Fresh Loaf

Dr. Fifi: I’m OK with it. It’s two gay holidays together. It would be nice to have some warmer weather, but I’m just happy to be back in Piedmont Park. It’s National Coming Out Day, and National Coming Out Month in October. That has a lot of significance. I heard a lot of people are traveling to Atlanta Pride because it is in October. More people will be here. Any time we come together as a community we’re strengthened. I’d prefer June, but the fact that we get it back in Piedmont Park, it really doesn’t matter to me when it is.

Ken: It’s an abomination. Gay Pride is the anniversary of Stonewall. Stonewall is in June, not October. It has nothing to do with Halloween. It has to do with significant events in the Gay calendar and significant events that happened in June. That’s part of our history. We don’t change history. I’m all about Piedmont Park. However, you need to honor what you need to honor, and location is not the reason we do this. I am ashamed of the Pride Committee for agreeing to this. I know people on the committee that are my friends, and I am ashamed.

Chris: Piedmont Park would only let us to do [this] weekend, and it turned out to be Halloween. Having it on Halloween will inspire people to dress up more, participate more, and it will be a lot more fun than everybody sweating in the heat in June. Having it at the different time of year does not take away from what happened at Stonewall. Around the country, Gay Pride has been celebrated at different times. It makes no difference in remembering those that were at Stonewall. We always have those thoughts with us, whatever month it would be.

(Photos by Jeff Slate)

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Stennis: Love-hate. We once rode across the park for a couple of hours. I love the pumpkin — but hate it when I cut a hole in its face. What if I cut a hole in your face? You’d be furious. When I’m in the truck, I take him on adventures, butter him up a bit, have a great time. I ride around with him for a couple of weeks, like a dog in the car, then put a knife to him. A couple of years ago, I made him look like he was throwing up. I called him Puking McPukerson.

Jessica: Intimate. You got to name it, right? Maybe you’re feeling sassy; you name him George. Maybe it’s sexy; you name it Sasha. You pray to it. The lord, man, is amazing. He will download some stuff. God created it, and you’re turning it into some beautiful creation. God made that pumpkin for a reason. When that seed entered the earth, it grew for a reason. God named that pumpkin before it was even a sprout. It’s glory to God. Put that light inside it, it’s like Christ is inside you, right? It’s light flowing from the darkness.

Aleesha: I named my pumpkin last year Bubbles. It calls you in Wal-Mart, it reaches out to you. You pick him up, you turn him around. Bubbles was very cool. He had a nice little ride in the grocery cart, kind of helped me pick out some eggs, a little cheese. I think Bubbles thought he was having dinner with us later on. But I feel bad about cutting him up. Feels gross and sticky. You feel like you’ve killed him. We were very careful with him, so we made him look extra special. We made him blow a bubble. But I killed Bubbles.

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One of the quirkiest traditions of this time of year is watching “The Simpsons” annual new “Treehouse of Horror” episode — after Halloween. Because Fox currently owns the broadcast rights to the World Series, and November is a ratings “sweeps” month, “The Simpsons” Halloween episode almost always airs after All Hallow’s Eve, when it’s horror-themed slapstick proves a little out of date. The show doesn’t even make self-deprecating jokes about it any more, it’s been this way for so long. This year the 19th installment airs on Sun., Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. and, as usual, features three segments: “How to Get Ahead in Dead-vertising,” “Untitled Robot Parody” and “It’s the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse,” which satirize, respectively, AMC’s “Mad Men,” Transformers and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and other Peanuts specials. The amusing titles for the “Mad Men” spoof are already on-line:

“Treehouse of Horror XIX” seems unusually, uh, leaky this year. The episode’s election-themed prologue, involving a faulty voting machine, has been on-line for several weeks already. (In a sign of just how long “The Simpsons” has aired Halloween specials, one of its most amusing political-themed chapters dates to 1996. “Citizen Kang” featured slobbery aliens Kang and Kodus impersonating Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.) Anyway, here’s the new prologue, which at least airs ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day.

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Our 5 best bets:

• Funkenstein at Smith’s Olde Bar with Collective Efforts
• Nightmare on 6th Street: All Purpose Party at HALO Lounge and Cypress Pint & Plate
• Undead Invasion in various downtown locations
• Halloween Ball at Eyedrum
• EAV-O-Ween in East Atlanta Village

Lots more below the jump.

(Photo by Chad Hess)

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— Newt Gingrich was in Macon Wednesday, and Lucid Idiocy checks in on his various pronouncements. I remember when Newt was something of a liberal, back when he was a West Georgia College professor who played weekly poker games with a group that included Col. Bruce Hampton. Newt is proof that, like cats, politicians can have nine lives.

