The thing about this year is that it's also a friend's birthday party, which means I don't even have the get-out-clause of ... um, staying in. Now, for the last few years I've tried to get into the whole Halloween feeling, and made a (half-hearted) effort to dress up and fit in. But this year I just don't want to. I think my antipathy is largely due to an article I read on the BBC News website about how spending on Halloween-related goods is propping up the retail sector even though people are feeling poor because of the public-spending cuts. It seems that the British public are going to spend £280 million on Halloween this year, compared with about £20 million in 2001. Well, bully for the retail sector, I'm not going to begrudge them their livelihoods. I just abhor this kind of meaningless and relentless commercialisation (does that mean that I really do begrudge the retail sector its livelihood? Perhaps it does. Sorry, retail sector).
Alright, it's time to stop being such a grumpy bore and somehow muster some enthusiasm for a night out. On a different, not-entirely-unrelated-to-Halloween note, I did enjoy this column by David Mitchell, and this slideshow of spirit photographs taken by William Hope. (I'm not anti ghosts-and-ghouls-and-things, I just don't like supermarkets to dictate which parties I go to, that's all...)
* I'm stretching the meaning of the word 'enjoy' to its limits, there. We grumpy old kill-joys never actually enjoy anything, but heaven knows that's not our fault. It's the fault of all you horrible cheerful happy people, being so ostentatious in your displays of joie de vivre all the bloody time. Stop pretending that life is anything more than a seemingly endless series of dull and meaningless moments that become increasingly unbearable until you die.
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