Not Another New England Sports Blog! Wishes you a Model Halloween

Ah- Halloween, when the kiddies are out trick-or-treating and the adults sometimes get to play dress-up too. It's been awhile since I got to do that, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the end results of others and their costumes.

While some are unfortunate and others are nothing short of complete disasters, others work out quite well, even when they don't work out as intended.

Not too long ago, I was working nights at a sports bar when we were invited to a party afterwards. To my surprise, I saw one of the attractive-but-painfully-shy waitresses there in a costume with fishnet stockings and a pseudo-tuxedo top along with a top hat. To say it was a good look for her would've been the understatement of this relatively young century [unfortunately this all took place before I ever got myself a digital camera or cameraphone- NANESB!].

So, finally after some guesswork on my part, I simply asked her 'Magician's assistant?'

'No...' she replied rather sheepishly and began to explain. 'I was trying for the female Penguin look, but I couldn't get my hands on a monacle or one of those cigarette holders at the last minute'

'The Penguin? From Batman?' I asked

'Yeah'

'But you're not hideously deformed or anything' I replied, with Danny Devito's waddling, hooked nosed antagonist from Batman Returns being the only incarnation of the Penguin I could think of off the top of my head.

'Um- thanks?' she said, arching an eyebrow at my gaffe. 'As you can see, things didn't work out. I couldn't even get an umbrella- do you think anyone will notice?'

'Yes...they're all pointing and laughing at you behind your back. Nah.' I said, trying to be nonchalant. 'As long as you don't go around advertising that you're missing a bunch of stuff, I think you'll be just fine.'

It was kind of funny to hear her stressing over whether or not anybody would notice her costume was incomplete. It would be a little like the raven-tressed bruja pictured above fretting over her costume being incomplete because she left the stuffed black kitty at home.

Speaking of which, the title of this 1959 image by the incomprable Gil Elvgren is 'Riding High'.

While Elvgren, like many other pin-up artists of the day, used live models for much of his work, there doesn't seem to be nearly as many photos of them posing for other pieces are there are of this one model for Riding High, which I thought I'd include....you know...in the interest of being thorough.

So happy halloween and for the love of god, stay away from the candied corn....why do they even still make that stuff?