– DriftGrift adds a new feature, his “afternoon Jay.” And it kicks off with a $150,000 shopping budget for new work clothes. I did that with my last job. Didn’t you?

— But the lovely Sara at Going Through The Motions reminds us that Alaska is not exactly a high-fashion Mecca. I remember that from Northern Exposure, which was really filmed in Washington state, but what the heck? It was still one of the greatest television series ever. And Sara also points out that looking good is much more important for female candidates than their male counterparts. Touche.

— Poor D-Cup at Politits. She has the worst feeling ever: a co-worker who professes that they could never vote for a black man decides to cancel out D-Cup’s vote for “that one.” Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

— At the Wren’s Nest, there was a similar WTF? moment when a staffer of color began to lead a tour and a white person on that tour had a question and then a comment that has to be read to be believed. Let’s at least hope the tourist was from lower Alabama.

— And, finally, lost in all the election hub-bub … it’s almost Halloween. Which for me, means my annual birthday has arrived. For everyone else, it means trying to find that ever-elusive Halloween costume. But worry not. The fine ladies at Pecanne Log have got you covered with costume ideas galore.

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e/b in the comments section of Pecanne Log’s Halloween costume post provides information that could save many a procrastinator’s ass:

The Value Village at Belvedere (Memorial & Columbia Dr.) has 50% off Wednesday Oct. 29.

Last year I went there on the day-of without a costume in mind (SHAMEFUL) – and found all the makin’s for a sweet Velma costume in about 15 minutes.

I have great love for the Belvedere Value Village. AND everything is arranged by color which is perfect for costume searching.

Comment by e/b — Friday, October 24, 2008 @ 11:33 am

I’m dressing as a 1970s Hi-Fi stereo, so this is awesome news to me.

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Habersham County Sheriff DeRay Fincher has a warning for his county’s sex offenders: Participate in any Halloween-related activities and you will be arrested.

According to the county’s web site, sex offenders are forbidden from giving out candy to trick-or-treaters, accompanying their own children to trick-or-treat, wearing Halloween costumes, or even decorating their homes. Additionally, the sheriff warns sex offenders they must be reachable by phone from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Halloween.

Does Habersham, a rural county of 42,000 in mountainous northeast Georgia, have an especially high rate of child sex abuse?

I don’t know.

The highest point in Habersham County is a 3,809 feet peak called Young Lick Knob. Maybe that explains the Sheriff’s concern.

If I lived in Habersham County, I’d be ticked off. I don’t decorate my house for Halloween because I want to minimize the number of kids who ring the bell. My dogs bark for a couple of minutes each time the bell rings. It drives me bonkers.

But if I lived in Habersham, however, I would now feel compelled to decorate my home elaborately, lest any of my neighbors suspect that I’m a sex offender.

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The Atlanta Police Department is planning a Halloween “traffic safety blitz,” complete with “saturation patrols” and “security checkpoints” that will start this weekend.

According to an APD press release:

More than half of all Halloween fatal accidents are alcohol related. Accordingly, Metro Atlanta law enforcement officers will be turning up the HEAT [Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic] on impaired drivers through increased patrols and safety checkpoints.

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Elphaba: Vegetarian lasagna. Animals should not be killed for their meat. On Halloween, I stay at home because that’s when all the people are out making fun of it. They don’t know what Halloween means, especially to someone who’s actually green. They’re all, it’s like ‘nice costume.’ Everybody thinks I’m wicked because I’m green. Not true. I used to give out apples until people began to believe this myth about razor blades. Now I give out candy; otherwise people would egg my castle.

The Undead: I like Kit Kats. That and brains. Sometimes together. Brains get a little sour, so Kit Kats sweeten them. I certainly don’t want a salad on Halloween. I want flesh. I particularly like virgin females. YES! They taste sweeter. They’re very pure. And we get the hobos off the street in Atlanta and eat them. We’re trying to do our job to clean up Atlanta. People who’ve eaten a lot of sugar, their brains taste better. Particularly if they’ve eaten Kit Kats.

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Joker: I love smoothies. It doesn’t mess up the makeup. I hate liver. I don’t care how many sauteed onions you have on it. People won’t open the door [for me] on Halloween. It’s because of this killer smile. I love to scare the freakin’ Jesus out of them. The cops won’t put me away. They don’t want to put me in with the rest of the criminals. They’re afraid I’ll kill them. The criminals are afraid, too. They know if they ask the wrong question, I’ll just push them out in the middle of traffic.

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