trick or treating is alive and well in our neighborhood, apparently, but we went over to another neighborhood because we'd been invited over there. trick or treating was alive and well in that neighborhood too: whole families came around; a lot of times the mothers dressed up and got candy too. when we stopped and gave away candy at the house of a friend, seemed we gave as much away to adults as to kids. people in the street everywhere. it was a beautiful night, cool, stars out, not too cold or wet. there was a festive atmosphere, parties at many of the houses, a lot of drinking going on. the police were pulling people over.

somewhere in there we came to this enormous house, pillars on the outside, taking up two lots at least, and going back a ways. my friend knew the owner, who had bought it from a famous swindler. this guy had embezzled 77 million from his company, and got caught, went to jail in 2006 on a 25 year sentence, but was already 37, and likely to be in jail for much of his life. he was pretty well known around town and of course they had to sell all these old cars and such to raise some of the 77 mil he owed when they finally caught up with him. he left three young kids, guess he told them, good luck, i'll be in jail for a while. folks admire him actually for somehow piling up 77 million before they caught up with him.

the house is big, wide open in the middle, an enormous and beautiful railing around the top dominates it; it has two pools, and a recquetball court, and enormous pillars. the guy was unexpectedly generous about letting us in, and the kids, in their costumes, got a bit of a better tour than we did, but only because we were shy. i left feeling like i'd seen one of the great sites of town.

some of the more suburban neighborhoods, out on the edge, apparently don't do so well. kids do "trunk or treat" events that are sponsored by churches and civic organizations, and this spares them from having to go around to neighbors who may not be home, or who may not appreciate the custom. in fact there is some suspicion of the custom in general. it may be that nobody has ever really found a razor blade, or a needle, in a piece of candy, or an apple, but in any case the idea of letting your kids accept any old candy from any neighbor has gone out of style in some places; not in our neighborhood. we're one of those neighborhoods that import kids, because it's known to have good candy per house ratio, lots of houses, lots of lights, good trick or treating.

but i believe we bought three bags of candy and only successfully gave away two; in addition of course our boys hauled in a couple of sacks, so there's no doubt, there will be a bit of candy around the house for a while. and this of course is a problem, but not a huge problem, it'll be old and stale soon enough, and the parents will have to take depletion measures and if those aren't good enough the older brothers will come home for thanksgiving and finsih it off. by then only the sour stuff will remain but that's ok with the older boys anyway.

came home and a lady, her husband and two kids came to the door. i gave the kids fistfuls of candy. the lady didn't want candy. she was carrying a huge obama sign though, and had an entirely black outfit. she was dressed up, but didn't want candy. she was protecting the obama sign, apparently. lots of vandalism, and drunkenness, on a night like this. you can have an obama sign, you just kind of have to watch out in this world. and if you don't have a video camera, forget it. i'm not participating in that kind of stuff, though of course i'll vote. you have to make your own relationship with the world. your house, the neighborhood, the traffic, the dangerous corners: it's life as we know it. go to bed, kids, enough sugar.