I’ll tell you, it’s strange not to be going into the Puppet Kitchen to build things. I kept feeling like there was something I needed to be doing all day today. What I did instead of that was head up to the farmer’s market and pick up some produce plus some apple cider.

After I dropped that off at the apartment, I gathered Mom and Dad for a stroll down Central Park. The weather cooperated in lovely ways and was crisply sunny. We hopped onto a train eventually and went to Cafe Edison, also known as the Polish Tea Room for an egg cream and brunch before the show. It’s a diner in the fading splendor of a Victorian ballroom. Gorgeous plasterwork and then hardcore diner fare. It’s a grand blend of styles.

We had tickets to the matinee of Spamalot. I’ll tell you that I was highly skeptical of the premise. I mean, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is pretty much perfect as is, how could converting it to a Broadway musical possibly be good. And yet it was. It succeeded perfectly at what it set out to be, a profoundly silly musical adaptation of Monty Python. The energy never flagged. I enjoyed it without reservation.

We stopped at Zabar’s to pick up some treats. Mom and Dad were suitably impressed with the place.

Hypothetically, let’s say you were going to an convention over Halloween that had a no costume policy. Let’s further say that you respect the desire to have a professional convention, but still… Halloween. One might opt for what I call Stealth Halloween. What is this, you might ask? It consists of two components.

Stealth Costumes: Wear clothes which appear completely normal to the casual observer, but which come with a solid rational for who you are really dressed as. Think of going as Clark Kent rather than Superman. You still get to wear then nifty spandex, but just keep it under your shirt. Or, say, you could choose to be a Replicant. ¹

Mobile Trick or Treat: Carry treats on you for those folks that might need an extra boost during the course of the day. In the real world, houses that have candy let people know by putting a jack-o-lantern out. Wear a sticker on Friday to let people know you’ve got treats. Like, oh, say that picture in the corner which is handily sized for a 2 x 4 mailing label. ²

1. No, I’m not telling you who I’m going as, that would spoil the fun of guessing. [↩]
2. If you see me on Halloween and want to participate, I’ll have a bunch of them with me. Plus treats. [↩]