Finding a costume for Halloween, an original costume (not like the ones lining the shelves in Shoppers Drug Mart) proved to be a more difficult task than I first expected. On average, girls tend to be scantily dressed in child sized outfits that barely hide their you-know-whats. In most costume stores, you will find those classic girly outfits like the French maid, the burlesque dancer, the sailor girl – and practically anything else that turns fun and sexy into slutty and vulgar. Trying to buck the trend of the whorish Halloween attire I did an extensive Google search looking for my costume. Despite many results (including a black eye pea costume – so cute!), nothing caught my eye. So, for several sad minutes I starred aimlessly at the Google home page trying to think of what I was really looking for. Little did I know, that my costume was glaring right back at me. Yes - I would be Google Girl. Although I had doubts about how it would go over, I knew it would be something different to the hoards of young women strutting down the street in their seductive stockings, frilly little skirts and overflowing tops.
Anyways, aside from the tramp like attire being showcased on the city streets ,I didn’t see any other search engines (like Yahoo or MSN) wondering about on Halloween. Unfortunately, some people (in really poor taste) chose to satirize political figures by wearing Sarah Palin inspired costumes. For weeks on end, Palin has been criticized by the media for her outlandish wardrobe expenses, her lack of foreign policy experience (just watch the Katie Couric interview) and several other issues. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst last week, when two young men decided to decorate their house for Halloween with the republican figurehead. Sporting her signature red dress, the young man hung an imitation doll of Palin from their roof, while a figure of John McCain spurted out the chimney in fake flames. Not surprisingly, their decorative efforts made headlines, and once again poor Palin was being trashed and hung out to dry. Democratic candidate, Barack Obama did not escape ridicule either. Two men were arrested in Lexington after hanging an Obama effigy from a tree outside the University of Kentucky.
Aside from the tasteless Halloween jokes, there were several tragic events that happened over the weekend. In South Carolina, a 12 year old boy was shot dead while out trick or treating. The incident occurred after the resident (Quentin Patrick) heard a knock at his door and assumed that he was being robbed. Patrick released 29 shots from his assault rifle killing the boy and injuring his younger brother and father. Back here in Toronto, a man dressed as the journalist Hunter Thompson was stabbed with a broken beer bottle in the downtown area. The suspects implicated in this incident remain unknown (since they were also wearing costume) and have yet too been found,. Although I could go on about other incidents, I think these two incidents are scary enough for now.
In retrospect, I realized that my costume frenzy wasn’t as difficult as I had previously thought. In the end what was more worrisome was the costume mockeries of Sarah Palin. Although the Palin inspired costume is somewhat funny (like Tina Fey’s SNL spoof) it’s still disheartening to see that people will use any opportunity to ridicule the U.S vice presidential candidate.
Hopefully all the backbiting and belittling of presidential and vice presidential contenders will come to a halt when the polls close tomorrow.
However, depending on what the results are, Palin could make another appearance at Halloween next year.
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