# Damn PC crap (Halloween related) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 30, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584 "2002-10-30T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/21 "2002-10-31T02:21:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Last year when someone told me that I should keep my ‘Pagan crap out of a good, fun holiday’ I happily informed them that if they keep their ‘Christian crap’ out of it, I’ll keep my ‘Pagan crap’ out of it. I dunno. The guy was obviously an idiot and probably should not be allowed out in public without a nanny, but since Hallowe’en is pretty much a Christian festival, he at least has a _technically_ (if inadvertantly) correct point. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/22 "2002-10-31T02:29:56Z")
Another Christian celebration under attack in the public schools. first the nativity scene and now this. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/23 "2002-10-31T02:36:38Z")
Hey I almost bought an adult version of that “Pimp Daddy” costume!!! Of course my wife vetoed it. So now I’m headless. In other news, I’m in Oakland Ca, and my kids school doesn’t have/allow parades or costumes either. On Friday they have some kinda "Fall Festival " no costumes. What a bunch of Killjoys! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/24 "2002-10-31T02:53:45Z")
:smack: I thought this was a rant about computers. no wonder the connection to halloween seemed strange. Can’t say halloween? words fail me. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/25 "2002-10-31T03:04:41Z")
:smack: I thought this was a rant about computers. no wonder the connection to halloween seemed strange. Can’t say halloween? words fail me. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/26 "2002-10-31T03:14:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Carrie Vogel, a Mount Pleasant mother of four, has long opposed Halloween in schools. Describing herself as a conservative Christian, she said that Halloween is a celebration of death, a night on which worshippers of Satan kill humans and animals. Only when the mead’s been sitting out in the sun a little too long, really. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/27 "2002-10-31T03:25:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arden Ranger \* > **People have just gotten fucking stupid.** Words to live by. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/28 "2002-10-31T03:42:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > \*\*This seems like a good place to add this link. > > [http://store.yahoo.com/brandsonsale-store/pimdadsuitch.html](http://store.yahoo.com/brandsonsale-store/pimdadsuitch.html) \*\* May I say that this is somewhat disturbing? Almost as bad as that Kiddie Chippendale dancer thingy. Still, a Halloween theme sounds like a neat idea-characters from books. I say a bunch of kids will go as Harry Potter! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/29 "2002-10-31T03:43:33Z")
The whole thing is so stupid. “Character from a Book” costume. Come on now. If you’d had them dress up on Sept 22 that would be one thing. But you’re having them do it on October 31. So you can call it whatever you want, it’s still a **HALLOWEEN** costume! When did we get so thin-skinned and afraid of offending someone? Get over it, already. > [@](#): > > At another school in Lake County (Mount Dora High), we actually had 15 minutes at the end of the day (cut out of fourth period) where the students went from classroom to classroom, trick-or-treating. Their costumes all fit within the school dress code. It really added inestimably to the education process. High schoolers going Trick or Treating? Aren’t they a little old for that? ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/30 "2002-10-31T07:54:32Z")
At my daughter’s former school they called it “Career Day”. Kids were only allowed to dress as their future career of choice, and had to write a report on it! My daughter always wanted to be a writer. How the heck does a kid dress like a writer? If the student wasn’t in proper costume, that student sat in the office all day. Now I homeschool. Tomorrow we will make caramel apples for Cooking, learn halloween related French words. I have a few articles on Samhain and Halloween history, and as usual, I’ll read the Tell-Tale Heart. We’ll wear our costumes and paint each other’s faces. Later we’ll trick-or-treat. Because that’s what you do on Halloween, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/31 "2002-10-31T07:56:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rushgeekgirl \* > **If the student wasn’t in proper costume, that student sat in the office all day.** I suppose I should clarify. IF a student had on any costume that wasn’t “Career Wear” they were sent to the office. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/32 "2002-10-31T08:05:11Z")
Elsewhere on the Internet, I read a so-sad-it’s-funny description of what one particular Waldorf school was going to do for Halloween. It involved a “pumpkin walk”, in which the littlest children - too delicate and innocent to be exposed to scary things like fake warts and ketchup blood, apparently - would be led through the forest by angels. They would meet various characters along the way, including the “King and Queen of the Forest”, assorted Christian-type saints, and the “Spirit of Autumn”. :rolleyes: Halloween isn’t big enough here to make much of it at school, but at least one class at flodjunior’s school carved a giant jack-o-lantern in art class earlier this week. And I bet lots of the kids are going to have their costumes in gym bags - they’ve been conspiring for weeks to find out which neighborhoods had the best loot last year, and will be going home with friends who live there. We live in a Good Loot neighborhood and will be having young guests today 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/33 "2002-10-31T10:41:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rushgeekgirl \* > **How the heck does a kid dress like a writer?** Oh come, now. You’ve seen _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_, haven’t you? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/34 "2002-10-31T12:11:53Z")
