Joe Torcivia's The Issue At Hand Blog: An Unfortunate (Homemade) "Sign" of the Times!

Friday, October 30, 2020

An Unfortunate (Homemade) "Sign" of the Times!

With sincere regret, because I love handing out treats to the happy little kids, THIS SIGN will be put up on my front door for Halloween 2020!

I long for the days when the "scary stuff outside" was fun!

Happy Halloween - 2020 style - from Joe and Averi!

8 comments:

Sérgio Gonçalves said...: A wise, if inevitably regrettable, decision. Safety first. Hopefully, by this time next year, the pandemic will be a distant memory.

As for this year, there is always the Great Pumpkin! :) That's the true meaning of Halloween, after all. He will rise from the pumpkin patch and bring toys to all the good boys and girls.

Wait a second. I think I have the wrong holiday. I guess I've been reading "Peanuts" too much.; October 30, 2020 at 4:48 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Sergio:

I have just, very sadly, taped the sign to my front storm door – and will, with great regret, not be answering the door tomorrow (Halloween, 2020).

I was never much for trick-or-treating as a kid, but that largely had to do with living (at that time in the 1960s) in a neighborhood where you didn’t really want to be walking around much after dark. Here, where it’s quite the opposite, I welcome everyone who pays us a call!

Though, even ordinarily in recent years, there have been fewer and fewer visitors each year – I guess it being the “less-trusting times” we live in, and that we’ve only lived at this location a few years and relatively few people “know who we are”.

This is a modern-Halloween phenomenon I’ve observed through my window, as I’ve seen parents (wisely, perhaps) specifically avoid our house – presumably, because they just don’t know us.

I fear that, by this time next year, the pandemic will NOT be “a distant memory” - especially if this Tuesday’s coming election goes “one way”, as opposed to “another”. But I’ll take ANY magic The Great Pumpkin might have to offer. Heck, I’ll even say “Great Squeak” (plug for Sergio’s Blog intended) 100 times in rapid succession, if it’ll help!; October 30, 2020 at 8:48 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Also, an unrelated note to our readers: Technical difficulties (switching our Internet provider) prevented me from publishing several comments (and my replies) from earlier in the week. I am presently working on that now. So, if you’re interested, check the previous two posts for some new (delayed, actually) comment content. Sorry.; October 30, 2020 at 8:54 PM
Elaine said...: I don't know for sure whether anyone will be trick-or-treating on my street, but I won't be answering the door this year. However, I have a slew of various Halloween Comicfest ashcans (mini-comics) left over from previous Halloweens, so I have stuffed bunches of them in bags which I will leave tomorrow afternoon at the doors of all the houses on my street where children live (or grandchildren visit). Even if a kid got a couple of these comics from me on previous Halloweens, s/he won't have seen the complete selection in the bag. That's the best I can do, this year!

There were no Halloween Comicfest mini-comics produced this year, so nothing new in the selection. I was able to get 40 copies of this year's Fantagraphics Donald Duck FCBD comic, but I'm going to save those to use as treats whenever we get to have regular trick-or-treating again. 2021, 2022... the good news is, Comics Don't Go Stale!

Hope we get to hear what you're watching for Halloween this year, Joe! I'm halfway through Bedknobs & Broomsticks. To be followed by something ghostly: Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais or my sentimental favorite, The Ghost Goes West. This year I finally found an affordable copy of the Criterion Collection DVD of The Devil and Daniel Webster, with Walter Huston as The Best Devil Ever, but I'm going to leave that till later in the month.; October 30, 2020 at 9:32 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Elaine:

You write: “However, I have a slew of various Halloween Comicfest ashcans (mini-comics) left over from previous Halloweens, so I have stuffed bunches of them in bags which I will leave tomorrow afternoon at the doors of all the houses on my street where children live (or grandchildren visit).”

That is so WONDERFUL of you but, then again knowing you as I do, you always rank extremely high on the “Wonderful Person List”!

To me, it just seems wrong somehow to simply not answer the door, when it’s probably clear that you’re at home – and that’s why I put up the sign explaining why. I’m sure everyone will understand, and I hope not a lot of kids will be disappointed.

Yes… “Comics Don't Go Stale!”, and that’s why I’m reading some that are older than me right now! Better than anything on the market today, that’s not written by Sholly Fisch! :-)

Would you believe that I actually haven’t done any Halloween watching as of yet (less and an hour and a half from the witching hour, as I write this)? It’s been a fully-packed week, and the only thing I’ve found a tiny bit of time for has been three episodes from BONANZA’S 11th Season – not even considering Halloween amid the tumult. I’ll probably try to do some SIMPSONS “Treehouse” episodes – they never fail to light me up!

PS: That “new internet provider” thing also messed up my personal correspondence – A LOT! I’ll be catching up on that soon as well.; October 30, 2020 at 10:50 PM
scarecrow33 said...: "Next year when things are normal." I was hoping you had some inside knowledge that would make that statement a certainty! I'm sure nearly everyone is counting on some day soon returning to a mask-free, distance-free existence.

I am so amazed and delighted with Elaine's idea of comics as Trick-or-Treat gifts! Such a notion never occurred to me! I wish I were a kid in that neighborhood!

Alas, Trick-or-Treating has long since all but disappeared from my neighborhood and will in all likelihood not be a factor at all this evening. My last group of Trick-or-Treaters were three young men who looked like they were high school age (and who have since been immortalized in my classic comedy story "Monster Hotel") and this occurred in the early 90's. Since then, despite being prepared with "emergency candy" I have not received any Hallowe'en knocks. I don't expect that anyone will even make the attempt tonight.

