it's just beginning

sun comes up, we laugh and we cry
sun goes down, and then we all die

Touched by his noodly appendage