BELGRADE LAKES, Me. — SALES of President Obama masks at Party City in Augusta, Me., are down this Halloween season, way down. “It’s not that popular an item,” said a sales clerk when I visited a few weeks ago. You’d think this would be a bad sign for the Democrats, but on the other hand, there weren’t any John Boehner or Mitch McConnell masks in the store. The public has spoken: no one fantasizes about being a politician anymore. The most popular costume at that Party City? The minions from “Despicable Me.”
This is a comedown from the days when one of the most popular masks in the nation was Richard Nixon. It doesn’t seem all that long ago when one could reasonably expect, on Allhallows Eve, to see children dressed up as the president who had resigned long before they were born.
You can still get a Reagan mask — available in both regular and zombie models — although you’d have to order it online. In fact, there are plenty of politician costumes available on the Internet. But it’s curious, who’s in and who’s out. Costumecraze.com carries George Washington and Abraham Lincoln costumes; Jack Kennedy; both Clintons; George W. Bush; and Barack Obama. But no… (click here to read the rest of the column at the NY Times site.)
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Oh no how disappointing! There are a few fausomly up-themselves major authors I’ll name no names, they know who they are. As for me, I’m a bit of an introvert and socialising normally does wear me out, but not this time; among so many like-minded people it was stimulating instead. And I found out there’s actually an active group of SF writers in the Bristol area, with their own Con coming up in three weeks; and although that’s not quite on my doorstep, it’s a lot closer than London. So I’ll be going to Bristolcon, and meeting the locals.
