The view from the Idea Center

Today is Halloween, which means for most municipalities, there are hundreds if not thousands of trolls and fairies and superheroes on the streets tonight – most about three feet tall, if that.

So as you’re navigating the thoroughfares this evening, please think about safety as well as Snickers and about precaution as well as Pay Day bars. Drive smart.

And while schools grapple with the idea of hosting Halloween parties instead of classes, releasing kids early or not scheduling extracurricular events for the day, there is a group called the Halloween & Costume Association that’s out to end that whole conundrum. It’s started a Change.org petition to move the holiday to the last Saturday of October, in hopes of creating what they term “a Safer, Longer, Stress-Free Celebration!”

As for me, I sure hope they don’t get their wish. Why must everything be moved, twisted, or shoe-horned into a ‘convenient’ time? Convenient for whom? As a person who spent many years working weekends, I’m very aware that every adjustment for one person is an inconvenience for somebody else. Perhaps that’s why I love Christmas and the Fourth of July – they stay right where they are, no matter what.

Besides – the origins of Halloween are so anti-commercial – anti-cultural even – that having it land on a Thursday or a Monday or anything other than Sunday night – feels right, doesn’t it?

By the way, if you’re into the macabre background of Halloween and other things that go bump in the night, NPR has a great story on the origins of zombies, the connection to Haiti first, the United States secondarily and how even that boom in zombie popularity has roots in racism.

Finally, if you’re one of the folks who detests the day as being akin to what used to be called “Devil’s Night,” remember: the total number of people killed by witches, werewolves, goblins, ghosts and vampires remains... zero.

Trick or Treat!

BTW, Marlene Harris-Taylor is in the Studio Four seat tomorrow morning – I’ll talk to you early Monday!
Rick Jackson

Need to KnOH

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Your ideas

Americans spent an estimated $9 billion celebrating Halloween in 2018, according to the National Retail Federation, and we don’t even want to imagine how much of that was on sugar in its various forms. How do you manage your kids' Halloween candy intake? Only three pieces allowed per day? A "Mom Tax" on your favorite treats? Call us at  (216) 916-6476 or post on  our Facebook page. We'll feature some of your thoughts and comments here in Noon(ish) and on Morning Edition.

Yesterday we asked if your polling place has changed for 2019 and Betty-Jo Nicholson reports via Facebook that the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website is helpful: "I vote by mail and I know my polling place, but I was curious to see if it is where I thought it was. I logged onto the CC Voting site and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to find my polling place. Their web site is great and very easy to move around."