With luck, I've now sorted the daylight saving issue and this will
arrive in everyone's inbox before work on Monday.  Or so they can
read it on the way to work (as highlighted by someone previously as
being the preferred option ...)

Onto this week's installment, which is likely to be back to the
original intended length (that is, shorter than the last few ...)

J

___

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes of
varying flavours for last week.  I had a fun if comparatively quiet
day.  More details next week.

This week's discussion focuses on what seems a peculiarly American
celebration (I really don't remember anything as marked when living
in Britain and it doesn't happen much in Australia).  For weeks
beforehand houses are decorated on the outside with everything from
simple pumpkins (see links below) through to more ghoulish adornments
(including skulls on sticks, skeletons, etc).  Noone really seems to
understand the origins, if any, of Halloween though it probably is a
combination of a harvest festival (hence the pumpkins) and a couple
of Celtic and Christian festivals (All Saints, All Hallows).  However
nowadays its very much a secular festival.  That is, it's a good
excuse for a party and commercialism (see later).

Pictures of the pumpkins can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3853871&l=f1c3f366c5&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3853872&l=f68280fdd4&id=570906321
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3853873&l=a68e15bb69&id=570906321

The biggest thing about Halloween though is 'Trick or treating'.
With the original premise of "give us something or we'll do something
bad to your house" it really has become somewhat less exciting.
Children dress up (though typically gone are homemade costumes ...)
and wander somewhat mechanically up and down streets collecting as
much candy as they can.  While it's quite cute to see the really
small children who are still quite shy and excited by the whole
thing, there really is a degree of cynicism in the older kids who
simply see it as a way to get free stuff.

[And, yes, it's the one time of the year that it's acceptable to take
candy from strangers.]

The commercialism is worth a comment.  It's pretty amazing how much
Halloweeen merchandise is available - imagine Christmas in terms of
saturation marketing.  You can buy all sorts of costumes (see
comments above), decorations, gift cards (Ok, now that's starting to
get specific) and even 'limited edition' chocolates - Reese's Pieces
in pumpkin shape.  There are huge bags of candy (all individually
wrapped - for hygiene reasons) that can be handed out and pumpkin
containers (of various sizes) for collecting the loot.  You can take
classes in how to carve pumpkins.  It's all just a bit odd.

So what do adults do?  If you have little kids you escort them around
(it's apparently a fairly safe evening but why take any chances).  If
you don't, you stay home handing out candy unless you're a 'young
adult' in which case you use it as an excuse to dress up and have a
party (which usually has lots of decorations, which attracts kids to
your door looking for treats).  Basically it's just a bit of fun.

I was lucky enough to go out for dinner with some of my friends from
pub trivia (some of whom I also work with).  It was pretty impressive
the range of costumes with a scarecrow with accompanying crow and
pumpkin, a person-size version of the board game 'Operation' (with
velcro pieces) and one of the characters from the Monty Python
Spanish Inquisition sketch.  I wasn't sure what to do so bought a
pile of fake blood (easily available, see above) and sacrificed a
shirt (with knife and said blood).  The results ... I was a 'bloody
foreigner'.  Of course, this probably doesn't translate as well to
the US but it was very amusing ...

A photo of me before the party can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3853867&l=c7bddd3f58&id=570906321

One final comment on the party has to be made about the food.  It was
_fantastic_ overall but two things have to be highlighted.  First of
all, the steak was fantastic, beautifully seasoned and cooked.
However, it was (and I think by preference of the chef rather than in
honour of the occasion) very rare.  Now I like my meat on the rare
side, but some of this looked like it had maybe seen a grill for a
few seconds.  And lets not even talk about the piece that was about 5
cm thick.  But the best thing was dessert.  Part of the fun of
Halloween is to make food which is 'a little bit gross'.   The punch,
for example, was bright green. Dessert here was another such thing -
"Worms in Dirt".  It's made up of gummy worms, crushed oreos and
chocolate pudding.  Tastes great, looks terrible!

A photo of dessert can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3853877&l=2329fc8d8e&id=570906321

The total Halloween album can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=158448&id=570906321&l=8bca3bdd0a

Finally this week, two stories to cheer you up related to being a
local ... or not.  First of all, you know that you've lived somewhere
too long when you ring up to order chips (from the local Irish chip
shop, to take to the pub for trivia) and the person recognises you on
the phone and interrupts you halfway through your order, saying "Hi
Jason, usual it is, it'll be ready in ten minutes."

In contrast, I'm occasionally reminded that I'm not from around here.
This happened earlier this week during group meeting when we were
discussing having to cool a large reaction vessel.  All sorts of
convoluted ways were being suggested so I just pointed and said "Why
don't you use an esky?" - forgetting, of course, that noone here
would know what the heck I was talking about (cooler, chilly bin or,
as I resorted to in the group meeting, "thing what you put ice and
beer in").  In fact, several people thought I was using an
interesting description to describe the Hawaiin guy sitting near it
and suggesting he cool the reaction vessel (how, I'm not quite clear)
- they weren't sure if it was some sort of racial slur towards him.
Group meeting stopped for nearly two minutes as everyone composed
themselves.

[The Hawaiin guy in question actually, it came to light afterwards,
had worked with an Australian and was probably the only person in the
room who knew what I was on about.  Yet he remained quiet ...]

Next week, a commentary on having one's birthday overseas.
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