What's your pumpkin carving technique? What's the real origins of Halloween? Why does anybody even bother giving out Milk Duds when they're such an inferior Halloween candy?
Once a week Erik tackles a question asked to him and tries to answer it in a method that handles the topic with the respect and attention it deserves. Failing that, he'll at least try to make it funny so you don't regret reading it.
To Erik: What's the best Halloween costume you ever wore?
Sadly, this article isn't going to have a lot of pictures in it. The only real archive of these events are with my parents, and asking them to pull out specific photos just feels rather mean.
Now, I guess the first thing is do you mean "ever wore" as in "as an adult or a child" or just "as a child" or- you know what, we'll split this up.
As a child, I have memory of a few costumes I once wore. Now, my mother didn't believe in store bought costumes, she enjoyed making them from scratch for my sister and I. She'd purchase the patterns at fabric stores and then slave over a sewing machine making sure we'd look our best. It's something I never really appreciated when I was young, but having had to be taught six times how to put a button back on a shirt, I realize just how much time and effort it must have taken to produce them.
One year I got to be Mickey Mouse, but I'll admit I don't have as much memory of that costume. The two costumes that do stick out in my mind are the year I got to be a Ninja Turtle (I think it was Michelangelo, but I could be mistaken), and one year I was a California Raisin.
It's that California Raisin costume I have a special memory of. I was, essentially, a giant raisin with arms, legs, and shades on, and I thought I was the best costume on the street that night. I was able to go trick or treating by myself (one of the first times I was allowed to go alone), and I was getting a pretty good haul. I saw the standard store bought costumes, cheap plastic masks and capes and fake-looking tridents, but I looked like a real raisin, and I was the happiest kid in the world, even if the shades made it really hard to see (I eventually just put them on after I rang the doorbell).
And then I passed a little girl and her mother, and the little girl pointed at me and said "Look, mommy, a gorilla!"
A gorilla.
Seriously.
To whoever that little girl was, I still think your powers of observation at that age were deplorable. A raisin looks NOTHING like a gorilla.
THIS:
LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THIS:
I mean, unless you count the fact that they both have arms, legs, and faces, but by that logic I wasn't a walking, talking raisin, I was clearly dressed as one of the New Kids On The Block.
I still think the raisin costume is my favorite from when I was a kid, though. I can't even imagine what it takes to sew folds into a giant plush raisin outfit, but I can't thank my mother enough for taking the time to make it.
As an adult, I've only really done a few costumes, though I'm still working on assembling a green suit so I can construct my own Riddler costume (anybody who knows where I can get a green bowler for cheap without having to raid St. Patrick's Day shops please let me know). I have a rather keen mad scientist costume (complete with goggles and props), but I think my favorite is the swashbuckler costume I put together, if just because it includes a mask I actually bought in Venice (Italy, not the beach in California).
It's one of those ornate curved beak-like masks with a gold, brown, and silver pattern across it that I think might be one of the most amazing things I own, and even just thinking about it now makes me realize I should really buy a case for it so it can't fall down and break or have anything bad happen to it.
Anyway, those are my two favorite costumes, and in a future article I'll try to share some pictures of them if I can find them.
However, once I get that Riddler costume built, all bets are off.
To Erik: What's the best Halloween costume you ever wore?
Sadly, this article isn't going to have a lot of pictures in it. The only real archive of these events are with my parents, and asking them to pull out specific photos just feels rather mean.
Now, I guess the first thing is do you mean "ever wore" as in "as an adult or a child" or just "as a child" or- you know what, we'll split this up.
As a child, I have memory of a few costumes I once wore. Now, my mother didn't believe in store bought costumes, she enjoyed making them from scratch for my sister and I. She'd purchase the patterns at fabric stores and then slave over a sewing machine making sure we'd look our best. It's something I never really appreciated when I was young, but having had to be taught six times how to put a button back on a shirt, I realize just how much time and effort it must have taken to produce them.
One year I got to be Mickey Mouse, but I'll admit I don't have as much memory of that costume. The two costumes that do stick out in my mind are the year I got to be a Ninja Turtle (I think it was Michelangelo, but I could be mistaken), and one year I was a California Raisin.
It's that California Raisin costume I have a special memory of. I was, essentially, a giant raisin with arms, legs, and shades on, and I thought I was the best costume on the street that night. I was able to go trick or treating by myself (one of the first times I was allowed to go alone), and I was getting a pretty good haul. I saw the standard store bought costumes, cheap plastic masks and capes and fake-looking tridents, but I looked like a real raisin, and I was the happiest kid in the world, even if the shades made it really hard to see (I eventually just put them on after I rang the doorbell).
And then I passed a little girl and her mother, and the little girl pointed at me and said "Look, mommy, a gorilla!"
A gorilla.
Seriously.
To whoever that little girl was, I still think your powers of observation at that age were deplorable. A raisin looks NOTHING like a gorilla.
THIS:
LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THIS:
I mean, unless you count the fact that they both have arms, legs, and faces, but by that logic I wasn't a walking, talking raisin, I was clearly dressed as one of the New Kids On The Block.
I still think the raisin costume is my favorite from when I was a kid, though. I can't even imagine what it takes to sew folds into a giant plush raisin outfit, but I can't thank my mother enough for taking the time to make it.
As an adult, I've only really done a few costumes, though I'm still working on assembling a green suit so I can construct my own Riddler costume (anybody who knows where I can get a green bowler for cheap without having to raid St. Patrick's Day shops please let me know). I have a rather keen mad scientist costume (complete with goggles and props), but I think my favorite is the swashbuckler costume I put together, if just because it includes a mask I actually bought in Venice (Italy, not the beach in California).
It's one of those ornate curved beak-like masks with a gold, brown, and silver pattern across it that I think might be one of the most amazing things I own, and even just thinking about it now makes me realize I should really buy a case for it so it can't fall down and break or have anything bad happen to it.
Anyway, those are my two favorite costumes, and in a future article I'll try to share some pictures of them if I can find them.
However, once I get that Riddler costume built, all bets are off.
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