Halloween is Upon Us!

Halloween is upon us again. As usual, despite my yearly vows that I will plan AHEAD! I seem to be three weeks away without even a wisp of an idea. Miss Piggy worked out great last year, but I have a personal belief that wearing the same costume more than once is laziness. The Boyfriend doesn't understand this, but that is because he is the kind of person who doesn't really enjoy dressing up, and therefore has been perfectly happy to be Walter Sobchak for three years running. (Besides, I've already promised the Piggy costume to a friend who is going to rock the shit out of it and I can't let her down.)

Someone suggested to me that I go as a Titanic victim. The costume would be fairly simple--peasant duds, blue make-up, wet hair, seaweed, life ring with HMS Titanic stencilled on to it--but I was surprisingly appalled by the idea. Now, I am not someone who is generally bothered about being horribly tacky (i.e. if I could get my hands on a pink sweater seat and a pillbox hat, I'd happily throw fake blood all over it and go as Jackie Kennedy) but this idea stopped me right in my tracks. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I've become something of an amateur Titanic scholar. It would be different, I guess, to go as someone who survived. If I could get the upper-class clothes, I'd be all right going as the Unsinkable Molly Brown or as Office Lightoller. But the thought of dressing up as someone who was locked down in third class on a sinking ship is just...well, it feels a little to me like saying "Hey, why don't you paint some burns on, rub ashes all over yourself, and go as a 9/11 victim?" I know the names of many of those who were lost. I've heard their stories, and to pretend to be one of them would just be all kinds of wrong, as far as I'm concerned. They were mostly not famous people, they were regular people caught in a massive tragedy. Even though it was more than 98 years ago, I've read about it so much that to me it's still current news. I don't know. I guess it's a weird issue to have, but there you are.

I may still go as a drowning victim, but something generic like "drowned prom queen" or "generic oceanic zombie". I think I still have a bridesmaid dress somewhere that might prove useful...

Any suggestions from my faithful readers out there?