Hei Hei! Never-ending Halloween
Recent Reads Ed. 12
Oh hey, it’s Hei Hei!
That’s what I expect to hear while trick-or-treating this afternoon, because, yes, I’m the crazy chicken from “Moana.”
For the past five years, I’ve gotten into the spirit of Halloween, at least from the perspective of family costumes. We have dressed as Super Mario characters and the Spider Verse; bottles of Sriracha and brunch. Of course, Minnie, Mickey, and Goofy got a round too!
Kids are only young once, so they say, so here I am, a green chicken because we’ve watched “Moana” ten thousand times. Disney+ is getting bang for its buck.
The year, though, seems to be the spooky season that never ends. Maybe it’s the nation-wide drought giving us the sunshine-fueled motivation to leave our homes. Or the impending doom/joy of the election that merits a distraction. Or the fact I spent three days in NOLA. Or that my daughter has been to five Halloween parties before actual Halloween. I hope the costume makes it.
However it lands, I’m already hyped up on Snickers, and all the weird and wonderful content for October 31th.
What happened to the ruby red slippers?
You can’t go a single Halloween without a sighting of Dorothy, Toto, and her motley crew from the “Wizard of Oz.” It’s lovely foreshadowing for one of the most exciting Hollywood memorabilia moments, which is taking place later this year: the auction of Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, expected to fetch some $3.5M or more.
And you thought Louboutins could get pricey, ha.
These shoes were made for walkin’ and talkin’ because boy, they have a story fit for Tinseltown.
Are they the shoes? Not exactly. They are one of many from the costume department. Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy, wore some five different pairs during filming, and the other pairs have homes in places like the Smithsonian Institute in D.C. and American Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A., where they are on display. This particular pair, however, has a more colorful history.
They were stolen from a glass display case in Minnesota, buried in a suburban backyard, and later retrieved, all over the course of 13 years in a tale that involves career criminals, FBI sting operations, extortion, fake rubies, and the mob. Did you see “McMillions?” I’m eagerly awaiting this documentary. Happy listening.
I’ve personally never dressed as Dorothy for Halloween, but once, as a child, I was relegated to the Wicked Witch of the West, as part of a group costume. We all know now that Elphaba is a complex character, but at the time, I didn’t have Idina Menzel on my side.
On Candy: “Giving out full-size candy bars misses the point of Halloween.”
I also don’t have a celebrity doppelganger on which to rely upon for such costume-heavy festivities. I mean, wouldn’t you be a Timothèe Chalamet character for Halloween if you coincidentally look like Timothèe Chalamet?
That was the thought process for a kid named Miles Mitchell, who dressed as the actor in his role as Willy Wonka for a Timothèe Chalamet look-a-like competition in NYC’s Washington Square Park. Flyers about the showdown had been taped up on poles downtown like it’s the year 2000.
It’s so New York, I love it.
Thousands of people showed up to the festivities because why not? It’s a beautiful day! You could win $50! Apparently a lot of dudes look like Timmy!
And I buried the lede here: Timothèe himself showed up!
A few minds were blown, the internet went berserk, four people got arrested, and the media ran with it, hopping on the opportunity to discuss the rare moments that other very real celebrities turned up at their look-alike competitions—and didn’t win. Ironic, don’t you think? Dolly Parton famously competed in a Dolly Parton drag show—and lost—as did Charlie Chaplin, who placed third in a contest at Grauman’s Chinese Theater for fellow comedians. His son questioned whether the joke was on his dad or the judges, but either way, jokes you cannot make up.
Oddities
Over the summer, Harvard removed a book from its university library that had been rebound in human skin, a process known as anthropodermic bibliopegy. (Say that three times fast.) While plenty of bibliophiles such as myself find the practice utterly terrifying—often because this was not with consent of the skin’s owner—it turns out collecting items covered in human leather and other human-related artifacts is a fast-growing business.
A surprisingly high number of people are seeking out human remains on the black, no Etsy market and the like. At first I thought this was something like a relic of the historic Catholic churches I was dragged to as a kid, but alas no. It’s people just wanting…skulls and pickled organs, ostensibly to display in their living rooms. There are Reddit threads. Yes, plural.
On Collecting: “There are hundreds of listings for body parts on Facebook, where skulls can go for anywhere between $1,000 and $1,800 and spines for $700.”
It’s such a fascinating industry that Henry Scragg, a purveyor of such curiosities profiled in Airmail, charms the police investigating his skeleton-filled shop in Essex, England on the regular. He allegedly “ gives them a cup of tea, and they leave happy” while Scragg continues his business selling bones, mummified hands, brains in jars, and at least one wallet made from human skin, which he carries himself.
Halloween has gotten so light.
Halloween has apparently also lost its fun, according to this candy-coated essay in The Atlantic, which posits that the fun-size candy bars are the only true treasure. While writer Ian Bogost admits that “full-size candy bars are the holy grail” of the trick-or-treat experience, he points out that the smaller bars do something a big candy bar cannot: the mouthfeel of an entire candy bar all at once. After all, they pack a lot more flavor into a smaller bite because they have to! (And we all know the deal with snacks companies.)
I popped a few fun-size Snickers while writing this to try it out: regular, almond, and peanut butter. I must say Bogost’s onto something.
On farms: “OMG, a goat.”
Completing this week are the dozens of memes and reels that popped up spouting the many aspects of October we know and sometimes parody, from apple crisp lattes to pumpkin patches to fall girlies—all together.
Now, off to extol the virtues of tiny candy to my kiddos.
Cheers 🥂