Here's my Hallowe'en viewing, and by the way, Westerns are ALWAYS in season! Every year I watch the Spook-a-Nanny episode of "The Woody Woodpecker Show". With two classic Lantz cartoons as prologue, and the delightful interaction between Lantz and Woody, capped by the Spook-a-Nanny celebration in a haunted house--who cares if there is practically no plot at all? It's a fun romp and I never get tired of watching it on Hallowe'en. I have it on the disc "Hallowe'en Favorites" along with several other Lantz cartoons plus an episode of "The New Woody Woodpecker Show" to round it out. Next up is Disney's "Spooks and Magic" episode of "The Mouse Factory" hosted by Phyllis Diller, who hams it up delightfully in the Haunted Mansion. Then there's "All About Magic," a wonderful black-and-white episode of the "Disneyland" TV show hosted by Uncle Walt and which includes "Magician Mickey," "Lonesome Ghosts," "Trick or Treat," clips from "Cinderella," and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" along with Hans Conreid as the Magic Mirror and plenty of tricky delights. My Disney viewing also includes "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad". I like the fact that both Christmas and Hallowe'en are referenced in this feature. Finally, no Hallowe'en is complete without "The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone." As I have mentioned before, this is a special favorite because this is one Flintstones plot that depends upon Wilma's resourcefulness to save the day. Not only is it a great story for Hallowe'en but any fans of Wilma Flintstone have cause to rejoice. Her confrontations with Count Rockula are priceless!

In addition, I usually throw in one of the Universal monster movies, most likely "Frankenstein" and/or "Bride of Frankenstein" (although despite the varying reputations of the other films in the franchise, I enjoy them all).

And there is hope for the future of these classics, because I know some young people who take as much delight in these (all of the above-mentioned, to clarify) old-time thrillers as I do!; October 31, 2020 at 7:40 AM
Joe Torcivia said...: Scarecrow:

If I had some “inside knowledge” about things returning to normal, I’d be doing a lot more with it than just Blogging. The only “inside knowledge” I have is… STAY “inside”, and when you don’t – WEAR A MASK! Hard to believe that, at this point, you’d have to tell that to ANYBODY!

Elaine has long done the “Comics for Halloween” thing, and I’ve long admired her for it! Just another reason she stays so solidly on that “Wonderful Person List”! Given my “compulsive jokester” persuasion, I’m tempted to refer to this practice as “Rot your BRAIN, not your TEETH!”, but I really do admire her unorthodox approach to Halloween – and the place within her from which it comes!

Westerns may “…ALWAYS [be] in season”, but that particular abbreviated BONANZA viewing spree transported me from Halloween to another season entirely… Easter!

Finally making it to DVD is the long awaited episode “Caution, Easter Bunny Crossing” (1970), with Hoss Cartwright (very) reluctantly donning an Easter Bunny suit – along with four bumbling ne’er-do-wells from Brooklyn (!) who want to become famous western outlaws! I remember seeing this one on TV many years ago, and regard it as one of my most favorite episodes of the series – with “laugh-out-loud moments” that still got me in 2020!

And, considering that Hoss *does* wear a COSTUME, I guess it *does* apply to Halloween as well! Though it will now become required Easter season viewing – as well it should!

“Spook-a-Nanny”! That’s PERFECT! Why didn’t I think of that! I’ll be sure to throw that on today! Likely about when we approach dusk! Thanks for reminding me!

I saw that waaaay back when it first aired, and when I didn’t know how unusual it was for a new Walter Lantz show to be made for TV! It incorporated the Woody cartoon “Under the Counter Spy”, which featured “The Bat”, a villain that (for me, back then) conjured up images of The Phantom Blot!

Look closely at Walter Lantz’s desk, and you’ll see some then-contemporary Gold Key Lantz comics strewn about it! I thought I’d written about this on the Blog - and would have linked to it – but I can’t seem to find it on a search… so maybe I only mentioned it in the “Paper Hard Copy” pre-Blog days of TIAH!; October 31, 2020 at 12:40 PM
Elaine said...: Scarecrow, the Halloween Comicfest mini-comics are produced to use as treats for trick-or-treaters--bags of 25 for $5, so it's not much more expensive than candy. I hope they go back to making these post-pandemic...assuming the comic book industry in the USA survives the pandemic! But it's fun for all involved. Never had a child complain about getting a comic book instead of candy!

Well, once, a very small boy probably trick-or-treating for the first time was upset that I wasn't following the ritual correctly--complained to his dad, "I said 'trick or treat!' and she's supposed to give me candy!" Luckily his dad said, "Oh, this is better! She gave you a book! You love books!" and then the boy was all happy. :-)

Last year as a group of kids approached my house, one boy told the others, "This is the best house! She gives out comics!" Very gratifying.

You yourself don't have trick-or-treaters in your neighborhood, but if anyone reading this does, I'll explain: you order these from your comic book store in summer; you can see the available comics on the Halloween Comicfest website. They arrive in late September or early October.

The full-size Donald Duck FCBD comics will be a special treat, though, thanks to the chief employee at my comic book store, who was willing to order them for me! This will be the second time I've been able to give out full-size Donald Duck comics at Halloween. "This" being whenever we next have normal trick-or-treating!

Also, Scarecrow, I'm glad to hear what you're watching this Halloween. And you may be glad to hear that because of your recommendation a while back, I bought myself the DVD of "The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone," so that's now on my Halloween watch-list, too! I agree, it's a great episode for Wilma. I often watch both "Trick or Treat" and "Lonesome Ghosts," plus "Donald's Halloween Scare" from the "House of Villains" DVD.; October 31, 2020 at 5:04 PM