Trick or Treat! 2010 Edition

Posted on 1 November 2010

: Hallowe’en Data Breakdown. I’m liking Daytum more and more.

A year ago, we were nervous about Hallowe’en coming because we hadn’t yet taken possession of our house and we had no idea what our soon-to-be-new neighbourhood, located near a high school, was like. This year, we were excited at the prospect of handing out candy to the neighbourhood kids. The number of kids trick-or-treating in our parent’s neighbourhoods had dropped off recently, so we we were looking forward to having an influx of kids we hadn’t seen since we were trick-or-treaters ourselves. We based this on the fact that throughout the summer kids could be seen playing all sorts of games ranging from capture the flag to kick the can (for real) on our quiet street, and that about 50% of the houses on our block had been decorated for Hallowe’en since Thanksgiving.

(possibly) too much candy for only 41 kids

While we did get double the amount of our only other Hallowe’en experience, we didn’t get as many as planned, as evidenced by the amount of candy leftover (we may have went overboard on this front, too, being confronted by so many choices). So, here is the Hallowe’en breakdown 2010. You can see more numbers, with lovely graphs and displays, thanks in part to a Daytum chart I made for the occassion.
Best costume
A robot. It had lights and buttons and everything.
Laziest costume
I’m usually fairly minimalist when it comes to dressing up, having worn outfits from garbage (just a few bits of paper glued to an old shirt) to a haunted house (which involved putting a cardboard house over my head). This year, I went all out and was a Jack-O-Lantern. This was after I pondered dressing as myself and saying I was my evil twin. But I did have two versions, the second and improvement on the first. I’m not completely lackadaisical.

mach 1

mach 2

Most surreal costume
A girl covered in glowsticks came trick-or-treating. Since I was keeping tabs on costumes, I asked her what she was. Answer: “I dunno.”
Most popular costume:
Princess, with 4 girls dressed in the outfit (possibly a fifth, who I marked as angel but may have been a fairy princess).
Jack-o-Lanterns
If it weren’t for September frost, we would have had two home-grown pumpkins. As it was, we had one, which my girlfriend carved into a lovely cat.

As for me, I went the self-promotional route and created a CFUR-o-lantern.

Music

Hallowe’en music has been an interest of mine over the last few years. This year, I made a ghost mix for my radio show, after noticing that almost every album these days has at least one song with “ghost” in the title. Here are the songs I played:

“The Ghost Inside” by Broken Bells (link)

“Walking With A Ghost” by Tegan and Sara (link)

“The Ghost of You Lingers” by Spoon (link)
“Ghosts of the Future” by Green Go (link)
“Ghost Town” by the Bicycles (link)
“Ghost Writer” by RJD2 (link)
“Ghost Train” by the Gorillaz (link)
“Hold On (Holy Ghost)” by A-Trak (a stretch, I wanted an instrumental for under my voice)
“Hunting Ghosts” by the Library Voices (link)
“The Ghost of Genova Heights” by Stars (link)
“Friendly Ghost” by Harlem (link)
“Every Ghost I Know” by Wisconsin Dream Guitar” (link)
“Ghosting” by Mother Mother (link)
“Ghost of a Chance” by Ron Sexsmith (link)
“Tuff Ghost” by the Unicorns (link)
“Moar Ghosts N Stuff” by Deadmau5 (link)
“Weighty Ghost” by Wintersleep (link)
Favourite Hallowe’en Songs:
Runner-up: In second place is “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah”, a parody of novelty hits from the minds of 30 Rock. The song was mentioned in a throwaway gag in the show, but I guess they actually recorded it and released it on the internet, just to take the joke further. Totally worth it, and a Hallowe’en classic.
[audio:http://www.kickinthepeanuts.com/music/30rockwerewolfbarmitzvah.mp3]
Number one: remains ‘Do They Know It’s Hallowee’en” by the North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative. Great parody, great song.
[audio:http://earbuds.popdose.com/will/Halloween/NAHPI%20-%20Do%20They%20Know%20It’s%20Halloween.mp3]

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