This is yet one more symptom of the wussification of American society. I hate to break it to the “educators” at the OP’s school, but they are going to die someday. So are their students. And their friends. And their pets. Everyone and everything dies eventually. Halloween, with all its ghoulish _accoutrements_, is an inoculation of sorts against the fear of death. We get a delicious thrill out of flirting with the inevitable for one night a year. That’s why we watch horror movies, and dress up in vampire drag, and have fun scaring each other. That’s why Halloween is so appropriately set in autumn, the season when the world seems to die for a time, when leaves fall and nights grow longer. There’s an _apropos_ passage from Terry Pratchett’s **Thief of Time** , p. 63: > [@](#): > > “Are you introducing young children to the occult?” said Madam Frout suspiciously. This sort of thing caused trouble with parents, she was well aware. > > “Oh, yes.” > “_What?_” Why? > "So that it doesn’t come as a shock, said Miss Susan calmly. I shudder to think what sort of fantasy world these gormless fools live in. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/35 "2002-10-31T12:29:29Z")
**gobear** , it’s the same fantasy world where meat is spun from the air in factories that have never seen a cow’s throat cut, where everybody dies in their sleep painlessly, and where bunnies and fawns frolic through the forest without fear because nothing dares eat baby animals. I usually don’t inject myself into child-rearing discussions because I’m not now and most probably never will be a parent, but I’ve been peripherally concerned with the culture of shelter that’s become more and more prevalent lately. “He can’t see that!” “She isn’t exposed to that type of thing.” “We don’t allow them to watch those movies.” What happens when they grow up and find themselves face-to-face with cancer? With the loss of a limb from an accident? With the death of those parents that sheltered them from everything? What happens when they find out that the world isn’t the Disneyfied magical forest that they’ve been led to believe? Life can, and often will, suck. This is a basic principle of the universe, and teaching children otherwise seems rather counterproductive. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/36 "2002-10-31T12:30:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rushgeekgirl \* > \*\*I suppose I should clarify. IF a student had on any costume that wasn’t “Career Wear” they were sent to the office. \*\* What if she said “I want to be an actress and be in Macbeth when I grow up” and wore a witch costume? ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/37 "2002-10-31T12:51:41Z")
My kids go to parochial school, so they are allowed to actually celebrate Easter and Christmas and wear Halloween costumes on Halloween. The administration sent home a note saying that the kids cannot wear costumes that depicting violence because it’s a Christian school. Which is a tad ironic because every classroom has a crucifix… In any event, I wonder what would happen if a kid came dressed as Jesus during the Passion or Ste. Joan of Arc?? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/38 "2002-10-31T13:21:55Z")
“I’m not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth the United States of America!” -_Otter_ Really, for all the so-called lack of willingness to offend anyone am I just missing the fact that Halloween is a well-established part of American culture? I’m not aware of any other country that approaches October 31 the way we do. Frankly, I’m sort of proud of it. I love the fact that the new world (I believe Anglophone Canada celebrates Halloween in a similar way though a Francophone Quebecois pal tells me his family never did) can take a fairly somber holiday and turn it into a silly kids play time. That’s just drop dead cool. I consider my identity as an American to be far more important that any religious or other self-identification. And by taking a position against the traditional celebration rites of Halloween aren’t the schools preventing children from participating in American culture? And I, for one, am deeply offended by that. Any lawyers want to chime in on the efficacy of a suit arguing that Halloween **should** be celebrated? I’m not really advocating that…it just occured to me that what’s good for the goose can let sleeping dogs run around with their tails on fire. [Or this could apply (probably only available today).](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/comics/king.htm?name=Zippy_the_Pinhead&refresh=true) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/39 "2002-10-31T13:42:33Z")
Gee, how bad _was_ it? I get a message > [@](#): > > Sorry, this image is currently unavailable. > Please try again at a later time. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584/40 "2002-10-31T13:57:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*“I’m not going to sit here and listen to you bad mouth the United States of America!” > -_Otter_ > > Really, for all the so-called lack of willingness to offend anyone am I just missing the fact that Halloween is a well-established part of American culture? I’m not aware of any other country that approaches October 31 the way we do. > [Or this could apply (probably only available today).](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/comics/king.htm?name=Zippy_the_Pinhead&refresh=true) \*\* Then you need to travel more. Halloween is celebrated in the UK. I’m planning to be in someone elses house to avoid the pan-handling little tykes. At least this year they haven’t been round every day for the last 2 weeks like normal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-pc-crap-halloween-related/134584.md?page=3)