The War on Halloween?

Well, nuts!

The Grinches are at it again. 

Their latest foray comes from Chesapeake, VA which passed a law restricting trick-or-treating to those 12 or younger. Will this mean that a 14- or 16- or 18-year old could be cited for trick-or-treating?

What is frigging WRONG with people? Let's face it: the news sucks. Politics sucks. Religion has let us down. Even sports has gotten too serious. (Still, I liked the Series.)

What harm is it for teens to want to have trick-or-treating fun?  Let's hope Chesapeake is not a harbinger of a trend. 

Maybe FOX News can do a series on War on Halloween. No, wait -- we already have idiots passing out tracts instead of candy. And schools having Fall Festivals instead of Halloween Parties.

Truth: I trick-or-treated until I was 18 or 19. Yes, and with my friends. And my Mama was fine with my costumes. (Yes, I did Lum twice -- in tiger skin bikini. Temps were in low- 70s at night)

Oh, New Orleans is a party town and people go all out for Halloween. Like a mini-Mardi Gras in late October. New Year's Eve also rocks in the Quarter.

Good witches protect trick-or-treaters from goblins.

Louis Wain's Cats

Artist Louis Wain (1860-1937) specialized in cat pictures as a genre; some of his illustrations featured cute cats doing typically human things; others verged on the abstract or even bizarre.

He suffered from schizophrenic disorder later in life; and was institutionalized. Also, he had lost his well-loved wife at an early age. In general, he had a sad life.

This one is cuddly cute:

This one is highly abstract; and verges on the bizarre.

I like his use of the patterned background; like it incorporates an Asian influence in his art:

This kitty can be seen either as whimsical or puzzled:

And what is more normal than a group of cats napping together:

There is a bit of question about Louis Wain's work.  Walter Maclay, a psychiatrist, wrote that his depiction of cats from the typically cute ones to the abstract mirrored is descent into schizophrenia. However, there is little evidence to document this consistent progression from the realistic to the bizarre followed any consistency. Louis Wain did not date his illustrations.  Alternatively, Louis Wain might have simply been experimenting with new approaches on the feline theme. After all, his abstract, geometric works have a consistency to them. Also, he was drawing at a time when boundaries in painting shifted from the concrete to the surrealistic or even bizarre.

The Action News Team Celebrates No Bra Day

Recently Hello Giggles listed seven commandments of not wearing a bra in public.  These include such common sense suggestions as not wearing itchy material, avoiding animals with claws, being careful of how shoulder bags hang across your chest, not being envious of someone else's apparently better endowment, and so forth.

Missy Chauvin thought that she would adopt this daring look for National No Bra Day (Oct. 13th). Besides, she had an eye on television ratings and, while Action News was tops in the New Orleans Metro Area, they had to keep up with the competition continually.

However, she did not share this crafty plan with the news anchor Al Gautreaux or weather person Sharon Rideaux or with the Program Director Vickie Connelly. You can call this the Semi-big October Surprise.

Anyway, she wore her jacket on set and took it off as she seated herself at the news desk. This was despite the fact that the set is normally cool!

And, as the cameraman panned across the set, there was TAA-TAA! Something not ever seen before on Action News. Actually, FOUR things.

It seemed that Sharon, the weather reporter, also decided to celebrate National No Bra Day!

Missy was irritated that Sharon stole some of her thunder. And it showed.

Al, as news anchor, got into the spirit of things, and ad libbed a few double entendres:

"Missy, what bumps stand in the way of the Saints' progress? "

"Sharon, is the weather likely to be a little nippy tomorrow morning?" [Said in New Orleans in October; very unlikely!]

"At 11:30 tonight, we'll carry another episode of Twin Peaks. In the meantime, here's an interview we can get a rise from."

But, at least, Missy consoled herself, hers were not cattywampus like Sharon's!

(After all, who wants to prove she's not wearing a bra by holding up a dull white one?)

A New Book Cover for a Classic

What if the editor at a book publisher took things too literally?